Well, all this is interesting to me, anyway, and that's what matters here. The Internet is a terrible thing for someone like me, who finds almost everything interesting.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Anything but an atheist
My brother sent me this. Nice, isn't it? Why is atheism so threatening?
When it comes to religion, no matter what you believe, it's a minority belief, worldwide. Face it, whatever your beliefs, the majority of human beings disagree with you. But that doesn't seem to bother most modern believers, not when it's some other religion. Not having a religion at all? That's a problem.
You can be a Muslim, a Mormon, or a Moonie, and the Boy Scouts will welcome you with open arms. You can worship Kali, Thor, Zeus, or Quetzalcoatl, and they won't have any problem with you. But don't believe in a god at all? That's not allowed, not in the Boy Scouts.
Why are atheists so threatening, but Hindus aren't? At a time of virtual holy war in the Middle East, when Muslim terrorists have struck at innocent Americans and vow to do so again, why are Muslims still more accepted - far more - than atheists?
Don't get me wrong, I think Muslims also have a right to their beliefs. I think they're wrong, but that's OK, since they think I'm wrong, too. We can agree to disagree. I certainly don't assume that they're all terrorists. But many people do,... and still they fear atheists more.
Funny, isn't it? Why is it OK to believe in any religion you want, but not OK if you don't believe in any of them? If you're Christian, members of all those other religions disagree with you. Heck, even within Christianity itself, there's little agreement. But it's generally only atheists you fear and hate.
Why is that? Is it because you think we're right? Maybe you don't fear all those other religions, because you know they're just superstition. You're never going to join the Scientologists, the Sikhs, or the Buddhists anyway, so they're no real threat. But atheism is a threat, because you just might decide to face reality someday?
Is that it? I don't know. But what else could it be?
4 comments:
Jeff
said...
Why do religious people fear atheists? Hmm...that's a toughie to say the least.
Is it the "loss of the mystery" thing, for lack of a better term? Living in the bubble, so to speak?
Is it a vanity thing? A few quotes come to mind:
"On the first day, Man created God" (Anonymous)
"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself." (Richard Francis Burton)
My flavor-of-the-month quote: "Vanity is definitely my favorite sin. Self-love, the all-natural opiate." (Al Pacino, "The Devil's Advocate")
Or perhaps it's a more salient issue: POWER. I've always differentiated between spirituality and religion. To me, spirituality is about looking inward; contemplating one's existence, seeking inner enlightenment. Religion is projecting outward; acquiring and holding onto power to control other people. If there is a God "up there," I've never had an issue with "him." My issue is with the spokespeople "down here." Of course, I'm talking about organised religion, the church establishment. Why? POWER.
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful." (attributed to Seneca the Younger)
"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion." (Steven Weinberg)
And I would be remiss if I didn't get in a Star Wars quote:
Palpatine: "Remember back to your early teachings. All who gain power are afraid to lose it. Even the Jedi." Anakin: "The Jedi use their power for good." Palpatine: "Good is a point of view, Anakin."
Anyway, that's the best I can come up with, WCG. Logging onto the LJS and poking Jody P in the eye is good fun, but it just doesn't provide sufficient intellectual exercise for me.
"Let me have men about me that are fat, Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights. Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look, He thinks too much; such men are dangerous"
I'm a skeptic. I think it makes sense to have reasons for what I believe, so I apportion my belief to the evidence. You're welcome to disagree. Please, tell me I'm wrong. I probably don't agree with anyone about everything. Why should disagreement be a problem? Check the Pages section below for series posts and links to book reviews and game posts, as well as contact info. Unfortunately, I rarely blog at all, anymore. So don't expect new posts. - Bill
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It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong - Richard Feynman
The general root of superstition is that men observe when things hit, and not when they miss, and commit to memory the one, and pass over the other. - Sir Francis Bacon
When a whole nation is roaring Patriotism at the top of its voice, I am fain to explore the cleanness of its hands and purity of its heart. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
Speculation is perfectly all right, but if you stay there you've only founded a superstition. If you test it, you've started a science. - Hal Clement
No matter how many times a theory meets its tests successfully, there can be no certainty that it will not be overthrown by the next observation. This, then, is a cornerstone of modern natural philosophy. It makes no claim of attaining ultimate truth. In fact, the phrase "ultimate truth" becomes meaningless, because there is no way in which enough observations can be made to make truth certain and, therefore, "ultimate". - Isaac Asimov
The government of the United States of America is not in any sense founded on the Christian Religion. - Treaty of Tripoli, passed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and signed by President John Adams (1797)
I don't doubt the sincerity of dowsers, but even after we've demonstrated that they can't produce results that are any better than chance they'll still go away believing in their abilities... It is like the mother whose son is caught shoplifting on tape. She wonders why someone would want to frame her child by producing a fake video. - James Randi
During many ages there were witches. The Bible said so. The Bible commanded that they should not be allowed to live. Therefore the Church ... imprisoned, tortured, hanged, and burned whole hordes and armies of witches, and washed the Christian world clean with their foul blood. Then it was discovered that there was no such thing as witches, and never had been. One does not know whether to laugh or to cry. - Mark Twain
Aristotle maintained that women have fewer teeth than men; although he was twice married, it never occurred to him to verify this statement by examining his wives' mouths. - Bertrand Russell
A casual stroll through the lunatic asylum shows that faith does not prove anything. - Friedrich Nietzsche
I have been thinking that I would make a proposition to my Republican friends... that if they will stop telling lies about the Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them. - Adlai E. Stevenson, Jr.
