An article against Atheism

[darkwaldo]

http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=2251

I found this article while browsing townhall.com. Any comments? I wonder if it is true that 90 percent of Americans consider themselves theist of some sort or another. I always thought we where more secular than that?

 

[standing_alone]

The link doesn't work for me. Is the article short enough for you to post?

 

[mr.guy]

I always thought we where more secular than that?

In your estimation, how does secular society preclude a certain ratio of theists?

 

[Booko]

http://http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=2251

I found this article while browsing townhall.com. Any comments? I wonder if it is true that 90 percent of Americans consider themselves theist of some sort or another. I always thought we where more secular than that?

The link sends me to www.microsoft.com

Is this Bill Gates' attempt to take over the Internet, or what?

 

[Majikthise]

I have plenty of friends who call themselves christian that are secular in thier behavior.

 

[darkwaldo]

Im really sorry about the bad link. I found the problem so it should work now.

 

[Booko]

http://www.breakpoint.org/listingarticle.asp?ID=2251

I found this article while browsing townhall.com. Any comments? I wonder if it is true that 90 percent of Americans consider themselves theist of some sort or another. I always thought we where more secular than that?

As always, consider the source. The author is a member of the Wilberforce Forum, according to the article. And according to Wiki, this is what the Wilberforce Forum is:

"The Wilberforce Forum is a conservative Christian political and social think tank and action group particularly active in the promotion of Christian creationism in education and in biotechnology and bioethics issues, such as human cloning and stem cell research."

Methinks I hear the sound of axes grinding in the background of this article...

 

[mr.guy]

Stories like Sartre’s and Murray’s abound, revealing that the faith required for atheism, and its underpinning of philosophical naturalism, is enormous; in fact, one could say that it’s without rational basis altogether.

Cute.

 

[mr.guy]

The bleak outlook for atheism is not due to the rational power of theistic arguments, but to the innate and irrepressible knowledge that there is purpose and meaning in existence—“a kind of care” and intentionality from beyond.

I liked this part, too.

 

[robtex]

The first thing I would comment on is the source. You aren't going to get an unbais opinion from an apologetic website. I doubt any of them even know what a secular humanists is. They didn' t bother to define Secular humanist or atheist. Most polling websites put atheism in the USA between 10-15 % so they may have taken the more conservative number thou they didn't list a source. It looks like yet another christian organization that wants to eradicate atheism and keep its members from flirting with the notion of "mabye there is no God."

If you go to the main article page there is another article denouncing humanism and another denoucing science for being secular in proposition and/or requiring evidence.

 

[CaptainXeroid]

The link works now, and here is the last paragraph in it...and I concur with it.

...“Atheism is abnormality. It is not merely the denial of dogma. It is the reversal of a subconscious assumption in the soul: the sense that there is meaning and direction in the world it sees.” -- G.K. Chesterton

Since 90% of people surveyed claim to believe that God exists, it would appear a lot of other people would concur as well.

 

[standing_alone]

As always, consider the source.

Definately was the first thing I looked at. Certainly a biased source.

The notion that communism rejected religion to eliminate any other allegiences competing with the state was false. Communism rejects religion because religion is viewed to be a way for those in power to maintain inequality and continue to exploit for religion is the "opium of the people" as Marx said. If people have their senses numbed by religion, they won't be bothered by the oppression of a capitalistic state (from a communist perspective) - hence why religion was rejected by communists.

I also disagreed with the quote put at the end of the article stating that with atheism there is no meaning and direction in the world. I think there is, it's just not based on religious dogma.

 

[darkwaldo]

As always, consider the source. The author is a member of the Wilberforce Forum, according to the article. And according to Wiki, this is what the Wilberforce Forum is:

"The Wilberforce Forum is a conservative Christian political and social think tank and action group particularly active in the promotion of Christian creationism in education and in biotechnology and bioethics issues, such as human cloning and stem cell research."

Methinks I hear the sound of axes grinding in the background of this article...

Yeah, good point. After reading your post, I can hear the ax grinding as well.

 

[Majikthise]

The link works now, and here is the last paragraph in it...and I concur with it.
Since 90% of people surveyed claim to believe that God exists, it would appear a lot of other people would concur as well.

The greatest people in the history of human achievement have primarily been societal outcasts. Call me abnormal.

 

[darkwaldo]

I also disagreed with the quote put at the end of the article stating that with atheism there is no meaning and direction in the world. I think there is, it's just not based on religious dogma.

I felt the same way. Atheist have to find meaning on their own I think. The few that were mentioned in this article seemed to fail in that area.

 

[Booko]

Stories like Sartre’s and Murray’s abound, revealing that the faith required for atheism, and its underpinning of philosophical naturalism, is enormous; in fact, one could say that it’s without rational basis altogether.

Cute.

That's exactly when I started getting suspicious about possible axes to grind.

OK, so let's suppose that it takes as much "faith" for Sartre and Murray to hold their positions. Well then, it's precisely the same amount of "faith" required to be a theist -- and obviously billions of people have no problem with it, now do they? So exactly how "enormous" could this requirement for faith be?

It sounds so much like someone who's never been an atheist, never really known any atheists, and just doesn't get the pov of an atheist.

Having been there and done that, this stuff always makes me shake my head in dismay. What are these people thinking -- this could be convincing to an atheist? It's not even convincing to *me* and I've been a theist now for many a year. sheesh

 

[standing_alone]

That's exactly when I started getting suspicious about possible axes to grind.

Once the article put forth the "misconception" (more correctly put, "blatant lie") about communism and religion, I knew the article had little merit.

 

[Booko]

Since 90% of people surveyed claim to believe that God exists, it would appear a lot of other people would concur as well.

Mebbe, but people used to think the earth was flat too. :run:

(I just *love* this smiley!)

 

[Sunstone]

he bleak outlook for atheism is not due to the rational power of theistic arguments, but to the innate and irrepressible knowledge that there is purpose and meaning in existence—“a kind of care” and intentionality from beyond.

This is slight basis for theism. The human tendency to perceive purpose and meaning in things does not rest in the nature of the cosmos, but in our own brains, which are almost as much geared to perceive purpose and meaning in things, as they are geared to perceive certain wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation as light. Purpose and meaning are lenses, our own lenses, through which we look out at the world.

For that reason, atheism might never be a dominant position in any society, for people look for purpose and meaning, and because they look for it, they find it. A self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts. Yet, there will always be some atheists in every large society.

 

[Halcyon]

Will Lilla end up like those who, after dismissing theism at the first hint of difficulty, turn to naturalism with tenacious loyalty despite its numerous theoretical, empirical, and logical problems?

Things like this make me laugh, he mocks naturalism as containing numerous logical problems, yet he himself believes in an invisible man-like creater who made the world out of thin air! The man clearly had no concept of logic.

This was the statement that made me realise the entire article was not worthy of contemplation.