EZ writes:
It can be so easily mis-used to mold the consciousness of people who have neither the intellect nor the motivation to think for themselves and seek rational scientific answers for the real-life phenonmenon they observe. (that can require some hard thinking, as opposed to the simplicity of blind belief in some dogma).
While this is true in at least some cases, the same thing can be said about every ideology and philosophy.
I have known quite a few know-it-all atheists who really doesn't know crap about anything. I have also known some amazingly bright theists, some of which are the really big fish in the school I'm attending.
And because it can be so easily used as political tool to manipulate the ignorant.
Oh please, when dealing with the ignorant masses you can use just about anything to manipulate them. Neo-nazism comes to mind.
The only reason religion is used to manipulate the ignorant masses more than anything else is because it is one of the few things that are still held by the overwhelming majority. Not too long ago, giving a public speech condeming interracial marriage would almost guarantee you a seat in congress. Nowadays, it is a political suicide to suggest such a thing.
I suspect that, like racism, sexism, and hopefully homophobia (sometime in the near future hopefully), saying the word "god" in ever other sentence in your speech will be considered a political suicide in the future.
Like racism, I want to see religion as a right for people to have but not something so mainstream that you absolutely have to follow it to have a chance at taking a public office.
A recent poll I saw showed that about 80-90% of people said "absolutely no" when asked if they would vote for an atheist over a christian racist (or something like that, I can't remember exactly). It showed that the overwhelming majority of the people still do not trust non-religious people just like non-racists just 30 years ago.
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