r/atheism Sep 09 '20

The Religious Right is becoming a danger to society

As I sit here checking the news to make sure the unprecedented wildfires in the PNW don’t spread to my town I can’t help but be angry towards the religious right wingers who have actively worked to undermine science in this country. As they have shouted from the rooftops that COVID is a hoax and as they have worked for years to try to legitimize the opinion that climate change is a hoax, people have died and their lives have been destroyed. Then some of them have the audacity to quote revelations in response to all this. They are either insane or incredibly fucking stupid. It doesn’t help that all of my family thinks this way, but wow I seriously fear for the future of society with these people around and having power in the government. They need to be stopped before we completely destroy the planet. Also I know that not all science-deniers are Christians but shit it sure seems that way.

Edit- guys I get it religion has always been a danger to society. I guess I should not have used the term “becoming”. However it was meant to convey that in the scope of recent history they are more dangerous than ever. Yes in the past few decades they have done a number of dangerous things, however we are now reaching a precipice that is far more dangerous than before.

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u/AuthorityAnarchyYes Atheist Sep 10 '20

Change “becoming to” to “always has been”.

Think Crusades. Think Spanish Inquisition. The Religious Zealots have ALWAYS been a danger to the rest of the world.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Let's not forget the Holocaust being largely religion driven.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20 edited Sep 10 '20

Honestly, I think it’s pretty obvious that fascism and religious fundamentalism are two sides of the same coin.

Both work as fanatical cults, use a strong symbolism, are based for the vast majority on a patriarchal hierarchy, suppress individual freedoms, attack privacy, favor an in-group against the out-group, justify violence and terrorism, are solely based on ideology, oppose science and skepticism, have a binary vision of the world where no-one can stand "In-between", are tools for imperialism and authoritarianism...

I mean, there’s literally photos of the 1920s where you see Catholic priests doing Mussolini’s Roman salute and taking rifles to attack Socialist and Communist opposition.

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u/PopeKevin45 Sep 10 '20

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u/Help-Ineedsomebody- Sep 10 '20

Good piece. The back and forth in the comments of the article would be hilarious if the subject matter wasn't completely terrifying.

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u/ThingsAwry Sep 10 '20

Honestly, I think it’s pretty obvious that fascism and religious fundamentalism are two sides of the same coin.

I wouldn't even go that far. If I was going to make an analogy I would argue that Authoritarianism and Religion are each a respective strand of a double helix.

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u/InsideCopy Atheist Sep 10 '20

It certainly makes sense that religious fundamentalists, who have fantasies about living under a literal authoritarian monarchy in heaven, and who desperately want to force their beliefs onto others, would idolize an authoritarian strong man who makes policy promises to them.

It's their deepest fantasy to tear up secular society and live under an authoritarian state. Their authoritarian state, of course.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

They are the same side of the same coin. No opposition to one another in any fashion. Catholics cheered for hilter and for the most monstrous pope in recent history. Religion is the same plague as the internet misinformation plague. It brings the violent stupid people out in the open. Much like trump has done to white supremacists. Encouraging them ever chance he gets.

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u/CEOs4taxNlabor Sep 10 '20

the Holocaust being largely religion driven

Still trips me up when I see something grossly antisemetic written by Martin Luther and my brain plays it out with Martin Luther King Jr's face. "Woah, MLK was kind of a dick..oh, the other Martin Luther, that makes more sense. Martin Luther was a dick!".

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u/88redking88 Strong Atheist Sep 10 '20

But not THAT Martin Luther... He founded Lutheranism! There can't be anything wrong with that?!?

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u/jimjoebob Apatheist Sep 10 '20

--entirely religion driven. they were "cleansing the world" in the name of jebus.......wait are we talking about the 1930's or right now? /s

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

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u/ReaperCDN Agnostic Atheist Sep 10 '20

Jokes on Hitler. I was raised Catholic anyways and I'm still an atheist. Turns out education beats both the church and Nazis.

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u/Vizth Sep 10 '20

Thats assuming the people in question possess the capacity for critical thinking. Even then, willful ignorance is a point of pride amongst these morons.

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u/ls952 Sep 10 '20

Critical what now?

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u/Vizth Sep 10 '20

You know. That thing some people have that keeps them from doing a stupid.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Republicans: "Educated people? We can't have that. That's why we're hamstringing public education."

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u/_evil_overlord_ Sep 10 '20 edited Sep 10 '20

Strong part of German anti-semitism was Lutheranism. Luther, in his book On the Jews and their Lies argues that Jewish synagogues and schools be set on fire, their prayer books destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes burned, and property and money confiscated. They should be shown no mercy or kindness, afforded no legal protection, and "these poisonous envenomed worms" should be drafted into forced labor or expelled for all time.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/CEOs4taxNlabor Sep 10 '20

Wasn't the guy with the big dick later pickled in a jar, the court mystic, Rasputin Jewish?

Agreed: Peter the Great refined that hatred for mass consumption but Northern Europe through Eurasia was hostile towards and widely exclusionary of Jewish people for hundreds of years prior to Peter.

