Hi everyone. I'm a Roman Catholic interested in atheism and atheists. Lately I've listened to some Sam Harris on YouTube and I like the man, though I don't entirely agree with him, obviously. I'm looking for a forum that discusses what people actually believe in though, not just deconstructing other people's beliefs, which is what I've found at most secular/atheist discussion forums.

One thing I noticed that I wanted to ask about: Why are there twice as many threads in the "Religion" section of these forums, compared with the "Atheism" section?

The title of this post is a reference to the book by G.K. Chesterton, which is one of the best stories showing the value of friendship between believers and freethinkers.

Welcome! Don’t be afraid to dive right in and create a thread. We don’t bite...usually. 😁

IMHO, we have more threads in the religion section than in the atheism section because, being primarily atheists here, we get fairly bored talking about it. A lot of us enjoy a good theological debate. Without taking a glance at the authors, it could also be because we get a lot of drive-by theists who create threads in the religion section and then never comeback to participate in the discussion.

(September 15, 2019 at 12:29 pm)Inqwizitor Wrote: Hi everyone. I'm a Roman Catholic interested in atheism and atheists. Lately I've listened to some Sam Harris on YouTube and I like the man, though I don't entirely agree with him, obviously. I'm looking for a forum that discusses what people actually believe in though, not just deconstructing other people's beliefs, which is what I've found at most secular/atheist discussion forums.

One thing I noticed that I wanted to ask about: Why are there twice as many threads in the "Religion" section of these forums, compared with the "Atheism" section?

The title of this post is a reference to the book by G.K. Chesterton, which is one of the best stories showing the value of friendship between believers and freethinkers.

Atheism is just a response to other peoples beliefs.

For example people say "I think there is a god" I say "I don't

(September 15, 2019 at 12:29 pm)Inqwizitor Wrote: Hi everyone. I'm a Roman Catholic interested in atheism and atheists. Lately I've listened to some Sam Harris on YouTube and I like the man, though I don't entirely agree with him, obviously. I'm looking for a forum that discusses what people actually believe in though, not just deconstructing other people's beliefs, which is what I've found at most secular/atheist discussion forums.

One thing I noticed that I wanted to ask about: Why are there twice as many threads in the "Religion" section of these forums, compared with the "Atheism" section?

The title of this post is a reference to the book by G.K. Chesterton, which is one of the best stories showing the value of friendship between believers and freethinkers.

Welcome.

Boru

Thanks for the welcome @LadyForCamus and @BrianSoddingBoru4 — "drive-by theists" lol, that makes sense. I think a lot of believers are afraid of losing their faith, or they don't really care about what other people think and just want to win people to their side, and so they don't stick around for the full discussion.

(September 15, 2019 at 12:37 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote:

(September 15, 2019 at 12:29 pm)Inqwizitor Wrote: Hi everyone. I'm a Roman Catholic interested in atheism and atheists. Lately I've listened to some Sam Harris on YouTube and I like the man, though I don't entirely agree with him, obviously. I'm looking for a forum that discusses what people actually believe in though, not just deconstructing other people's beliefs, which is what I've found at most secular/atheist discussion forums.

One thing I noticed that I wanted to ask about: Why are there twice as many threads in the "Religion" section of these forums, compared with the "Atheism" section?

The title of this post is a reference to the book by G.K. Chesterton, which is one of the best stories showing the value of friendship between believers and freethinkers.

Atheism is just a response to other peoples beliefs.

For example people say "I think there is a god" I say "I don't

Good point. I noticed your question in your religious views. Would you say you're an ignostic or igtheist? I realize we can't confine people to labels but they are useful to describe ideas people may or may not have at a particular point in time.

(September 15, 2019 at 12:49 pm)Inqwizitor Wrote:

(September 15, 2019 at 12:37 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: Atheism is just a response to other peoples beliefs.

For example people say "I think there is a god" I say "I don't

Good point. I noticed your question in your religious views. Would you say you're an ignostic or igtheist? I realize we can't confine people to labels but they are useful to describe ideas people may or may not have at a particular point in time.

We generally don't allow discussion in the Introductions forum.  Please fell free to start another thread.  It's really, REALLY easy. 

Boru

Welcome!

