I am not aware of any study that shows the slightest correlation between being religious and being ignorant.
You are now:
Religious people are less intelligent than atheists, according to analysis of scores of scientific studies stretching back over decades - Science - News - The Independent
Conflating the two carries the risk of being offensive.
If being a little offensive is what it takes to advance humanity to science and reason and to phase out fear, ignorance and superstition, I'm willing to take the risk.
Ignorance is what we need to work on, not religion.
If we were successful in tackling ignorance, what would be left of religion as we know it today?
We have far more chance of educating people out of ignorance if we respect their religion and leave it alone, rather than fighting it head on. People treasure their beliefs, it is part of their identity and attacking something so personal is counterproductive, inefficient and wrong. It is invalidating and disrespectful, it leads to conflict rather than education.
No need to be afraid of conflict if it's worth conflicting over. Also I am fully aware of how important religion is to personal identity and I specifically mentioned that in a previous post in that thread. Ironically, I have had to explain numerous times to Conservative Christians who insist that "Islam has to go". I basically explain, Islam is enormously important to the average Muslim, even non-fundamentalists Muslims. Islam itself means "submission to God". The Prophet Mohammed is basically like a member of the family, so when he is insulted, they feel personally insulted as well. Now that does not mean we should stop insulting the Prophet Mohammed, or stop criticizing religion. What I'm saying is that it's going to be really, really hard to move Muslims away from Islam (although not impossible, I personally know an ex-Muslim). It's going to be just as hard to move Christians away from Christianity (although I've done it myself, I'm an ex-Christian).
My argument is that it's -worth- doing. Religion may be important to someone's cultural and personal identity, but it's not worth holding back science and it's not worth throwing the world into a chaos of inter-sectarian religious violence (which is already a reality to a small extent, but I feel it could get a lot, lot worse).
Some religious people do try to impose their beliefs on others, but in my experience they are a minority. Many religious people are tolerant, some are not. Broad brushing them all as intolerant and pushy is simply inappropriate and incorrect. Some non-religious people are quite pushy with their views. Again, no correlation between being religious and being pushy and disrespectful.
I've made the point that I've met plenty of really great Christians and plenty of not-so-great Atheists in a previous post. However religious beliefs -do- influence behavior, religious people will tell you that themselves.
Ignorance is scary and difficult to bear. When I encounter it, I remind myself that I am the ignorant one in front of people who are ahead of me, and the ones ahead of me are treating me far better than the way I treat the ones behind me.
It's good to recognize one's ignorance and I recognize my own - I am ignorant in a lot of things. I'm glad to hear you are keeping up the fight vs. ignorance. But again, how is religion helpful towards that goal? How often has religion championed against ignorance? :tongue: