RE: If you had a button that would turn all theists into atheists and agnostic?
November 15, 2011 at 8:59 pm
(This post was last modified: November 15, 2011 at 9:01 pm by Norfolk And Chance.)
(November 15, 2011 at 8:40 pm)Shell B Wrote: Not BS. Plenty of idiots are atheists. It sounds like you want to think you are part of some elite group.
Not elite, no. Because in the UK, atheists number nearly half of the population.
Quote: In reality, atheists do not believe in god. Some fucking feral child who has never been exposed to humanity would be an atheist. Would that make him or her a critical thinker by default?
No, it would make him know nothing either way. He wouldn't even be an atheist by default because he wouldn't even have the concept of god to "not believe in" or critically challenge. And of course the feral child could then show critical thinking (or not) should he later come in contact with religious people, his choice from there on in.
Quote:I do think you are wrong.
I really do not think you meant to say mutually exclusive right there. I'll let you sort it out.
I've been watching too many programmes where they wrongly use that phrase and it's stuck - of course to say that makes no sense - it should be mutually inclusive.
Quote:Even if that phrase meant what you think it means, it would not necessarily be true. There are plenty of critical thinkers who are religious and atheists who are idiots. Just because someone is a little kooky on the religion front does not mean they can not think critically at all. To suggest so is kind of asinine, in my opinion.
It is true that some theists can compartmentalise their critical thinking skills so they don't think critically on religion but do on other stuff - but I never said theists weren't capable of critical thinking at all. I said atheists are.
You disagree that's fine by me, but taking away the feral child example or long lost Amazon tribes, I think a normal person that has been exposed to some religion, ie nearly everybody on Earth, you cannot really become atheist without questioning and thinking.
Quote:There is no "let's" about it. Such a button is not only logically absurd, but suspension of disbelief does not nothing to make it less absurd. Anyone who would push such a button is taking away the freedom of others. The idea is disgusting.
LOL, I'm not going to even respond to your outrage there. No need to take the button comment so seriously, no need at all.
You are currently experiencing a lucky and very brief window of awareness, sandwiched in between two periods of timeless and utter nothingness. So why not make the most of it, and stop wasting your life away trying to convince other people that there is something else? The reality is obvious.
