While we on this list often tease about god and how it's a harmless
missconception, the god meme can be very dangerous for its followers in
what *can be proven to be* the real world. The Amish, the Xian sect
which doesn't use modern technology, feel that vacanition is a sin and
some diseases which are virtually unknown in the rest of the US and the
industrialized world still kill their children. They also are almost
exclusively descendants of some eighty original settlers; a ban on
out-of-church marriages and the obvious reluctance by outsiders to
become Amish, coupled with church bans on counterception enforced far
more strictly than those of the Catholics, has led to a highly inbred
people who are vulnerable to genetic diseses, many fatal or
debilitating, which are almost unknown outside of the Amish church. The
Amish, while a good example of religion harming its followers, are
hardly the only one. People have been killed and still are in
religiously motivated wars. Terrorists often use religion as a
motivating factor. Finally, the smothering influesnce of religion on
thought is an issue which must continue to be dealt with.
--
Nathan Russell
frussell@frontiernet.net
"It is now time for the human race to enter the Solar System"
-Dan Quayle on the possibility of a manned mission to Mars
(Well, Danny Boy, the rest of us are already here, but we'll wait for
you)