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Path: utzoo!utcsstat!laura
From: laura@utcsstat.UUCP (Laura Creighton)
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: re starving people
Message-ID: <1408@utcsstat.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 9-Nov-83 14:17:57 EST
Article-I.D.: utcsstat.1408
Posted: Wed Nov  9 14:17:57 1983
Date-Received: Wed, 9-Nov-83 14:34:55 EST
References: <1467@hplabsc.UUCP>
Organization: U. of Toronto, Canada
Lines: 27

	"Faith by definition discourages rational thought which results
	 in atrophied minds!"

Boy, do I have a bone to pick with this one! Have you ever *BEEN* to
a Theology Library? Have you ever read anything by Thomas Aquinas?
or Soren Kierkegaard? or... enough, you haven't, or you couldn't
make such dogmatic statements.

This deos not mean that some people use there religions to avoid rational
thought, or indeed that there do not exist religions that discorage rational
thought. However, i know lots of people who have no religion and who still
manage to do their best to avoid thinking rationally at all, so this is
hardly a fair criticism of religions. A religion is a very useful thing to have
if one does not want to think, but if you take away the religion it does not
follow that the person will start thinking. Religions are intensely
interesting things, so if you could not be bothered to thinking about
your religion I doubt that you will ever bother thinking about *anything*.

But how much thinking does such dogmatic mud-slinging as you use show?

These days it is fashionable to blame religions for everything. India
has a lot of problems as a nation, but making it a nation of atheists
is not likely to help any of them. And education does not imply atheism --
or don't you know any educated religious people? 

Laura Creighton
utzoo!utcsstat!laura