[extropy-chat] Atheism in Decline

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Dirk Bruere <dirk at neopax.com> wrote:
> Olga Bourlin wrote:
> 
> >> Those believing in the literal word of the bible also tend to buy
> >>the Charlton Heston character in the clouds infantile image of god.
> >>
> >> Josephs statements here imply to me another confirmation of what I
> >> see so commonly: most atheists suffer from stunted theology and a
> >> lack of sophisticated spiritual education, at least under whatever
> >> organized religion they were raised in (or lack thereof)
> >
> >
> > If I only knew what you meant by "stunted theology" and "lack of 
> > sophisticated spiritual education," I would comment.  But I'm not 
> > certain what you mean by those terms.
> >
> He's referring to your ignorance of theology which leads to to
> believe that 'God' has only one definition or meaning, conditioned
> by the Judeo/Xian/Islamic POV.

Not just that. The degree of theological sophistication of most
atheists reminds me of 12 year old sunday school dropouts, no matter
which religion they grew up in. Those who grew up without any tend to
be even worse off. Kids who primarily stopped believing in God about
the same time they figured out that Santa Claus wasn't real, or when
their grandpa or grandma died, as if such an event couldn't be allowed
by Charlton Heston or Kris Kringle if he/they were real.

The fact is that some of the best science in history has come from
religious people: Mendel's research in plant genetics (he was a monk),
des Chardins Omega Point Theory (long before the modern transhumanist
movement) and this site:
http://libraries.luc.edu/about/exhibits/jesuits/ provides a significant
history of Jesuit priests who have contributed to the sciences since
1540. Muslim, Jewish, and Catholic scholars preserved knowledge through
dark ages in spite of illiterate destruction of secular authorities.

Someone who is a true believer in god really can't have any doubt about
truth found by science, if the believer believes god is the creator of
the universe that science examines. Someone with a sophisticated
theological grounding would understand this implicitly.

In this respect, the sort of fundamentalism and orthodox reliance on
the literal word of scripture that atheists rebel against is just as
poorly grounded and lacking in sophisticated theological grounding. To
quote Neal Stephenson, such people live by a theology "written by a
febrile two year old". 

Where atheists err is in their ignorant assumption that all persons of
faith are as poorly grounded as the scriptural literalists.

Finally, claims by atheists to be the sole mantle bearers and
protectors of science just isn't historically accurate. In the 20th
century alone, atheists were particularly heinous in the destruction of
knowledge and denial of scientific truth, from the Lysenkoism of the
USSR, socialist denials of the superiority of free markets, the Nazi
denials of 'jewish science', to the anti-intellectual and anti-science
pogroms of Mao and Pol Pot, to the much more tame anti-science
mysticism of the "age of aquarius" it can credibly be said that
atheists actions against science in the 20th century have at least
equalled or exceeded the actions by the faithful against science in
previous centuries.

Mike Lorrey
Vice-Chair, 2nd District, Libertarian Party of NH
"Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.
It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."
                                      -William Pitt (1759-1806) 
Blog: http://intlib.blogspot.com


	
		
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