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Nature of science and atheismI think, therefore I am an atheist. What is wanted is not the will to believe but the wish to find out.
Truth does not demand belief. Scientists do not join hands every
Sunday, singing, "yes, gravity is real! I will have faith! I will be
strong! I believe in my heart thatwhat goes up, up, up must come down,
down. down. Amen!" If they did, we would think they were pretty insecure
about it." I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god
than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible
gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. Freethinker n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. The scientist is a lover of truth for the very love of truth itself,
wherever it may lead. Creationists make it sound as though a 'theory' is something you dreamt
up after being drunk all night. Everything has a natural explanation. The moon is not a god but a great
rock and the sun a hot rock. There is joy in rationality, happiness in clarity of mind. Freethought
is thrilling and fulfilling -absolutely essential to mental health and
happiness. Nature of irrationality and religionDebating an irrational person is like giving medicine to a dead. Once the untrained mind has made a formal commitment to a religious
philosophy - and it does not matter whether that philosophy is generally
reasonable and high-minded or utterly bizarre and irrational - the powers
of reason are suprisingly ineffective in changing the believer's
mind. One of the bad effects of an anti-intellectual philosophy is that
thrives upon the errors and confusions of the intellect. Hence it is led
to prefer bad thinking to good, to declare every momentary difficulty
insoluble, and to regard every foolish mistake as revealing the bankruptcy
of intellect and the triumph of intuition. Faith is deciding to allow yourself to believe something your intellect would otherwise cause you to reject - otherwise there's no need for faith. 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 It's not easy to change world views. Faith has its own momentum and
belief is comfortable. To restructure reality is traumatic and scary. That
is why many intelligent people continue to believe: unbelief is an
unknown. Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most
do. What harm would it do, if a man told a good strong lie for the sake of
the good and for the christian church... a lie out of necessity, a useful
lie, a helpful lie, such lies would not be against God, he would accept
them. Faith, n. Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks
without knowledge, of things without parallel. There is something feeble about a man who cannot face the perils of
life without the help of comfortable myths. Almost inevitably some part of
him is aware that they are myths and that he believes them only because
they are comforting. But he dare not face this thought! Anyone who engages in the practice of psychotherapy confronts every day
the devastation wrought by the teachings of religion. It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the
masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth
does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the
people. BibleThere is not one word in the Gospels in praise of
intelligence. The bible must be seen in a cultural context. It didn't just happen.
These stories are retreads. But, tell a Christian that -- No, No! What
makes it doubly sad is that they hardly know the book, much less its
origins. Scriptures: The sacred books of our holy religion, as distinguished
from the false and profane writings on which all other faiths are
based. You believe in a book that has talking animals, wizards, witches,
demons, sticks turning into snakes, food falling from the sky, people
walking on water, and all sorts of magical, absurd and primitive stories,
and you say that we are the ones that need help? Science vs. religionThe study of theology, as it stands in Christian churches, is the study
of nothing; it is founded on nothing; it rests on no principles; it
proceeds by no authorities; it has no data; it can demonstrate nothing;
and it admits of no conclusion. The religious viewpoint makes some pretty clear scientific claims,
lately is basically dishonest about admitting to them, and is incompatible
with a skeptical and scientific point of view. Pseudotieteiden sopukoita tutkiva löytää turvarievun, peukalon, jota
imeä, hameen, josta pitää kiinni. Mitä meillä [skeptikoilla] on
tarjottavana tilalle? Epävarmuutta! Turvattomuutta! Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest
is poetry, imagination This crazy person [Galileo Galilei] wants to turn upside down the whole
astronomy, but the Holy Book tells us how Josua told the Sun stay still,
not the Earth To affirm that the Sun is at the centre of the universe and only
rotates on its axis without going from east to west, is a very dangerous
attitude and one calculated not only to arouse all Scholastic philosophers
and theologians but also to injure our holy faith by contradicting the
Scriptures To assert that the earth revolves around the sun is as erroneous as to
claim that Jesus was not born of a virgin. The trouble with the world is that the stupid are cocksure, and the
intelligent are full of doubt. Prayer won't cure AIDS. Research will. If you think that your belief is based upon reason, you will support it
by argument and will abandon it if the argument goes against you. But if
your belief is based on faith, you will realize that argument is useless
and will result to force either in the form of persecution or by stunting
and distorting the minds of the young in what is called
"education". The longer I have been an atheist, the more amazed I am that I ever
believed Christian notions. Good & EvilI cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his
creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own - a God, in short, who
is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the
individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor
such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms. I do understand what love is, and that is one of the reasons I can
never If god is as loving and merciful as some religions claim, then I'm sure
he will forgive those of us who think logically. If he is as vengeful and
cruel ans other religions warn, then who would want to live with a tyrant
like that? God hated the world so much that he sent his only son so that whoever does not believe in him will perish and be denied eternal life. You can cite a hundred references to show that the biblical God is a
bloodthirsty tyrant, but if they can dig up two or three verses that say
"God is love," they will claim that you are taking things out of
context! The very concept of sin comes from the bible. Christianity offers to
solve a problem of its own making! Would you be thankful to a person who
cut you with a knife in order to sell you a bandage? I acted alone on God's orders. Miracles, creationSensible men no longer belive in miracles; they were invented by
priests to humbug the peasants. Naturally, since the Sumerians didn't know what caused the flood
anymore than we do, they blamed the gods. That's the advantage of
religion. You're never short an explanation for anything. The world presents enough problems if you believe it to be a world of
law and order; do not add to them by believing it to be a world of
miracles. While it cannot be proved that any experience of possession,
conversion, revelation, or divine ecstasy was merely an epileptic
discharge, we must ask how one differentiates "real transcendence" from
neuropathies that produce the same extreme realness, profundity,
ineffability, and sense of cosmic unity. Parsimony alone argues against
invoking spirits, demons, or extraterrestrials when natural causes will
suffice. It is of course always best to be led by god, and have him personally
whisper into your ear. Only, when it is the devil talking he will tell you
he is god, for the devil is a crafty liar. So you never know who is
talking to you. |