(June 16, 2014 at 1:31 am)Sludgeman101 Wrote: Here is one thing that pisses me off brothers and sisters (and other.) recently, a boy in my school, (who's name i will not mention) asked during lunch at our table (little side note, this boy was never asked to sit at our table, no one even wanted him to sit at our table) "everybody, raise your hand if your an atheist." I of course raised my hand. He looked at me funny and asked "a real one?" (It must be assumed that he is an idiot, as he is the same person who believes that a man't penis size is a side-effect of that man's ego.) i asked what he meant by that and he said that "a lot of atheists are just pretending because they want attention." I wish this was just this one idiots point of view, but that was shared by my father when i came out to him. Of course we got into an argument and i asked him if maybe that was just lies fed to him by someone to try and spread that point of view, smearing atheists. To this he got mad and said no, because (and i'm not kidding) his parents don't lie to him. What parent would be either so ignorant, or so evil that they would press this garbage onto an apparently either very gullible are handicapped boy? I guess that is my question. Is this true? Or is it what i think it as, more christian bullshit?
Sometimes when people don't understand something they feel frustrated or angry and they let other people know this, it's an expression of their internal struggle to grasp something.
Faith and a belief in some kind of god is deep rooted in our psychology, it's not just a learned behaviour or 'programming' despite what you might hear from other atheists, including some that frequent these forums. We know that the ability to believe and the ability to generate an anthropomorphic 'force' behind natural phenomenon is hard-wired into our brains, this does not mean god is hardwired into our brains it's much more complex than that.
There is clearly an evolutionary advantage in having this feature in our brains, there are a number of good theories as to why, all of which fit the evolution model, so it's not a problem for an atheist to look at these theories and see why the need for people to believe exists. It is much harder, however, for religious people to see why a person can consciously by-pass these mechanisms and choose not to believe, because it flies I the face of what they think they know.
Imagine it like this, god is the sea and everyone is floating around in their own little boat in this sea. Some people are smarter than others and they work out how to build wings and propellers and fit them to their boats. Pretty soon they learn how to fly. From way up high they can see the whole sea, and the land in the far distance and they work out that the sea is not endless but in fact just a body of water, but the people in the boats cannot see this because they are on the surface of the water and cannot see the land in the distance. The people who learn to fly give the plans on how to build the wings and propellers to the people in the sea, but many of them feel safe in their boats and are afraid to fly so they make up reasons not to fly.
The people in the boats are religious people, the people with the wings are atheists, the atheists have learned that the sea is not infinite (god is not what it seems) but nevertheless god is still present in everyday life for religious people. And that's ok.
Your friend and your dad are stuck in their boats looking for excuses not to fly, and that's fine, let them float. But you have learned how to fly and that makes your friend and your father nervous because they don't understand. But that is their worry, not yours.
You keep on flying.
MM
"The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions" - Leonardo da Vinci
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
"I think I use the term “radical” rather loosely, just for emphasis. If you describe yourself as “atheist,” some people will say, “Don’t you mean ‘agnostic’?” I have to reply that I really do mean atheist, I really do not believe that there is a god; in fact, I am convinced that there is not a god (a subtle difference). I see not a shred of evidence to suggest that there is one ... etc., etc. It’s easier to say that I am a radical atheist, just to signal that I really mean it, have thought about it a great deal, and that it’s an opinion I hold seriously." - Douglas Adams (and I echo the sentiment)
