Atheism and Secularism are the future

[Saint Frankenstein]

Atheism is inevitable. Belief in gods will evaporate in the light of the information age. Just like the elephants graveyard, god went to the internet to die.

Or not.

 

[Revoltingest]

Islam's is at the moment because they have lots of kids and everyone else isn't.

Atheism in the West is basically a reaction to the more immature forms of religiosity that tend to inform most people's perceptions of religion. There's a lot of ignorance about religion in the West and a big focus on materialism in both the philosophical sense and the consumerist sense.

Are you having lots of kids who will hold to atheism? No. Europe's below replacement levels and immigrants are the ones having most of the kids in both Europe and in America. These people who are having lots of kids aren't atheists. A vacuum will always be filled.

Wherever atheism is legal, our ranks fill with converts.
Islam & Catholicism are prolific sources, btw.
But many many of us never believed in the first place, so we eschew
both immature & mature (whatever those terms mean) religions.
They claim truth, but it's really just someone's opinion.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Wherever atheism is legal, our ranks fill with converts.
Islam & Catholicism are prolific sources, btw.
But many many of us never believed in the first place, so we eschew
both immature & mature (whatever those terms mean) religions.
They claim truth, but it's really just someone's opinion.

That's nice, but it doesn't really have anything to do with what I said.

 

[Revoltingest]

Atheism is inevitable. Belief in gods will evaporate in the light of the information age. Just like the elephants graveyard, god went to the internet to die.

I don't think so. Information alone doesn't cure religion.
Add skeptical thought, subtract a need for the supernatural,
& put it in a pan (pre-greased) with liberty of thought &
expression, & you'll have a nice batch of atheists/agnostics.

 

[Revoltingest]

That's nice, but it doesn't really have anything to do with what I said.

Oh, it but it does!
I debunked your claim that we don't breed enuf atheists.

 

[Riverwolf]

Atheism is inevitable. Belief in gods will evaporate in the light of the information age. Just like the elephants graveyard, god went to the internet to die.

Hardly.

Rather, Old Gods found new Life, and New Gods were born.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I don't think so. Information alone doesn't cure religion.
Add skeptical thought, subtract a need for the supernatural,
& put it in a pan (pre-greased) with liberty of thought &
expression, & you'll have a nice batch of atheists/agnostics.

I'm skeptical of the so-called "skeptics". I'm seeing the some old tired of stereotyping of religious people as gullible morons in this thread.

 

[Bunyip]

I don't think so. Information alone doesn't cure religion.
Add skeptical thought, subtract a need for the supernatural,
& put it in a pan (pre-greased) with liberty of thought &
expression, & you'll have a nice batch of atheists/agnostics.

Well the data indicates that some 70% of US evangelist Christians lose their faith in the first year of college - so I would think that the correlation is clear.

20 years ago in creation /evilution debates the tactic was to perform a Gish Gallop - ie to come up with claim after unsubstantiated claim, however in modern times the atheist can fact check and destroy those claims faster than Gish could have Galloped through them.

 

[Revoltingest]

I'm skeptical of the so-called "skeptics". I'm seeing the some old tired of stereotyping of religious people as gullible morons in this thread.

Who said all skeptics were smart or socially advanced?
We not all geenyusses, psientists or kommershial landlords.
We's just peeple, with all da saym fallts as other hyumans.

 

[Bunyip]

I'm skeptical of the so-called "skeptics". I'm seeing the some old tired of stereotyping of religious people as gullible morons in this thread.

I don't think that religious people are gullible morons at all, they just have a blind spot that is immune to their normal skepticism and logic.

 

[Bunyip]

Hardly.

Rather, Old Gods found new Life, and New Gods were born.

Example?

 

[Revoltingest]

Well the data indicates that some 70% of US evangelist Christians lose their faith in the first year of college - so I would think that the correlation is clear.
20 years ago in creation /evilution debates the tactic was to perform a Gish Gallop - ie to come up with claim after unsubstantiated claim, however in modern times the atheist can fact check and destroy those claims faster than Gish could have Galloped through them.

I don't deny the relationship between atheism & education.
But it's not deterministic, nor is it the whole picture.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I don't think that religious people are gullible morons at all, they just have a blind spot that is immune to their normal skepticism and logic.

^That is the sort of the insulting crap I'm talking about. If the future belongs to people who parrot nonsense like that, I'm going to live on a deserted island away from it all.

 

[Bunyip]

I don't deny the relationship between atheism & education.
But it's not deterministic, nor is it the whole picture.

Sure. I agree.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Oh, it but it does!
I debunked your claim that we don't breed enuf atheists.

Like I said, it's a Western thing. Religion is growing in other areas of the world.

 

[Revoltingest]

^That is the sort of the insulting crap I'm talking about. If the future belongs to people who parrot nonsense like that, I'm going to live on a deserted island away from it all.

Some atheists & some believers like to say things that others find insulting.
That's just how it goes. If you get used to it, & you needn't move away!

 

[Revoltingest]

Like I said, it's a Western thing. Religion is growing in other areas of the world.

And we atheists arise among them.
It just isn't well known where it's prohibited.
Guys I know who move here from Muslim countries find it much easier to be an
out-in-the-open atheist. This tells me that there are more where they came from.

 

[Bunyip]

^That is the sort of the insulting crap I'm talking about. If the future belongs to people who parrot nonsense like that, I'm going to live on a deserted island away from it all.

Then you take offence too easily.

This thread is about atheism and secularism, you must expect atheists to contribute.

You said that people treat believers as gullible morons - I simply disagreed and said that for me (and for many other atheists) I do not see believers as gullible morons, but as having a blind spot to one particular part of their worldview that is immune to logic and skepticism.

That is no insult, how else do you imagine that non-believers can interpret faith?

 

[Revoltingest]

Then you take offence too easily.

This thread is about atheism and secularism, you must expect atheists to contribute.

You said that people treat believers as gullible morons - I simply disagreed and said that for me (and for many other atheists) I do not see believers as gullible morons, but as having a blind spot to one particular part of their worldview that is immune to logic and skepticism.

That is no insult, how else do you imagine that non-believers can interpret faith?

And believers have their opinions about atheists which could be seen as offensive:
- We're spiritually blind.
- We hate God.
- We're rebelling against a particular religion.
- It's the latest fashion.

I've been around a while. I can't take offense at such opinions.
They reflect on the one opining, not upon me.

 

[LuisDantas]

Like I said, it's a Western thing. Religion is growing in other areas of the world.

It is likely to grow again here as well, once this silly taboo against atheism is lifted.