(November 10, 2017 at 9:47 am)Mathilda Wrote: No it is different from getting advice. When seeking advice, you know what you want to achieve and they inform you how to do so.
If you go to a financial advisor with a large lump of savings and ask how to maximise your return on investment, you wouldn't be impressed if they told you to invest in certain corporations because they embody family values or diversity or whatever.
If you go along and say that you have these savings but do not want to fund certain activities which you find unethical, the financial advisor will ask specifically what you want to avoid and then advise you where you can invest instead.
The difference is that church tells what they think you should be wanting, not how to achieve what you want.
Are you seriously suggesting that all atheist blogs just give how-to advice and don't take stances on moral issues?
(November 10, 2017 at 9:06 am)alpha male Wrote: I would say because they aren't inhibited by organised religion from learning about the world in all its different aspects. You see this happen with far right politicians as well. They'll toe the party line about no straight marriage for example, until one of them has a daughter or son who is gay and they are forced to confront the issue and find out that the situation is more complicated than what they had previously believed. The kind of mindset that is comfortable questioning authority and discarding myths is also one that is more likely to find out about how the world works rather than accept a simplistic explanation that does not stand up to questioning.
Do said politicians then go left, or do they stay mostly right, but with a more nuanced position?
Are there more churches who accept gays now than there were 100 years ago?
How do new religious sects emerge, if not from theists questioning what they're taught?
