(April 18, 2015 at 10:29 am)wallym Wrote: I will say, I think a big part of the Atheist movement is 1) Our generation has 40 years of life where death isn't a real threat. We're not being shipped to war, or getting the plague, or expecting to die at 45. Not having death looming over our heads gives us some time to think things through without it being a huge influence. 2) Atheism is popular. It's the idea people associate with being smart. Kind of like sharing I LOVE FUCKING SCIENCE bullshit on facebook. People REALLY want to be smart. It's an amazing sociological control. If you can frame any position as the 'Smart' position, people will stampede eachother to get onto that bandwagon. 3) I think we see a lot of right conclusions in general atheism with the same shitty quality logic that people use to believe in God. I think many people just like the conclusion of No God, and half-ass the implications. There's a lot of the same really wonky grade school logic thrown around here with atheists justifying their belief system that we're so quick to criticize Theists for.
I'll accept some of that criticism. Some of us here are sometimes prone to over state our case, seemingly more interested in being convincing that being correct.
Not sure what implications concern you. Mortality doesn't seem like such a bad deal. Hell it is a great deal.
(April 18, 2015 at 10:29 am)wallym Wrote: In the end, we all want to believe we are smarter than others for having figured out this puzzle, but in reality, if it was 1950, we'd be most likely heading to church tomorrow, and saying prayer before each meal. And if it were ancient egypt, we'd all be worshipping Ra. The point being, we are not smarter than everyone in the history of mankind, we just got lucky in our circumstances. At least that's how I see it, which is why I cringe a little at the maliciousness and vitriol focused on religious people.
I don't think it is really a matter of wanting to think we're smarter. We all prefer our own opinion because, really, what else do we have? If we're content to defer to an expert, we'd still need the competence to select the right expert. May as well cut out the middle man and commit to cultivating our own wits and judgement.
