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Is a religious upbringing child abuse?
I became a Christian when I was eight years old. That may sound like child abuse - how could my parents force their beliefs on me like that? Was I brainwashed? If so, you might have been too...
The myth of the freethinking atheist
Somehow we have come to attach the idea of ‘freedom’, and particularly freedom of thought, to atheism. Religious people are shackled to ideas that exert power of them, almost as though they are helpless victims. But the atheist is free… Well, sort of. But no.
When an atheist professor says religion ‘brings out the best in people’, you should probably listen…
In our world of echo-chambers, it's not often you'll hear people commending something they don't agree with.
The modern myth of open-mindedness
The very same attitude that makes us first to cry, ‘That’s neither fair nor true, because it’s just a social construct!’ is itself a social construction, a product of specific cultural conditioning. Relativism cancels itself out. Still, we often assume present norms are innately right because we’re entrenched; we haven’t known any other reality. It’s an easy trap to fall into, but the spell breaks when we realise the norm itself is always shifting.
Dawkins and the meaning of life
How can life possibly have meaning when we’re just an accident of chemistry + physics + who-knows-what? Dawkins gave his answer, and it’s fascinating.