Athiest/Agnostics please answer this ? (believing, Jesus, divine, witness)
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Regardless of what sect or what belief, the fact of the matter is it has been around for a long long time. What I am saying is, is that the billions of people, not just christians but all other forms of religion as well, were and are just mindless and delusional? You can't say that every believer is just an idiot, because I am sure there were and are some very intelligent believers ( I am not including myself in that group ).
It's true that religious ideas that share certain common elements have been around a very long time but that in itself doesn't demonstate that there must be some truth to it. It just demonstrates something about the nature of human beings and in particular how we are able to use our very powerful imaginations to fill in the blanks about things we don't know by the creation of mythology. I don't mean to suggest that believers are less intelligent than atheists, that would be an arrogant statement. I do think however that very few religious people can actually tell you in great detail what they actually believe and why they believe it. Religion is deeply embedded in our culture and most of the cultures that have ever existed so there is a strong influence to accept the beliefs of your culture and most people do. Millions of people believe things that are clearly not true such as astrology so the statement that because so many people share a belief it must be true really doesn't have any foundation.
Oh my. Mike, you are absolutely justified in wondering why belief in a higher something or other has endured for so long. And I'm speaking as a dedicated atheist. One of the many ways to address this is by looking at neuroscience. There seems to be some evidence that our brains are wired to experience states of being that we have come to call religious. Indeed, many of the religious mystics are thought to have had temporal lobe abnormalities. If the brain did evolve in such a way as to favor those who explained the mysteries of nature and death via god beliefs, then it begs the Darwinian question of why this was a trait that was selected as an advantage to the species.
This is just another way of looking at your question and not even, in my opinion the most compelling approach; however I don't think that anyone else here has cited this.
If indeed we did evolve to explain the unexplainable via this 'god center' in the brain, I think it's high time that we lose this trait.
Now fog, obviously you are much smarter than I am. I am not a neuroscientist, you need to dumb it down for me just a little bit. So you are saying that scientists have found a abnormality in people that believe in religion? If so, and if I remember right that it is in like the 90th percentile of people on this planet believe in some sort of religion that over 90% of the earths population has this brain abnormality? And it stems from believing in a higher being?
Now fog, obviously you are much smarter than I am. I am not a neuroscientist, you need to dumb it down for me just a little bit. So you are saying that scientists have found a abnormality in people that believe in religion? If so, and if I remember right that it is in like the 90th percentile of people on this planet believe in some sort of religion that over 90% of the earths population has this brain abnormality? And it stems from believing in a higher being?
Well, somebody has to be in the top tenth percentile.
Well, despite being an evil, condemned-to-hell atheist who shouldn't even be able to get out of bed in the morning because I should be so abjectly depressed that I don't believe in god, I do pretty well at being a happy, funny person.
Well, despite being an evil, condemned-to-hell atheist who shouldn't even be able to get out of bed in the morning because I should be so abjectly depressed that I don't believe in god, I do pretty well at being a happy, funny person.
I second all of that. Same situation. I'll see you in hell Red. Bring a disco ball or something. I have tons of CD's from pretty much every music genre, lol.
Well, despite being an evil, condemned-to-hell atheist who shouldn't even be able to get out of bed in the morning because I should be so abjectly depressed that I don't believe in god, I do pretty well at being a happy, funny person.
Well it is good to know that you have such high self-esteem.
Well it is good to know that you have such high self-esteem.
Oh come now Mike...you don't strike me as being particularly stupid. Those are only a very few of the things I've been called by good upstanding religious types if/when they found out that I am an atheist.
I've have people say straight to my face "How can you bear to get out of bed and look at yourself in the morning, if you don't believe in god? Why don't you just kill yourself?"
Thing is, I'd never say that to someone who believes in god, though I think believing in a deity is a pretty depressing thing all around. I wouldn't even think of saying such a thing because of my philosophy of life. So why is it acceptable and even encouraged in some ways for theists to belittle me for what I think?
All I want is to be happy and upbeat and to make the best of this very short life that I have. I don't care what someone else's philosophies are as long as they don't try to change mine, because it doesn't matter.
I love life. I'm a really cool person. I'm good to other people, and I've raised two great kids. Why shouldn't I have high self-esteem?
I've have people say straight to my face "How can you bear to get out of bed and look at yourself in the morning, if you don't believe in god? Why don't you just kill yourself?"
Now that might be the stupidest thing I've heard in my life. And I've listened to Ray Nagin's speeches for crying out loud.
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