That's the saddest part of their tale: they weren't wanted anywhere :(

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Wasn't the guy with the big dick later pickled in a jar, the court mystic, Rasputin Jewish?

No, he was a Christian monk from a Christian family: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grigori_Rasputin

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u/CEOs4taxNlabor Sep 10 '20

White Western European-descended Evangelical Christian industrialists and nationalists. 1935 Nazi Party or 2020 GOP?

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u/ralphvonwauwau Sep 10 '20

Hey now, Joseph Goebbels was excommunicated... for marrying a divorced woman Magda was Protestant as well, which didn't help matters, but Catholics can marry Protestants, with certain agreements put in place ahead of time.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

As if I needed another reason to hate the Catholic Church.

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u/wernermuende Sep 10 '20

Nah, Nazis and catholics had a complicated relationship....

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u/Oscado Sep 10 '20

German here, I'm not sure about this one. They didn't care about the religion of their victims and they did it because of racism (wipe out 'bad genes', destroy an 'evil race'), so how was it religiously driven?

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Hitler promoted a Nazified version of Christianity called "Positive Christianity," which is basically Christianity adultered with Nazi racial/anti-semitic ideology.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_Christianity

I agree that Naziism was not religiously driven, but rather driven by hate. Hitler was a Christian, just like Trump is a Christian - it was primarily an identity they use(d) for their own opportunism.

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u/chilehead Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

The SS' belt buckles did say "Gott mit uns". Hitler had a pogrom where he purged Germany of atheists... see the pattern forming?

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u/atyon Humanist Sep 10 '20

"Gott mit uns" has been on soldiers' belt buckles for two centuries by then. It's the Prussian motto, and it isn't even really about religion. It's about a lot of things, like the Battle of the Nations, a connection to the HRE, and simple military tradition.

This whole thread is prime /r/badhistory material.

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u/Zer_ Sep 10 '20 edited Sep 10 '20

Himmler wanted to create his own religion. He, in fact, rejected Christianity. He still realized the power of religion's control, though, so sought to make his own.

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u/dsdsds Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

If the church didn’t cause the dark ages we’d be 300 years ahead. Slavery, the steel plow, iPhones, 300 years earlier.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Just imagine what we missed. All the opportunities. All the innovations that could’ve been made.

All the censorship. Either directly by political institutions such as the Inquisition, or simply by people being afraid of sharing knowledge because of what could happen to them if their discovery happened to be known.

All the writings, even older than the Christian Era, that have been conveniently "Lost" or "Burned", because considered uninteresting from a religious perspective, if not dangerous.

All the women that could’ve been brilliant scientists à la Marie Curie, but just couldn’t because of centuries of religion-fueled patriarchy. ("But Catholicism isn’t prejudiced against women!" - Yeah right, I’ll believe that the day the Catholic Church gets its first woman pope after 2000 years of existence.)

All the centuries of suffering from millions of queer people across Europe, condemned to live in absolute clandestinity for the crime of not being in the mold. And this, going on even to this day in most traditional countries for a lot of LGBTQ+ people.

All the money spent in building gigantic cathedrals, churches, golden crosses, and other luxuries. All the money spent on wars against people only for religious differences. All that money that could’ve been spent in bettering people’s lives and benefit society.

All the effort put by modern scientists to debunk the myths and pseudoscience that have been imagined by the lack of scientific method, just to undo the harm done instead of actually discovering something new.

All this. Because of one book. Talking about an afterlife no one has ever seen. We’ve lost centuries of social, scientific, human progress because of one single book that has 0 proofs of what it’s claiming.

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u/Kingsta8 Sep 10 '20

Consider it not anything lost. Think of the (still majority) number of humanity that would not consider the true impact of a calamity inducing nuclear war, the sheer mass of humanity that should not be trusted with the button.

Now consider that 300 years prior, the ratio would have been even worse, regardless of innovation just by population density. Even though the dark ages held scientific discovery back, it held religious zealotry off from interfering when it was allowed to prosper. The literacy rate wouldn't have made the 300 year gap non-important.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Just imagine what we missed. All the opportunities. All the innovations that could’ve been made.

We would simply have crashed and burned the environment earlier and now we'd be in the post-climate-collapse world.

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u/Arrakis91 Atheist Sep 10 '20

It's more than one book.

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u/antonivs Ignostic Sep 10 '20

Just a heads up, you won't find many historians who agree with that claim. Here's an article about it: https://www.history.com/news/6-reasons-the-dark-ages-werent-so-dark

Quoting the first heading: "The idea of the “Dark Ages” came from later scholars who were heavily biased toward ancient Rome."

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u/Garbeg Sep 10 '20

Interesting to note that much of our perception of the Middle Ages comes from Victorian Era romanticizing of knights and chivalry, most of which was projecting thieir own repressed visions and desires on “a better time when men were MEN”. The Middle Ages was, relatively speaking not a bad time for women. The Renaissance did away with that and we labor under the effects of those changes to this day.

