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The mission of the Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science is to support scientific education, critical thinking and evidence-based understanding of the natural world in the quest to overcome religious fundamentalism, superstition, intolerance and suffering.
The Magic of Reality
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Sean Faircloth:
Attack of the Theocrats!
I agree that using these words does constitute a tacit acceptance of their importance to the religious. I find myself almost saying quite a few of your examples from day to day and I have to hunt for something to replace it on the fly. When alone or with like-minded atheists it shouldn't be anything to worry about because the words are meaningless but in the presence of the faithful they constitute a code of sorts that they can use to identify each other. To that end we should come up with alternatives that trip off the tongue in the same manner so that when a faith head tries to finish whatever phrase we are using in their own head it will jar their thoughts and cause them to actually think for a moment. Personally for me though I still pay tribute to my now departed Father-in-law with his favorite "Christ on a stick" which does give some the vapors but WonderNerd has the right idea I think. So close to what they expect you to say that they finish it their way in their own head and different enough that they have to rewind and try again with a "what the hell was that????" in there for good measure.
Permalink Sun, 14 Nov 2010 22:48:47 UTC | #547494