Also of interest:
"2014...the year we start accepting atheists" [Whattaya mean 'we'?!]
"...in the same way that 2013 saw a tidal shift in attitudes toward gays in America, 2014 portends a wave of acceptance for one of the few remaining groups people feel justified in disrespecting: atheists.
One of my great heroes, open-water swimmer Diana Nyad, pried open the door a few inches for nonbelievers on Oprah Winfrey’s “ Super Soul Sunday” in October, after Nyad’s historic Cuba-to-Florida swim.
Winfrey challenged Nyad’s self-proclaimed atheism after Nyad described having feelings of wonder and awe, saying: “Well, I don’t call you an atheist then. I think if you believe in the awe and the wonder and the mystery, that that is what God is. … It’s not a bearded guy in the sky.”
It’s hard to imagine Winfrey remarking to a guest who proclaimed herself gay, “Well, I don’t call you gay then.” That would be rude. But to tell an atheist she isn’t an atheist is OK somehow..."
more here: http://www.kansascity.com/2014/01/18/4754413/let-2014-be-the-year-we-start.html#storylink=cpy
This article makes me wonder two things, 1: what do you all, as atheists, think about atheist "churches"? I know atheists who are both for and against them. I'm curious what the classes stance is on it. And 2: Do you think atheism is a threat to religion? The author of the article says no. While I don't think atheism is an outright threat, I do think atheism is going to continue to grow more and more and science progresses. Hopefully, one day, making religion completely defunct. What do you guys think?
ReplyDeleteI very highly doubt that religion will ever go away in the future. Although many individuals have progressive views on the matter, the amount of religious people is still very large. Atheism is not a threat to the existence of religion at all, in my opinion. Science is possibly a threat to people’s ideas about the history of life on earth because of evolution, other theories, etc. Yet still, I have read that there are a surprisingly large amount of scientists who believe in God.
DeleteAh, yes. The god of the gaps. I always thought it a strange way to argue your point with ever receding facts. It puts god in a box as a responsible for certain things that we cant explain. It might be the most ineffective and pointless way to make a point for these reasons. A non-believer sees it as humorous that somebody would limit their all powerful god to a defined set of responsibilities, and a believer should realize that their God used to be responsible for many more things before modern science explained away some of his responsibilities. As Bill O'Reilly says, "The sun goes up, the sun goes down, the tide goes in, the tide goes out. We can't explain it, it just happens." My question to believers would be, why limit your all powerful God? You surely must have more faith in him than that. Here is a pretty decent article that talks more about the god of the gaps.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.strangenotions.com/god-of-the-gaps/
I am glad that Dr. Oliver posted this video featuring Neil deGrasse Tyson. I really like Tyson, because he knows so much about science and shows his intelligence often. I’ve seen him on The Daily Show and Real Time with Bill Maher before, and he made people seem ill-advised many times. He’s great at doing that. In this video I liked his points at the end where he talks about recycling and climate change. I found a video in which Tyson discusses religion and atheism. He claims to be agnostic, and his explanation is interesting. Here is the video link:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CzSMC5rWvos
That was my point, not that atheism in itself is a threat to religion but that as science progresses, atheism will as well. I can see a future where atheism is the majority and theism the minority. Though I doubt I'll get to see it first hand.
ReplyDelete