If one follows the news - at via outlets other than Fox News, a/k/a Faux News - a huge percentage of the world's problems tract to religion, being the hate and bigotry fomented by Christofascists in America, the shocking embrace of ignorance in Africa, to the blood baths in the Middle East where different elements of Islam are slaughtering each other and seeking to unleash terror on the West. And that doesn't even address (i) the fact that religious belief is generally anti-knowledge, (ii) the squandering of resources as religious denominations in America continue to build costly "worship centers" rather than give their money to the poor as the Gospel commanded, or (iii) the reality that religious leaders are most interested in making money, often by seeking tithing from those least able to afford it. Famed Biologist E. O. Wilson has concluded that the elimination of religion would be in mankind's best interest. Here are highlights from The Raw Story:
Biologist E. O. Wilson, who is known as the “the father of sociobiology,” said recently that the Earth was suffering “the death of a thousand cuts” because of religion.
In the most recent issue of New Scientist, Wilson explained that his next book would look at the future of humans and the Earth.
The Pulitzer Prize-winning biologist warned that people had not yet realized that the “tribal structure” had been destroying the planet by “a thousand cuts,” according a partial transcript obtained by the International Business Times.
“All the ideologies and religions have their own answers for the big questions, but these are usually bound as a dogma to some kind of tribe,” he said. “Religions in particular feature supernatural elements that other tribes – other faiths – cannot accept … And every tribe, no matter how generous, benign, loving and charitable, nonetheless looks down on all other tribes. What’s dragging us down is religious faith.”
“So I would say that for the sake of human progress, the best thing we could possibly do would be to diminish, to the point of eliminating, religious faiths. But certainly not eliminating the natural yearnings of our species or the asking of these great questions.”
Wilson, who was raised as a Baptist in Alabama, has said that he “drifted” away from Christianity, but he doesn’t refer to himself as an atheist. “I’m a scientist,” he told the magazine.
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