Quote by UsagixKitsuneI also used to believe in Sanzos' "Religion is a form of social shepherding" theory. When I really thought about it though I realised that this new Atheism craze may be no different. Most people are like sheep and so how can you be sure that all these fanatic atheists who bash religion and think only science can and will provide all answers aren't the exact same people who would have been fanatic Christians only a few centuries or even decades ago? I don't think they truly represent either Religion or Atheism only what is most popular in their environment and era.
In other words are these Atheists who claim to be free thinking really thinking for themselves or are they just swallowing what scientists tell them in the exact same fashion as these religious people they despise so much?
Notice that I never mentioned Science? That's because it has nothing to do with my opinion on religion. It may be different in USA, but I 'dropped', so to say, religion, when I took Philosophy at school, and not science. Philosophy made me question everything, and being that I had never felt particularly connected to the supposed guy from above, letting go of religion wasn't hard for me. It was like opening my eyes, but I reached that conclusion myself. Others didn't alter their beliefs. Nobody convinced me of anything. I'm not a rabid lunatic that tells others what to do (aka, Not Believe), because to me, the essence of Atheism and that which differentiates it from Religion, is that it questions things, it makes people think and invites them to judge on their own terms, but never imposing. The main trait of Atheism (just as it's the main trait for Progressism and open-mindedness) is that it never tells people what to do, it just provokes them to question everything before judging and acting, it downplays the absolute assurance of radicalism, and it's always about letting people do things and not forbidding them.
