More evidence of the direct corelation between religiosity, bigotry and xenophobia

(Link to full story in title)

A little note tucked away in the world section of my newspaper yesterday tells us that a group of Orthodox Jews in the Israeli town of Or Yehuda burnt hundreds of copies of the New Testament that had been distributed by missionaries...

A little research leads me to http://www.haaratz.com/ and their coverage of the story, to which I have linked in the title.

Following complaints, the deputy mayor of the town, Uzi Aharon, apparently drove through the town with a loudspeaker car urging residents to hand over the Testaments and other material to 'Jewish religious students who went door to door to collect it.'

The books were then burned in a pile near a synagogue, presumably so that God could look on and be proud of his chosen people. After all, anyone familiar with the Pentateuch can scarcely deny that God is rather keen on burnt offerings - He just might be a little disappointed that they were only books.

He later said that he regretted the burning of the books, but called it a commandment to burn materials that urge Jews to convert, so, thats alright then. A jihadist suicide bomber may regret the slaughter of innocents (collateral damage - lovely phrase) who happen to get in the way, but he or she is following a commandment, so, thats alright then. A doctor-murdering 'Pro-Life' nut may briefly regret the killing of a full grown human to save 'babies', but he (I doubt women will object to my use of the male pronoun in this instance) is following a commandment so, thats alright then. In short, you can do whatever you damn-well like to other people, so long as you do it in the name of God.

"I certainly don't denounce the burning of the booklets, he said. I denounce those who distributed the booklets."

Personally, I would denounce anyone who would burn something that anyone holds dear, be it a book, a flag, or a building. That may be because I'm prepared to accept that everyone has a right to live in the way that seems best to them, PROVIDED THAT IN DOING SO IT IS NOT NECESSARY TO HURT OTHER PEOPLE. I know this is a vague and naive interpretation of the ancient Golden Rule, but a form of this rule is the basis by which all secular humanists live their lives, and needs little definition from me.

So, the more religious an individual is, the more faith they have in whatever nonsense they have been brought up to believe is true, the more likely they are to be racist, bigoted xenophobes. The more one is prepared to take instruction and law from ancient texts, the more cruelly do they treat their fellows.

Conversely, the more secular a person is, even if they have faith but accept that their faith must not take precedent over the temporal laws of their country, the more likely they are to live peacefully and constructively with those of other opinions.

Faith itself is not a virtue, and absolute faith is positively destructive.

A note on the definitions of 'theory' and 'hypothesis'

I occasionally enjoy debating the faithful on the subject of their particular beliefs. I won't say 'chosen beliefs', as nine hundred and ninety-nine times out of a thousand these beliefs are held simply because the person concerned has been told from a very young age that a) 'x is true' and b) 'questioning x is wrong and you will be punished for it'. Unfortunately powerful memes that do much to perpetuate faith.

It is a constant uphill struggle for those of us who value truth obtained through the analysis of evidence to get these people to look beyond their blinkers at the real world, but a rewarding one when it succeeds. One intelligent person saved from the darkness and superstition of blind faith is worth a hundred foolish converts.

Since Darwin (and Wallace) opened our eyes and showed us how all life could have arisen from simple origins, religiously inspired (or funded) researchers have been trying to show that evolution is wrong. They have had almost a hundred and fifty years to provide us with evidence that disproves the theory of evolution - none is so far forthcoming.

In the other direction, the more we learn about life, the more we study it, from the level of ecosystems, to whole organisms, right down to the level of their constituent molecules, the more evidence we find to support evolution. In fact, this evidence is now so overwhelming that even the Vatican has had to incorporate evolution into its official teachings of how God made us all. This fact might surprise some of the catholics I debate, and I would simply ask that they take a look at what the Vatican has said rather than listen to their own parish priests.

I say that this will surprise many catholics, because when I debate them, I often get asked 'if you don't believe in God, where did we come from?' or something similar. When I reply 'We evolved' I often receive the rejoinder 'but evolution is just a theory, right? it hasn't been proven.'

I have written this post specifically so that I can direct people I am debating with to it, in the hope that it will clear up this pernicious little mis-understanding.

When scientists speak of theories, they mean this in a technical sense. In its non-technical sense, a theory really is just an untested idea, like if I have a theory that the Conservatives will win the next election, for example.

In science, a theory is defined as a coherent group of general propositions used as principles of explanation for a class of phenomena.

When scientists have an idea that they want to test, they call this a hypothesis.

A hypothesis is defined as a conjecture put forth as a possible explanation of phenomena or relations, which serves as a basis of argument or experimentation to reach the truth: This idea is only a hypothesis.

(Source: http://dictionary.reference.com - link in title.)

In short, when lay-people think that evolution is not a fact, because it is only a theory, they have not understood that the word theory is used here in the technical sense of the term. They are thinking that evolution is in fact a hypothesis.

I note that this mis-understanding does not apply to other theatres of scientific endeavour: - I have never heard of a creationist who is scared to use a computer, or indeed switch on a light, because they doubt the theory of electromagnetism, or one who is scared to fly because they doubt the theory of aerodynamics.

Why, then, does this stupidity persist when it comes to the theory of evolution?

So please, after reading this, do not you tell me that you doubt evolution because it is only a theory, and remember, that in the technical sense, the idea of God is just a failed hypothesis.