Total Biscuit's - Atheism does not make you clever

[Snitch]

Wanna help get this view out there? Digg it -


It's novello time, and it's about religion, so unless you're ready to deal with some views you may not agree with, switch off now. In the words of Illidan "You are not prepared".

Let's get this out here right now. I'm a 23 year old law graduate with an IQ of 155. My political beliefs are liberal and leftist, I listen to Metal and I enjoy violent movies, books and videogames, and I've been a Christian since birth. Baptised, confirmed of my own free will, son of a priest (who are pretty notorious for rebelling against their father's religious beliefs just for the sake of it). I'm part of the Anglican Church of England, which is pretty much the result of Henry the 8th getting pissed off with the catholics not allowing him to divorce his wife(s). We're the state religion of the UK, if you could even say the UK has one, we're pretty liberal about most things, women priests, gay priests, homosexuals in general, sex before marriage, contraception, we take the modern, reasonable way of looking at all of them. At the end of the day, the Bible taught us about forgiveness and being excellent to one another. It had a bit of a round-about way of doing it but what do you expect for a 2000 year old book written entirely by clerical males? It's gonna be a bit out of date, you've gotta read it in context.

I have no problems with anyone's beliefs. Be whatever you want, as long as you believe (or don't believe) for a good reason. But here's what I really don't like, trend-atheism/trend-theism (also referred to as e-atheism, since it seems to be most prevelant in the domain of anonymous blogspammers and Digg-users).

In my late teens, I spent a long time thinking. Yeah, just sitting around and thinking, thinking about faith. Thinking about what it is that I believe in. Rationalizing the various conflicts and contradictions that faith presents us with, looking at the viewpoints of other faiths, or those with no faith at all, taking into account the new things we discover every day and factoring in the influence of science. Some people would claim that, if I had indeed done that, I'd have come to the conclusion, as an intellectual, rational thinker, that God does not exist. They would of course, be wrong.

My beliefs center around several factors. Firstly, it is important for us as human-beings to realize our own limits, and the limits of our understanding. Centuries ago we believed the world was flat. "The Bible told us so!", would be the first cry. Wrong, it really didn't. In the Old Testament, Job 26:7 explains that the earth is suspended in space, the obvious comparison being with the spherical sun and moon. The Old Testament, you remember that one? The one with the fiery bushes, the pillar's of salt, the cool plagues and such? Even that managed to get it right. There's a few more references as well to the 'round' earth (and before you say anything, flat is not a shape, it could have been a flat octagon for all they knew) but I'm not going to go into that yet. We've had computers for less than a century, powered flight for just over a century and of course our amazing horseless carriages. Genetics, electricity, nuclear-bombs, toaster-strudel, the world is in the palm of our hands! And it didn't take us too long did it?

Reality-check, we're still primitives. In the great scheme of things this technology is a mere blip on the historical radar. We've got an awful long way to go before we're able to dissect and understand the mysteries of the universe. We haven't even put a man on Mars yet, let alone left our solar system to find out what exactly is out there. How can it be that we have suddenly, so recently, become so arrogant as to believe we know more than we really do? The Laws of Science are written by man, based on our understanding of how things work. They are theories that, while prove true today, may be debunked by another amazing discovery tomorrow. Which leads onto my next point.

Name this quote "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic". Arthur C Clarke, physicist and author, smart fellow. It also hilights the point I'm making. Our understanding of the universe is peerless only amongst ourselves. We are not as smart as we think we are. Just as fire wowed the neanderthals, what would it take to wow us? What would make our jaws drop and our minds boggle? Well, any sufficiently advanced technology of course. And what is technology after-all? Man-made machines. The concept of technology is a human concept, a concept that may, in other parts of the universe, not even exist, replaced by something even more advanced than that, so advanced that we cannot comprehend it. Not surprising really as we mammals only use 10% of our brains.

So where am I going with this? Simple really, take yourself off of your high-horse, you, and the human race, is not as smart as it thinks it is. Now, open your mind a little, and let's explore some possibilities.



The definition of a God. Let us turn to the good book.

Wikipedia.

