Jason's comments (member since Jul 25, 2007)

Jason's comments from the Banned Books group.

a map would be cool

dogmatic monotheistic religious doctrine sets up a few dangerous presuppositions in the world view of the adherent:
* this world is just a proving grounds, a test, a stage on which your personal dedication to the faith will be tested.
* this faith test is specifically about "how well you maintain true internal belief and outwardly expression of this belief in the face of all opposition, logic, reasoning, magic, coercion or peer pressure" (Jesus, while being a generally well rounded guy, advises us to follow faith even in the face of losing relationships with our parents or our children). Basically it's about how well you can prevent yourself from ever being convinced that you might be wrong.

The "successful" combination of these 2 forces within a person sometimes results in a pious zealot working for generally positive change (giving up their own comfort to help the needy, etc), while other times results it results in a pious zealot willing to do terrible things.

Atheism does not set up these kinds of traps. As a society, we should encourage belief systems that are more likely to be healthy for our own survival, and discourage belief systems that are built on concepts that undermine long term stability and growth, peace and happiness here on Earth. In the past, in smaller communities, religion sometimes did this, but now, in our global society, a belief system that lifts up the our own situation as being paramount, that lifts up things that we know and can point at and can collectively agree on, is the way to survive.

In some ways Atheism is more political than religious.

thanks, that link is VERY informative.

This seems like a great group, but I'm a little stumped. What specifically counts as 'banned'? One school?, a school district?, A major city library? Is there actually some kind of definitive list that some authority figure keeps up to date and enforces? What are the pragmatic side effects of a book that is 'banned'? (banned from being sold? banned from being owned? banned from discussing? banned from reading in public?)