Dawkins’ Religious Error

@RichardDawkins wrote: There there, I do understand, taking away your guns is like taking away your Comfort Blanky. You’ll feel bereaved. Tell you what, though. We know how to deal with bereavement. We’ll send you our thoughts and prayers. Then you’ll feel better.

@dullhawk (Kent McManigal) wrote: Actually, it’s like taking away your house. It’s theft. No one can have a right to take away what’s yours- especially if YOU, personally, haven’t used it to harm any individual (thus you owe no restitution).
I agree that “thoughts and prayers” are useless.

And I’ll go further than that, since I was severely limited by Twitter’s character count. Here’s the link to the tweet, in case you’re interested.

Taking away someone’s “Comfort Blanky” is also something you have no right to do. For the same reason you have no right to take someone’s gun, house, car, money, or any other property. You have no right to violate the property rights of others. Period. It’s a right that can’t exist. Not seeing this is a blind spot caused by religious belief.

I’m sorry if you are offended that I said “thoughts and prayers” are useless. I know that’s not quite true– at the minimum they make people feel better when there’s nothing real they can do about a bad situation. And, they can let a hurting person know (if they are informed about them) that someone cares and wishes they could help. I’m unconvinced about any usefulness beyond that, but would love to be proved wrong, but I needed some common ground with Dawkins here.

I know Dawkins is famous for his atheism, but you and I know he isn’t an atheist because he still believes in The State due to his superstitious belief in “authority”. You can’t be an atheist, by definition, if you believe in any gods whatsoever and believe in any religion. Statism is not only a religion, it’s the most popular religion on the planet by a wide margin.

I already see people agreeing with Dawkins because they don’t understand rights in the slightest, and one guy even believes someone once took away my “right” to own slaves- a right that can’t exist any more than a right to steal can exist. People are dumb. I am an abolitionist. I know slavery is always wrong, no matter how you dress it up. It is a violation of life, liberty, and property. Anti-liberty bigots (and theft advocates) are the ethical equivalent to slavers. No, that’s not quite right. Statists ARE slavers.

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