This video says it well.

the more you know, the less reason to fear. Lightning is not Zeus's personal attack on your neighborhood. it's just ionized atoms.

That creaking sound is not a monster in your closet, it's a loose shutter.

magic curses cannot harm you, even if they are issued by a god. You aren't going to hell, ask questions and learn.

Free yourself.

I haven't watched the video but Isaac Newton was highly religious. Many learned men were religious. Most intellectuals of the 17th and 18th centuries were very religious. Intelligence can be attributed to people who are superstitious just as it is to people who can't dance (aren't they smart enough to know how to dance?). Superstition is emotion, fear, cultural brainwashing, social pressure (injustice),... you name it. It doesn't have any relevance on recognizing someone as a "scientist" or "intelligent". That's akin to saying that anyone who can't dance is ignorant and stopping right there. They're just plain ignorant. This blanket type broadcast labeling is dangerous.

Everyone should know there is no god. It's going to be a slow process but I'm sure it will come about one day. It's a cultural and power seeking engineering scheme that's so ingrained in us that it'll take years to undo. I won't be alive to see god replaced by personal virtue and the achievement of mankind - something infinitely more awe-inspiring than the dream of the achievements of an imaginary all-powerful being. I have faith, though. Like all men who realize truth will be inevitably found, I believe one day the shackles will fall. That's my "faith". The faith of us. Not the faith of our fears and of deceit.

This is one of the silliest arguments I have ever heard. Newton was a great scientist and Newton believed in God so it must be true! A few hundred years ago we didn't even know about the germ theory of disease and the age of the earth was based on the Bible. We relied on supernatural explanations for what was not known. But as science fills in our gaps of knowledge, superstition is less and less relevant to our lives. That's a good video because it gives us a historical perspective.

bump. good video.

Wow... I really liked that video... Thanks Johnson!!!

Later

Here's a good supplemental, which addresses the first part of the "why don't scientists fear hell" video, where he discusses lists of scientists who doubt evolution in favor of creationism.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ty1Bo6Gm ... ded#at=257

I already posted this once in the yes. evolution thread, but it has specific relevance here as well.

http://www.booktalk.org/yes-evolution-t8939-240.html