Heart of the issue

[BlackMason]

I've been doing quite a bit of thinking lately. Just thinking things through and trying to put things into perspective. You know, the normal stuff.

I got to thinking about what the real issue we as atheists have with theists. You hear people talking bout the end of religion and if the internet can aid that. I get the sense that a lot of people think that there's going to be this period free of religion that we as a species have to look forward to. I used to think that way but now I have some doubts.

When one looks at the core of our problem with theists, it's not really a religious issue. We're not pissed at them because of their religion. We're pissed because they are ignorant. We're pissed because they aren't willing to learn. We're pissed because they choose to turn a blind eye. We're pissed because the cognitive dissonance is written on their faces and they refuse to confront it. We're pissed because a lot of them are anti-intellectual. A lot of them are irrational and intellectually dishonest. Look you get the picture I'm trying to paint. Let me use one word to describe all these things. Asinine. Theists are asinine. We don't hate on them because of their gods, we hate on them because they're asinine!

So let's move along shall we. People being asinine will not end. Even when the current religious systems die, they'll be over taken by superstition and pseudoscience if not by newer religions. How else do old religions die? What is it that ushers in the new?

So I think we're always going to have people acting crazy like now. Might not be in the name of Jesus or Allah, but in the name of ignorance. Jesus and Allah are two of many faces of ignorance. So we may swap out our cloaks of atheism for our cloaks of scepticism. There is no end game really.

[Faith No More]

Religion is just a symptom of the human condition. The fact that something like it can take such a hold in society just goes to show that if humanity doesn't address the root issues of the problem, about the only thing getting rid of religion will do is remove all the crosses.

But I do think that with the internet making information available so easily, people will start to come around and we will become better critical thinkers as a whole. That's because the kids of ignorant parents can now be exposed to rational thought, where they would otherwise simply wallow in stupidity.

[Lucanus]

While what you are saying does really make a lot of sense, I get the feeling that getting rid of religions might be a first step towards a more rational world.

Indeed, pseudoscience and "new religions" will be obstacles in the way. The only thing we can do against them is to improve our education systems and to get everybody to have a better understanding of science.

That said, nutjobs will always be somewhere, but at least they might be fewer.

[John V]

The heart of the issue is judgment.

You might roll your eyes at new age woo, but it doesn't anger you, because it doesn't judge you. Same with Hinduism and other religions. It's only the ones like Christianity and Islam, which judge people, that you really care about.

[BlackMason]

The heart of the issue is judgment.

You might roll your eyes at new age woo, but it doesn't anger you, because it doesn't judge you. Same with Hinduism and other religions. It's only the ones like Christianity and Islam, which judge people, that you really care about.

Solid point!

[Lucanus]

The heart of the issue is judgment.

You might roll your eyes at new age woo, but it doesn't anger you, because it doesn't judge you. Same with Hinduism and other religions. It's only the ones like Christianity and Islam, which judge people, that you really care about.

I wouldn't say "judge" as much as "pushing beliefs". Look at Sharia courts or Creation vs Evolution.

I couldn't care less what religious people think about what I do. But when they start to whine about what I should or should not do based on their principles, that's when they get me mad.

[Anomalocaris]

The heart of the issue is judgment.

You might roll your eyes at new age woo, but it doesn't anger you, because it doesn't judge you. Same with Hinduism and other religions. It's only the ones like Christianity and Islam, which judge people, that you really care about.

It's not the judgement. I can't give even the least fraction of the most frivolous fuck about the judgement of the likes of you, which you seek to santify by rediculously attributing it to an obsurd make belief god.

It's the organized predatory nature of the cult that you partake in that revolts me. You do not merely seek to examplify the lowest common denominator of human mental processes like new age woo, Hinduism and other religions. Your cult makes it its supreme goal to exploit whatever foibles there are in human cognition to drag the entire humanity down to your level. That is what makes your cult more harmful dangerous than age woo, Hinduism and other religions.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

The heart of the issue is judgment.

You might roll your eyes at new age woo, but it doesn't anger you, because it doesn't judge you. Same with Hinduism and other religions. It's only the ones like Christianity and Islam, which judge people, that you really care about.

That your religion(s) seek domination and to enslave society.

Judgement based on nothing more than self-entitlement and the force that comes hand in hand with a cartel that has usurped its way into power through murdering/silencing critics and outlawing critique for century after century.

[Confused Ape]

Indeed, pseudoscience and "new religions" will be obstacles in the way. The only thing we can do against them is to improve our education systems and to get everybody to have a better understanding of science.

There are a lot of people who really understand science but they're still religious or New Agers. This is because scientists are only human. People who still want to believe in something will regard these scientists as having the 'real' answers.

[Rhizomorph13]

To the OP,

I'm an atheist and I'm not mad at the religious, or anyone really. Some of the things I see on Facebook make me facepalm, and many of those things are religious, but many of the things that are said on this forum make me facepalm and most of them are atheist. Atheism is nothing more than a lack of belief in god. Not all atheists care about science and some of them aren't rational, nor would they care to be.

Religion will never die back completely. Even if we think it goes away some kook will find a book and decide they should live their life by it; after all there are still people who believe in phrenology, numerology, and astrology so.... plrbt. One could hope that our society would move toward a fact base organization free from ego and that a greater good could be found that made life awesome for all people, but that isn't likely until robots can replace workers and then we can live in bliss with our mindless slave race of manufactured automatons feeding us grapes and bringing us filaments for our 3d printers.