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I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:17 pm
I've spent the day reading Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion and I got to page 146 but at that point I couldn't take it anymore. Despite this apparently being an easy to read explination of the case for Atheism, all of this scientific talk of the origin of the universe just blows my mind too much, I was sweating just trying to take in all this knowledge. But I don't get it. I'm too dumb scientifically to try and comprehend what scientists truly believe to be the case against God. I can understand evolution, mutations gradually progressing through means of natural selection to create new species better equipped to deal with it's environment. I understand how it's not that the earth is perfect for us, but that we evolved to adapt to the universe. Dawkin's Mount Improbable was a very effective way of demonstrating how such complex organisms can gradually progress, instead of it all being one large leap from having no purpose to being fully functional. We did not become this complex all of sudden, it was through millions of years of mutations that benefit our survival becoming natural selected by the advantage they give us to be passed down from generation to generation. I might not be explaining it that coherently, but it all make sense to me.
But this talk of how the universe started, and all this talk involving chemistry and single atoms are beyond me. I still cannot comprehend how the whole universe began. I still beg to ask the question "How did it all begin? How did nothing create everything?"
I understand that atheism is probably the most logical position, but I do not have the capacity to aqquire all of this knowledge needed. I am incredibly overwhelmed by all of this new knowledge I cannot comprehend.
This is a tangent, but I'm so confused right now, it's all too much. I feel like I'm an idiot, and that's I'm too dumb to be an atheist.
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RE: I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:21 pm
(March 6, 2014 at 6:17 pm)JesusLover1 Wrote: I've spent the day reading Richard Dawkin's The God Delusion and I got to page 146 but at that point I couldn't take it anymore. Despite this apparently being an easy to read explination of the case for Atheism, all of this scientific talk of the origin of the universe just blows my mind too much, I was sweating just trying to take in all this knowledge. But I don't get it. I'm too dumb scientifically to try and comprehend what scientists truly believe to be the case against God. I can understand evolution, mutations gradually progressing through means of natural selection to create new species better equipped to deal with it's environment. I understand how it's not that the earth is perfect for us, but that we evolved to adapt to the universe. Dawkin's Mount Improbable was a very effective way of demonstrating how such complex organisms can gradually progress, instead of it all being one large leap from having no purpose to being fully functional. We did not become this complex all of sudden, it was through millions of years of mutations that benefit our survival becoming natural selected by the advantage they give us to be passed down from generation to generation. I might not be explaining it that coherently, but it all make sense to me.
But this talk of how the universe started, and all this talk involving chemistry and single atoms are beyond me. I still cannot comprehend how the whole universe began. I still beg to ask the question "How did it all begin? How did nothing create everything?"
I understand that atheism is probably the most logical position, but I do not have the capacity to aqquire all of this knowledge needed. I am incredibly overwhelmed by all of this new knowledge I cannot comprehend.
This is a tangent, but I'm so confused right now, it's all too much. I feel like I'm an idiot, and that's I'm too dumb to be an atheist.
Did u take the pill before u did all that?
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RE: I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:22 pm
Well quit trying to drag us down to your level then.
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RE: I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:22 pm
Quote:I'm too dumb to be an atheist
We already knew that.
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RE: I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:28 pm
Credit where credits due, he obviously read part of the god delusion.
'The more I learn about people the more I like my dog'- Mark Twain
'You can have all the faith you want in spirits, and the afterlife, and heaven and hell, but when it comes to this world, don't be an idiot. Cause you can tell me you put your faith in God to put you through the day, but when it comes time to cross the road, I know you look both ways.' - Dr House
“Young earth creationism is essentially the position that all of modern science, 90% of living scientists and 98% of living biologists, all major university biology departments, every major science journal, the American Academy of Sciences, and every major science organization in the world, are all wrong regarding the origins and development of life….but one particular tribe of uneducated, bronze aged, goat herders got it exactly right.” - Chuck Easttom
"If my good friend Doctor Gasparri speaks badly of my mother, he can expect to get punched.....You cannot provoke. You cannot insult the faith of others. You cannot make fun of the faith of others. There is a limit." - Pope Francis on freedom of speech
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RE: I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:28 pm
You're probably not as dumb as you think, but instead you lack self-confidence and you're afraid to actually use your brain. You're not alone. A lot of people are where you are.
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RE: I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:33 pm
Nah, you're not dumb. You're trying to learn, and that's more than a lot of theists will do. Physics and chemistry are complicated as balls; if it were all common sense, we wouldn't need physicists and chemists!
Props for actually picking up the book. I'm not sure I agree with everything in it (ex, Dawkins' rant on abortion. I'm still not sure where I stand on the issue...), but it's definitely a good starting point. If the parts on cosmology are too much for now, skip them and come back later. Hell, we have a science section here you can ask questions at.
I recently read Lawrence Krauss' "A Universe From Nothing - Why There is Something Rather Than Nothing". THAT book was a doozy! Some pages, hell, damn near whole chapters I had to read over and over to get wtf he was saying!
Bottom line JL1, you need to hold your head up and exhibit some goddamn self-confidence. You're not dumb, but with that kind of attitude, you'll never get far. You are the result of a 3.5 billion year evolutionary battle for survival. Fucking at like it.
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RE: I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:38 pm
The core message if the God delusion is actually very simple
What it boils down to is simply this.
I don't understand something means I don't understand something.
As opposed to
I don't understand something therefore it cannot be explained, therefore God.
That's a start.
The analogy Dawkins uses is the magic trick. If I show you a magic trick and you can't understand how I did it, you don't believe me to have magical powers, you just accept that you don't know how it's done. That is simply what the atheist position demands, that when you come across something you don't understand, you accept it as a gap in your knowledge rather than plugging the gap with "goddidit"
That's pretty much the gist. The cosmological stuff is padding.
"Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken."
Sith code
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RE: I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:41 pm
(This post was last modified: March 6, 2014 at 6:43 pm by Alex K.)
You seem to have understood a lot. The way you write betrays a good share of intelligence, despite what you might think, and the questions you still struggle with seem to be the ones where it is least clear what the correct questions even are. I also think the position of natural science is not so much one against god per se, but against the necessity for god. In any case, you're on the path, so just take the time and think everything through at the pace you feel comfortable with. Take bits you don't understand at all as hints where you might be missing some foundations, and read more on that. Maybd it turns out that you don't understand it because noone understands it. Maybe at some point you will decide that theism makes more sense to you, at a later point you might change your mind again. Just keep thinking, reading, asking questions.
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RE: I'm too dumb to be an atheist
March 6, 2014 at 6:43 pm
You don't need to know any of that to be an Atheist. In fact you can know and believe absolutely nothing and you will by definition be an Atheist.
No-one yet knows what happened at or "before" the big bang. The starting point for any investigation is "I don't know", not "Goddidit unless you can prove otherwise".
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