This is because the modernists, annoy, taunt, ridicule and degrade them. It is a reaction to the mishandling of religions by the intellectuals. I have attempted to explain that the European Renaissance and Enlightenment did not succeed by declaring that Jesus was an illegitimate child of Johan and Marry–a common Jewish belief. They never bothered about many religious factions which were fighting amongst themselves. RELIGIONS and IDEOLOGIES–such as Marxism, are self-destructive and they die when they are left alone without any INTELLECTUAL-OPPRESSION. The more an intellectual attempts to tear apart the fabric of a social system or a religion, the more its life is enhanced.
Mirza Ashraf
Secularism, atheism and open mindedness are derided by religious people.
Why can’t they tolerate similar criticism of religion?
Dr. Syed Ehtisham,
You put Secularism, Atheism and Open mindedness in one basket and they are derided by religious people, as stated by you.
Because of that continous and constant attack those three entities get intellectual empowerment, freshness, vastness and depth.
It is a personal choice whether one stays in freshness and freedom or the suffocation and false security of supernatural dogmas.
Your comment is brief but intense.
nSalik {Noor Salik}
Zabardast, Noor Salik Saheb. Very insightful observation about infusion of freshness, vastness and depth in Secularism, Atheism and open-mindedness.
If the religions tolerate criticism and accept change, then they are not religions. Only man made ideologies are subject to criticism and change. An atheist is a materialist, while a man of faith is spiritual. Spirituality, even in historic man, is intrinsic having evolved from emotions, while intellectualism evolved much later when brain became bigger and man became sufficiently Human. But there is still a yawning gap between man the spiritual and man the materialist.
It is science, and now 21st century of biotechnology and computer algorithms which are far more potent than the critical attacks of the atheists. I have always taken it this way that religion and science/technology first push one another, then depend on one another and thus, cannot stray too far away from one another; that is the main reason that in spite of great scientific progress, religions still exist. Science has never killed religion nor modern technology is killing it; rather it is helping all the faiths to resurface. MIRZA ASHRAF