Can't Wait For The Day This Is True In The U.S.

[AFTT47]

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41150792

More than half in UK are non-religious, suggests survey

Last year 53% of people described themselves as having "no religion", in a survey of 2,942 adults by the National Centre for Social Research.

Among those aged between 18 and 25, the proportion was higher at 71%.

And since the young are saying "fuck it" and only the old fucks believe in the holy horseshit, things are looking real good in Britain!

Congratulations.

Do you really mean it Min? You really want Americans to dump religion like Europeans have? Well here's how you can help: Stop being such an asshole.

I'm not saying you should stop criticizing religious belief in a logical way. Indeed, you should continue to do that. But your broad, abrasive, personal attacks against believers is counter-productive.

Think about it. If I want to manipulate you to do my bidding, how am I most likely to succeed? I might try to appeal to what I perceive as your strengths: I might make logical, reasonable, practical arguments to bolster my position. Or I might say, "Hey, you stupid cock-sucker, you're a fucking idiot!" Which of those two approaches are most likely to get through to you?

This is a very complicated problem and it will take complicated solutions. You really need to stop thinking of believers as idiots. They're not!!!! They're brains are wired differently from the way my brain and your brain is wired. But there are theists who are smarter than you or I.

We are all flawed. Research has indicated that there is an emotional filter through which all information must flow through before it reaches the logical section of our brain. It is physiologically impossible for us to be purely logical beings like the Vulcans of Star Trek (though even those fictional beings admit that they are not truly free of emotions but simply manage them).

I am no savant at communications - far from it. While I have never been professionally diagnosed, I strongly suspect I am at least mildly autistic. I have many of the characteristics associated with Asperger's Syndrome. While I have great empathy towards the weak such as animals or outcast humans, I have a total lack of the ability to bond in the usual way. My parents and other family members have little emotional attachment to me. I have a biological daughter who means little to me, emotionally. That's an abnormality. I don't know how to address it. I am abnormal in that way. I am logical enough to recognize it but I cannot correct (assuming it is something which needs to be corrected) it.

I don't even know exactly what I'm talking about here (I'm drunk) but I'm convinced that the atheist vs. theist conversation is NOT going be solved by the argument of who is smarter. Indeed, that notional seems very juvenal to me. It's just more complicated than that.