View from the bright side

The BOP Times published this on Friday, 1 June 2007.

Whereas most of the major wars in the world today are fought in the name of religion, I don’t know of any war that has ever been fought in the name of atheism as suggested by James Hood (BOP Times 15 May).

Atheist is a term used by an in-group (those who believe in a god) to define an out-group (those who do not). It says something about what a person does not believe in, but nothing about what they do believe in.

I admit to being an atheist, but I would prefer to describe myself as a Humanist, or a “bright”, the new term coined in the US to define someone with a naturalistic worldview.

Contrary to James Hood’s view, the values that we hold dear to our society do not come from Christianity. Most of these values originated in pagan Greece, were rediscovered in the Renaissance and came to fruition in the Enlightenment.

In over a thousand years while they held power throughout Europe, Christians failed to advance democracy, or enhance the status of women or slaves. Most of the advances Hood claims for Christianity in fact date from the Enlightenment.

And , by the way, Hitler was a Catholic.