My State of Mind
In a comment about my "Bright Is Right " post, an anonymous reader accuses me of closed-mindedness like that of the religites I'm insulting; this is in response.
There is a huge difference between my position and that of godites. I can't prove there is no god, but if convincing evidence became available in support of one, I would accept that, reverse my stance, and retract all my anti-god writings. I am therefore open, not closed-minded. Believers by contrast, accept God in spite of the extreme unlikelihood of his existence and are simply not prepared to listen to rational argument, they are therefore, closed-minded.
I long ago discovered that godites cannot be reasoned with rationally because their beliefs were not obtained rationally, the vast majority were brainwashed into believing when they were children; when their minds were naturally, open to suggestion. I may be wrong about gods, I admit that remote possibility, but when was the last time you heard a believer say their belief may be ill-founded, I suspect the answer, is never.
I suppose that my tone indicates a degree of anger and this may upset some people, well, that's tough! I am angry because of the danger religion presents and the fact that many religites are the most arrogant people I've ever met, some of them actually think they can make me a believer if I just accept their word for it! I take that as an insult - who wouldn't?
Because of the accessibility to instant worldwide communication, religion is perhaps more dangerous today than it has ever been and could possibly result in the death of us all if some religious fanatic got his/her hands on the nuclear trigger. As Sagan said, we are literally made of stardust, we are the Universe trying to understand itself; how tragically ironic and stupid would it be to annihilate ourselves over a fairy tale?
So, you are wrong Anonymous and I take this opportunity to acquaint, or perhaps remind you, of the the great quotation by NASA engineer James Oberg, who said:
"I like to keep an open mind, but not so open my brains fall out!"
To conclude on a positive note, I'm reminded of the show business maxim that there is no such thing as bad publicity, any comment, good or bad is better than none, so I thank you for reading!
posted by Geo at 6:50 pm
5 Comments:
Listen. Do you really think atheism or this "Bright" thing is immune to the same fanticism that makes religion dangerous? If you look at the percentages and the ratios I will guarantee you that the same amount of serial killers and terrorists are athiest compared to religious zealots. Also, keep in mind that most of your eco-terrorists are in fact atheist. All I'm saying is that people need to realize that belief is what plagues mankind, not religion. Also, belief in nothing is still, in essence, a belief.
Just to make sure, I'm not saying brights are bad people. I'm just saying that you should not condemn a people with a blanket statement when your group is subject to the same blanket statement.
Also, about your little comment that atheists are smarter. Stephen Hawking, while not belonging to any specific religion, does believe that it is most probable that there is a god.
Check your stats before you guarantee - last time I checked, atheists in the USA prison population formed less than 0.04 percent! Christians made up more than 80 percent. I'll get the UK stats and blog them, but it's plain that your statement about serial killers and terrorists is so wildly wrong as to merit no consideration.
You may be referring to Hawking's phrase about "knowing the mind of God". A fairly common remark among scientists, it means nothing. Hawking no more believes in God than I do, at least that's what people close to him report.
When was the last time you heard of an atheist suicide bomber? An atheist murderer? An atheist rapist? An atheist sawing an innocent person's head off while chanting "Atheism is great!"
You're partly right about belief, I certainly try to know rather than believe, but it's also OK to not know.
The simple sad fact is that religion has been directly responsible for the deaths of millions of people. Fanaticism? When was the last time an atheist knocked on your door and tried to convert you? Incidentally, I'm not condemning a people, I'm condemning a belief system.
You are making a mistake commonly made by religious people, i.e. invalid statements unsupported by evidence, I rest my case.
You just supported my point. Atheists are relatively incredibly small on the statistics chart (I said the ratio). Which is, of course, why you never hear about their fanatics. Because, with those stats, there is around, maybe, one (over-exaggeration). Also, the Unibomber was an atheist, along with Jeffrey Dahmer. Dahmer is a sensitive case, though, because you can say he was a product of his religious upbringing.
Also, keep in mind that no belief is just the same as a belief. Especially when you think that thinking one way is indefinitely better than thinking another. Also, you want another example of atheists gone fanatically wrong? The friggin' Soviets! There is a tails on every coin. Yes, religion is a dangerous thing right no, but that is only because it is in the undisputed majority right now.
I'm not asking you to say that religion is dangerous. Just consider that no religion is on an equal playing field.
Also, Stephen Hawking has claimed, himself, that he is an agnostic. Most of his postulated theories give several possible options but he will, most of the time, say that the most likely option is one that depends on an omnipotent force. This is precisely why many scientists are now saying that there is most likely some type of semi-conscious force governing the universe, and these are the smart people you were thinking of.
Sorry about the double post but I wanted to show who I was. Also, here's a plug. affectsomething.blogspot.com! I figured it would be cool if you did a comment on my Supersized! post.
Guy15s
I looked at your blog, are you working your way through college?
Just wondered why you were at Wal-Mart?
Anonymous
I don't have much time today, but I'll get to you later, probably another blog - it's good to have feedback.
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