I agree with Blacknad when he write:
"They cannot have their cake and eat it. They want a society of enlightened and tolerant individuals, not beholden to backward mythologies that prevent people from embracing the benefits of reason. One of the things at the core of this is freedom, and one of the mechanisms whereby we protect freedom is 'The Right to Free Speech'.
But as Dawkins so pointedly reveals, he would happily sacrifice people's right to free speech to get the greater benefit of 'doing away with the mythologies'."
This is where I part company with Dawkins too. Freedom of speech is more important than being right.
That said ... we don't allow people to get up in a crowded movie theatre and yell "FIRE!" And we don't allow people to urge others to commit murder. So freedom of speech does have some reasonably applied limits.
I don't care what anyone believes or says as long as they don't put others in harm's way and this is where the rubber meets the road.
Are children put in harm's way by being taught, from an early age, into believing things that history teaches us lead to intolerance and bloodshed. It is a reasonable question.
Are children put in harm's way by being taught that what their parent's believe is correct and everyone else on the planet is wrong? It is a reasonable question.
Are children put in harm's way by being taught to accept authoritarianism rather than democracy? It is a reasonable question.
The entire concept of a god or gods, no matter their theological source, is based upon the 10,000+ year old model of the tribal chieftan, king, monarch, dictator, strong-man. God gives orders and you must follow. Stalin gives orders and you must follow. Doing what you are told is good so go strap on a bomb and blow yourself up.
I think there is substantial evidence to the contrary. 10,000+ years of doing the same thing over-and-over again and getting the same result. It is time for root cause analysis.
