The root of evil: “Bad Ideas”
Richard Dawkins, a notable athiest and author of “the god delusion” has been labelled by a number of people as an “atheist fundamentalist”. In his documentary “Root of All Evil”, Dawkins concludes that religion is a cause of a lot of strife, a root cause of some of the evil in this world. Without religion, all these bad things won’t just go away, but there will be one less reason for people to dogmatically and irrationally stick to their dearly held beliefs.
Its no surprize that several people, including atheists, have called Dawkins’s style atheism a disservice to the cause of atheism. Laying the blame of all the wars and strife and killings on the doorstep of religion, they say, is a logical fallacy.
They are right. But the point this criticism misses is that no one is really blaming religion for all evil. PZ Myers, who could be said to be every bit as “fundamentalist” as Dawkins puts it best, when he says that its not religion or the religious who are the enemies, its the bad ideas, the irrationality, dogma and superstition that really are the enemies. Quote:
Ultimately, though, our enemies are not the propagandists of the DI, they are not the dishonest televangelists and wandering creationist preachers, they are not the people who have been duped by the misleading dogmas of the church — our enemies are bad ideas. The pope is a mouthpiece for bad ideas. When we go easy on bad ideas because they aren’t coming out of the mouths of the usual suspects, or because they’re said by someone who might support us in other ways, we have lost our perspective on what we are fighting for.
While Myers writes in the limited context of the papal views on evolution, the reason for the rational people to speak out is really the same. Seventy two virgins waiting for you in heaven is a bad idea, and so is the belief that a supernatural being has deigned you to carry a crusade to bring democracy to the people of the world; the Nazi irrationality is a bad idea and so is the belief that bringing communism to the people, with any force necessary, will usher a utopia.
Good summary and commentary!