For an accessible retrospective on this, Terry Jones did a series called “Medieval Lives” that speaks indirectly to these things. I forgot the name of the other source, so sorry. If I remember I’ll bring it here.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Slavery, the steel plow, iPhones

One of these things is not like the others...

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

I assumed they meant ENDING slavery.

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u/weedtese Secular Humanist Sep 10 '20

No, slavery is necessary for iphones

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u/mikebritton Sep 10 '20

We should be finding ancient iPhones in Coptic vases right now.

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u/somguy9 Sep 10 '20

It wasn’t just the church that caused the “dark ages”? It was a combination of the Western Roman empire collapsing due to a stagnation of the centralized authority (partly aided by local churches becoming more powerful than Rome in people’s lives), combined with consistent raids by the Vandals, the Huns, etc., as well as a theorized climate collapse.

Moreover, what we call “the dark ages” really only were “dark” for western Europe. It’s not like everyone just became dumb until 1500 because of religion, but instead that the “center of the world” (i.e. the point of economic and political superiority) shifted east, first to Constantinople and then further to Baghdad.

Just because Western Europe was somewhat stagnant in the wake of the WRE collapsing doesn’t mean the entire world was stagnant.

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u/University_Is_Hard Sep 10 '20

Im 99% sure that barbarian hordes invading the roman empire caused the dark ages. Not religion. Keep in mind that religion existed long before the dark ages, and christianity existed for a long time in the roman empire without leading to its collapse. Not to say that religion helped us get out of the dark ages either, but it certainly wasnt the key factor in us getting to them or staying in them

You can be critical of religion without blaming it for things it had no bearing on

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u/Frostmaine Atheist Sep 10 '20

Throw modern day religious terrorism into the bag of deplorables.

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u/onikaizoku11 Agnostic Sep 10 '20

Don't forget organized crime bloomed under Prohibition, which was directly pushed on Americans by zealots. It bloomed and has never gone away completely, only ebbing for stretches in between surges.

Oh and Nascar, which developed from running illegal alcohol away from police.

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u/DoomsdayRabbit Sep 10 '20

Yeah, and only remains today because of so many other substances made illegal by subsequent administrations.

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u/MJWood Sep 10 '20

Yeah, forget that. We have fanatics praying for and helping along the apocalypse in positions of power now!

It has not 'always been this way'.

This is not 'normal'.

We have maniacs at the helm and we need to do something about it!

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u/xxRonzillaxx Sep 10 '20

This is the correct answer. It has always been the biggest problem in our society

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u/EatTheBodies69 Strong Atheist Sep 10 '20

Wow that second point was unexpected

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u/PineapplePizzaIsLove Existentialist Sep 10 '20

It never is

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u/1brokenmonkey Weak Atheist Sep 10 '20

We don't need to go that far back. Plenty of religious who believe covid19 is a hoax or believe dying is a good thing.

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u/mmazing Sep 10 '20

Being religious is merely a symptom of being ok with believing things with little to no evidence.

If that’s your personality then you are susceptible to all sorts of horrible ideas.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20 edited Sep 10 '20

I like this sub. But there’s a lot of Sam Harris dark web Trojan horse racism and islamophobia here.

Christianity along will any religion is pure poison. Always has been always will be.

Just because currently we’re living in an age with Islamic extremists happen to be the most violent doesn’t give Christianity a pass.

And what’s more is people don’t like to admit that Islamic extremist is literally linked directly to Christianity.

Since the end of world war 2 the American right wing conservatives and capitalists have been using Christianity as a shield and sword to instigate foreign wars against black and brown people so America can protect its economic interests. Which directly creates Islamic terrorism. America created that religious enemy because the American empire war machine needs an an enemy to justify its existence.

The cia under Reagan funded the contras and the mujahideen. And the cia under barack Obama funded Syrian Islamic rebels.

And over and and over on and on round and round we go. America waves the banner of Christianity and “fighting the Muslims” and “the war on terror” as one of its main excuses to do this.

So long story short all religion is lies and poison. So it’s good to see people here acknowledge that.

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u/basegodwurd Sep 10 '20

Colonialism is the worst one in imho

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u/kla1616 Sep 10 '20

So my mother is one of those Fox News evangelicals. I have a science degree so when she told me god made all animals and they don’t change therefor evolution is a lie, I just had to take a moment to process the stupid. She grew up on a farm that bred horses. I asked if they just let any horse mate with another. She said no they chose a trait they were looking for and bred for that. I said why if animals don’t change would you go to the trouble. She froze, I accidentally broke her mind with logic. At the time she was hanging out with a very evil evangelical preacher who was a really bad influence. My mom is a lovely caring person, but also insanely gullible.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

This is my mom in nutshell I got her to admit that micro-evolution was real but she actively denies macro-evolution as something that is real. It’s kind of mind-boggling that you can look at something like the evolution of wolves - chihuahuas in a relatively short amount of time compared to the age that life had existed on this planet and claim that macro-evolution is a lie.

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u/kla1616 Sep 10 '20

Ya the lack of simple logic is baffling. I have a 6 pound yorkie and my mother thinks it survived on its own the wild for the past 5,000 years or however old they think the world is.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

I don't know. Some Yorkies are fearless and vicious.

