(February 24, 2015 at 4:17 pm)lweisenthal Wrote: Religious doctrine can be the enemy of religion. Atheism arises from an examination and intellectual rejection of religious doctrines, rather than from an innate instinct to disbelieve in the possibility of a higher power. But focusing on the doctrines is simply missing out on the possibility of perceiving the forest because of an obsession with the trees.
What basis do you have for saying how atheism arises? Given what atheists state as their reason, your statement appears extremely presumptous.
The absurdity of religious doctrine is actually just icing on the cake of failure that is the theist claim. The rejection of god and religion is because you can't even come close to demonstrating your claim, not because of the harm and ridiculousness of the doctrine that arose from that claim. You think we're missing the forest for the trees, but you have even demonstrated there is any plant life in front of us.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
