(April 18, 2015 at 3:29 pm)superAtheistnut Wrote: I'm curious to find out if most atheists hate the 'ancient alien' theory because it goes against "evolution" dogma of Atheism.
According to Darwin's theory, it should have taken humans millions of years to evolve to the intelligent species that we are today.
Here's my issue: and why I think 21st century Atheism is no different than 14th century Catholicism dictatorship. In the 14th century if you said the earth might not be the centre of the universe "you'd be hanged on the stake". In the 21st century if you say the universe might of been created by intelligent design 'you're career is over and you'd be labelled as a quack".
Meanwhile, in the 14th century. Hidden from public attention a small group of mathmatecians and scientist were secretley trying to figure out how the universe worked and prayed that they didn't get caught trying to do something blasphemous like going against the 'status quo". Same thing in the 21st century "theist scientists and even agnostic scientists" must surely be secretley be in the closet trying to figure out "the status quo tells me 'Do not look there, there is nothing to see there", but I feel they are wrong".
Today, as a scientist. If you so dare go against the 'status quo' of Atheism you lose your job.
So what's the flaw? Atheism is slowly but surely becoming a cult-following, within a hundred years a hierarchy council will be formed similar to the catholic/jewdaism/islam councils. And future scientists trying to disprove the 'status quo' that evolution created humanity will be burnt to the stake and witch hunted (figuratively speaking). Why will they be witch hunted? You're average atheists could care less if someone is researching 'intelligent design', but the hierarchy of the new Atheism in elitists in power will feel threatened.
Do you feel - Atheism is slowly going to become corrupt like religions? Scientists will not be permitted to look into 'supernatural' or 'mistisism' and try to find a scientific reasoning - as it would be deemed blasphemy and heretic as an Atheist society.
In the sense that atheism can become just as tribalistic as religiosity, I'd agree with this idea ... but that doesn't seem to be what you're saying. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that as a scientist, you're saying what I think you're saying.
Science, by necessity really, can only investigate natural causes for different phenomena (like the origins of life). Biological evolution is supported by millions of pieces of fossil evidence, dating back over 3 billion years. I'm not a working scientist (I'm an attorney), but I do have a masters degree in molecular biology, and so I've studied genetics and bioinformatics, and the "genetic" evidence supporting biological evolution is also very strong.
Moreover, equating atheism (a minority view held by maybe 10% of the US population, a group considered the "most distrusted" group in America, with virtually no political influence) with 14th century Catholicism (a majority view at the time, held by virtually its entire host population, and enforced by state violence) is somewhere between laughable and kooky paranoia.
Francis Collins, the head of the NIH (the geneticist responsible for directing the construction of the genome project) is a Christian (who believes in intelligent design). But you cannot test or calculate the probability of magical claims. You either believe in some sort of supernatural agency or you don't, but those who do are not laughed out of science (I had plenty of religious friends who went to earn their PhD in molecular biology). Sure, if you were to say something like, I'm going to conduct an experiment to try and support the idea of intelligent design, most people in the scientific community (and beyond) would certainly be skeptical, but only because the idea is ridiculous. If you could test for magic, then it's no longer magical, if you could test for supernatural phenomena, it's no longer supernatural. And if it's no longer supernatural, then it's not GOD (it's just a natural phenomena that we didn't yet understand).
