Posted on 03/05/2010 10:26:58 AM PST by SeekAndFind
IF YOU'RE one of those committed atheists in the Richard Dawkins mould who dreams of ridding the world of religious mumbo-jumbo, prepare yourself for a disappointment: there is no good evidence that education leads to secularisation.
In fact, the more we learn about the "god instinct" and the refusal of religion to fade away under the onslaught of progress, the more the non-religious mindset looks like the odd man out. That is why anthropologists, psychologists and social scientists are now putting irreligion under the microscope in the same way they once did with religious belief (see "Where do atheists come from?").
The aim is not to discredit atheism but to understand how so many people can override a way of thinking that seems to come so naturally. For that reason, atheists should welcome the new scrutiny.
Atheism still has a great deal to commend it, not least that it doesn't need supernatural beings to make sense of the world. Let's hope the study of atheism leads to new insights into how to challenge such irrationality.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
I posit that humankind is becoming less intelligent with the education of today, not more. I further posit, that the intelligence of people in the U.S. from it’s founding up through the 1800’s and into the early 1900’s was head and shoulders above what we see today.
Atheism is dependent on an unsupported belief: "There are no gods".
This cannot be known with surety. To believe it, requires an act of faith. The position cannot be proven, because to do so would be to prove a negative, and that cannot be done.
Religion depends on an act of faith. Believers know this and accept this.
Atheism depends on an act of faith. Believers usually cannot accept this and delude themselves into thinking that their worldview is based on logic. In fact, quite the opposite is true.
My priest always says about atheists..if they’re so convinced that there’s NO God, then why do they worry so much when others pray?
Any dogma that insists that something does not exist is scientifically suspect.
Good point.
I believe we are in an interesting pandemic of what I like to call “arrogant ignorance”.
Too many people today don’t know what they don’t know. And are too arrogant to know it.
“Atheism is dependent on an unsupported belief: “There are no gods”.
This cannot be known with surety”
One cannot be sure of of Russell’s teapot or the Flying Spaghetti Monster either.
Not only that, but they are pompous about their arrogance.
I’ve never met a real atheist. Face to face, on further questioning, they all have eventually admitted they are more agnostic than atheist.
But evangelical atheists are on a mission to stamp out Christianity. It would appear that, as a Christian, I'm a bit more enlightened than the religious fanatics who obsess on the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Agreed.
If you consider that a biological definition of intelligence must include the proliferation of one's genetic material (e.g., reproduction), the Western world has become decidedly less intelligent over the past century.
How ironic.
Mankind is getting more and more EDUCATED but less INTELLIGENT !!
That is a very astute observation, my FRiend!
One of the most dynamic illustrations of this principle can be seen in the Fictional Culture of Star Trek's Planet Vulcan.
The Culture there is steeped in hubris over its conquest of Emotion and Superstition through the application of "LOGIC."
Yet, upon examination, the Culture, Morals, Customs, and Beliefs, and practices of Vulcan Society are more Spiritually Rigid, Avuncular, and Superstitious than the most primitive tribes of headhunters!
It must have something to do with that "mating once every seven years" thingy. LOL.
If you get deep enough into physics, string theory and all, you’ll find that there is no other explanation for all matter but that it is due to the existence of a divine being.
My experience anyway.
If they are REALLY convinced there is no God, then others praying should not bother them in the least.
No. I think the DO believe in God, and are anrgy at Him for some reason of their own.
Well, I was addressing a philosophical rather than political issue. But I with you there. I don’t like people of any stripe who are strident and imposing in regards to their religious beliefs (or non-beliefs).
“I’ve never met a real atheist. Face to face, on further questioning, they all have eventually admitted they are more agnostic than atheist.”
I suspect that some sociopaths may be true atheists.
Agreed.
Reading the letters home from soldiers during The War Between the States attests to that!
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