Well, if the new thing is just religion with another name, then no real change has occured.
Personally I think the problem is dogmatic ideology, as that’s the actual category of things that have the problem of asserting what is correct in a manner that bypasses rational analysis (or tries to). This includes the things we generally consider religions, and all the favored tu quoques like communism as well. If we could break the back of all these things and not replace them with more of the same, I think that pretty much inevitably whatever replaced them would be better. Barbarism would persist, but it would face real challenges and likely be forced out of the mainstream, as has happened to racism in many places.
I think that 99% of these people aren’t making these selections themselves, but are instead dealing with pre-cooked and socialized material as delivered by preachers. And I think that most of these people accept that material uncritically.
I base these conclusions on the fact that none of the religious people I know think their holy books/religions are fallible and ambiguous. They cherry-pick, but not consciously.
Bold mine, though fear/paranoia may be a normal human reaction to the above it does not produce a positive response such as the gifts of the Spirit, Love, Peace, etc. Fear is a negative motivator.
Fear can produce the positive response of avoiding bad things, unpleasantness, pain, and death. I fear the effects of getting hit by cars, therefore I don’t run out into traffic.
Fear is not a inherent part of the human spirit. Yes it can be used to keep us safe and the like, but it is a negative motivator and works by restricting action. God’s ways are quite different, fear was never intended for us, nor were we meant for negative motivation.
I don’t fear getting hit by a car because I trust in God, follow His Spirit and know that if He has me run into traffic for any reason, which is unlikely, He will make a way for me, and even if I do get hit, He will cover that too, even to eternity.
Not that I’m perfect in not being afraid, but I am able to overcome it in Christ and do what the Lord wants, and the fear is not paralyzing then, nor does not cause one to run and hide nor turn back or strike out.
It has been point out that Dawkins is/seems afraid and strikes out, this is negative and will breed negativity, which is not good.
Nonsense. Not only is fear one of the most basic of human emotions, not only does your god not exist, but I am quite certain that you don’t actually behave the way you are claiming people should, because you’d be long dead. Your imaginary god won’t protect you from a real car.
Fearing things that it is rational to fear is a good thing, not a bad one.
I disagree with your entire line of thinking here, but I am not going to encourage you to test your theories, as telling you to play in traffic is against forum rules.
I will note that it’s entirely possible that God might wish people didn’t have self-preservative instincts. Not any God that I’d care for, certainly, but a God who is amused when people die through their own stupidity would certianly be consistent with the sort of behavior we see when people play The Sims.
Going further, I see religion personally as organized man made rules and rituals without spirituality (without contacting the supernatural), probably as ‘dangerous and destructive’ as Der Trihs sees them IMHO. There are also forms of spirituality (contact with supernatural) which are also ‘dangerous’ IMHO but that is another issue.
The difference is how to reach the other side, via fear - that just divides, or to show the Love of Jesus, if you are fearful you can not reach them with Love.
Love is no more automatically good than fear is automatically bad. The person who loves a serial killer and covers for him is doing harm; the person who scoops a wandering child out of traffic for fear of their life is doing good.
This idealization of love as something always good, as something other than just another emotion is dangerous.
Just consider great men of peace, how they overcame fear, they were able to reach people in a way that someone motivated by fear would have escalated the problem.