CommentsDisplaying LawnDart's 10 most recent comments.

• ‘We Are Atheism’ Initiative Tries to Mimic Gay Rights Campaign to Get Non-Believers to ‘Come Out’

  November 28, 2011 at 4:45pm

  OK, can’t resist more post. This time, I’ll just post a couple links (I’m not affiliated with either of the linked parties). Anyway, as it turns out, the most atheistic countries are also the most peaceful:

  http://epiphenom.fieldofscience.com/2009/06/atheist-nations-are-more-peaceful.html

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdtwTeBPYQA

  They also tend to be the most happy and prosperous (see: Scandinavian economies and happiness quotients). So much for the assumption that Norway, because it is godless, must therefore be full of totalitarian, genocidal Stalinites. Quasi-socialists, perhaps, but they have certainly weathered the recession better than America has (also: so much for the argument that mixing socialism with capitalism kills economies.)

  I submit that when America catches up intellectually with the rest of the developed world–and it seems to be doing so, given the rising atheist demographic–we will be much, much better off for it.

• ‘We Are Atheism’ Initiative Tries to Mimic Gay Rights Campaign to Get Non-Believers to ‘Come Out’

  November 28, 2011 at 4:18pm

  Happily married and morally-upright atheist here. I could argue all day about Jesus’ divinity, or lack thereof; about various arguments for God and the logical fallacies on which they rest; about the false assumption that morality cannot arise out of atheism (in fact, it can’t NOT; ~90% of humans are moral regardless of their (un)beliefs–this is merely an evolutionary byproduct); about the seductive but ultimately weak claim that Stalin refutes my last parenthetical remark; etc., etc. etc. But I have to work, so I’ll just offer a few general remarks:

  -Atheism is the fastest-growing “belief” in America.
  -The youngest generation is, by far, the most atheistic; the oldest generations (i.e., closest to dying out) are the most religious.
  -Atheism is growing due to active critical thinking–indeed, the vast majority of atheists I know were born to Christian families. Christianity is growing primarily due to the high reproductive rates of Christian families (sure, religion wins converts every now and then, but not nearly as many as atheism has lately.)
  -These days, Religion has a hard time time insulating its youth from opposing views. Witness the explosion of young atheists in the internet age.

  Atheists are ascending inexorably, and may even be the American majority before too long. I’m sure there will be apocalyptic doomsaying regarding this (Judgment Day! The Next Stalin!). But me? I think that, religiously, the US will simply look more like today’s Europe. Excel

• ‘We Are Atheism’ Initiative Tries to Mimic Gay Rights Campaign to Get Non-Believers to ‘Come Out’

  November 28, 2011 at 3:47pm

  In reply to Cossack1981.

  I see why you perceive “arrogance” in some atheists. I see it too, just as I see it in Christians. I see a bit of it in your post, too, as when you state that “everyone knows the truth in their heart” (yeah, I sure do, and it doesn’t involve talking snakes and immaculate conceptions.) But that’s OK–when it comes to such lofty topics, it is almost impossible not to see arrogance in the opposing view. So all things being equal on that front, we are left with the empirical evidence.

  Speaking of, I’m quite curious as to where you found this “overwhelming evidence” for your belief system. Lee Strobel? William Lane Craig? Michael Behe? Carm.org? Sorry, but their arguments are uniformly dubious. And when they do present sound evidence (e.g., Strobel convinced me that it’s very possible that a really nice guy named Jesus actually existed), it invariably fails to support their most significant assumptions (e.g., Strobel left me even more convinced that regardless of Jesus’ historicity, he was not divine, but was merely a cult leader among many other cult leaders of his time–the only substantive difference being that he was lucky enough to have Constantine the Great become a convert.)

  I am, however, puzzled that you chide atheists for “believing that they somehow know something the vast majority of the planet does not.” The truth of a religion, I guess? Well, there are thousands of religions, and all believers claim this sort of exceptionalism. Nothing “exceptiona

• Black Atheists Fight Notion That ‘Not Believing in God’ Is ‘a Thing For White People’

  November 28, 2011 at 2:38pm

  FACT: The divorce rate among atheists is lower than that of both born-again Christians AND other types of Christians (21% for atheists vs. 27% and 24%, respectively)

  FACT: Both Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are both agnostics. They also plan to donate 99% of their wealth to charity when they die. I haven’t heard many super-rich Christians, e.g. Pat Robertson, say that they plan to do the same.

  As a personal anecdote, I should add that I’m an atheist who has been happily married to the same woman for 9 years (this is my first, and last, marriage). Also, I planned to go with a non-religious medical team to Central America in January to help provide free surgery to poor people; unfortunately, our first child (a son) is due in Jan., so I probably can’t go this time around.* But I can assure you that I am not out raping and pillaging people. My morality stems from the empathy that is hardwired into all of us via evolution, and from the recognition that only if we are all kind and helpful to each other can our society be happy and successful. As far as I can tell, this one life is the only life we have, so we’d better make it a good one.

  *I’m not trying to be “holier than thou” here; every individual–including Christians–helps the world in their own ways. But considering how many people seem to think atheists are evil and selfish, I felt I should state this.

• Black Atheists Fight Notion That ‘Not Believing in God’ Is ‘a Thing For White People’

  November 28, 2011 at 2:12pm

  Wow… ha! I always knew that Christians rely on silly arguments, but some you are like caricatures of ill-informed Christians (I’d almost think that you were trolling atheists!)

  Neocon1: Hate to break it to you, but the facts prove otherwise. Relative to the size of their demographics, a far higher percentage of Christians are in prison than atheists (indeed, atheists are among the most lawful and educated demographics!)

  Texashunter: First, that comment makes no sense. But I’ll play along. To follow your post to its, um, “logical” conclusion, I guess you find it easier to have faith in Allah than to lack faith in him? What about Krishna? Or Phunbaba, God of Thunder? All religion is based on faith, not evidence (most smart Christian theologians will admit this), so there’s no logical reason why Jesus should be any more believable than any other of the thousands of possible deities.

  I contend that we are all atheists, insofar as we all lack faith in thousands of different gods. I just happen to lack belief in more more god than you do.

  Also, because I know the “Stalin and Hitler” stuff will be brought up: Hitler was not an atheist. Stalin was, but his problem wasn’t atheism; it was megalomaniacal insanity. Also, his brand of communism was fundamentally theocratic: a totalitarian, dogmatic personality cult built around himself (Nazi Germany was similar.) Kinda sounds like a religious institution to me.