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Monday, January 30, 2012
The Atheist Experience: don't care if your beliefs reflect reality?
This is from the Atheist Experience TV show, episode #640, hosted by Matt Dillahunty and Martin Wagner.
It's funny, but they tend to get variations of this call, where a theist admits that he doesn't care if his belief is true, as long as it makes him feel good.
That's just an incredible admission to make, don't you think? I really can't understand it. I care about the truth. And if I knew I was just believing something to make myself feel good, I wouldn't feel good. I'd feel like a complete coward.
Most of these callers back off a bit when questioned, but not this one. Apparently, he just doesn't care if he's believing complete nonsense. Well, he's honest, I guess. But this is really hard for me to understand.
Here's a good reason for atheism. I dug up this story yesterday and it disgusts me to the very core of my being.
ReplyDeletehttp://972mag.com/watch-ultra-orthodox-spit-on-immodest-8-year-old-girl-in-bet-shemesh/31268/
Yes, that's really disgusting, Jeff. I'm sure some people will say that's not their religion. But right-wing Christians are trying to get the same political power and the same favorable treatment as right-wing Jews in Israel.
DeleteIt wasn't Christians who flew passenger planes into buildings, either. Heck, they've even stopped burning women alive. But if you consider faith-based thinking to be valid at all, how can you criticize other people who act, they believe, as their faith requires?
Obviously, there are good reasons to act differently. But people believe because of faith, not reason. As Jonathan Swift said, you can't reason a person out of a thing he was never reasoned into.
Too bad that video clip is in Hebrew. But it's damning enough, anyway (especially seeing how frightened that little girl is).
Oops! I should have watched that video on the 972 magazine website, since there are subtitles there. I just automatically watched it on YouTube, instead - and I don't speak Hebrew. :)
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