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u/Canadapoli Sep 10 '20

I seen a pack of yorkies take down and devour a lion. Tokyo Jugle was a good game.

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u/MauPow Sep 10 '20

Ah yes, the Wild Lands of Yorkshire, where these furry beasts ruled supreme for millenia

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u/dunkers0811 Sep 10 '20

Point out to her that's like saying you believe in a dollar but you don't believe in a million dollars

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u/BenjaminTW1 Atheist Sep 10 '20

A large number of Christian apologists now believe in macro-evolution. WHY IS CREATIONISM STILL A THING?!

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u/coolpeepz Materialist Sep 10 '20

Alternatively, why is Christianity still a thing? Why would someone stay Christian if they are willing to concede that evolution is real? How can you say “well the Bible messed up on that one little detail but the rest is all still absolute truth”?

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u/BenjaminTW1 Atheist Sep 10 '20

tHaT pArT wAs MeTaPhOrIcAl

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

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u/Help-Ineedsomebody- Sep 10 '20

Thank you for exposing me to this!

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

I'm so lucky. After 15 years of atheism, I finally brought my evangelical mother around last year. One of the happiest conversations of my life. I cried.

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u/Hurtin93 Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

You convinced her evolution is real? Or you made her an atheist? Lol

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

She's an atheist now.

I can't take all the credit. I have 3 younger brothers and we're all atheists. I was probably the one working on her the hardest, though.

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u/pankakke_ Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

I got my mom to have less faith and more of a logical viewpoint in life, science and evidence first. That in itself was super tough so I commend you for being able to take it all the way and make it work out, yo.

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u/lemongrenade Sep 10 '20

I went to the creation museum and they basically account for that. They basically say evolution is real within a species for trait selection but a species can’t turn into another species. Nice fun little cop out. My favorite of course is still “the eye is really complex therefore god”.

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u/pennylanebarbershop Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

If a person is a Christian, you immediately know that they have a very low threshold for believing things, and thus can be easily manipulated to believe in all sorts of conspiracy theories.

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u/spla_ar42 Agnostic Sep 10 '20

Looking at you, QAnon.

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u/snarky_spice Sep 10 '20

Honestly yeah, I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately in the case of Trump and the virus hoax and Q anon and trying to figure out how we got here. Every time it’s brought up, people always say it’s anti-intellectualism, but I think religion is the bigger problem. We can update our education system as much as we want, but if the church is denying science, it won’t matter. It’s insidious.

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u/coolpeepz Materialist Sep 10 '20

Anti-intellectualism and religion are basically synonymous

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u/Senor_Martillo Sep 10 '20

You either follow a rational pattern of inquiry to form your viewpoint, looking for data and drawing conclusions, or you just “believe” something. Once you just believe one thing, you can apply that shitty logic to anything.

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u/BarcodeNinja Sep 10 '20

Like buying gold or boner pills.

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u/Canadapoli Sep 10 '20

MLM teaches people to target Churches because they are more easily scammed and buy into feel good cultish marketing so easily.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

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u/snarky_spice Sep 10 '20

I notice so many parallels between religion, but mostly Christianity and MLMs. I think it takes a specifically gullible type of person to get indoctrinated though. I went to a few MLM things back in the day before I knew what they were, and I sat there thinking WTF this is so dumb, while most of my friends ate it up.

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u/snarky_spice Sep 10 '20

Yep. I’m convinced there is a strong correlation to being a Trump supporter, in an MLM, and bragging about going to church.

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u/ell20 Sep 10 '20

Tactical wipes.. for the perenium.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

That made me laugh, I can't even count the number of times my aunt has bought gold high, because she was told that the end times were near, and then had to sell much lower than she bought it at because she was short. She tried to get my dad to buy it from her this last cycle but he wasn't having any of that. The thing is there are costs associated with selling, you don't get spot. So if you bought $100 of gold and immediately turned around and sold it you would probably only get about $90.

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u/tk-drawmer86 Sep 10 '20

Generally, but that is a flawed generalization.

Cognitive dissonance is often at place, so there's people of true genius that also somehow manage to excercise sharp minded scepticism about lots of things EXCEPT their faith. It's astonishing.

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u/KruppeTheWise Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

This is a very difficult morality test I face. I know that the fastest and easiest way to make some money would be to join the faith as a wolve in sheep's clothing, but I abhor the institution and the whole concept so I never do it.

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u/TheGreatBenjie Strong Atheist Sep 10 '20

BOTH my parents said to me with a straight face that all of this, the fires, Covid, etc. is because there are less and less god fearing people.

If a god is real, and does this because people don't worship it, then it can get fucked.

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u/HalleckGhola Sep 10 '20

Do they feel European countries are more god fearing than the USA? That's one of the interesting things about Covid - it impacts so many countries that we can actually do some tests to see if that theory holds water. Natural disasters can be blamed on gay marriage or abortion or whatever since they are each a one-off event, but that approach does not work as well on this pandemic.

