2007-05-23 Do-nothing atheists and re-igniting the Enlightenment
<hide> <let name=data index=Date>2007-05-23}}{{#vardefine:Topics|\Age of Enlightenment\active atheism\religion control\PZ Myers/posts}}{{#vardefine:keylist|{{#var:keylist}}\Topics}}{{#vardefine:Topics.disp|\Age of Enlightenment\active atheism\religion control\PZ Myers/posts}} <let name=data index=URL>http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2007/05/donothing_atheists_and_reignit.php}}{{#vardefine:Title%7CDo-nothing atheists and re-igniting the Enlightenment}}{{#vardefine:keylist|{{#var:keylist}}\Title}}{{#vardefine:Title.disp|Do-nothing atheists and re-igniting the Enlightenment}}{{#vardefine:Text|“...barring the complete eradication of religion, we need to change it to accommodate the modern world. I'll add, though, that other countries did set up state religions, and then seem to have modified that institution into similarly benign forms that have had a more lasting effect. The unofficial position of America's founding fathers may have been wonderfully positive in the beginning, but we can see now that they flopped mightily at building enduring institutions that would maintain any kind of religious rationalism. I tend to think that if they had, for instance, declared Unitarianism the official US religion (with the same strong statements that religion was not to be a prerequisite for holding office, etc., and that it was not a declaration of exclusivity) we'd be better off today. There'd at least be one officially sanctioned brake on the excesses of our wildly proliferating looney-tunes churches.”}}{{#vardefine:keylist|{{#var:keylist}}\Text}}{{#vardefine:Text.disp|“...barring the complete eradication of religion, we need to change it to accommodate the modern world. I'll add, though, that other countries did set up state religions, and then seem to have modified that institution into similarly benign forms that have had a more lasting effect. The unofficial position of America's founding fathers may have been wonderfully positive in the beginning, but we can see now that they flopped mightily at building enduring institutions that would maintain any kind of religious rationalism. I tend to think that if they had, for instance, declared Unitarianism the official US religion (with the same strong statements that religion was not to be a prerequisite for holding office, etc., and that it was not a declaration of exclusivity) we'd be better off today. There'd at least be one officially sanctioned brake on the excesses of our wildly proliferating looney-tunes churches.”}} {{#xploop:{{#var:Topics}}||}} {{#xploop:{{#var:keylist}}|\n* $s$: \o#var:$s$.disp\c}}