Why Atheism and Secular Humanism are Failed Philosophies

[The Grand Nudger]

No offense implied. I'm just saying that religion is not the kind of thing you grow out of is all. It's a tool we've been altering to suit so many purposes that it's become a sort of swiss army knife of the absurd, and it has been refined to be pervasive and extremely manipulative (both to groups of people and to individuals). Wondering why people don't grow out of religion as they learn more about the world around them is perhaps taking the question from the wrong angle. Religion has changed as our knowledge has increased, and ignorance doesn't seem to be the driving factor. The beliefs themselves may be considered ignorant, but the same can't be said for the people as a whole (or really, even individually on that basis alone). Religion offers something that people desire (and that list of somethings is long). I'd love for all of the things the religious find in their religion to be true as well, I just can't bring myself to swallow the koolaid. For some reason or another (or many reasons) those hooks that religion comes equipped with just didn't get a good grip on me. Perhaps we've(atheists) found other ways to fulfill those common desires?

If someone says "I have faith" that isn't ignorance. Wishful thinking sure, but not strictly speaking ignorance. If they go further with convoluted bullshit as arguments to the absolute truth of their faith, and the "evidence" that shows their faith to be "knowledge"..then yeah, ignorance. If that evidence really was the basis for their faith then science etc should be able to rid them of it. It rarely does, and what does that say about claims to a reasoned faith, or a faith by consideration of the evidence? Long story short, all of us have headgear that's prone to malfunctioning or failing to properly do it's job. Doesn't mean that ignorance or lack of knowledge is the cause. Well educated people get things blisteringly wrong as well. If people didn't suffer or die, and if every question had been answered, there wouldn't be any room left for religion to make it's claims. Something tells me even that couldn't get rid of religion. Hell, I wouldn't even mind if everyone on earth became religious, as long as the religion everyone was following wasn't sick reality denying garbage. Religion isn't a problem, it's what people do with it. There aren't any thugs(a fun word, considering it's history) making sacrifices to hindu gods by accosting travelers on the highway in the US as far as I'm aware. So without people religion has no teeth.

To me, this question very much seems like asking "Given what we know about the universe, why are people still being people?". Might be the fact that a large portion of how we live our lives and what we decide is right or wrong, real or illusion, has nothing to do with empiricism. Never has, wouldn't surprise me if it never will. I don't ask myself questions like "is it objectively morally evil to murder a human being, and is morality a demonstrable piece of objective reality, and if so where does it come from". I just don't stick people with pointy objects (until I do, and again, I don't ask myself those questions). In a conversation about the subject I can give the whole thing a little more thought, but that doesn't mean I'm actually doing that in my day to day. How often do you think the religious ask themselves "Does my religion contradict scientific principles or laws?". I'd be willing to bet that they just don't consider whether or not it does, or simply go along with the idea that it somehow must not, even if they don't know how. God works in mysterious ways my friend..