Socialism + Atheism = Progress

[BolivarianHero]

Among the nations that possess either a Muslim plurality or a Muslim majority, only 6 have universal literacy. These six are Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Kyrgyzstan. All were part of the Soviet Union. Two nearby countries with Muslim majorities, Afghanistan and Pakistan, have had Islamic fundamentalists leaders and movements propped up by NATO, Saudi Arabia, and China as a means of limiting Soviet expansion. These countries are among the world's worst for literacy and for women's rights.

Cuba has the highest literacy rate in the Americas and Venezuela also has a literacy rate of over 90%; both nations are less wealthy than the US-backed Wahabi theocracy of Saudi Arabia...But guess what! Saudi Arabia has a lower female literacy rate than a lot of developing and underdeveloped countries.

[EFerrari]

1. Your argument doesn't show that atheism propels literacy

but that imperialism imposes illiteracy.

[IDFbunny]

3. The Soviets imposed illiteracy?

[lazarus]

2. disagree

I think you're confusing causation and correlation.

[The Second Stone]

4. Yet the OP demonstrates logical illiteracy

Telling other people what to think based on preconceived notions and unconnected correlations will quickly lead to tyranny. I prefer to think and believe for myself.

[ironbark]

5. IF.....Socialism + Atheism = Progress

Then I look forward to seeing the first socialist/atheist civilization.

Or if that's an excessive expectation perhaps the first enduring socialist/atheist commune.

[MineralMan]

6. That's some pretty faulty logic you've got going there.

Post hoc ergo propter hoc and all that.

[Silent3]

7. All sorts of -isms tend to be a bad thing when pushed too hard

When people tend toward doing things in certain ways, in keeping with some particular -ism, because those ways get good results, then you get progress. When you have strident ideologues forcing conformance to this -ism or that as the One True Way, things tend to get ugly very quickly.

The only thing I'm particularly adamant about is that certain personal freedoms, like freedom of expression, are strongly protected even against the will of the majority, and that democratic principles hold sway outside of protected person freedoms.

[laconicsax]

8. What about magnetism?

Sorry, couldn't resist.

[Silent3]

9. If the government made everyone carry around big powerful magnets...

...all of the time, everywhere they go, out of zealous promotion of magnetism, yeah, I could imagine many unfortunate consequences arising. :)

[charlie]

10. You've never heard of Godless Magnetists?

A new study has found magnetic fields can be used to confuse a region in the brain that controls a person's sense of morality.

Using a powerful magnetic field, scientists are able to scramble the moral centre of the brain, making it more difficult for people to separate innocent intentions from harmful outcomes.

The research, which appears this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could have big implications for not only neuroscientists, but also for judges and juries...

http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2010/03/30/2859767.htm