wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] Daniel from nyc July 19, 2007 - 11:52AM

  Hopefully your guest is correct, and religious pluralism will lead to an evaporation of religion overall... Atheism the final outcome.

  
  
• [2] carolita from manhattan July 19, 2007 - 11:59AM

  There's a big difference in temperaments that your guest is missing: a religious pluralist is probably never going to strap on a bomb vest and explode himself in the name of tolerance!

  
  
• [3] Tony Brower from Brooklyn July 19, 2007 - 11:59AM

  How convenient to ignore the fact that religion itself is the problem. For instance, God does hate gays, there's plenty of evidence in the bible. You'll also find instructions on how to treat your slaves correctly. So think about whether that's a deity you want to believe in

  Religion is the perpetual proof that although we can put a guy on the moon, we're a pretty dumb and gullible species, as a whole.

  
  
• [4] eCAHNomics from nyc July 19, 2007 - 12:01PM

  Isn't Islam, in its essence, one of the least tolerant relisions in its insistence on only one god and Allah is his name? The historic tolerance of Islam related opportunistically to its goal to conquer and convert the whole world--had to have some way to keep conquered folks pacified until they could be converted.

  
  
• [5] carolita from manhattan July 19, 2007 - 12:02PM

  (Or is the idea to create fanatical pluralists who will inspire as much fear as religious fanatics do? Nobody's afraid of an open-minded person. We're all scared of suicide bombers. If you turn a pluralist into a warrior for his cause, you've turned him into some kind of open-minded fascist, haven't you?)

  
  
• [6] Brian July 19, 2007 - 12:04PM

  Is there anywhere in journalism today where atheism is even mentioned? We will never be free until we cure the mental illness that is religion.

  
  
• [7] Tony Brower from Brooklyn July 19, 2007 - 12:28PM

  In fact, it's a total cop-out that your ignore atheism in all this when you probably have a very high percentage of atheists in your listening audience.

  At the core of every religion it seems there's old men who fear and despise women.

  How many cultures were attacked, pillaged and destroyed by warriors for Rome?

  The evangelist/Morman/missionary who approaches a complete stranger and tries to change their core beliefs is only slightly less arrogant.

  Everyday a Muslim shouts "allah hu akhbar" before he explodes a suicide bomb, often in a location chosen to kill as many innocent people as possible. The silence of the other 99.9999999% of Muslims is deafening.

  I'm tired of religion and I'm tired of the media in general treating it with kid gloves.

  
  
• [8] Jeannette from New Jersey July 19, 2007 - 12:57PM

  What struck me listening to what your speaker had to say, was that he really didn't account for secularism. not every body is religious. In Europe, other than in the Us, people aren't that religious any more. What you see happening there is that secularisme affects immigrants in Europe too. Why wouldn't that be part of the solution?

  
  
• [9] Heather from East Harlem July 19, 2007 - 12:59PM

  I think that it is important to point out that RELIGION itself isn't the problem, it's FUNDAMENTALISM that causes strife.

  Besides, I am sad to see that a predominance of the comments are making the implicit assumption that the only religions around are ancient, conservative, monotheistic, and patriarchal.

  For those who believe that every religion is about "old men who fear and despise women", "God does hate gays", and "missionar[ies] who [...try] to change [people's] core beliefs".

  Please let me submit two examples I am familiar with: Paganism (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paganism#Pagan_revivals_and_new_religious_movements)

  and Unitarian Universalism (http://uua.org), which is a non-creedal faith. UUs are pro-women's empowerment, pro-LGBT rights, pro-religious tolerance/pluralism, and count among their ranks many people who consider themselves atheists, Jewish, etc.

  [Incidentally, Beacon Press which published Mr. Patel's book is affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association.]

  Though I agree that religious fundamentalism is a bane on peaceful coexistence for many people around the world, I think it is important to understand the deep human needs which cause us to be "religious animals", and address those needs without allowing intolerance and violence to destroy other's rights to their own beliefs (whether those beliefs be theist or atheist).

  Blessings

  
  
• [10] Brian July 19, 2007 - 01:35PM

  There is nothing in Nature that causes us to become 'religous animals'. One is taught to believe and therein lies the problem; if you can be taught to believe, and then maintain your belief, in the 'flying spaghetti monster' it really isn't that much of a mental leap to believe He likes meatballs...