(March 22, 2022 at 10:48 am)The Grand Nudger Wrote: Interestingly enough, the majority of the atheists here never give a single thought to eradicating religion. That's just a few of us. I think about it from time to time - though I'm actually a big fan of religion, and while an unimpeded or less impeded scientific march might be a pleasant side effect - I wouldn't consider it the main objective to or benefit of eradicating religion. A religion of nature explicitly based on scientific inquiry is a possibility...so, you know, more than one way to skin a cat.In fact, the folks here do seem to have a much more mature and realistic perspective on religion than the folks in some Facebook debate group. That's why I implied that if he had never come across a village atheist who spouted rhetoric about religion being a monstrous delusion that needs to be eradicated for the good of civilization and the environment, he must not have traveled far & wide in the old atheist blogosphere.
Existentialism is a handy ally in that objective, though. Rejecting the (purportedly) objective claims made by religion on principle would be the eradication of religion, of any kind, in and of itself.
Broadly speaking, from long personal experience - anecdote at the bottom...and conceeding that this may be a rarified bunch of heathens not in any way representative of atheism at large - this bunch agrees with a ton of existential premises, rejects objectivism in a great many contexts, and understands provisional certifications of knowledge.
And you're right that existentialism is a fellow traveler on the heathen highway. Even religious existentialists don't cotton to fundamentalist BS, so there's usually a good amount of self-awareness and resistance to dogmatism anywhere in our ranks.