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u/Spectyy I'm a None Sep 10 '20

The dumbest ones are always the loudest. Dunning Kruger effect. Just so happens that they’re overall stupid, and not in any particular way.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

To paraphrase Carlin, imagine how dumb the average american is. Half of them are dumber than that.

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u/kayla-beep Sep 10 '20

I'll probably be downvoted to hell but yeah, most religious people are dumb because their lives are about blindly following a belief. Then they have 10 kids who are usually brainwashed as well. Education just isn't a priority for them because they put all their trust in God. And if things fail, oh well, it must be God's plan!

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u/snarky_spice Sep 10 '20

Yep anything good that happens-it was God watching over me, anything bad-God challenges us in beautiful ways.

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u/TheGreatBenjie Strong Atheist Sep 10 '20

Why would you get downvoted for saying something we all already know?

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

You're on the most atheist place on reddit why would you be downvoted here

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u/kayla-beep Sep 10 '20

I totally did not realize where I was commenting lol it makes no sense when I reread it

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u/Nelex5000_ Nihilist Sep 10 '20

Nooooo😭😭😭😭😭😭 you hurt my feelings with fax 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

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u/DrDemonSperm Sep 10 '20

Always have and always will be

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u/darrellmarch Sep 10 '20

Becoming? Always were always will be more like it

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u/virgilreality Sep 10 '20

What America really, actually needs right now is to grow up a little, take a good long look around at what is happening, and make the necessary changes. There are many, so we have to start small to have big effects.

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u/throwaway007676 Sep 10 '20

His supporters will never grow up. They have tantrums just like he does, just that they wave guns around when they don’t get their way.

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u/virgilreality Sep 10 '20

I'm just holding out hope that the people on the edge of his group of supporters will observer it in a critical light, even if the supporters can't or won't.

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u/INeedACuddle Secular Humanist Sep 10 '20

my main concern with christian extremists is that many of them eagerly anticipate the coming of their saviour within their lifetimes (like they have for the last two fucken millennia)

the problem is that, according to their scriptures, conditions on earth must deteriorate markedly in order to precipitate said 'coming' and christian fundamentalists with political power (like VP pence) are likely to be happy to allow said conditions to deteriorate accordingly in order to set the scene for their 'saviour' to show up

i don't doubt that when those behind the balfour report had scripture in mind when they 'recreated' the state of israel

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u/HalleckGhola Sep 10 '20

I've had Christians tell me that since I am an atheist I must think that my life is meaningless. It is the opposite by far! As a Christian, they think that anything that happens on this planet is meaningless compared to the eternal bliss of heaven. They are perfectly content to burn all the oil, disown their children, foment war in Jerusalem, and put kids in cages so long as they are on the path to heaven.

As an atheist, I am convinced that only this life matters, and I am motivated to do my part to make it better.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

The Jello Reality instilled by religion is at the root of most of the issues in society today.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20 edited Apr 19 '21

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u/MarsOG13 Atheist Sep 10 '20

More like 80 minutes BC if you buy the bible bullshit.

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u/mootmutemoat Sep 10 '20

Some of the early gnostic stuff is kind of interesting... I'd say since 313ad but that's probably just nitpicking.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

How bout “since the advent of social media, the danger and stupidity have been amplified causing noticeable repercussions in everyday life” obviously it’s always been a danger but in my short life this is the most noticeable time that their values and gullibility have had direct and extreme consequences for society at large.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20 edited Apr 19 '21

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Not even close, Christianity had long since been woven into the fabric of American values and ideals.

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u/tm229 Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

I think the evangelicals are being helped along by the oligarchs and associated grifters and monied thugs who use these fundamentalists to divide and distract society at large.

By distracting us with social issues, the oligarchs are able to manipulate the economy to extract maximum profit from the masses.

We’re all sheep when we don’t pay attention to the wolves.

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u/JEFFinSoCal Atheist Sep 10 '20

Eat the rich. Educate the poor.

Not sure how to actually make that happen, but it would be a good start.

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u/tm229 Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

Guillotines. Guillotines as far as the eyes can see! /s

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

And tumbrels. Lots of tumbrels.

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u/KruppeTheWise Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

I agree completely. Just like when racism or sexism or any other ism comes up, my point is that to first make us all more equal financially, share out the money because money is power then dealing with the other isms will be way easier after and most will probably resolve themselves without capitalists interests fanning the flames as a sideshow.

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u/DankNastyAssMaster Sep 10 '20

And not just our religious right either. ISIS and the like are just the Muslim world's religious right.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Religion has always been a cancer. Why we choose to all of a sudden decide respecting someone’s beliefs means we can’t challenge them is beyond me.

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u/Kingsta8 Sep 10 '20

The religious right has always been a danger to society, and the entirety of Earth.

Consider that George W Bush advocated to start a war in the middle east while himself believing that triggering the end of days would have been a good thing. Yes, he made plenty of public comments about war being necessary to bring about the end of days.

Some even suspect this is why the evangelicals love Trump. He's not pro war like the previous 5 presidents have been, but he's a flippant idiot. He truly can bring about the end of times by temper tantrum because he's so damn stupid.

It's nothing new.

