More faith to be an atheist via statistics???

[snafui]

I am at my parents this weekend and mentioned something about solidsquid and his opinions last night. This morning my dad told me about a book he is reading, "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist." He told me the author states that it takes 5% faith to believe in Christian science and 23% faith to believe in the atheist point of view of evolution. I was dying of laughter but kept a straight face none the less.

1) "Christian science?" Umm... isn't it either science or it's not?

2) Statistically speaking how do you make a quantative statement about how much faith something takes?

Just thought you guys might have a laugh or two on this one...

[GodsAreUs]

I think faith is like a digital broadcast television signal. You either have it or you don't. There's no grainy middle ground.

That said, it takes skeptical thinking and a willingness to question everything to be an atheist. Faith is believing what you're told. Skepticism is believing nothing until you see it.

[snafui]

Well said GodsAreUs, very well said!

Snafui makes a note: Faith believing what you're told...

[Dragon*of*Heaven]

That said, it takes skeptical thinking and a willingness to question everything to be an atheist. Faith is believing what you're told. Skepticism is believing nothing until you see it.

I belive this would probably be the best reason to point out that most people 'need' Gods. They are not willing to think for themselves.

[GodsAreUs]

dragonofheavon said:

I belive this would probably be the best reason to point out that most people 'need' Gods. They are not willing to think for themselves.

Yea. Not willing or simply unable. I think lots of people are taught that they have no choice what to believe, and they're scared into thinking they can't think for themselves, so they never try.

It's kind of sad if you spend too much time thinking about it.

[snafui]

In Maslow's Heirarchy he theorizes that people do have a need for spirituality. It's a certain step on the psychological development scale.

[Dragon*of*Heaven]

Ok when dose Maslow say we will get over it because I am sick of it?

[necroshine]

look how long it has been around. i'm sure its not going to die out any time soon. Most people don’t realize that all they have to do is not believe in one more god then they do now. Most people are atheists against all other gods they just choose to believe in one that is when you get people jumping from one religion to another. Its sad that people seem to think they have to believe at least one god. What if god comes back? what if allha comes back? what if the took fairy just starts taking the teeth from your mouth? Its all so stupid when you think about the whole picture with all the gods taken into account. Which one should I believe in?

[The Reservoir Dog]

Most people need to know that they have someone holdng their hand and watching over them the whole time they are alive, being alone scares most people more than anything; even death. This is why as people get older they usually tend to become more religous. Life is so much less complicated when you don't have to think for yourself.

[snafui]

You guys triggered something that I have learned from history and psychology: Religion is not necessarily a bad thing in a culture. Granted there are countless deaths that in no way make up for the good it can do, but when you have a mindset developed that there is something out there that is watching your every move you have a good chance of developing citizens that are more well behaved. It is a... can't really pin down a word here right now, so feedback would be good... autocracy by a god.

Personally, I think that we need to get the concept of what a religion is under more control. The constant need for all religions to need an enemy is too disturbing to countermand the necessity within a culture to maintain one.

[necroshine]

What is so freaking hard to just be nice to one another? Your nice to others because you want others to be nice to you. Its at the base of all religions but you do not need a god to enforce it. The mind set that I find is that people think if you take away god from the world you will have chaos all around the world. I don’t think it will happen myself. I just can not agree god is a good thing on any level. When you take into account what has been done in gods name it is not a good thing at all.

[snafui]

I recently heard that the middle east and the USA are the last bastions of heavily religious cultures. There is an aspect to be considered, we are more educated today, as a whole, than we have been in past centuries so this can be making a difference we have never had before. In othere cultures the percentage of believers is as low as 10%, whereas with us it's in the 70th percentile or so. Those other cultures are doing just fine... so just have to wait and see.

[Dragon*of*Heaven]

Personally, I think that we need to get the concept of what a religion is under more control. The constant need for all religions to need an enemy is too disturbing to countermand the necessity within a culture to maintain one.

Snafui, I think that needing an enemy is a human reaction. Humanity as a hole seems to be under the consept that the line between good and evil is a straight line like that of a well maintained picket fence, When in all actuality the eastern faiths got it far more correct with the ying yang. Not only dose the line swerve like Ron White trying to drive after a performance, but as the ying yang shows both are never compleatly evil. Just like when you are a child you want to belive in Santa, when you grow up someone tells you this is not so. When one becomes older, Santa becomes God and the only thing abel to convince the general public is Lady Death herself. People want the idea that something in this world they consider chaotic is compleatly pure. People as a hole also want to curse all the supposed evil things in life, a Deamon like the figure of Saten Gives the appropriate scape goat.

I recently heard that the middle east and the USA are the last bastions of heavily religious cultures. There is an aspect to be considered, we are more educated today, as a whole, than we have been in past centuries so this can be making a difference we have never had before. In othere cultures the percentage of believers is as low as 10%, whereas with us it's in the 70th percentile or so. Those other cultures are doing just fine... so just have to wait and see.

I disagree snafui, I read a few books recently, and if they are to be trusted South America and Africa are the last bastions of religion.

[snafui]

The information on the religious nature of the USA and the middle east compared to certain European nations came from a video caled The God Who Wasn't There. In the interview he didn't mention anything about South Africa though, so, I'll try and see what I can find.

[Superhappyjen]

necroshine said:

The mind set that I find is that people think if you take away god from the world you will have chaos all around the world.

This is the same mindset Christian groups seem to have about everything. If it isn't against the law (as ordained either by God or government) then everyone will run around doing it! The general thought seems to be that more people will become Gay if Gay marriage were legal, or that making abortion illegal will say thousands of unborn babies. If there were no God telling people what to do, GASP, all people would run rampant trying out all the seven deadly sins and breaking all the commandments. Um no, most people will just do or not do things whether they are allowed or not.