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#-3 · 12-07-2020, 10:24 PM

I know this thread goes down the religion road, because of the way politicians use religion in bad faith as a way to manipulate their constituents. And I was an instigator derailing things in this direction.

But I think we should clarify, I spoke up because I thought it's unfair to paint atheists as people who believe an absence of evidence qualifies and evidence of absence. I was trying to state that we in fact believe there is ample evidence to believe that religion is a cultural construct to rationalize the world, and there is very good right thinking reasons to believe that all religions are necessarily wrong, that their are explainable, natural, physical causes for everything we have been able to measure, and that their will be explainable causes for anything that we are ever able to measure. This isn't a faith argument it is acceptance of a well established trend.

I do not bemoan religious people, and I can fully empathize the reasons they would come to the conclusions that they do. But they should understand that atheism and anti-theism are different things, our world does not circulate around them being wrong, we have just come to an honest interpretation of the evidence that leads us to believe nobody would adopt any of these religious worldviews absent the broader cultural context that breads them. As a person who is not an anti-theist, I'm fine with people who disagree and always happy to listen, but I would prefer that they at least listen to the strongest arguments of my world view before strawmanning me away, or a least refrain from telling me what my beliefs are/aren't.

I think it's particularly visible in the US that these rifts in understanding are used to radicalize people, that you have one of the worst people ever put forward publicly offend every moral and value that religious people proport to hold, and yet they support him in overwhelming numbers, because they have been lead to believe there is a group of people who have defined themselves in opposition to the truth they hold dearest, and they cannot be seen to be anywhere near the same side as those people.

So to draw this thread back to politics, I guess the real question is; Why are there so many religious people who are so afraid of atheists or socialists or science that disproves portions of their texts, why are they so willing to accept actions that so blatantly violate the morals the proport to have so long as they don't have to side with boggy man on the other side?

12-07-2020, 10:24 PM	#7305
#-3 #1 Goaltender Join Date: Mar 2008 Exp:	I know this thread goes down the religion road, because of the way politicians use religion in bad faith as a way to manipulate their constituents. And I was an instigator derailing things in this direction. But I think we should clarify, I spoke up because I thought it's unfair to paint atheists as people who believe an absence of evidence qualifies and evidence of absence. I was trying to state that we in fact believe there is ample evidence to believe that religion is a cultural construct to rationalize the world, and there is very good right thinking reasons to believe that all religions are necessarily wrong, that their are explainable, natural, physical causes for everything we have been able to measure, and that their will be explainable causes for anything that we are ever able to measure. This isn't a faith argument it is acceptance of a well established trend. I do not bemoan religious people, and I can fully empathize the reasons they would come to the conclusions that they do. But they should understand that atheism and anti-theism are different things, our world does not circulate around them being wrong, we have just come to an honest interpretation of the evidence that leads us to believe nobody would adopt any of these religious worldviews absent the broader cultural context that breads them. As a person who is not an anti-theist, I'm fine with people who disagree and always happy to listen, but I would prefer that they at least listen to the strongest arguments of my world view before strawmanning me away, or a least refrain from telling me what my beliefs are/aren't. I think it's particularly visible in the US that these rifts in understanding are used to radicalize people, that you have one of the worst people ever put forward publicly offend every moral and value that religious people proport to hold, and yet they support him in overwhelming numbers, because they have been lead to believe there is a group of people who have defined themselves in opposition to the truth they hold dearest, and they cannot be seen to be anywhere near the same side as those people. So to draw this thread back to politics, I guess the real question is; Why are there so many religious people who are so afraid of atheists or socialists or science that disproves portions of their texts, why are they so willing to accept actions that so blatantly violate the morals the proport to have so long as they don't have to side with boggy man on the other side?