It's not benign to teach children to believe in superstition. You know gods and goddesses do not exist.
You just managed to offend a guy gratuitously. Plenty of people are able to be rational and yet hold religious beliefs. And all you do is to dismiss everything as superstition.
I, for one, can't say for sure that I "know that gods and goddesses don't exist". And you are trying to shove down your disbelief down my throat. Fundamentalist atheism is still fundamentalism. Please stop.
If you don't want to do any sports, it's fine. If you want to stop other people that fancy playing sports, then you just got yourself a sport.
Belief in gods and goddesses does not jive very well with Occam's razor or the complete lack of empirical evidence.
I can't say for sure that gods and goddesses don't exist, but I also can't say for sure that there isn't a giant invisible elephant following me around.
But if I claimed there was a giant invisible elephant following me, I'd likely be committed or medicated.
I don't intend to shove anything down your throat, but please...
Do not exist as physically-independent entities, yes. That means you define "existence" as in "this rock exists."
They might be quite real (and even somewhat powerful) as entities populating one's subconscious mind. That is the position adopted, by the way, by some buddhist schools. In that sense, the gods might "exist" very well.
The programs running on your computer "exist" on the same level as the subconscious gods anyway.
EDIT: Are you also saying that the subconscious does not exist?
It's pretty funny having this sort of conversations with compsci people. They tend to be pretty hardcore and either-black-or-white on issues that do not lend themselves to this sort of treatment at all.
I have no opinion on the subconscious -- in fact I don't really know what it is. It may refer to certain mental processes and then I'd say it exists, but in my opinion it is a very general term. I think that psychology is still too early to say for sure what does and does not exist.
If I had an irrational fear of 1000 legged toad and it affected my behavior it doesn't mean that it exists. Now of course we get into all sorts of epistemological problems that aren't solved about our knowledge of reality, etc...
Not benign in the "what could possibly go wrong" sense :)
It's not benign in the sense it makes children, who will, hopefully, become adults one day, believe in magical things. Prayer solves no problem and believing some mystical entity is to blame for bad things that happen removes responsibility from the people to correct and or prevent it.
No. It's simply bad.
If, someday, we find out gods and goddesses really exist, it will be (I hope) a nice surprise. In the meantime, it only makes sense to educate kids that humans are in charge.
There's a fine difference between respecting a person, and respecting a person's religious views.
Respect the racist's views, it makes them feel better -- who cares it if may cause them do evil.
Respect the scam artist's views, he feels that what he does is right.
etc..
Just because most people claim to believe in magic and fairy dust doesn't mean it's true, and if they are offended because you:
1. Don't believe in the same fairy dust they do 2. Point out errors and inconsistencies in their views 3. Behave in a way inconsistent with their views, that poses them no harm
Then maybe they aren't as firm in their beliefs as they thought.
Firstly parents teaching a child about their own religious views. Now I personally think that the correct way to do this is to present those views and allow the child to make a choice; but I don't think I can turn round and tell a parent instilling their views on a child that what they are doing is wrong. They are trying to teach the child things they believe to be correct and are doing so in good faith and with love. I am hopeful that our society now is modern enough to give the child their own choice later in life.
On the other hand we have people teaching religion to children generally. For example here in the UK primary schools are supposed to have so many hours "worship" each week. I find that kind of thing just sickeningly horrible (partly because I consider organised religions pretty evil (or non-benign) entities). Unfortunately it doesn't worry most parents (who may not have beliefs - but just shrug their shoulders at the "brainwashing" and say it's not having an effect). Removal of choice is something I despise.
With all that said this is not really a topic worthy of a forum like this. :)
Unless we find a way to hack religion to suit our purposes ;-)
Idea: Call it Grahamism, get pg and jgrahamc to chip in, expand, and profit.