What is needed to combat the overwhelming level of belief in God?

[The Grand Nudger]

I'm trying to get you to admit you think you're special somehow. That I'm special.

If you need me to tell you that you're special..I can accommodate sweetheart, I can satisfy your need.  

That us atheists in general are some sort of special breed of people that can see through the God delusion(pun intended) and religious folks are not.

Except that I don't think that's true....? Couldn;t tell you for certain that there isn't a gene that predisposes a person towards atheism (or away from theism), but I've never heard of one and I doubt it. There certainly isn't anything like an atheist "breed"...because that we'd notice, if atheists were a different breed it would be impossible for us, at this point, not to realize that.

That's what follows, given these two facts. We're both atheists. You believe people will always be religious.

Religious -and- irreligious, yes.  As we've always been.  Some of our oldest writings regarding gods also contain the oldest exclamations of atheism on record.  We've always been a mixed bag. We've been digging graves and making charms since full modernity, but I bet there was a guy named OG who -didn't- put his nicest axe in his daddys grave..because despite what all the dunces around him thought..he knew corpses had no use for axes.

[Angrboda]

I don't know what you mean.  How we think and what we think is part and parcel of the question of god belief.

Let's stay on point and keep it simple.We're talking about belief here. I'm saying we can free people from their religious dogmatism and help them embrace a freer mindset. You say we can't. Tell me why not.

Now you're just straw manning me, I never said people can't let go of their belief. Belief tends to be generational. One generation giving it to the next. It piggy backs on brain developments that occur when children are still vulnerable and dependent on their families. It's a perfect storm which almost* guarantees genesis of belief from generation to generation. There are people who escape belief after being indoctrinated just as there are those that convert after being non-religious. The fact is that there is no general swing one way or the other in the numbers; and that fact has some very deep roots.

[Excited Penguin]

I'm trying to get you to admit you think you're special somehow. That I'm special.

If you need me to tell you that you're special..I can accommodate sweetheart, I can satisfy your need.  

That us atheists in general are some sort of special breed of people that can see through the God delusion(pun intended) and religious folks are not.

Except that I don't think that's true....?

That's what follows, given these two facts. We're both atheists. You believe people will always be religious.

Religious -and- irreligious, yes.  As we've always been.  Some of our oldest writings regarding gods also contain the oldest exclamations of atheism on record.  We've always been a mixed bag.  

Ok, so now we're getting somewhere. Now you sound reasonable to me. So what makes you think we can't make it so that virtually all people become irreligious?

[Excited Penguin]

Let's stay on point and keep it simple.We're talking about belief here. I'm saying we can free people from their religious dogmatism and help them embrace a freer mindset. You say we can't. Tell me why not.

Now you're just straw manning me, I never said people can't let go of their belief.  Belief tends to be generational.  One generation giving it to the next.  It piggy backs on brain developments that occur when children are still vulnerable and dependent on their families.  It's a perfect storm which almost* guarantees genesis of belief from generation to generation.  There are people who escape belief after being indoctrinated just as there are those that convert after being non-religious.  The fact is that there is no general swing one way or the other in the numbers; and that fact has some very deep roots.

I'm not straw-manning you. Let's lose this kind of language in what I think is a casual conversation, why don't we? Let's not complicate things and throw accusations around. I could do the same, but I'm not. I'm trying to get somewhere. Let's get better at understanding what the other means to say so we can more easily discuss various things, not add unnecessary levels of difficulty to it.


I don't think it has any deep roots. It's just an accident of history. And we can change things. That's my contention.

[The Grand Nudger]

Already been explained.  The thing that makes us good at what we do, that big brain of ours, is good at creating gods, it feeds on religion. Gods and religion are the heat and steam that a machine creates as a byproduct of work, lol. Do the work, get the gods, whether you want them or not.

[Excited Penguin]

Already been explained.  The things that makes us good at what we do, that big brain of ours, is good at creating gods, it feeds on religion.

If it feeds on religion, how come you're an atheist? If it's good at creating gods, how come you didn't create any gods? How come you don't believe in any gods?

[The Grand Nudger]

Maybe I'm just busted as a dis-associative??  LOL, I jest.  I yell at hammers.  I can spit vitriol that makes inanimate objects blush. I do project those things out into the universe, the hammer is a douche that hates me and was just waiting for an opportunity to smash my thumb. The rain waited for me to get out my plow before it fell. Etc etc.

I just don't live my life by them, they're a passing mood. A source of amusement, I sit back and sort of spectate as my mind does it's ridiculous little thing and ponder the wonder of it all.

I'm an atheist because I don't believe in gods, to answer that question. Our brains feed off crack too.....they love it, the little addicts......and yet I'm not a crackhead. I can acknowledge that my biology is doing something, or is predisposed towards something, without thinking that this something is thusly right or true.

[Excited Penguin]

Maybe I'm just busted?  LOL, I jest.  I do, in my own way.  Nothing like the gods of the faithful...but..I yell at hammers.  I can spit vitriol that makes inanimate objects blush.

How exactly do you think you're religious and how does that compare to actual religiosity?

[Angrboda]

I don't think it has any deep roots. It's just an accident of history. And we can change things. That's my contention.

We have believing brains. You can no more shuck that off than you can choose not to feel. That's not an accident of history, it's part of the warp and woof of our evolution as a social species.

[Excited Penguin]

It's not the same, is it? Wouldn't you rather get more people to where you are right now than throw up your hands and say it's all hopeless because you have the impression you're showing signs of irrationality yourself?