This question comes to me from a person who is quizzing me about the origin of my atheism. Their previous question to me was, 'So why are you an atheist?' to which I replied, 'You can explain how we got here and what happens here without evoking a God, and I haven't seen any good evidence to support the claims of any of the revealed religions.'
The reason that I burst out laughing at this person's follow up question is that they had just finished arguing with me that 'evidentialism' was a terrible worldview, and--in essence--all worldviews are faith based.
Yet it is possible that my atheism is the bi-product of having learned 'the wrong view of god'.
Signs and wonders.
One could argue that being a devout atheist and being a devout believer require the exact same amount of faith.
ReplyDeleteThats why I switched to being a non-practicing agnostic.
I've heard that, but I'm not sure it's true. I'm not declaring that there is no God, I'm just saying there's no evidence. To me, God is like humanoid extra-terrestrials: an interesting idea, but I'm not holding my breath.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the revealed religions, I'm pretty confident in saying that the supernatural claims they make are not true, and that the moral conclusions they come to are...at best...not always 'best practices'.
But I appreciate your religious orientation, and definitely think you should consider taking it door-to-door.
Like that Jesus pic. Top notch.
ReplyDeleteI found a couple of good quotes that express how I feel better then I could ever do.
ReplyDeleteCarl Sagan "You can't convince a believer of anything; for their belief is not based on evidence, it's based on a deep-seated need to believe."
Aldous Huxley "Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
unknown "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish."
Marie "Man created God in his image : intolerant, sexist, homophobic and violent."
Faith... must be enforced by reason.... When faith becomes blind it dies. ~Mahatma Gandhi
ReplyDeleteReligion
ReplyDeleteStudy: The Least Religious People Know the Most About Religion...and Other ThingsBy Jen Doll, Tue., Sep. 28 2010 @ 5:23PM Categories: Catholic Church, Jen Doll, Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics, Religion
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A new Pew Forum study about religion informs us that many of us actually don't know what we're talking about in that arena, including many of us who actually purport to be religious. A range of religious and general questions were given to atheists/agnostics, Jews, Protestants, Catholics, and Mormons. Americans in general averaged 16 of the 32 religious questions correct, with atheists/agnostics getting the most right, at 20.9. Jews and Mormons got 20.5 and 20.3; Protestants 16; and Catholics 14.7.
The thing is, not knowing about religion is one thing. But not knowing the basic tenets of the religion you choose to practice (and perhaps even push on others) is something else. Does that, in fact, count as hypocrisy?
According to Pew, nearly 60 percent of Americans say religion is very important in their lives, and 40 percent say they go to church at least once a week. To sleep?
The study also asked a range of "general knowledge questions" that revealed the following:
About six-in-ten Americans can name the vice president of the United States (59%) and understand that lasers do not work by focusing sound waves (60%). More than seven-in-ten (72%) correctly associate Susan B. Anthony with the movement to give women the right to vote, while just 42% know that Herman Melville was the author of the novel Moby Dick.
As it turns out, education was education, and smarts were smarts, religiously or otherwise. People who did well in the general knowledge arena generally also did well with the religious questions, with atheists/agnostics and Jews answering an average of seven of the nine questions correctly, college grads getting nearly 8 more questions right than those who did not graduate college, and the general public holding the rest of us back with just 5.2 right.
See also: "Intelligent people 'less likely to believe in God'" -- unless, of course, he's watching. Hey there, big guy