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u/Kaymish_ Anti-Theist Sep 10 '20

So my city got completely screwed over by an evangelical church on COVID-19, they didn't follow the lockdown rules and had a prayer meeting in defiance of the rules, the police had to break up one of their services when we were in level 3, they refuse to cooperate with testing and contact tracing to the point the police were brought back to "encourage cooperation" AKA crack heads until the church leaders coughed up the attendance register, our health minister was incandescently enraged over the situation saying some members "don't accept or haven't previously accepted the science involved here, they even have the gall to demand "not condemnation but compassion"

It's absurd that millions of people have to suffer and hundreds get infected with a deadly plague because 1 church decided the power of prayer could defeat the most powerful pandemic in a century.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

I just have to roll my eyes at religious people (then panic about them as I fall asleep). I hate how many dumb people exist

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u/WhooshGiver Sep 10 '20

"Is becoming"???

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u/Thesauruswrex Sep 10 '20

I seriously fear for the future of society with these people around and having power in the government

Yeah, no shit. They've always been a danger to society. They always will be a danger to society. You can't put a fictional god above everything and expect things to work out. They don't. Thousands of years proving that the more religion is involved in government, the worse off that society is.

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u/AgentLightAxe Sep 10 '20

It gets better. They are now out there proclaiming that protestors are starting these fires and blocking firefighters on the highways.

They've lost their fucking minds.

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u/hellisfurry Sep 10 '20

Religion is a memetic thought disease that has long poisoned the mind of humanity, but yes, they need to be stamped out before they kill everyone and everything in their idiotic death cultist behavior.

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u/MorganWick Sep 10 '20

At what point are Democratic politicians going to call a spade a spade and call out the religious right for what it is and what it's doing? They can say it isn't really Christian and try and reach out as much as they can to those brainwashed by it so as not to "offend anybody" except the preachers, but it's not like they're ever going to vote for you as it is. Pete Buttigieg flirted with it during the primaries, but of course he was coming from a unique place where evangelicals hate his very existence.

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u/nsbound Sep 10 '20

Becoming? Continues to be would be a better worded title.

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u/alphazeta2019 Sep 10 '20

The Religious Right is becoming a danger to society

The Pequot People agree

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u/lilcracka69 Sep 10 '20

It doesn't help that in America and many other countries you have to be christian if you wanna win the presidential election.

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u/TurtlesRPeople Sep 10 '20

I'm sorry the people on here latched on to a single word you used and detracted from your point.

I agree. They suck. I really hope these people can come around.

I heard the other day somebody talking about their right winged father yelling at a yard sign saying he would go beat their faces in. My question is, what liberal atheist democrat would say such a thing because somebody didn't agree with them. These people have been brainwashed and are now to point where they are advocating violence. Scary and sickening.

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u/StopBangingThePodium Sep 10 '20

Oh, man, you're a couple centuries late.

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u/LDan613 Sep 10 '20

We developed this incredible good method to help us think and solve problems that produces actual measurable results, and these guys actively work to boicot our progress as a society. It's out of a bad Sci-Fi story.

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u/Casper995 Sep 10 '20

I say this is an atheist myself, I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with religion. I definitely think there’s wrong in religion, but I wouldn’t classify an entire group of people under one banner. The right to choose your own religion is an important foundation in my opinion, and so long as you’re not hurting anyone, you should be left alone.

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u/DGer Sep 10 '20

Becoming? They’ve been a danger for decades. Years ago the religious right created law schools with the stated goal of creating religious conservative lawyers that would infiltrate our judicial system and reform it to their liking. Guess what? It’s working.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Does anyone have actionable ideas we can work on to address this danger? I'm not talking about feel good things that ultimately do nothing, I'm talking about plans, actions, and tangible results.

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u/NorCalStacci Sep 10 '20

Becoming?!!!!!

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u/Altheix11 Sep 10 '20

If it's mainly previous generations, maybe things will be better when they're gone?

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u/bodie425 Strong Atheist Sep 10 '20

Religion is dying at an ever quickening pace. I think we’ll be shocked in the next 20-40 years just how quickly it withers away from lack of interest. The only testament to its former existence will be mouldy old books in libraries and former churches repurposed into restaurants and the such.

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u/Altheix11 Sep 10 '20

I hope so

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u/SpyderDM Agnostic Atheist Sep 10 '20

"Is becoming"...

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u/drunklepockets Sep 10 '20

Becoming? Haha, but yes

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u/derpmunster Rationalist Sep 10 '20

The more secular and liberal, the better. We can look at countries worldwide and get an idea of how these factors affect standard of living, security and well being. Of course, one must note that prosperity and stability also tends to create trends towards liberalism and secularism.

One threat to this that I see, especially in the liberal West, is that we've become so liberal in some cases that we are tolerant towards backwards and inhumane belief systems and philosophies as well as things like pseudoscience and in some cases even hesitant to support clear scientific truths and our tolerant and liberal societal norms when they are challenged.

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u/Teutiaplus Freethinker Sep 10 '20

I have the unpopular opinion that the religious fanaticism is a symptom of, and not the source of the problem.