(September 15, 2019 at 12:29 pm)Inqwizitor Wrote: Hi everyone. I'm a Roman Catholic interested in atheism and atheists. Lately I've listened to some Sam Harris on YouTube and I like the man, though I don't entirely agree with him, obviously. I'm looking for a forum that discusses what people actually believe in though, not just deconstructing other people's beliefs, which is what I've found at most secular/atheist discussion forums.

One thing I noticed that I wanted to ask about: Why are there twice as many threads in the "Religion" section of these forums, compared with the "Atheism" section?

The title of this post is a reference to the book by G.K. Chesterton, which is one of the best stories showing the value of friendship between believers and freethinkers.

My current thinking is that atheism is the default position for the rational mind and that all religion is simply the evolutionary programming for primate societies (and many others) to organise themselves into a hierarchical structure with, usually, a powerful alpha male.

Many humans simply cannot shake this powerful and overriding instinct gifted by evolution and still seek out this hierarchical structure and of course, being far more intelligent than other primate societies, although sometimes I wonder, have elevated this angry alpha male to the ultimate that their imagination can conceive, i.e. the supernatural.

Not my intention to deconstruct anything but simply to proffer an explanation that seems to fit in with the natural world.

It may well be that with this forum you will discover more about what people don't believe in although I haven't been here for a while (over three years) so maybe things have changed 

(September 15, 2019 at 4:14 pm)Darwinian Wrote:

(September 15, 2019 at 12:29 pm)Inqwizitor Wrote: Hi everyone. I'm a Roman Catholic interested in atheism and atheists. Lately I've listened to some Sam Harris on YouTube and I like the man, though I don't entirely agree with him, obviously. I'm looking for a forum that discusses what people actually believe in though, not just deconstructing other people's beliefs, which is what I've found at most secular/atheist discussion forums.

One thing I noticed that I wanted to ask about: Why are there twice as many threads in the "Religion" section of these forums, compared with the "Atheism" section?

The title of this post is a reference to the book by G.K. Chesterton, which is one of the best stories showing the value of friendship between believers and freethinkers.

My current thinking is that atheism is the default position for the rational mind and that all religion is simply the evolutionary programming for primate societies (and many others) to organise themselves into a hierarchical structure with, usually, a powerful alpha male.

Many humans simply cannot shake this powerful and overriding instinct gifted by evolution and still seek out this hierarchical structure and of course, being far more intelligent than other primate societies, although sometimes I wonder, have elevated this angry alpha male to the ultimate that their imagination can conceive, i.e. the supernatural.

Not my intention to deconstruct anything but simply to proffer an explanation that seems to fit in with the natural world.

It may well be that with this forum you will discover more about what people don't believe in although I haven't been here for a while (over three years) so maybe things have changed 

It's possible that religion has an evolutionary advantage, or at least it did. Given that religious people tend to out-breed (to put it crudely) irreligious people, that might still be the case. In that case a universal religion that aggressively seeks converts and mixes different genes would seem to have an evolutionary advantage over tribal or ethnic religions that are limited to a certain ethnic or cultural group and does not seek converts. I think Prof. Richard Dawkins has a theory about this, doesn't he?

(September 15, 2019 at 4:42 pm)Inqwizitor Wrote:

(September 15, 2019 at 4:14 pm)Darwinian Wrote: My current thinking is that atheism is the default position for the rational mind and that all religion is simply the evolutionary programming for primate societies (and many others) to organise themselves into a hierarchical structure with, usually, a powerful alpha male.

Many humans simply cannot shake this powerful and overriding instinct gifted by evolution and still seek out this hierarchical structure and of course, being far more intelligent than other primate societies, although sometimes I wonder, have elevated this angry alpha male to the ultimate that their imagination can conceive, i.e. the supernatural.

Not my intention to deconstruct anything but simply to proffer an explanation that seems to fit in with the natural world.

It may well be that with this forum you will discover more about what people don't believe in although I haven't been here for a while (over three years) so maybe things have changed 

It's possible that religion has an evolutionary advantage, or at least it did. Given that religious people tend to out-breed (to put it crudely) irreligious people, that might still be the case. In that case a universal religion that aggressively seeks converts and mixes different genes would seem to have an evolutionary advantage over tribal or ethnic religions that are limited to a certain ethnic or cultural group and does not seek converts. I think Prof. Richard Dawkins has a theory about this, doesn't he?

I'm sure he does and I can't argue with anything you've said