(September 7, 2015 at 1:34 pm)brian1570 Wrote:(September 7, 2015 at 1:26 pm)robvalue Wrote: People I would call atheists seem to be on the rise for sure. Probably a good 25%+ of those wouldn't call themselves atheists, either because of fear of consequences (rejection right up to death) or because they misunderstand the term. I'm sure there are plenty of people who are sick of having to hide their lack of belief from everyone. Each new "out" atheist makes it a little easier for the next, I think.
i had this convo at a buddy's party a while back. everyone in the conversation except me grew up catholic. yet 7/10's of the involved parties were athiest. call it 3/10 were still catholic yet admittedly knew their religion was ridiculous. only two of us were outspoken atheist for fear of ridicule. and to me that HAS to change. in this day and age logic and reason shouldn't be thrown in the town square and pelted with rotten produce. it should be encouraged and outspoken.
It's funny that you say that, at least the last few years of me being a catholic, I knew that it was completely ridiculous, and I kept it to myself because I knew how ridiculous it would sound to others that weren't christian. It took me awhile to seriously question it, but when I did, I fell out of that religion pretty damned quick. If you know those people well enough, and knew that they were very open-minded people, whenever you had sit-down with one of them, I'd casually bring it up to them. But, the circumstances of bringing up religion when hanging out with religious friends, should be a rare occurrence, so I know it can be tough.
Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.' -Isaac Asimov-
