Lived in the UK from 1956 till 1966. Besides being employed in various engineering jobs, studied there for Higher National Certificate in Mechanical Engineering at Slough College (Bucks). Returned to the Netherlands afterwards. After retirement, while discussing popular scientific knowledge such as Big Bang theory, astronomy and evolution as a matter of interest with a close relative - whom I'd always held te be my intellectual superior - I became appalled by his gullibility in still believing the Biblical myth instilled in us during our early years in a Christian Primary School. If religion (which I had always considered of no importance in adult years) could have such lasting impact on an otherwise intelligent mind, the subject was yet worth further investigation. The world wide web proved a fertile ground for this undertaking. On it, I found many very interesting articles by great atheistic thinkers who were even more concerned about the fatal consequences of religion, than I already was. So I decided these were indeed "ideas worth spreading", and concluded that one way of doing so was to translate these articles in Dutch - to make them better accessible to all of my countrymen and -women - and publish the result on the internet, see www.positief-atheisme.nl Besides thus being prevented from loitering about on the streets in my old age, harassing old ladies, getting drunk and and insulting policemen, I was rewarded with many new and interesting digital contacts with people who were equally concerned about the effects on humanity by this relic from a barbaric past.
Atheism, and all the possible ill effects of religion on humanity.
One type of state-controlled primary education for all children, barring all religiously inspired schools, to protect them from religious indoctrination at an early and impressionable age. Children ought not to be taught a double morality. On the one hand they are rightly taught by parents and others not to hurt other people, while at the other hand religion teaches them to stand in awe for a genocidal psychopath (the Christian God) who once murdered the complete world-population apart from one family (according to the Scriptures), to name just one of this figment of the imagination's many murderous activities. To top it all, they are then told to love this figure, because he loves us! And to prevent them from thinking for themselves (and children can have a very strong sense of justice) they are also told that "whatever the Lord does, is done justly". The state is under obligation to protect all children from such barbaric hypocrisy, because it can affect their mental health for life.
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