Quote:
Originally Posted by Visvaldis
Religious people are not known for substance.
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This is a remarkably uninformed comment.
Just within the Catholic Tradition, they have dozens, if not hundreds of fine universities they founded in America and Europe. There are literally thousands of religious intellectuals in that tradition alone.
Pondering the essence of our meaning and purpose on earth seems to me to be the very essence of
substance.
The challenging thing with religion is the intolerance it often breeds in the faithful, but those who truly explore the critical questions have been at the intellectual vangard of western and eastern traditions for millenia. And most of us with religious and scientific training see that they sharpen different parts of the mind and spirit (or if you prefer, character).
The fundamentalist versions of the JudeoChristianIslam triad seem to be the most inclined towards attitudes of dominance and intolerance, but most eastern traditions and quite a few western (Quaker, Unitarian, etc.) are much more open to incorporating ideas from science and other traditions. Not all religious people follow the anti-intellectual strains.
I do suspect that many hardcore conservatives are also fundamentalist evangelicals. I am not impressed with their intellectual contributions from where I sit (Bob Jones U. and Liberty University,etc.,etc.), I would be gladly corrected, but I just don't see much contribution other than to say other people are stupid and evil (Rick Warren might be an exception),and I don't know how much fo the anti-intellectualness is religion or the stubborn contrariness of rural southern culture. The northern tier of states have always dominated the intellectual output of the country, and still do.
Catholic Intellectuals:
Orestes Brownson (1803–1876), New England public-spirited intellectual. He wrote: “Catholics are better fitted by their religion to comprehend the real character of the American constitution than any other class of Americans.”
John Courtney Murray (1904-1967), New York Jesuit theologian. He wrote: “America has raised the standard of living to historically unknown heights. …We have multiplied our needs endlessly and thereby multiplied our sorrows."
John Senior (1923-1999). Columbia University student of Mark Van Doren whose University of Kansas great books program “made converts without proselytizing.” Kansas' state motto “To the stars, through difficulty” inspired him.
Avery Dulles (1918-2008), convert Jesuit theologian and cardinal, son of John Foster Dulles. Warning against “excessive and indiscreet accommodation," he said, "Catholicism will be well-advised to cultivate a measured, prudent counterculturalism.”
James Schall (1928-) Prolific Jesuit political philosopher. Schall wrote: “No one will seek the highest [things] if he believes that there is no truth, that nothing is his fault, and that government will guarantee his wants.”
Ralph McInerny (1929-2010) a philosophy professor, novelist, poet and translator of Aquinas. Said McInerny: “It is the writing, producing a well-made story, that counts. All the rest is gravy.”
Richard John Neuhaus (1936-2009) Canadian-Texan public-spirited intellectual. “Once religion is reduced to nothing more than privatized conscience, the public square has only two actors in it — the state and the individual,” Neuhaus wrote
Mary Ann Glendon (1938-) Harvard law professor, former Vatican ambassador. She wrote: “All who are ... committed to the advancement of women can and must offer a woman or a girl who is pregnant, frightened, and alone a better alternative than the destruction of her own unborn child."
George Weigel (1951-) papal biographer, public-spirited intellectual. He wrote: “Ideas are not intellectuals' toys: ideas have consequences, for good and for ill, in what even intellectuals sometimes call ‘the real world.’”
Robert P. George (1955-) Princeton jurisprudence professor. He wrote: “The impulse to redefine marriage in order to recognize same-sex and multiple partner relationships is a symptom, rather than the cause, of the erosion of the marriage culture.”
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I am an Atheist who believes in plenty of things... I also believe that just because our emotions are cause by chemical reactions doesn't necessarily make them any less important. As for Atheists not having any soul...well, that's a completely different debate since we don't know if there are souls in the first place. 
