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Holy books and now movies, videos, tapes, CDs and other recordings are a powerful way to keep a religion alive and spreading. I used the example previously of how they can be sent forth like small pox infected blankets were sent into the Native American wilderness to do their evil without human contact. This is perhaps a bit unfair, not in terms of the parallel in consequences, which is clear, but because of the intent. Most religious people do not actually wish to destroy others, and are just ignorant of the immorality and danger of their faiths.
In any case, recording religious stories and rules is a great strategy. It provides an "ultimate authority," as in the case of the sacred books of most religions. It carries the ideas forward without much danger of corruption, especially if those words are considered sacred. It introduces new converts to the faith, without the necessity of an existing member with good preaching skills.
How can we counter this, and prevent the danger that spreads with these immoral ideas? Here are a few ideas on that
I support people's right to say what they want, write what they want and read what they want, so I can't support outlawing any books. Short of that, then, how do we reduce the numbers of these hateful books? We could complain about the Bibles found in hotels and motels in The United States, asking that they be removed them or our own books on atheism allowed to be there as well. If enough of us did this, many hotels and motels might want to just be done with the issue, and have no books at all. It is a small start, but better than nothing.
As mentioned previously, we can also fight for fairness in taxation. The freedom from property taxes enjoyed by churches enables them to use that money saved for producing more hateful literature. We do not get a tax exemption for preaching our ideas. It seems only fair that they shouldn't either.
Another approach here is to print our own versions of the existing holy books. In these versions there could be notes by each passage reporting on real atrocities which were justified by it. While it is true that there are many ways to interpret some writings, there is no mistaking the meaning of a line like, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live," nor is there any question as to the historical results of that belief.
Continues here... Social Conformity