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As an electronics engineer, I have to admit I am driven by data, empirical measurements and proof of evidence. I build a circuit, flip a switch and see the bulb light up. I think this drives me more towards an Atheist outlook as I personally see no evidence of any sort of divine being and plenty of evidence of evolution and the sheer randomness of life.
I was bought up a Christian and my interpretation of bible is, in my opinion, a blueprint of past learning and mistakes and a set of anecdotal instructions for how to live with your fellow man. As such I am OK with that.
What do you think, are engineers and science-based professions more likely to lead to an atheist outlook on things?
They should be more leaning to the Agnostic side, but even Einstein said it himself... And I paraphrase, "I'm agnostic but all the religious would call be Atheist" because he was technically atheist to their false imaginary God-ideas. Depends on how you define Atheist, most Atheists are sane enough to accept that the human brain (and any thinking thing that can be thought of logically) is Agnostic and the self-evident idea of Solipsism is inescapable, unless you lie to yourself.
Yes, it's a pretty open and shut case that concrete thinkers are less likely to be impressed by subjective, personal arguments for god-beliefs. That is not to say that concrete thinkers are superior, just less vulnerable to emotional appeals and other "background noise" in making decisions about these particular kinds of topics. Also, we tend to find hard data both comforting and necessary to make decisions, and lack of data tends to leave us uncommitted until the situation is remedied.
I used to be an evangelical Christian, mainly because I grew up that way, so how one is raised and socialized cannot be discounted, though. Particularly if you are a pleaser / conformist and are adverse to conflict, your upbringing can compensate, to a point, for an empirical bias. Whether one stays in the faith or not is then basically a function of how fortunate / lucky their life is, because when life does not conform to theistically generated expectations, it generates cognitive dissonance that is very painful for a concrete thinker to endure. That is what led me out of theism.
As an electronics engineer, I have to admit I am driven by data, empirical measurements and proof of evidence. I build a circuit, flip a switch and see the bulb light up. I think this drives me more towards an Atheist outlook as I personally see no evidence of any sort of divine being and plenty of evidence of evolution and the sheer randomness of life.
I was bought up a Christian and my interpretation of bible is, in my opinion, a blueprint of past learning and mistakes and a set of anecdotal instructions for how to live with your fellow man. As such I am OK with that.
What do you think, are engineers and science-based professions more likely to lead to an atheist outlook on things?
The answer is a resounding YES.
Engineers and scientists, as a group, are more educated than the general population, and the rate of atheism is positively correlated with education.
Aside from that, engineers and scientists are data driven. They reach conclusion based in verifiable, testable evidence. This runs contrary to belief based on faith, or 'just because'. So even among those with an equivalent amount of education, engineers and scientists demonstrate a higher degree of atheism than, say, historians and linguists, fields in which data is less stark and more open to interpretation.
It also happens that those who study sciences such as biology, chemistry, geology, and so forth, are more likely to find irreconcilable differences between reality and religious claims.
As an electronics engineer, I have to admit I am driven by data, empirical measurements and proof of evidence. I build a circuit, flip a switch and see the bulb light up. I think this drives me more towards an Atheist outlook as I personally see no evidence of any sort of divine being and plenty of evidence of evolution and the sheer randomness of life.
I was bought up a Christian and my interpretation of bible is, in my opinion, a blueprint of past learning and mistakes and a set of anecdotal instructions for how to live with your fellow man. As such I am OK with that.
What do you think, are engineers and science-based professions more likely to lead to an atheist outlook on things?
If the polls are anything to go by, scientists are far more likely to be skeptical of religion. Engineers seems to be a bit more likely to think a god made everything because they will tend to see it all as a huge machine.
Not necessarily. My housemate was a math/chemistry grad student, a member of Mensa and even the group above that; he is now retired from the "stem" sector, a former computer programmer and somebody whom you would think would possess a mind that needs cut/dried solid empirical evidence/proof of existence.
Yet he's a devout catholic and believes in Big Foot, aliens, and every other wacko urban legend/folklore that comes along. Just a few days ago he was explaining how some dishes he'd never seen before had "appeared" in the kitchen cabinet and that they were placed there by some kind of "apparition" that likes to play games. He gives tinfoil hat a new name and I wouldn't be at all surprised to walk into a room and see him wearing one, when a year ago I would have done a double take.
He watches that "Finding Sasquatch" show or whatever its called and every time I point out some obvious fakiness about something, he has an excuse. UGH! I give up, it's similar to arguing with the church crowd. Why is it up to the skeptics to provide the evidence, shouldn't it be the people making the outlandish claims?
There was a similar thread about this a few months back, asking if theists were more likely to believe in the supernatural, etc. YES X 1,000!! They should all be put into the padded room.
Edit: I had to add that last night he showed me "pictures" as evidence of ancient cities on Mars.
I wish someone would do a really good research study on this question. I'm intrigued that without looking for it, I stumbled across not one, but two dinosaur specialists who are fundamentalist Christians -- Robert Bakker, and the woman who discovered preserved soft tissues in a hell Creek T. rex bone fresh enough to get a DNA fingerprint out of them. (I couldn't quickly Google her name up, sorry.) Considering how many fundies believe the earth dates back only to the beginning of the Book of Genesis, well...
Garethe: There is a world of difference between having religion and being tinfoil hat! (Usually.)
I wish someone would do a really good research study on this question. I'm intrigued that without looking for it, I stumbled across not one, but two dinosaur specialists who are fundamentalist Christians -- Robert Bakker, and the woman who discovered preserved soft tissues in a hell Creek T. rex bone fresh enough to get a DNA fingerprint out of them. (I couldn't quickly Google her name up, sorry.) Considering how many fundies believe the earth dates back only to the beginning of the Book of Genesis, well...
Garethe: There is a world of difference between having religion and being tinfoil hat! (Usually.)
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