Poor uneducated unintelligent aheists

[Kayenneh]

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Yeah...you missed my point. Lets clear this up. Most educated people stand a better chance of earning a decent income than their uneducated counterparts. it not the atheisms that increases the probabilty of earning more it is the education. i asked how the world would be affected if the uneducated and poor were exposed to and accepted the message of Hitchens and Dawkins I used those two because they both have a proliferate message which has spread beyond academic circles.

It seems to me that you are inadvertently making the argument that if we just educated the poor and disenfranchised there would be no need for religion. You have said that you understand that the educated atheists have and understand morality but the poor and uneducated don't so they need something to keep them in line. Your problem disappears if we just educate the uneducated and there is no need to further a mass delusion. So education seems to be the answer to the problem, not mass delusion.

Atheist often use themselves as evidence of the intrinsic moral character of atheists. I contend that moral norms are more cultural than anything else and that these norms originate from the religious values of the founders of the society.

Morals are cultural yes, but theists often assume that they must stem from religion. I don't know if it's because you can't see anyone having morals without religion or what your rationalization for this is. The fact is that religion and morals are mutually exclusive. Having morals does not mean you're religious or that they came from the religious. Being religious does not mean you have morals

Poverty and desperation erodes the fiber of morality and social norms. The relationship between moral normatives and poverty is inversely proportional. In the moment of temptation and despair religion provides hope and comfort. If you strip the people of the hope and the comfort you leave them in anger and do nothing to quench the thirst for retribution.

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Once again education here is the key. It seems that rather than try to help the poor you want to give them religion to comfort them. As you have said, if we educate them they could be moral atheists, and they would no longer have to be poor.

I absolutely agree with FaithNoMore. Education is vital for social success, giving poor people hope for a better life after death, isn't going to help anyone to try an be better in this life. Give man a fish and he'll be hungry tomorrow, teach him to fish and he can feed himself all life. By teaching that there is a god and that he's going to help you out, doesn't necessarily make people face their problems. And every problem can be solved as long as you work for it. It has worked pretty well for me so far, and I have been living next to the poverty line (in my country) for a couple of years now. For granted, I live in a country that is in the top 10 when it comes to the quality of education, but that proves my point even better. I'm poor, but I got good education, started to think for myself, cast off religion and I am making my life work.
I understand your concern, Mote, but sweeping the problems under the carpet isn't making it go away. By trusting that a god is going to make it all better is like saying that life actually is fair. Unfortunately I can't remember who said this, but isn't it good that life isn't fair? Because if it was, we would deserve all the bad things that happens to us.
And concerning the differences between classes has loads to do with the education, but also the economic system of the USA, but that's a different debate.