"God most commonly refers to the deity worshipped by followers of monotheistic and monolatrist religions, whom they believe to be the creator and ruler of the universe. Theologians have ascribed a variety of attributes to the various conceptions of God. The most common among these include omniscience, omnipotence, omnipresence, perfect goodness, divine simplicity, and eternal and necessary existence. God has also been conceived as being incorporeal, a personal being, the source of all moral obligation, and the "greatest conceivable existent"

Hmm, a tall order one might think. Could such a being exist? Some argue that logically, he could not, however, there is very little logic in denying the possibility that a being or beings of such power and advancement exist that they could indeed, be considered 'God' within our definition. That's not to say that God is a small green alien with a flying saucer and a phaser though that would give some of the overzealous fundamentalists something to sweat over, much to our amusement. But what is this God? A creator? Sure, we create. We create technology, we're getting to the stage of being able to create life in one form or another, using the basic building blocks of nature. Could it not be surmised therefore that it is entirely within the realms of possibility that someone or something created those building blocks? Like a programmer creates a new program, someone must have also created the coding language in which he created it. We scramble for answers. We come up with theories. Some believe in the beginning there was nothing, which exploded. Some believe a man in the sky created it everything in 6 days and then mooched around on the 7th. Which is valid?

Neither, and both. They attempt to apply meaning to something where meaning may, or may not exist. Creationism and the Big Bang are in that sense, as bad as each other. They are both merely attempts for us to explain the unexplainable. The Big Bang contradicts our laws of physics (something most catalyse an explosion, therefore something must have been there in the first place, where did that come from, at which point your brain melts). The Creation Story contradicts our laws of physics (Same reasons, who created God after all?). Everything we've so far managed to come up with, from the sublime to the ridiculous, the complex to the simplistic, it's an exercise in desperate straw-clutching. At the end of the day, we don't know jack.

And that's ok. Someone once said that the journey matters more than the destination, it's not the winning, it's the taking part, at least ya tried sport. These explanations of where it all comes from, be they ancient or modern all boil down to the same need. To know. Who'd have thunk it, we've got brains for a reason, and they rather like being used. Those neurons like to be fired, the little grey matter likes a little exercise every once in a while. Just as the Creation Story was a way to explain an unexplainable concept, so is the Big Bang theory. If one were to compare the human mind to a computer, try feeding the Big Bang theory to the medieval man, and it's like trying to shove Bioshock into a Commodore Vic20. Good luck. And what will our children's children's children's grandchildren's children think of our Big Bang theory? My money's on exactly the same thing.

So what am I trying to tell you, stop asking questions, stop looking for answers and just believe whatever the hell suits ya? Absolutely not. Believe whatever suits you, but question it, never stop thinking, never stop asking or learning. In this day and age it seems people are way too willing to believe, or not believe. Belief, or non-belief should be a life-long arduous process and it should end involuntarily, when you fall over dead. Someone (there's a lot of talkative someone's aren't there?) once said 'Never stop believing', I say, "Never stop trying asking yourself what you believe, and why".

It's time to criticize, so let me load port and starboard cannon and fire a volley at both atheists and theists alike. Believing, or not believing, does not make you intelligent. Smart people do not come to a conclusion on the basis of insubstantial evidence. Smart people do not mindlessly attack other people's beliefs just because they don't comform to their own. Smart people do not assume that their own rigid, poorly formed definitions of logic and faith, reason and belief are mutually exclusive and that if one exists, the other cannot. Smart people think outside the box, not pick fights with those poor souls trapped in it.

What makes you intelligent, is knowing why you believe what you believe. Knowing that you are but one mind, and knowing that at any time you could be proven wrong, only for that person to be proven wrong ad infinitum as we as a race advance.

I suppose you're waiting for my personal beliefs, waiting for this to be some kind of sermon, preaching why my God is better than your God, or non-God. You'll be waiting a long time, because it's not coming. My personal beliefs are just that, personal, they're mine, they belong to me. You cannot take them away from me, only I can. What I can give you though, are my opinions.

Right now shots are being fired. They're not physical shots, they're bullets and shells of ignorance and bigottry. And it's no one-sided battle let me tell you that much. Factionalized camps everywhere you can imagine. Atheists, Theists, Satanists, Christians, Republicans, Democrats, Capitalists, Communists, every group you can imagine, all shouting 'Your God/Non-God sucks, mine is better!'. These days, the internet's become their battleground. So much for sharing knowledge, we're sharing ignorance.

