mirkwood:

Now imagine you’re an “objective” racist white scientist who decides to give a group of black men a STI and, instead of treating them for it, watch them slowly suffer from it so you can study it FOR SCIENCE.

Now imagine you’re the white supremacist sexist medical establishment that denies women the right to get their tubes tied unless they already have loads of kids and require them to get their husband’s permission while at the same time forcibly sterilising legions of native and black women.

Now imagine you’re an “objective” racist psychologist who decides that slaves wanting to escape is a psychological disorder called “drapetomania” and the “cure” for that is lashings and cutting off toes.

Now imagine that you’re the “objective” and “scientific” medical establishment that deems queerness a disorder and decides that electroshock treatments or lobotomies are the effective solution or feels the need to “intervene” by surgically altering the bodies of intersex infants to fit your perceptions of what genitalia should look like.

Religion has done a lot of fucked up shit. But I’m sick and tired of people acting like SCIENCE hasn’t been involved in wars, death, and genocide either. And it’s the assumptive bullshit notion that ALL religions are somehow stupid and not worth your consideration that perpetuates this colonialist bullshit approach that white people have now upon Native and other individuals when tribes fight for the right to their sacred lands of, “Oh you’re religion is just hooey!” 

First they “civilised” us with religion and now it’s science and repatriation. Stealing native lands and native artefacts and native bodies FOR SCIENCE so you can profit off of them.

If you’re going to lay in on the death religion causes, IMO you better realise that there’s a difference between the bastion of white supremacist cisheteropatriarchy that is modern Christianity and other religions which have little in the way of social power in comparison. AND you better recognise that science can be just another extention of white supremacist cisheteropartiarchy too and FURTHER the goals of that power structure rather than being as “objective” as they claim and countering it.

Haha. Imagine that.

Also, Ricky Gervais is a jerk.

I can’t say for certain what this potential asshat here has done, but I know a thing or two about science and religion.

The thing about religion is that you are required to be wrong to start with. Religion exists because of irrationality. And as a result, you are either going to get lucky or you are going to make mistakes. This is why so many of the actions religions make are so very wrong. Gay marriage opposition is founded in religion. Anti-feminism is founded in religion. In a very real sense, ignorance is founded in religion.

On the other hand, science is based upon principles of rationality. If you are doing good science, you need to be being rational, and as a result you need to follow ethics. In case you haven’t been paying attention, following ethics is rational. Allowing everyone as much freedom as possible is rational. So if good science follows ethics, then experiments that do not follow ethics therefore are not rational, and are bad science. People have done fucked up shit in the name of science, but it does not follow the ideas of science to do so.

But hell, even that’s neither here nor there. Because science doesn’t claim to teach people how to live their life. Science doesn’t say “do X and Y and you’ll be a good person and help people”. But religion does. Religion strives to teach people moral codes and help them become better people, but you can’t become a better person by being irrational (unless you get lucky). Religion is an inherently flawed idea. And while there are religions out there that don’t try to do what Christianity does, I’ve yet to see a religion that genuinely helps people other than giving them some distraction from the fact that we are going to die and probably stop existing. That is, again, ignorance based upon fear. That is you ignoring the problem with nice and shiny distractions when what you need to do is face up to the problem. Because when it comes down to it, no truly sane and rational person is religious for any reason other than fear.

And that’s why I hate religion. They try and teach truth and love, but they can’t. Because religion is hate and fear. So while some people are motivated to do good through religion, it is just an excuse for them to act like they truly are. A good man will act good be it for love of God or love of man or even if just love of rationality. And I think its just easier to cut out the middle man and just start being good people.

And the world will be a better place for it.

“You might say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one.”