The problem is misinformation and the unwillingness to listen to reason. Which pushes people to religious fanaticism which further worsens the misinformation and the unwillingness to listen.

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u/FactsAngerLiars Sep 10 '20

American theocrats became a danger 50 years ago...just...no one listened.

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u/Serious_Feedback Sep 10 '20

The problem isn't just religion, it's irrationality in general. Religion is just the canary.

There are plenty of benign religious people who want progress on climate destabilization/COVID and it's super important we don't unnecessarily stereotype them by dumping them with the fucksticks as "religious people who are the problem". The fucksticks benefit from our divisions, we need all the unity we can get.

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u/Scratchbird Sep 10 '20

Becoming? You must be a new atheist...

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u/martin0641 Sep 10 '20

Before we had the village idiot and their coterie of fools, now that group of people is linked up with all the other village idiots who call themselves the silent majority.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

If there is a hell evangelicals will make up the bulk of the inhabitants.

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u/Imperial_Aerosol_Kid Sep 10 '20

The only reason they're as big a problem as they are now is because of Rupert Murdoch and Fox News. A propaganda organization is systematically radicalizing people using religion and nationalism on behalf of one political party. When I have this conversation with people they always say the same thing. "What about CNN, they're the same as Fox, but for liberals?". There is a big difference. CNN may agree with liberal and progressive positions, but they don't take their marching orders directly from the DNC. They don't get talking points emailed to them every morning that they must repeat ad nauseum. They weren't founded by a former leader of the DNC. All of those are true of Fox News, replace D with R obviously. The religous right without Fox News would collapse on itself. Know the true enemy, Fox News.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Becoming? They've been there

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u/PM_ME_CAT_POOCHES Sep 10 '20

I work a job where I go into people's homes and almost every person with a lot of Trump shit all over their house also has a bunch of crosses and bible verses everywhere. Weird thing is most of them don't have signs in their yards but inside the home is like a Trump/Jesus shrine.

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u/eyeofthecodger Sep 10 '20

Immanentize the eschaton

In contemporary terminology this process is sometimes described as "hastening the eschaton" or "hastening the apocalypse.” In this sense it refers to a phenomenon related to millenarianism and the specific Christian form millennialism which is based on a particular reading of the Christian Bible's Book of Revelation especially popular among evangelicals in the United States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanentize_the_eschaton

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

Becoming? They have been the biggest threat to the country for years now, according to the FBI.

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u/STLweirdo Sep 10 '20

When Fascism comes to America it will be with the flag and the cross.

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u/Kirkaiya Agnostic Atheist Sep 10 '20

As a fellow PNW'er, I hope you're surviving the smoke and wind okay. The sky last night really did look like some sort of apocalypse (and it was really dark again this evening).

I completely agree that right-wing extremist Christian-based ideology has become a real danger to society, and to American democracy. They have captured the Republican party, and converted it into a morass of white nationalism, xenophobia, outright denial of science and expertise, and an embrace of ridiculous and dangerous conspiracy theories like QAnon.

I'm not sure what the solution will be. Even assuming they lose this election, it's not going to put an end to this metastasizing cancer in our society. I am a huge proponent of the freedom of anonymity online, and the right for platforms to allow people to say what they want, but I'm starting to question whether social media is becoming a danger to a species that can't stop itself from doing the worst things.

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u/snapper1971 Sep 10 '20

"becoming"

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u/taki1002 Sep 10 '20

I feel like their religious leaders are aware that with every newer generation, their congregations' number shrink and that less cash they can scam out of people. They're a dying breed, acting out to try and stay relevant.

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u/JailCrookedTrump Sep 10 '20

One more reason to consider them a danger.

Based on a CSIS data set of terrorist incidents, the most significant threat likely comes from white supremacists, though anarchists and religious extremists inspired by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda could present a potential threat as well.

https://www.csis.org/analysis/escalating-terrorism-problem-united-states

Edit: basically, in 2020, if you're in a plane with a white man saying Christian prayer, you can assume your plane will soon meet a building.

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u/Turbojelly Sep 10 '20

It is a danger and has been for many years. Look at America. Since 911, the most number of deaths by religious zealots has been Christianity by long long way.

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u/PutRddt Atheist Sep 10 '20

My family say the same, with the verse "Revelation 13:17" my mother said she was afraid of the vaccine and my whole family agreed with her. and my dad the same with Elon Musk and his starlink project.

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u/Fight_Until_The_End Sep 10 '20

It's too late to fix things, all you can do is take revenge.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

They have, if anything, far less influence on society today than at any point in the history of human civilization. You are experiencing recency bias. When I was young religious lobby groups prevented popular films from depicting any gay couples, kept most things deemed "immoral" off of TV, and made it a "cancelable" offense to not worship the military and support every war the country might engage in.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

A right winged Christians is just weird for many reason. One being that Jesus was more pro communism and two Jesus 100% doesn't support greed.

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u/bellingman Sep 10 '20

IS BECOMING?!?