The bigottry and the condemnation has to stop. The sad thing is, I'm having to condemn the condemners. Isn't it lowsy how you generally have to be a hypocrite in order to make a point these days? Food for thought. We can look at the extremes and see the simplistic, secular vs sacred, trend-atheists vs fundamentalist evangelical christians, the most common stereotypes. But in reality, it's so much more complicated than that. It's this stereotyping and narrow-minded attitude that prevents us as a race from achieving the greatness we can. I could make as many decrees as I wanted till I was blue in the face, and I'm going to just to let off a little steam mind you,

"Trend-atheist Digg users, shove your agendas where the sun don't shine, refusing the possibility of a supreme-being does not make you a genius or a radical thinker, it makes you a bloody sheep hiding behind a cloak of anonymity"

"Evangelical Fundamentalist morons, get your overly simplistic, judgmental, dogmatic Crayola God out of my face, you have about as much understanding of the universe as a wet lettuce. That does not make you holy, pure, or guaranteed a private booth at the big game in the sky, it makes you a bloody sheep hiding behind a cloak of propaganda that you only believe because you're told to"

Wow, that feels good, I can understand why you internet-bound condemners like it so much. Gives you that warm, fuzzy feeling doesn't it? What, I'm not allowed to indulge in such a guilty pleasure every once in a while? Play fair

Where's my conclusion? Hell if I know. Did you have the mistaken impression this was some carefully constructed plea for tolerance? Absolutely not, it's an angry slap in the face to my peers. Wake the hell up and use your brain, because my God/Non-god/Explosion/Man-in-the-sky/Vic20 gave you it for a reason.

TB.


--------------------------------------------------------------

This view is expressed by John Bain (Total Biscuit)

And Myself.

Discuss.

Snitch

[Obex]

well done old chap this is gossple and need its own page in the bible

[Remahlól]

Well, if you don't see the important points from this text, you shouldn't even read it.

I think that atheism also is a way out, although Christianity and other religions offer more options into what to believe then atheism, though atheism teaches you to not believe into anything.

If you are not interested in this discussion, don't even try to read it.


May I be cynical for a bit? I hope you don't mind, but with Atheism's latest barrage of hypocritical op-ed pieces, I can't resist the urge to make a few cynical comments. Here's a quick review: The communism "debate" is not a debate. It is a harangue, a politically motivated, brilliantly publicized, drossy attack on progressive ideas. If you're interested in the finagling, double-dealing, chicanery, cheating, cajolery, cunning, rascality, and abject villainy by which Atheism may promote a herd mentality over principled, individual thought in the coming days, then you'll want to consider the following very carefully. You'll especially want to consider that Atheism accuses me of being treacherous whenever I state that when its inclinations are challenged, it stages an outpouring of phony emotion in order to look good to the public.

Alright, I'll admit that I have a sharp tongue and sometimes write with a bit of a poison pen but the fact remains that Atheism's effusions were never about tolerance and equality. That was just window dressing for the "innocents". Rather, Atheism is careless with data, makes all sorts of causal interpretations of things without any real justification, has a way of combining disparate ideas that don't seem to hang together, seems to show a sort of pride in its own biases, gets into all sorts of empty-headed speculation, and then makes no effort to test out its speculations -- and that's just the short list! As we all know, Atheism simply regurgitates the empty arguments that have been fed to it over the years.

Atheism, does the word "phytosociological" mean anything to you? If Atheism has any children, I recommend that it teach them about love, trust, cooperation, community, reason, negotiation, and compromise rather than violence, paranoia, and fear. I'll tell you what we need to do about all the craziness Atheism is mongering. We need to carry out the famous French admonition, écrasez l'infâme!, against Atheism's magic-bullet explanations.
Make special note of that point, because if Atheism bites me, I will obviously bite back.

Prudence is no vice. Cowardice -- especially Atheism's insensate form of it -- is.


I myself can't stress this enough, but Atheism has mastered the dark arts of diversion and deception, so to speak. Atheism represents a new breed of tactless savages. That conclusion is not based on some sort of irritating philosophy or on Atheism-style mental masturbation, but on widely known and proven principles of science. These principles explain that Atheism is reluctant to resolve problems. It always just looks the other way and hopes no one will notice that a plan of rational reaction to its tracts is undoubtedly in order. An equal but opposite observation is that I know some self-aggrandizing bottom-feeders who actually believe that it commands an army of robots that live in the hollow center of the earth and produce earthquakes whenever they feel like shaking things up a bit on the surface. Incredible?

