Religion
Related: About this forum‘Science Mike’ McHargue: ‘Christians aren’t stupid, and atheists aren’t evil’
By Emily McFarlan Miller | 15 hours ago
(RNS) Thank God for the internet.
If you believe in God, that is. For a time, Mike McHargue did and then he didnt and now he does again.
But its on the internet where McHargue better known as Science Mike to listeners of The Liturgists and Ask Science Mike podcasts found community when he was questioning his Southern Baptist upbringing and then the atheism he had adopted. And its on the internet where hes forged a community with others like him who cant comfortably wear either label: Christian or atheist.
My place in church community and this sense of belonging I feel now has largely come from how many people responded as I started to talk about these things openly, he said. But it tends to make certain Christians and atheists uncomfortable to embrace both a materialistic, empirical view of the cosmos through science as well as something more numinous through the lens of the spiritual.
http://religionnews.com/2016/09/19/science-mike-mchargue-christians-arent-stupid-and-atheists-arent-evil/
anoNY42
(670 posts)Christians (and Muslims, Buddhists, etc.) are not stupid, they are just delusional.
rug
(82,333 posts)anoNY42
(670 posts)Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)Anyone over the age of 10 who believes in invisible sky men is pretty delusional.
rug
(82,333 posts)Oh wait, Biden doesn't believe in invisible sky men. He believes in God.
Attacking strawmen, while not delusional, is a pretty lame pastime.
Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)No matter what name you want to give him.
rug
(82,333 posts)Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)The reality you've fashioned in your head about anything or anyone religious.
There's another word for that besides delusion.
You're funny! The guy who believes invisible sky men and resurrecting the dead and talking plants is telling me I can't tell the difference between children's stories and reality.
Priceless.
rug
(82,333 posts)DetlefK
(16,423 posts)So, he had a weird feeling while on the beach and that convinced him that God exists???
A weird feeling???
Once we demote our individual view of reality from such prime importance only then can we learn to understand that people arrive at their beliefs for good reasons that maybe for Christians, good, reasonable, smart people can make an informed decision they dont believe in God without being evil. At the same time, atheists can realize its somewhat naive and somewhat ignorant of cognitive psychology and neuroscience to believe one has to be delusional or not grounded in reality to believe in God even a supernatural God. These are both reasonable positions to exist within the human experience, and neither camp can claim some superior state of enlightenment or better representation of what it means to be human.
"People arrive at their beliefs for a good reason." - Apparently, having a weird feeling is a "good reason". Apparently, being indoctrinated is a "good reason".
"cognitive psychology and neuroscience" - Wait, so believing in God is a question of psychology?
"neither camp can claim some superior state of enlightenment" - That's bullshit, because believers have so far failed to deliver any philosophical/theoretical proof why their beliefs are necessary, correct or practical. Non-believers on the other hand have developed the scientific method, which has produced innumerable successes.
"or better representation of what it means to be human" - Ain't it funny that children have to be TAUGHT to believe in God?
Beyond that, as you learn more about cosmology and physics, particle physics or quantum physics, you find our world is at least as mysterious and beautiful and, I might even poetically say, magical as anything depicted in the sacred texts of the worlds great wisdom traditions.
Wow. Just wow. He's looking at cold hard math and cold hard facts and all he sees is magic. And he claims he was an atheist at that time!!!
Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)Like the "satanist" who was being "anointed with hot oils and wax in the name of Satan" and suddenly "found Jesus" as the hot oils touched his skin and didn't burn him because magic invisible sky man (seriously, guy I knew claimed all this).
Made up bullshit to attempt to give credibility to something that lacks credibility in the first place,
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)"Wow, there are contradictions in the Bible! The Bible is wrong! Which means I'm atheist now!"
Please note how he doesn't give a reason in the interview why he became an atheist. All he says is that his faith changed.
rug
(82,333 posts)I mean, you hit all the stereotypes but that's not proof.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Believers claim that God exists, without offering proof.
Atheists claim that God doesn't exist, without offering proof.
I used to be non-religious and then turned agnostic because I discovered a phiosophical proof: If we define God as infinite and the human as finite, then it can be proven mathematically that it's impossible for the human to find out experimentally with 100% accuracy whether the thing he is looking at is the infinite God or a finite impostor.
And the believers have spectacularly failed to make an argument why belief should trump fact-knowledge.
McHargue gives no reason that supposedly turned him into an atheist. He doubts the Bible??? Doubting the Bible is not the same as not believing in God. Doubting the Bible does not make you an atheist.
And from this flim-flam position he goes "back" to believing because of emotions, again not because of some reason he can spell out.
He never was an atheist, he just had a crisis of faith.
rug
(82,333 posts)Still, the critiques of the author smack of the No True Scotsman fallacy.
DetlefK
(16,423 posts)The emotional shock of there being contradictions in the Bible turned him away from Christianity.
The emotional shock of some event he had on the beach turned him back to believing.
Emotions aren't reasons.
He doesn't explain what caused him to say "... therefore there is no God" or "... therefore I shouldn't worship God". (Or whether he ever held those positions at all.)
rug
(82,333 posts)McHargiue jumps into the comments to explain himself directly.
people can't understand the math or the cold hard facts they tend to see magic. Of course seeing magic calls into question just how much of a non-believer he had become. Indoctrination from childhood is hard to walk away from for many, especially if they are uncomfortable leaving behind the sense of community they had with their fellow believers. For many of those folks it's far easier to sit in church not believing most of what they see or hear as long as they can share a potluck meal and some quality time with other like minded individuals.
It sort of reinforces the concept that many of our fellow citizens love a herd mentality, and they can't function comfortable without being part of the herd.
If weird feelings were all it took to find evidence of god then a lot of folks eating carnival food would quickly become believers.
Fix The Stupid
(948 posts)I will call anyone that believes in 'exorcism' the following:
1) Stupid
2) Naive
3) Stupid
4) Childish
5) Stupid
Anyone going to argue that?
rug
(82,333 posts)Fix The Stupid
(948 posts)Right there in the title of the post and the link.
Yes, they are stupid if they believe in exorcism.
I can predict your next post:
"Do you think Biden is stupid?"
Come on, don't disappoint now...
And then I can post "Rug, do you believe in the Vatican's interpretation and practice of exorcism?"
Then you will post "Start an OP, not what we are discussing"
Have I got it about right?
rug
(82,333 posts)Fix The Stupid
(948 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)Just can't be fixed.
Dr Hobbitstein
(6,568 posts)DetlefK
(16,423 posts)Christianity is not the same as Christianity. There are hundreds of versions, sects and sub-cults, with manifold differences in the details.
(It is my personal opinion, that every believer is in fact following a personal and unique belief-system.)
There are even hybrid religions, like caribbean Voodoo, which is a mix of Christianity and the original polytheistic Voodoo-religion from Africa.
rug
(82,333 posts)1) Stupid
2) Naive
3) Stupid
4) Childish
and
5) Stupid.
Response to DetlefK (Reply #18)
Post removed