Thanks for the actual reference!
> What I mean is that in a religion one can always put the "blame" for
> unhappiness or disaster or misfortune off on god, or the devil, or
> whatever other bugaboos are part of that religion. An atheist
> hasn't that scapegoat available. We have to shoulder the
> responsibility ourselves.
Yes. This is great. But for me, I must be sure I include the
idea that along with this responsibility or really ability, comes the
possibility that we can make the real natural heaven any way we want
it and not settle with what someone else tells us it must be. For
some irrational reason, in our religious society, everyone tends to
take the idea that there is no God as we are all there is and we can't
expect any more than what we can do now. But as I said, this is so
backwards. The atheist view is the much more optimistic view for we
can hope that a bit more effort (a mere few more thousand years worth)
is all that is required to eliminate evil. I think that in our
current religious society, we should clearly point this out and not
allow and especially never encourage such twisted misunderstandings.
> I really don't think you and I see things all that differently.
Yes, definitely.
Thanks again,
Brent