Dawkins Demolished

[amateur51]

You mean only a wee wean, Ams ... ?

Don't even wee weans grow up into big horrible adults themselves, and then possibly decide to cancel any subscriptions their parents might have thought best to make on their (the wee weans) behalf ... ?

Ah but there's the rub, scotty or so I'm informed, not ever having been indoctrinated or a subscriber but Catholic (and ex-Catholic) friends tell me that cancellation is rarely to any avail

'Wain' is on several websites about Scottish words as meaning 'child'

[Bryn]

The Scots is "wean", A51. "Wain" is an Anglicisation.

[scottycelt]

Ah but there's the rub, scotty or so I'm informed, not ever having been indoctrinated or a subscriber but Catholic (and ex-Catholic) friends tell me that cancellation is rarely to any avail

What? ... you mean the Catholic Church insists and succeeds in ensuring that they must remain within the 'indoctrinated' fold? ... so how on earth do you manage to have those 'ex-Catholic' friends then, Ams?

Maybe your 'Catholic' friends secretly wanting to escape this ecclesiastical tyranny could therefore seek their knowledgeable advice ... ?

[Pianorak]

Ah, we are back on relgion. Just want to say thank you scottycelt for opening my eyes to the idea that atheism is as ideologically driven as any belief system. I'm paraphrasing as it cropped up in an old thread I can't be bothered to hunt down. Hence I have now demoted myself to agnostic - or should that be promoted?

[amateur51]

What? ... you mean the Catholic Church insists and succeeds in ensuring that they must remain within the 'indoctrinated' fold? ... so how on earth do you manage to have those 'ex-Catholic' friends then, Ams?

Well it won't surprise you to learn that they're all gay men and to a man they're also recovering alcoholics, scotty.

Must be something to do with good old-fashioned Catholic guilt, I'd say, imprinted on them before they could write their own names I daresay.

[teamsaint]

idealogically driven aetheism was popular with the KGB.

[scottycelt]

Well it won't surprise you to learn that they're all gay men and to a man they're also recovering alcoholics, scotty.

Must be something to do with good old-fashioned Catholic guilt, I'd say, imprinted on them before they could write their own names I daresay.

Sorry to hear about your friends and their past drink problem, Ams ... something that can afflict any of us .. Catholic, Atheist, Protestant, Jew and, yes, Muslim too.

And even, I daresay, gay men as well ...

[scottycelt]

idealogically driven aetheism was popular with the KGB.

Still is in countries like China, famously renowned for freedom of expression and in the vanguard of the fight against childhood indoctrination.

Obviously Pionorak can't be bothered checking that out either ...

[Flosshilde]

idealogically driven aetheism was popular with the KGB.

& Franco derived a great deal of support from the Catholic church during the Spanish Civil War (& after).

Just because a particular regime supported or supports any particular belief or theory doesn't make it any better or worse.

[teamsaint]

& Franco derived a great deal of support from the Catholic church during the Spanish Civil War (& after).

Just because a particular regime supported or supports any particular belief or theory doesn't make it any better or worse.

We live in a world where religions are frequently, and often rightly, seen as repressive , and to have other negative qualities.

I'm not sure that aetheism is often seen in this negative light these days, but it certainly can be used negatively, and it is something we should beware.

[Pianorak]

Scottycelt - I wasn't trying to be funny or facetious, naive maybe.

[amateur51]

Sorry to hear about your friends and their past drink problem, Ams ... something that can afflict any of us .. Catholic, Atheist, Protestant, Jew and, yes, Muslim too.

And even, I daresay, gay men as well ...

Wriggle, wriggle, wriggle

[amateur51]

Still is in countries like China, famously renowned for freedom of expression and in the vanguard of the fight against childhood indoctrination

Oh pur-leaze, almost all religions wrote the hand-book on that one

[scottycelt]

Scottycelt - I wasn't trying to be funny or facetious, naive maybe.

Many apologies. Pianorak, it was myself that was being facetious ...

It suddenly dawned after I posted that you may have meant what you yourself posted but I wasn't quite sure.

Sorry again for my own naivety in jumping to wrong conclusions ... my remark was both rude and unnecessary and has only resulted in myself deservedly ending up with egg on my face ... a lesson well-learned!

[scottycelt]

& Franco derived a great deal of support from the Catholic church during the Spanish Civil War (& after)..

Hardly surprising as churches were being burned down, priests murdered, and nuns raped by some on the Republican side. As a successful war general, Franco may have been ruthless in his dealings with the enemy but it was a case of the lesser of two evils as far as the Church was concerned.

The UK had the murderous butcher Stalin as an ally against that other murderous butcher, Hitler.

Sometimes unpalatable decisions have to be made for the greater good.