সমালোচনায় অনভ্যস্ত ধর্ম

সম্প্রতি মিডিয়া ধর্ম প্রসঙ্গে পক্ষপাতিত্বমূলক আচরণ করছে বলে ধর্মীয় নেতারা অভিযোগ করছেন। এ ব্যাপারে আমেরিকার দার্শনিক ড্যানিয়েল ডেনেট যা বলেছেন নিউজউইককে, তার চুম্বক-অংশ উদ্ধৃত করছি। পুরোটা এখানে পড়ুন।

There is no media bias against Christianity. If it appears to some people that there is, it is probably because after decades of hyper-diplomacy and a generally accepted mutual understanding that religion was not to be criticized, we have finally begun breaking through that taboo and are beginning to see candid discussions of the varieties of religious folly in American life.

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I look forward to the day when violence done under the influence of religious passion is considered more dishonorable, more shameful, than crimes of avarice, and is punished accordingly, and religious leaders who incite such acts are regarded with the same contempt that we reserve for bartenders who send dangerously disabled people out onto the highways. 

I also look forward to the day when pastors who abuse the authority of their pulpits by misinforming their congregations about science, about public health, about global warming, about evolution must answer to the charge of dishonesty. Telling pious lies to trusting children is a form of abuse, plain and simple. If quacks and bunko artists can be convicted of fraud for selling worthless cures, why not clergy for making their living off unsupported claims of miracle cures and the efficacy of prayer?

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Religious leaders and apologists should accept that since their institutions are so influential in American life, we have the right to hold their every move up to the light. If they detect that the media are giving them a harder time today than in the past, that is because the bias that protected religion from scrutiny is beginning to dissolve. High time.