Please correct me where I am wrong

[Won2blv]

I started surfing on this website to help me try and come to a logical well reasoned conclusion to what I truly believe. I don't believe that this will be either an easy, or a short process. However, one thing that has been frustrating is that it seems like some on this forum don't believe that they're positions could be muddled by cognitive dissonance, confirmation bias, and logical fallacies. The most common fallacies that I have noticed, is the red herring and the straw man. Or even posters that are completely ignorant of what I believe/believed as a JW and asserting conclusions based off their ignorance. So I ask, are atheist immune to common human fallacies and emotional roadblocks? Or is religion and god the one main cause of such things? Because from what I am concluding, belief in god and the supernatural seems to be a byproduct of human emotions not the cause

[thesummerqueen]

No one is immune to brain fuck-ups.

[FatAndFaithless]

So I ask, are atheist immune to common human fallacies and emotional roadblocks?

What do you think? We're human, everyone is wrong about something at sometime in some way. That's why there's all these other people on the forum to call us out when we're being unfair or unclear or mistaken.

[Napoléon]

I don't know what these other idiots are talking about. Atheists are infallible. We're the only ones who claim that after all.

[SteelCurtain]

Ninja'd.

On the real, though, atheists are just as capable of being wrong or employing fallacious logic as any other person. It's just that I abhor those things, speaking for myself. So I do what I can to have my position most closely reflect reality, and will modify it when shown otherwise.

[Crossless2.0]

(1) So I ask, are atheist immune to common human fallacies and emotional roadblocks? (2) Or is religion and god the one main cause of such things? (3) Because from what I am concluding, belief in god and the supernatural seems to be a byproduct of human emotions not the cause

*Numbered by me for ease of answering*

1)  No, of course not.

2)  I'd say being human is the main cause of such things.

3)  I'd say, yes, belief in god(s) and the supernatural is largely a byproduct of human emotion, provided 'emotion' is understood broadly enough to encompass such different experiences as fear of the unknown, awe, powerful experiences of beauty, a sense of connectedness with the world, the need of a parent's approval, the need to belong, etc.  There are probably a hundred paths to belief in a god, and saying that they are based on human emotion -- while likely true -- is too facile a way to express it if it tends to homogenize these disparate experiences.  I suspect that most people who believe in a god or the supernatural have a mixture of emotional experiences that led to their belief.

[Pyrrho]

... Because from what I am concluding, belief in god and the supernatural seems to be a byproduct of human emotions not the cause

I think that is basically true (though I think it is poor reasoning that gets one to follow one's emotions for belief formation).  However, once one makes a misstep in one's reasoning and set of beliefs, one tends to build on the error, making things go further astray.  This is where religion can make matters worse, when one has selected a false religion (and, logically, at most, one religion could be true; the rest must be wrong, since they disagree with each other).  For example, if you screw up and start believing that the Koran is divinely inspired, then you are likely to do and believe all sorts of stupid things due to what is written in that book.  The same can be said of the Bible, believing that a bunch of ignorant primitives had some special knowledge, so you then start believing the foolishness inside that book (or, more properly, set of books).

But if it makes you feel any better, I have met numerous deluded fools who were atheists.  Just because one has avoided belief in the Easter Bunny, that does not make one a genius.  One can still be wrong about everything else.

[robvalue]

Critical thinking is a skill like any other. If you practice it, and care about applying it well, you will improve.

I'd say religion relies heavily on dissuading critical thinking, and using convincing sounding but fallacious arguments. The argument from ignorance is its bread and butter.

[abaris]

Because from what I am concluding, belief in god and the supernatural seems to be a byproduct of human emotions not the cause

Of course belief is a byproduct of human emotion. I readily admit that I have a hard time walking in the shoes of believers or of those, who have believed once. I never really did although I was brought up catholic. I went through the motions, but I never cared.

[Minimalist]

The trick with logic is not to begin with an idiotic premise.


If your premise is "God said x" you are pretty much fucked from the start.