Five Things She Doesn't Like About Atheists

[Mister Agenda]

I can't help but feel relatively smarter when I see a theist post something like 'Atheists, what in science most makes you question your atheism (you can't say 'nothing')? I generally stay out of it when they talk among themselves.

[Thumpalumpacus]

I can't help but feel relatively smarter when I see a theist post something like 'Atheists, what in science most makes you question your atheism (you can't say 'nothing')? I generally stay out of it when they talk among themselves.

I feel no need to answer their question beyond a simple "I don't have faith." If they can rely upon faith to justify their belief, I can equally point to my lacking faith to justify my lacking belief.

It doesn't hurt that I don't go around asking them what in the Bible gives them the most doubt ... because I don't care what they believe so long as they don't harm others with it.

[Belacqua]

I can't help but feel relatively smarter when I see a theist post something like 'Atheists, what in science most makes you question your atheism (you can't say 'nothing')? I generally stay out of it when they talk among themselves.

Well, nobody doubts that there are a lot of stupid Christians. 

What the woman in the video argues is that it's too easy to say that a person must be stupid to be a Christian.

[The Grand Nudger]

It's no a necessity, but it clearly helps. I suspect it's less that a person must be stupid to be a christian, but that christianity...and any number of similar faiths, actually make people stupid. How often does someone go from saying that they found a way to manage their grief by getting into christianity and then the next thing you know they're telling you ufos are demons? Too often.

[AFTT47]

It's no a necessity, but it clearly helps.  I suspect it's less that a person must be stupid to be a christian, but that christianity...and any number of similar faiths, actually make people stupid.  How often does someone go from saying that they found a way to manage their grief by getting into christianity and then the next thing you know they're telling you ufos are demons?  Too often.

Religions can't make people stupid. It can fuck up the way they think, however. It's not reducing one's intellectual capacity but hijacking their thought processes. People like you and I may be more resistant to such programming but we're not necessarily smarter.

I am a life-long atheist but in my early teens, I believed aliens built the pyramids, the Easter Island monoliths and the 'face' on Mars. I was emotionally invested in that belief and it squashed my critical thinking. I did outgrow that by the age of 18 but I don't believe it's because I'm particularly smart. I've met several theists I believe are smarter than me. I just have a stronger emotional investment in truth than beliefs which make me feel good.

[Fake Messiah]

Religion makes many people stupid because they don't want to get educated on, let's say, evolution or history or whatever because they are in a bubble created by religion.

Now, there are some smart people who believe in God, but the moment they start speaking about God, they sound stupid. Which means that religion makes even smart people sound stupid.

For example, I already talked about a video in which the famed Dr. Francis S. Collins talks about objective morality. Pretty much everything he said in that video is stupid and uninformed.

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's no a necessity, but it clearly helps.  I suspect it's less that a person must be stupid to be a christian, but that christianity...and any number of similar faiths, actually make people stupid.  How often does someone go from saying that they found a way to manage their grief by getting into christianity and then the next thing you know they're telling you ufos are demons?  Too often.

I think that getting into a belief-system that discourages questioning erects roadblocks to learning. Theists can be and many are very intelligent, but when questioning stops, so does learning, in my opinion.

IOW, religion may not make smart people stupid, but I believe it hampers their further mental growth.

Yes, some go whole-hog into bullshit, but I think most smart people who fall into religion all the same understand the line between bullshit and rationality, they just carve out a compartment for their faith.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I can't help but feel relatively smarter when I see a theist post something like 'Atheists, what in science most makes you question your atheism (you can't say 'nothing')? I generally stay out of it when they talk among themselves.

Well, nobody doubts that there are a lot of stupid Christians. 

What the woman in the video argues is that it's too easy to say that a person must be stupid to be a Christian.

Speaking for myself, I don't think religionists are stupid. In fact, quite a lot of them find ingenious ways to remain willfully ignorant of those...whaddya call 'em...facts.
Boru

[Ivan Denisovich]

It's no a necessity, but it clearly helps.  I suspect it's less that a person must be stupid to be a christian, but that christianity...and any number of similar faiths, actually make people stupid.  How often does someone go from saying that they found a way to manage their grief by getting into christianity and then the next thing you know they're telling you ufos are demons?  Too often.

I would say that it's stupid people who stay religious. It's not like atheism takes all that much brain power but christianity vs atheism isn't functionalism vs intentionalism debate where both sides have (or at least had) a point. It's incoherent, idiotic and foolish mythology vs simple stance of not believing into said incoherent, idiotic and foolish mythology.

Christians aren't necessarily dumb but in my view they're dumber than atheists by virtue of believing obvious* bullshit.


*It ain't X century.

[AFTT47]

Religion makes many people stupid because they don't want to get educated on, let's say, evolution or history or whatever because they are in a bubble created by religion.

That's ignorance, not stupidity. Religious fundamentalism definitely leads to ignorance.