Concerned About Atheisim

[psychoslice]

I see what you are saying, and I will try not to confuse this with arrogance and dogma, thanks for pointing that out to me.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mn4I-f34cTI

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I thought this one was cool.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGK84Poeynk

[Ryantology]

I don't think there is an atheist 'dogma'. Even the 'militant' among us (and do I ever hate that term; it is the religious who spread the virus of faith through fear, persecution and death, not us) have a message which pretty much boils down to "drop these childish and pointless fantasies. Live in the real world. Have faith in things only when the evidence suggests that they are likely to be true, and keep your standards of evidence high. Enjoy your life. Don't fear the fictional omniscient tyrant, and try to do right by yourself and others not to mollify that fictional tyrant but because of the benefits of doing good."

[Alex K]

I don't think there is an atheist 'dogma'. Even the 'militant' among us (and do I ever hate that term; it is the religious who spread the virus of faith through fear, persecution and death, not us) have a message which pretty much boils down to "drop these childish and pointless fantasies. Live in the real world. Have faith in things only when the evidence suggests that they are likely to be true, and keep your standards of evidence high. Enjoy your life. Don't fear the fictional omniscient tyrant, and try to do right by yourself and others not to mollify that fictional tyrant but because of the benefits of doing good."

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I see what you are saying, and I will try not to confuse this with arrogance and dogma

That's an important insight, but... you are justified to remain a bit wary. Whenever big egos and dynasty-like schools of thought are involved, scientific ideals can be compromised. Usually though there is so much competition in the field that someone who publishes biased or controversial stuff gets taken down pretty quickly and mercilessly. What we ideally have to do is make the scientific method our own, such that in light of what you perceive as dogmatism, you don't have to say "science is dogmatic", but instead can be more nuanced and say "I thing ur doing science rong, and here's why". It's hard if you're not an expert, right? But I believe you can get an idea by listening to the different sides of a scientific debate (scientific, not science vs. bollocks) and try to weigh their arguments and counter-arguments. I have to rely on this for pretty much everything but my own field, and I believe it can be done.

The typical example where the difficulty of this becomes obvious is when a biologist proclaims she doesn't believe in evolution and gets denied a position, and we all know it's because of this. Is this dogmatism at work? Are opposing views silenced dogmatically in this case?

[Mister Agenda]

Nothing can turn either atheism or theism into religions. They are differing opinions on a single topic. They can be a feature of a religion, but not a religion in themselves or even the primary basis for one. There's no atheist world view for the same reason that there is no theist world view: everyone has a world view, but their atheism or theism isn't it.

[heathendegenerate]

free thinking sounds a lot like, "The devil buried dem' bones der' to test our faith in LORD JEBUS, HE'YUCK!".. you aren't secretly a christian with some hidden agenda, are you?

[Neo-Scholastic]

@OP. I see no conflict in calling myself both a free thinker and a Christian.

[Alex K]

@OP. I see no conflict in calling myself both a free thinker and a Christian.

Quite the opposite, eh? If you were forced a priori by your mode of thought to not call yourself a Christian, you would not be a free thinker.

Of course, some will argue that when you do freethought properly, the probability of ending up Christian is so small that you are probably doing it wrong

[heathendegenerate]

@OP. I see no conflict in calling myself both a free thinker and a Christian.

It just makes you a giant hypocrite like the rest of the anatomy of jebus..

[Neo-Scholastic]

As a former atheist I confidently say that I came to faith primarily by rational reflection. The fact that you think this impossible means that you are not thinking freely but are a slave to your antireligious bigotry.

[Alex K]

As a former atheist I confidently say that I came to faith primarily by rational reflection. The fact that you think this impossible means that you are not thinking freely but are a slave to your antireligious bigotry.

Oh burn