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Atheism is not as rare or as rational as you think

[bigthink.com]atheism-rare-rational/?utm_source=mailchimp&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weeklynewsletter

mzee 7 Apr 21
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1

For sure, but I suspect a good number of members on this site would vehemently deny such a conclusion. I found out the hard way, having stumbled across this site by chance and giving it a go thinking I would mostly be in the company of rational and reasonable individuals... I was wrong.

I can say from direct experience that many members here definitely do deny this conclusion, as amply demonstrated by the comments below. Not all of course, but many atheists are interested in science to the extent it gets them out of going to church (can't say I blame them so far) but not an inch beyond that. When science starts to discover that religion has contributed to the evolutionary success of H.sapiens, then they become the same ardent science deniers that religious fundamentalists are.

@skado Agreed on the last part there, and concerning that is.

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This is a pretty bad article in a number of ways. An awful lot is assumed (and, I think, wrongly so) and it does seem slanted toward belief. I skipped over some and gave up.

It was written by an atheist.

@skado Some atheists are bad writers. Some are also not as bright as they believe themselves to be.

@rainmanjr
True enough, but what's the non ad hominem argument? Nothing in the article was slanted toward belief in anything but scientific evidence, that I can see. Some atheists are as superstitious as believers when science says anything contrary to their comfortable prejudices.

@skado Many atheists just tend to zero out the equation of faith without resolving anything else of philosophical nature, They have no answers beyond "god doesn't exist" so satisfy nothing. Like a completely emptied house left to rot in a field. I think most people need more than that so explore things they haven't before questioning their long held allegiance. Taro, mysticism, lunar influences, Buddhism, a few find Taoism...anything with a connective idea. I don't remember the article, TBH, but scientific evidence also leads to a place of IDK (either through personal limitation of knowledge, scientific limitation of data, or experiential precedence seemingly contradicting it) so an IDK with an amazing personal friend telling me about something else is as good as the scientific one.

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This article is extrapolated from Azim Shariff and Will Gervais' Templeton foundation sponsored study "Accurately Measuring Religious Belief And Attitudes Around The World" 2019 via the University of British Columbia.
Azim Shariff has since cut all ties with the "Templeton Foundation" not so Will Gervais, who as evidenced by this article is still associated with said organisation.
The John Templeton foundation, for those not familiar with it, is a " philanthropic organization that reflects the ideas of its founder, John Templeton, who... "wanted to support progress in religious and spiritual knowledge, especially at the intersection of religion and science." at least that is what it says on their foundational documentation.
In reality the Templeton foundations promotes religious fundamentalism, undermines atheism and its notorious "Templeton Prize" given each year along with a LARGE cash prize has gone to among others
Mother Teresa (1973) genocidal maniac, friend of dictators
Billy Graham (1982) Spiritual Advisor to the Whitehouse
George Fielden MacLeod, Baron MacLeod of Fuinary (1989) founder of the Iona Chrisitian isolationist Community on the island of Iona.
Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker (1989) a German theoretical physicist who worked on Nazi Germany's atomic bomb program.
“Bill” Bright, (1996) president and founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International
King Abdullah II of Jordan (2018) Self proclaimed 41st-generation direct descendant of Prophet Muhammad and "Most influential muslim" in the world and untaxed proprietor of a secret "vast empire of wealth that he disguised through offshore companies and tax havens"

" the Templeton Foundation ... blurs the boundary between science and religion and makes a virtue of belief without evidence.
Richard Dawkins,

The moment I saw that it was in association with the John Templeton Foundation I expected it to be intellectually dishonest, and I was not disappointed.

Good work, thank you.

4

I do agree with the article that some atheists claim to be intellectually superior. I am not one of those atheists.

I also agree that relying on self-identification by atheists will result in less than accurate numbers. Many people go along to get along.

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"How did atheism evolve in a religious species?" is a question so loaded with unjustified assumptions that I almost fell off my chair with laughter.

Quite.

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I'll take it over faith and religion any day, thank you very much.

The idea that religion has been around forever, and therefore serves an evolutionary purpose and is somehow good, is one of the falsest arguments made in defence of religion.

A lot of bad ideas have been around forever, like racism, and I suppose it serves an evolutionary purpose of making people feel racially superior. Doesn't mean it's good, or should stay.

I would be extremely interested to know what the author means when he uses the phrase "rational thinking".

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