It is an arrogance to think atheists hold a monopoly on good sense, humility or intelligence, but no matter how many times I say this very few people seem to want to accept it.

(March 11, 2012 at 3:36 pm)Rayaan Wrote: Yes, great picture, thanks for sharing, but the idea or message behind it is not new to me.

Atheist: "Why do you think that a god would actually care about creatures living in such a tiny and insignificant speck of dot in this huge, entire universe?"
Well, I can take that further and say: "Why would he care that he does care?"

Also, if I was God, then I wouldn't want to the make the universe in a way so that the earth is the only thing in the universe and there is just darkness and emptiness in space everywhere we looked. That would be a boring universe. Also, I wouldn't want to put barriers or walls somewhere in the universe to make humans feel "special" or to make them feel less small as compared to the rest of the universe. To me, the universe is a lot more beautiful with stars, galaxies, black holes, planets, and all that cosmological stuff which it already has although, of course, I'm not saying that this necessarily implies that an intelligent being created the universe either.

Perhaps it implies that you are the creator of the universe? Honestly though, determining what is beautiful, or what makes sense to you, or us, as human beings and then extrapolating that to a god? Tenuous at best, why would we assume that a god would share any of our opinions, or even realize that we had any (relative to it's own). Maybe god likes to mix brown and green, thinks that rotten eggs smell pleasant, and really likes mucus for it's "artistic value". Long story short, less anthropic bias and anthropomorphism would be refreshing when seriously discussing any god. Maybe god doesn't even have a conceptual understanding of beauty, perhaps it's just a glitch in the human machine. Who cares what any of us want or prefer with reference to gods, unless you're a god you really wouldn't have a clue, would you? Care to take a crack at what goes through an aardvarks head, that's a bit simpler than any god notion, and still a complete mystery eh?

(March 11, 2012 at 9:09 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote: It is an arrogance to think atheists hold a monopoly on good sense, humility or intelligence, but no matter how many times I say this very few people seem to want to accept it.

I totally accept that.

Here is a beautiful video.

(March 11, 2012 at 9:09 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote: It is an arrogance to think atheists hold a monopoly on good sense, humility or intelligence, but no matter how many times I say this very few people seem to want to accept it.

Agreed. Atheists are more correct than theists in most issues dealing with science, but there are some smart theists and some stupid atheists. As for other social issues, people's opinions vary so greatly that it's impossible to draw battle lines, so to speak. I'm not sure what the percentages of smart atheists and smart theists are, but suffice to say that, if you stereotype theists, don't get all pissed off if they stereotype you.

(March 11, 2012 at 9:09 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote: It is an arrogance to think atheists hold a monopoly on good sense, humility or intelligence, but no matter how many times I say this very few people seem to want to accept it.

And I'll never get tired of agreeing with you.

(March 11, 2012 at 9:09 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote: It is an arrogance to think atheists hold a monopoly on good sense, humility or intelligence, but no matter how many times I say this very few people seem to want to accept it.

Yet even people on this board claim rational thinking only for the atheists here on this forum

Yet, I also speak with a lot of people in and related to the skeptic movement - many of whom are atheists - and believe me...rationality isn't a must for your religious beliefs or lack thereof. Rational thinking may lead to atheism in many cases, but correlation is NOT causation.

A person might be an atheist and hold ridiculous beliefs. It's part of being human.

There are a good many theists who deeply appreciate science and the cosmos and do not suffer the hubris of assuming we are all important in the grand scheme of the universe. I don't pretend to know what comfort they derive from their continued God-belief, but the fact remains that painting them all with such a broad brush is as irritating as when they do it to us.

(March 11, 2012 at 9:09 pm)thesummerqueen Wrote: It is an arrogance to think atheists hold a monopoly on good sense, humility or intelligence, but no matter how many times I say this very few people seem to want to accept it.

Atheists are more intelligent.

LSE Professor Satoshi Kanazawa has a study on it:

http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Kanazawa/pdfs/SPQ2010.pdf

Atheists form a smaller sample size. As such, any statistical outliers (very smart people) will throw off the average much more than they would from a larger sample size (those who believe in god). Overall, human beings are of average intelligence (hence the average), this includes atheists.

For the record, I didn't rationalize my way to atheism. Logic wasn't involved in the slightest. Yet I hope I come across as a mostly rational person.

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(March 12, 2012 at 10:01 am)5thHorseman Wrote: Atheists are more intelligent.

LSE Professor Satoshi Kanazawa has a study on it:

http://personal.lse.ac.uk/Kanazawa/pdfs/SPQ2010.pdf

Intelligence doesn't necessarily imply rationality either.

I'm not saying I don't find religious beliefs to be entirely silly, but I don't call the people who have them silly either.