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"Banning religion is like trying to ban snowboarding"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=XtU49XtU9bo

"I've been to a sceptics convention and an exorcism and the exorcism was more exiting" - John Saffron.

Does John Saffron have a point when he says that religious rituals are too much fun to ban - providing a breadth of human experience not provided in none religious communities?

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Susan Stanko on October 17, 2011 at 8:01am

Yes.

Permalink Reply by Alice on October 17, 2011 at 6:41am

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=u5OlBT2OcGg

this is quite a good one too - for all your left wing, tree hugging, middle class, do gooder mates.... :)

Permalink Reply by John Donaldson on October 16, 2011 at 8:29pm

So long as religious ritual is limited to expressions of culture along the lines of Morris Dancing, the Rites of Spring and other worthy pursuits, I can see no ill in it. When children are being indoctrinated in woo and people are being harmed by charlatan claims of a blissful afterlife if only they would give their mind and ability to think to the charlatan (priest, pastor, minister, rabbi, imam or other religious designation) I find that even the most sincere need to be placed in their own equivalent of hell.

Permalink Reply by Alice on October 16, 2011 at 8:45pm

yes I do agree... :)

Permalink Reply by Tom Sarbeck on October 16, 2011 at 11:51pm

In the late 1970s I went to an American Atheists convention in SF and heard "the one and only Madelyn" speak. I was then about midway through my half-century as an agnostic and came away persuaded that without a god to battle, she would have to re-orient her life.

I greatly appreciate her successful efforts to get government-mandated prayer out of public schools. She took attacks that today few of us have to take. If skeptics conventions today are less exciting, thank Vashti McCollum, Madelyn, and others whose battles required more courage than ours.

Permalink Reply by oracle on October 21, 2011 at 1:12pm