This is not about proof. Science does not use proof. We favor evidence, and the work consists largely of the slow accumulation of evidence in support of ideas, not magically potent proofs that establish an idea as unassailable. - PZ Myers
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We are prodding, challenging, seeking contradictions or small, persistent residual errors, proposing alternative explanations, encouraging heresy. We give our highest rewards to those who convincingly disprove established beliefs. - Carl Sagan
We are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further. - Richard Dawkins
120 million of us place the big bang 2,500 years after the Babylonians and Sumerians learned to brew beer. - Sam Harris
To kill a man is not to defend a doctrine, but to kill a man. - Michael Servetus, burned at the stake in 1553
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We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all who came before us and with just as much apparent reason. - Thomas Macauley, 1830
It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can stop him from lynching me, and I think that's pretty important. - Martin Luther King, Jr.
We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven into an age of unreason if we dig deep into our history and remember we are not descended from fearful men. - Edward R. Murrow
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence. Science is simply common sense at its best - that is, rigidly accurate in observation, and merciless to fallacy in logic. - Thomas Huxley
There is no absurdity so obvious that it cannot be firmly planted in the human head if you only begin to impose it before the age of five, by constantly repeating it with an air of great solemnity. - Arthur Schopenhauer
Because religious belief, or non-belief, is such an important part of every person's life, freedom of religion affects every individual. ... Erecting the "wall of separation between church and state," therefore, is absolutely essential in a free society. - President Thomas Jefferson
To be elected in America, no matter from what party, the candidates have no choice but to year after year pledge to lower taxes further and further. We have become the nation of Ken and Barbie, looking good but very poor at the math. - Rack Jite
Invisible Pink Unicorns are beings of great spiritual power. We know this because they are capable of being invisible and pink at the same time. Like all religions, the Faith of the Invisible Pink Unicorns is based upon both logic and faith. We have faith that they are pink; we logically know that they are invisible because we can't see them. - Steve Eley
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In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. - H. L. Mencken
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4 comments:
Why do religious people fear atheists? Hmm...that's a toughie to say the least.
Is it the "loss of the mystery" thing, for lack of a better term? Living in the bubble, so to speak?
Is it a vanity thing? A few quotes come to mind:
"On the first day, Man created God" (Anonymous)
"The more I study religions the more I am convinced that man never worshiped anything but himself." (Richard Francis Burton)
My flavor-of-the-month quote: "Vanity is definitely my favorite sin. Self-love, the all-natural opiate." (Al Pacino, "The Devil's Advocate")
Or perhaps it's a more salient issue: POWER. I've always differentiated between spirituality and religion. To me, spirituality is about looking inward; contemplating one's existence, seeking inner enlightenment. Religion is projecting outward; acquiring and holding onto power to control other people. If there is a God "up there," I've never had an issue with "him." My issue is with the spokespeople "down here." Of course, I'm talking about organised religion, the church establishment. Why? POWER.
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true, by the wise as false, and by rulers as useful." (attributed to Seneca the Younger)
"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil — that takes religion." (Steven Weinberg)
And I would be remiss if I didn't get in a Star Wars quote:
Palpatine: "Remember back to your early teachings. All who gain power are afraid to lose it. Even the Jedi."
Anakin: "The Jedi use their power for good."
Palpatine: "Good is a point of view, Anakin."
Anyway, that's the best I can come up with, WCG. Logging onto the LJS and poking Jody P in the eye is good fun, but it just doesn't provide sufficient intellectual exercise for me.
Well that's why you read my blog, isn't it, Jeff? For the intellectual exercise?
Guaranteed to raise your IQ a few points every day, or your money back. :)
"Let me have men about me that are fat,
Sleek-headed men and such as sleep a-nights.
Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look,
He thinks too much; such men are dangerous"
- Julius Caesar Act 1, Scene 2
Clearly, you won't be demanding your money back. :)
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