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Don't you think it is wondering and disappointing that more than 50 % of the world population believe that ancient books like bible and quran are more trustworthy and valuable than what scientists say?

NR92 6 Apr 15
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12 comments

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1

Can't say it either amazes or disappoints me, it is what I have long come to expect from my fellow man. And it is what I held to at one time myself. It is hard to rise above the level of your peers. I did it only because circumstance dragged me kicking and screaming into what turned out, thankfully, to be a better relationship with reality.

As @Freedompath rightly points out, it is intergenerational peer pressure on pain of not belonging, and hypersocial creatures that we are, we are vulnerable to that.

1

The rigorous and dynamic nature of science is too demanding for most people. They find comfort in something that is stable and unchanging.

1

After paying close attention to the religions of the ancient world and seeing how clearly the christian religion has been entirely contrived by man, I don't bother arguing doctrine. It's a fantasy from day one and I just won't argue scripture with them. So not worth it.

0

It just shows the power of ignorance...especially when it is encouraged generation after generation...in order to belong...

2

It scares me because they can vote...

I'm shuddering as I consider your words....so true...so scary

1

I don't go in for ancient wisdom
I don't believe just 'cause ideas are tenacious it means they're worthy
I get freaked out by churches
Some of the hymns that they sing have nice chords
But the lyrics are dodgy
-- Tim Minchin, White Wine in the Sun

1

Unfortunately, most of science is very technical and most people can't get beyond the basics. Even scientist in the same field argue over some details of their field. Besides, people are usually looking for something they can gain and immortality is a big enticement over being simply insignificant.

2

I think it's frightening. :/

3

Homo Sapiens Sapiens have clung to religion, in one form or another, since their beginnings. Fifty percent is actually encouraging, considering that a hundred years ago, it would have been more like 99%!

1

Disappointing, but not surprising. Read Erich Fromm's ESCAPE FROM FREEDOM.

0

It’s apples and oranges. The comparison should not even be made in the first place.

Of course that supposes that we do not read ancient scriptures as literal truth—something to be believed. Yet there are beautiful and valuable things written in scriptures. My favorites are the Upanishads.

Niels Bohr:

“I myself find the division of the world into an objective and a subjective side much too arbitrary. The fact that religions through the ages have spoken in images, parables, and paradoxes means simply that there are no other ways of grasping the reality to which they refer. But that does not mean that it is not a genuine reality. And splitting this reality into an objective and a subjective side won't get us very far.”

1

It's frightening to a lot of people to live in a universe where humans (and for that matter, life in general) are nothing special, and just came about as the result of chemical and genetic processes. Religion tells them that they have a place in the universe, that our world and they in particular are central to everything; that we're a special creation, made and watched over by a father figure who cares what happens to us and who planned it all out; that no matter how horrible things might be right now, it will all be okay in the end. This is comforting to people who can't face the truth without fear.

I don't mean this to sound like boasting, but it takes courage to be an atheist. It's tough to face the Universe with no buffer between you and it. I dare say most of us don't think about it a lot, but when we do, it can be a tad unnerving. It would be nice to believe in something religious, but dishonest.

I believe that in the end ‘facing the fact, that this is all there is,’ is empowering! I feel less alone than I ever did caught up in religion. I did however, take to heart ideas from many scriptures...that helped me to behave more human.

I beg to differ. Humans, no, really, all life is special, considering that nearly countless ancestral generations fought and struggled to get us here to today. Our place here was earned, and we have a much more rich and splendid history than would be the case if some being snapped it’s fingers and created us all Willy-nilly. Also, being special or giving meaning to ourselves is always an individual’s choice. It’s something we can all decide, no back story needed. 🙂

I agree that it takes courage to become an atheist—to turn away from dogmatic church teachings. It takes even more courage to turn away from a simplistic faith in the materialistic, reductionist reliance on scientism for your emotional support.

It takes courage to face our abject ignorance in the face of the overwhelming miracle of ultimate reality, mysterious and cloaked in darkness as it is. That darkness is, however, brilliant and dazzling in its implications.

Our bodies might be the result of genetic and chemical processes but those processes are not simple, valueless and well-understood. They are amazing and complex, springing from a source of which humans are abjectly ignorant. Conscious awareness is not cheap, valueless, or simple. Conscious awareness is a profoundly mysterious and overwhelming phenomena for which there is not the least hint of an explanation.

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