Just a little anecdote here. I was in a core biology lecture. The lecturer was quite a funny guy. He was talking about the start of life and evolution and all that and he said that the bible is the most accurate religious text when it comes to how the world started. He listed what god made and the days he made them. Funnily enough he missed out the part where god made plants before he made the sun. I felt like speaking up but there was like 100 people in the lecture and I was shy. He was definitely an atheist because of the way he ripped into creationism though. It was done as a kind of joke.
Anyway, context aside, I assumed everyone in the lecture was not religious but I did see a few girls wearing muslim things, can't remember the name, like a burka but not a burka, doesn't cover the face. Also there is a lecturer that is a biologist but is also a vicar or priest of some sort, he has the collar. He specializes in botany apparently.
It just seems incredible to me that a scientist can believe in god and the bible or in fact any religion. In my eyes, they are huge hypocrites. They have an incredibly high standard of evidence for their science but they don't apply this to their religion. Its like they are actively oppressing the rational and logical voice in their head. It must be a constant internal struggle for them. On the other hand, they may not have thought critically about it at all. I'm sure a lot of people just putt off examining their religion with the same scrutiny as they would a scientific hypothesis.

I actually see a lot of this, being in a pharmacology program in uni, I take plenty of hard science courses and evolution courses on the side just for fun. However most of my friends are atheists. If someone in our class were to confess to being religious, we'd all go ... uh huh. A neuro prof of mine actually discussed the belief of a soul with us, and said that he didn't believe there was a separate entity and we will not deal with it in class and after class all of my friends were puzzled why he even brought it up (including me), because it's just so obvious to us. There are a few religious ones left (I know a doctor who's religious, you don't think about that but doctors went through a lot of hard science education too), but they generally don't assume that their religion is palatable to everyone and is the obvious truth when they talk about it. But to be honest we don't take it well, my friends have said on many occasions that the religious are stupid for believing in god, and these aren't even people who identify as atheists.

I don't think that they are necessarily stupid, just mislead, misguided, delusional. Have you ever watched the atheist experience? Matt Dillahunty claims to have been a southern baptist christian for 20 years and he was going to become a preacher or something. He just said he never evaluated his religious belief before. And when he did (by studying the bible more in order to become a preacher) he became disillusioned. I think we can all agree he is a very smart person but he just didn't evaluate his religion.

(October 9, 2013 at 3:13 pm)Rationalman Wrote: I don't think that they are necessarily stupid, just mislead, misguided, delusional. Have you ever watched the atheist experience? Matt Dillahunty claims to have been a southern baptist christian for 20 years and he was going to become a preacher or something. He just said he never evaluated his religious belief before. And when he did (by studying the bible more in order to become a preacher) he became disillusioned. I think we can all agree he is a very smart person but he just didn't evaluate his religion.

And that is why there are still so many christians/muslims in the world. Lots of peoples default position is there is a god and they never have cause to evaluate it.

Why should they? its not like its important.

Well, I think the question of how we all got here is the biggest and most important one ever. I just can't see how they think it is not important

(October 9, 2013 at 3:35 pm)Rationalman Wrote: Well, I think the question of how we all got here is the biggest and most important one ever. I just can't see how they think it is not important

Is it really though? on a day to day basis what is the more important question. how am I going to feed the kids? or I wonder how the universe came to be?

We have a way of deciding things in my house.

I get all the important ones, who should be prime minister, should we stay in the EU etc and my wife decides the little things like what colour the front room should be how many kids we have etc.

Importance is relative.

Yea i suppose you are right. Its not important to me or anyone else right now but for the future. I'm talking about millions of years in the future, the things we need to achieve to survive as a species, space travel, sustainable living, genetic engineering. If we figure out how the universe came to be, that may open new doors for humanity. Imagine time travel, wormholes, blackholes!

It seems to me that part of what makes science science is the willingness to question even so-called "settled" scientific paradigms. That doesn't make them hypocrits in my eyes.

(October 9, 2013 at 3:35 pm)Rationalman Wrote: Well, I think the question of how we all got here is the biggest and most important one ever. I just can't see how they think it is not important

"Where are we headed?" Is a better question to consider.

(October 9, 2013 at 3:33 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: And that is why there are still so many christians/muslims in the world. Lots of peoples default position is there is a god and they never have cause to evaluate it.

As far as Christians go, it seems like most just follow some generic dogma like "Be good, go to Heaven; be bad, go to Hell; love Jesus and God" and that's about it. They don't really get into what the bible actually says. To them the bible is like a software license agreement. They don't read it, they just click on "I agree." That's why with most of them when you show them something really weird in the bible they're honestly surprised.