Those same people have told me that embracing a system of oligarchism will make everything right with the world. With such people roaming about, it should come as no surprise to you that it would not hesitate to lure the myopic into its junta if it felt it could benefit from doing so. Atheism has never satisfactorily proved its assertion that superstition is no less credible than proven scientific principles. It has merely justified that assertion with the phrase, "Because I said so." Finally, any mistakes in this letter are strictly my fault. But if you find any factual error or have more updated information on the subject of Atheism, Atheism-inspired versions of pharisaism, etc., please tell me, so I can write an even stronger letter next time.

[R4mbo | Mr. R]

??? Damn, thats a huge wall of text... just readed 60%...
I'm atheist... but I'm not AGAINST religions, I think some people couldnt live without.
Well, I could write now a 1-hour-text about my thoughts and the sense of life and that all, but this would be a waste of time for me and the readers and its the wrong topic I guess.

But this could be interesting for ya:
A religios christian friend of me said some years ago:
Hes not sure about god, but if there is a chance to get into the "paradise" he uses it... better then not believe and dont use the chance.
(Damn, hope it is understandable what I wanted to say...)

But this hasnt changed me, I dont need to get into the paradise, It's ok for me when there is nothing after life.

[Marlo]

Couldnt be bothered reading the thread but in response to the title

yes it does

[Skizzilini]

So what am I trying to tell you, stop asking questions, stop looking for answers and just believe whatever the hell suits ya? Absolutely not. Believe whatever suits you, but question it, never stop thinking, never stop asking or learning [....] Belief, or non-belief should be a life-long arduous process and it should end involuntarily, when you fall over dead. Someone (there's a lot of talkative someone's aren't there?) once said 'Never stop believing', I say, "Never stop trying asking yourself what you believe, and why".

This is the best part of your article. I enjoyed the storytelling techniques you use in the above quote.

(not directed at OP or anyone in particular) Please respect the athiests. As you said, our intelligence is just the sum of what we have created and found out. We may yet find out that athiestic beliefs hold water. I R Catholic, so I've talked to plenty of athiests in my time, and they were all questioning of their own faith as well as my own. I believe that there is probably a force behind setting up source/sink entropy, and I cannot explain the intricacies of human emotions with science. In the end, it would seem that religion is just trying to make up for what science can't do, but this isn't true. Religious people explain their intricacies and why doing altruistic things make you feel good with souls, and ipso facto, god. Athiests just have to find their own path with regards to this.

Did that make any sense??

Btw can you please provide an example of an "e-athiest"? This concept is new to me.

On a lighter note... WALL OF TEXT CRITZ JOO 4 1337!

[Kuiren]

ahhhh all these walls of texts! Can someone sum it up for me? :P

[Snitch]

This is the EXACT reason I wanted a forum for people who would like serious discussion. "2 long didnt read!" bores me.

Snitch

[Marlo]

The mere fact that you though people would read your religious propaganda on a game hacking site is quite laughable.

[Conflag]

I like puppies..thats all I have to say

[Remahlól]

The mere fact that you though people would read your religious propaganda on a game hacking site is quite laughable.

It might be laughable, but from the other site it's sad. Indeed, it is, very sad.

[Snitch]

The mere fact that you though people would read your religious propaganda on a game hacking site is quite laughable.

It's not religious propaganda if you cared to actually read the article. It's a man's oppinion on something which seem's to be a big issue at the moment.

This is General Chat if I'm not mistaken, so take your negative and unconstructive views elsewhere.

Snitch

[Marlo]

I have made it quite clear as my time as a Mod on MMOwned that religious threads are not tolerated. It opens up doors to flaming and the forming of "Sides" on the forum.

It's not religious propaganda if you cared to actually read the article. It's a man's oppinion on something which seem's to be a big issue at the moment.

This is General Chat if I'm not mistaken, so take your negative and unconstructive views elsewhere.

Snitch

If i bothered to read the article im afraid i would have shaved several points off of my IQ.

[Snitch]

I have made it quite clear as my time as a Mod on MMOwned that religious threads are not tolerated. It opens up doors to flaming and the forming of "Sides" on the forum.



If i bothered to read the article im afraid i would have shaved several points off of my IQ.

Sad face

Snitch

[Marlo]

DONT F*CKING JUDGE ME BITCH!!!

nice article btw very informative...