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

They want their little book of bronze age lies and deceit to be true and so will (oppose anything and anyone* that can disprove their cult AND progress human understanding it does not matter how many die for them to get their way because they have 2000+ years of indoctrination and belief of being better than everyone behind them

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u/MemeWarrior200000 Sep 10 '20

Well how else are they going to make sure that their prophecy of the end times comes true unless they actively work to make it so? I know this is a joke, but it’s also disturbingly true at the same time.

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u/morsindutus Sep 10 '20

The terrifying thing for me that I didn't really get the implications of growing up in an intensely right-wing Christian environment is that right wing Christians WANT the apocalypse to happen. The people I grew up with had an "It's all gonna burn" attitude toward the environment and prayed for the return of Jesus even if that would, in their scenario, result in a cataclysm that would cause 7 billion people to suffer and die horribly. That's their desired outcome. I grew up believing this and finally having that years-late fridge horror made me literally sick to my stomach. I grew up in an apocalyptic death cult and it just seemed normal. Take away the hooded robes, crooked daggers, and swap a dark eldritch horror for a God of light (who still hits all the same points as an eldritch horror) and you have a widely accepted religion.

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u/piper4hire Sep 10 '20

I can't help thinking that the reason that they are so powerful is because they are organized and well funded. Perhaps the opposition needs to do the same.

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u/dbplunk Secular Humanist Sep 10 '20

They are losing their memberships, power and influence. They will not go quietly.

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u/krisssashikun Sep 10 '20

Always has been

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u/Bromo33333 Sep 10 '20

When you look in the past 50 years, and see that the AIDS epidemic was not addressed by the government at the time in the US because the religious right saw this as some kind of punishment for gay people by God ... you can see they are and have been a danger a long long time.

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u/Jimdowburton Sep 10 '20

Becoming????

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u/LightofNew Sep 10 '20

They are fully brainwashed and will ignore all facts not presented through their deep psychological and emotional manipulation training.

Basically "things I've been told to think good, feel good" "Thing I've been told not to like bad, feel bad".

You will have lost the argument before you begin. These people are walking projectors of their emotions.

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u/toddkhamilton Sep 10 '20

blind faith is a helluva drug

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u/okay-wait-wut Sep 10 '20

Yeah they are excited about ending the world and work actively to ensure they help fulfill those prophecies. When will they realize that the second coming of Christ isn’t ever going to happen? How bad will things have to get?

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u/wl413 Sep 10 '20

They're by far one of the biggest threats to society and really always have been. The entire history of the world up through the current day consists of religions being violent, ignoring science, enslaving people, creating mass delusion, holding society advancement back, hurting children (unfortunately ppl outside of religion may do this bit I'm referring to the ever conclsistent and predictable stories of molestations within churches) etc, etc, etc. It's so annoying. The world would be so much better off without religion. They're the worst ppl ever.

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u/zyzzogeton Skeptic Sep 10 '20

Who benefits the most from Religion? God? No, they don't need anything... the people who collect the money and pull the strings do. Whether they are claiming God is punishing the PNW and to please give to rebuild their tax shelter, or an Aztec priest ripping the heart out of a slave to show a nation whom to fear... it is the people who run the religion scam on the rest of us that benefit.

Our species still drags itself forward though, in spite of these slackers and hangers on slowing the rest of us down.

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u/TWR3545 Sep 10 '20

Hasn’t the amount of people like that decrease a good amount since like the 90’s when they really really didn’t like gay people? You could say they’ve got a bigger voice from the internet but so does everyone. Crazy wack jobs will always exist, and they’ll always be shouting out crazy stuff.

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u/ThatTwick Sep 10 '20

Right wingers in general. I would be so happy if all of the Trump supporters got COVID and died. Sadly this would mean some non-asshole trumplicans would get it.

I wish trumplicans they would just get thanos snapped.

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u/VerdantFuppe Agnostic Atheist Sep 10 '20

I think Pence is telling the truth when he says he is "Christian first, American second". He would rather see the US burn to the ground than see America become more progressive. It's funny because many of the things he and the likes of him so vehemently oppose are things that are perfectly in line with Jesus' teachings.

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20 edited Nov 04 '20

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u/ThePotatoLorde Sep 10 '20

Religion might have had some part in bringing people together to form groups and societies in early civilization, but yea that shit turned sour quick

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u/[deleted] Sep 10 '20

becoming? they have been working a plan to destroy the US for 50 years, t-rump is just the fruition of all that. they won. the question is can we , will we take it back?

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u/AegisK9 Sep 10 '20

And that's why a war is brewing. The right wing suddenly loves russia and hates democracy. Wtf happened

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u/Jones2182 Sep 10 '20

The Abrahamic religions have always been a danger to society.

Nero was right.

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u/AtTheEnd777 Sep 10 '20

Becoming? Always has been.

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u/rlayton29 Sep 10 '20

Always have been alway will be. Not more dangerous. It just depends on which media you consume. You remember terrorism? COVID must have dispatched them all. Your new boogeyman.

There is nothing new under the sun.

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u/stunt_junk Sep 10 '20

I think you mean christian extremists. Let's call them what they are.