Jonathans Swifts Real Argument

Pope contends that atheism has caused just as much harm, if not more, than religion. He claims “evildoing has been pursued under the guise of religion, but the same can be said of science” (Only Religion Can Teach Morality and Ethics). He goes on to cite, “facetiously”, the Nazis being “intelligently organized”. Contrarily, Kurtz argues religion is the cause of “basic human rights violations” (Atheism Teaches Morality and Ethics). Kurtz proceeds with arguing the point, “some conservative religious moralists seek to enact a constitutional amendment that would prohibit [same-sex marriage].” He also claims “The religious want to censor science”.

In simple terms Puritans were Protestants who believed the reformation hadn't gone far enough. Russell called them 'hotter' Protestants. A hallmark which put fear into the State was the anti-hierarchical beliefs held by many Puritans. In fact it makes sense to argue that Presbyterianism and Separatism, in principle, posed a threat to the Elizabethan Church and State, due to these anti-hierarchical beliefs. They sought to replace the contemporary system of church and government.

In addition to harmfully encouraging mediocrity, Christianity (according to Nietzsche) dangerously denied the importance of the individual by proposing predefined paths to supposed greatness. Christianity, therefore, robbed humanity of the personal vitality of living. According to Nietzsche’s belief in the neces... ... middle of paper ... ...g that Christianity evolved to a point where it only ostensibly held real meaning concerning God, Nietzsche and the death of God theologians in effect asserted that Christian thought became a matter of nominalism. The name and concept of God only held import within the parameters of a society’s own thoughts, and God was meaningless in the context of contemporary America. The religious incorporation of secularization appeared in such contexts as the stress by Hamilton and others on Jesus Christ’s importance.

They demote power. He sees religion as intensely nihilistic - it's all about denying life and being negative. Nietzsche feels that the New Testament is also like that. We have to go beyond this. If Christianity and Schopenhaur are based on denying life ... ... middle of paper ... ...itique is that he views religion from the outside, so doesn't this make it a one-sided story?

In Saint Augustine Confessions, Augustine talks about his conversion from Manichaeism to Christianity. He believes in order to become a wise individual; one must have a transformation of his mind inward and upward towards God. Augustine’s intellectual conversions that preceded his conversion to Christianity, made him recognize that the Manicheans were wrong. Manichees viewed God as a material thing, which is something that passes and is destroyed, but God cannot be viewed this way because God created materiality. They also thought there were two forces good and evil, which were constantly battling one another.

With several people believing that the rapture is true, the threat of the shame and humiliation from not being nurturing to their children and therefore, not being able to be with the children in some sort of afterlife acts as a purification technique to prevent that from happening. However if the wrong interpretations of the Bible keep growing into the religious teaching, then over time mass destruction will get tied into religious beliefs, fundamentally causing a biblical genocide described in the book of Revelatio... ... middle of paper ... ...ally bad. Jihadists live on the premise that they are establishing God’s will upon the nations that are essentially what Christians want to achieve as well. However, religious terrorists view that this means by way of violence. The same psychological experience could be viewed as beneficial or problematic to the religious experience.

Voltaire felt that the most grievous of these superstitions was the belief that only those who follow their own religion are given eternal salvation and all others will suffer eternal damnation. The result of this was severe persecution of those who had a faith other than their own. Voltaire's satirical view of this is evident when he says, 'And is it not evident that it would be even more reasonable to worship the sacred navel, the sacred prepuce, and the milk and dress of the Virgin Mary, than to detest and persecute one's brother'; (1109). Assuredly Voltaire believed that it was incredibly foolish of humankind to persecute their fellow men for having beliefs that did not coincide exactly with their own. His detest of such actions can be inferred from his suggestions that the worship of such bizarre things as the sacred navel, foreskin, and the dress and milk of Heavenly Mother being more sensible than the great persecutions of people based on religious pretext.

Twain’s views manage to ironically uplift Christianity in a way that degrades hypocrisy, evil, and ignorance. Despite religion’s pure reputation, hypocrites constantly attack Huck’s beliefs. After many encounters with religious errors, Huck sees religion as hurtful, finding the countless flaws, immoral followers, confusing ideas, and lack of proof. Huck simply continues his faithfulness to superstition; which seems to be the only way to escape. Religion in the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn not only becomes the main evil, it provides readers with another perspective that judges, lies, deceives, and sins ironically to the point that religion is not seen as a belief, but another useless tool to spread more evil in a world that already dwells in sin.

Nonetheless, the influence of Christianity on American law and morality is such that one can call the U.S. democracy a secularized church (i.e. has the same behavior and structure as a church but without the imposed religiousness). An analysis of the comparison between the Christianity Nietzsche so adamantly criticized and the modern American society reveals that a secularized church as such can thrive and prosper despite its “weaknesses” due to the Christian origin. In Human, All-Too-Human, Nietzsche wrote, “Christianity came into existence in order to lighten the heart; but now it has first to burden the heart so as afterwards to be able to lighten it”. He criticized Christianity because it promoted suffering and belittled the value of earthly life.

Carl Marx once said "Religion is the opiate of the masses." Likening Religion to an addictive drug. Marx claims that religion is just an invention made for those who are incapible of dealing with life's pressures. He claims Christianity is just a psychological crutch. Although Marx surely meant all this as an insult, many do not realise the truth in it.