(February 12, 2019 at 10:04 am)Gae Bolga Wrote: The alternative to not believing in fairy tales? I don’t think you have a solid grasp on how believable fairy tales are, even as a relative measure. The religious -themselves- discount the vast majority of fairy tales. All but one, in nearly every case.
lol, i think the billions of people who believe in “fairy tales”, the near universality of such beliefs, reveal how easily we are susceptible to believing them.
And yes while everyone doesn’t believe the same exact fairy tale, everyone seems to believe in one fairy tale or the other. They’re more susceptible to believe in one, than not believe in any.
Quote:Here's something to consider..what about what a bunch of people do, or how you perceive those people..has anything to do with gods? Why would or should the one inform you as to the other?
A lot actually. It’s just as important as role models, are in the shaping of our identify. What you believe, and who you are, your sense of identity are linked quite tightly. If i want to be like my mom, I have to share in some of her fundamental beliefs that comprise who she is.
If you wanted to be like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Neil Tyson, Dennett, Hume etc.. if they exists as model you seek to emulate, then it shouldn’t be surprising why this would make your more susceptible to being an atheist than a theist. You’re not going to find many theists who idolize such figures, the way many atheists do.
Quote:Full on secular humanism is older than christianity, even. Why does this immense mass of people and time not inform you, similarly, of the validity of their beliefs (or lack thereof), beliefs explicitly in contradiction to your own?
The image of secular humanism to me, is some bourgeois white man in an ivory tower, uttering cringey platitudes, patting each other on the back. There’s none I view as models or aspirations, and none that would ever inspire me to join a humanist gathering.
If there is anything appealing to me about secular views, it would be nihilism and cynicism, and not the dewey eyed optimism of humanism. If I were to ever become an atheists, the last thing I would ever be is a humanist.
The disgust alone would keep me quite far from it.
