(April 5, 2013 at 1:39 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: MysticKnight, in my own life at least, I don't see anything to suggest that atheists are any wiser, overall, than believers. And even if the particular instance of belief in God, I do not see how a default atheism is any wiser than unquestioned faith. Even if god were a convenient fiction that belief could still be more useful in guiding rational thought than not relying upon it. For example, we use the imaginary numbers in mathematics all the time. There is no square root of -1, but certain equations would be impossible to solve without it.
As far as belief in God, then that is open to debate. As I am one who believes in supernatural creator/higher power, I tend to agree that we need belief in that (and even perhaps God) to guide reasoning because I am strong believer in the moral/praise/greatness argument. I also don't think we can be justified in holding to the concept of perpetual identity without a belief in a soul.
Of course, none of this proves (analytically wise)that God exists or a supernatural creator exists, but that it seems to me, to be useful in guiding reasoning.
So I to tend to agree with you. However, from the neutral stand point (agnostic)...we know for certain that Atheists are wise in the instance not to follow a false religion, while Theists in general (only the right religion believers can be an exception) are being foolish in the instance of following a false religion.
Now whether belief in 'God' or 'Creator/Designer' falls under that category of foolishness is up to debate. I tend to agree that it would not be foolish to believe in it, if it justified our reasoning (ie. belief in morals, praise, etc), even if it was false, because it may seem that way for various reasons that we aren't being foolish about (ie. perhaps evolution programmed us to believe goodness was reference to something spiritual and not physical).
