The Problem With Atheists.
A friend of mine sent me a link to the BBC documentary The Trouble with Atheists.
Basically it is a strawman attack on Atheists that rehashes the same points that Ben Stein's Creationist funded movie called Expelled. both Movies have the same basic points:
-Science and Religion are the the same, so lets split the difference.
-Anyone that tells people that their beliefs are wrong is an Elitist bastard. Anyone that argues with religion is arrogant. How dare they question our special right not to have our beliefs questions.
-Science cant explain everything and can only say there is no good
reason to believe in god as much as they can say there is no good reason
to believe that placed invisible goblin eggs under your bed that will
hatch and eat most of your belongings. Therefore, you cant say boo
about my religion.
-Belief in evolution inevitably leads to the
holocaust and Stalin sneaking into your bedroom at night and touching
all your stuff.
-
*Theists and apologist work hard to paint science, skepticism, and atheism as just another ideology. If scienceis just another ideology, they its just another zany idea that people have a right to believe. This view of science is stupid dogmatic ideologies didn't get man to the moon. The bible doesn't make sure that plane you flew on stays in the air. This is because science is a tool, not an ideology. Science should inform our beliefs but science itself is nothing more than a tool in our toolbox that we can use to determine if our beliefs are true. Unfortunately it is the strategy of the day to present unsupported beliefs as an equally valid point as something that is scientifically supported. The goal here is to get the public to believe that the true must lie somewhere in the middle (stoopid post-modern relativity). Imagine if this was applied to positions that support slavery or that the earth is flat.
*Speaking of Flat Earthers, imagine the entire documentary was about how the ideology of science dogmatically discounts the theory of the earth being flat. Imagine yourself arguing against the theory of a flat earth. To someone who believes that the earth is flat, I bet that you sound pretty arrogant, condescending, and pretty much like a big meanie. We hesitate to simply say "No, that belief is stoopid!".
We also have a big problem in my country with questioning (Christian) religious beliefs. Christian America seems to think that right to religion means right to never have their beliefs questioned. The want to protect the special rights that the religious have enjoyed. "You can't say anything about my religion or you are discriminating against Xtians. Never mind that American Xtians are happy to disparage the beliefs of other Xtians sects or Muslims.
*Science can not tell us that there is no god. It CAN tell us that there is no good claim about that existence of Unicorns. Science has also brought us narwhals aka "The Unicorns of the Sea". in the same way that science deals with unicorns it deals with youse guys' Gawds. We can not know that there is no god with 100% certainty, however we can say that all claims to date about the existence of god are big steaming piles of horse shit that were generally created to exploit people.
Switching to Atheism for a moment. Science and Atheism are not the same thing. Science is a tool that can help lead a person to becoming an Atheism, but it doesn't always. The point again being that science is a tool in our toolbox and Atheism is a conclusion that relies on science, sociology, history, politics and much more to if one is interested in the truth of the beliefs they hold. How I came to be an atheist has less to do with evolution and astrophysics and much more to do with sociology and history.
*Science is responsible for the holocaust? Movements that want a secular society will lead to more murder and violent? Bullshit. Science what not the ideology of the Nazis, Fascism was the ideology of the Nazis. Personally I argue that it was the state of the world economically that allowed any of it to happen. But it con not go unstated that if you reasonable what to know where hitler's antisemitism came from simple look to the father of the Prodestant movement Martin Luther. In this post I show quotes from both Luther and Hitler and readers are unable to tell who is saying what.
On a final personal note: I have been to Fermi Lab, in fact it near where I grow up. Is it a cathedral to the dogma of science? Or does it have really nice buildings because it houses some the most expensive and sophisticated equiptment in the country. How about we focus on the cathedrals to greed that the destruction of our economy built on Wall Street.
Basically it is a strawman attack on Atheists that rehashes the same points that Ben Stein's Creationist funded movie called Expelled. both Movies have the same basic points:
-Science and Religion are the the same, so lets split the difference.
-Anyone that tells people that their beliefs are wrong is an Elitist bastard. Anyone that argues with religion is arrogant. How dare they question our special right not to have our beliefs questions.
-Science cant explain everything and can only say there is no good
reason to believe in god as much as they can say there is no good reason
to believe that placed invisible goblin eggs under your bed that will
hatch and eat most of your belongings. Therefore, you cant say boo
about my religion.
-Belief in evolution inevitably leads to the
holocaust and Stalin sneaking into your bedroom at night and touching
all your stuff.
-
*Theists and apologist work hard to paint science, skepticism, and atheism as just another ideology. If scienceis just another ideology, they its just another zany idea that people have a right to believe. This view of science is stupid dogmatic ideologies didn't get man to the moon. The bible doesn't make sure that plane you flew on stays in the air. This is because science is a tool, not an ideology. Science should inform our beliefs but science itself is nothing more than a tool in our toolbox that we can use to determine if our beliefs are true. Unfortunately it is the strategy of the day to present unsupported beliefs as an equally valid point as something that is scientifically supported. The goal here is to get the public to believe that the true must lie somewhere in the middle (stoopid post-modern relativity). Imagine if this was applied to positions that support slavery or that the earth is flat.
*Speaking of Flat Earthers, imagine the entire documentary was about how the ideology of science dogmatically discounts the theory of the earth being flat. Imagine yourself arguing against the theory of a flat earth. To someone who believes that the earth is flat, I bet that you sound pretty arrogant, condescending, and pretty much like a big meanie. We hesitate to simply say "No, that belief is stoopid!".
We also have a big problem in my country with questioning (Christian) religious beliefs. Christian America seems to think that right to religion means right to never have their beliefs questioned. The want to protect the special rights that the religious have enjoyed. "You can't say anything about my religion or you are discriminating against Xtians. Never mind that American Xtians are happy to disparage the beliefs of other Xtians sects or Muslims.
*Science can not tell us that there is no god. It CAN tell us that there is no good claim about that existence of Unicorns. Science has also brought us narwhals aka "The Unicorns of the Sea". in the same way that science deals with unicorns it deals with youse guys' Gawds. We can not know that there is no god with 100% certainty, however we can say that all claims to date about the existence of god are big steaming piles of horse shit that were generally created to exploit people.
Switching to Atheism for a moment. Science and Atheism are not the same thing. Science is a tool that can help lead a person to becoming an Atheism, but it doesn't always. The point again being that science is a tool in our toolbox and Atheism is a conclusion that relies on science, sociology, history, politics and much more to if one is interested in the truth of the beliefs they hold. How I came to be an atheist has less to do with evolution and astrophysics and much more to do with sociology and history.
*Science is responsible for the holocaust? Movements that want a secular society will lead to more murder and violent? Bullshit. Science what not the ideology of the Nazis, Fascism was the ideology of the Nazis. Personally I argue that it was the state of the world economically that allowed any of it to happen. But it con not go unstated that if you reasonable what to know where hitler's antisemitism came from simple look to the father of the Prodestant movement Martin Luther. In this post I show quotes from both Luther and Hitler and readers are unable to tell who is saying what.
On a final personal note: I have been to Fermi Lab, in fact it near where I grow up. Is it a cathedral to the dogma of science? Or does it have really nice buildings because it houses some the most expensive and sophisticated equiptment in the country. How about we focus on the cathedrals to greed that the destruction of our economy built on Wall Street.