What do these great intellectuals have in common?

[Rational Agnostic]

Some of the greatest intellectuals of all time include the following: Euler, Pascal, Descartes, Newton, Kepler, Leibniz, among many others. They all were brilliant mathematicians/scientists who made new discoveries in mathematics that were groundbreaking and took genius intellect and tremendous amounts of critical, careful thought. What do these brilliant intellectuals have in common? They were all strong believers in God. How do you hip New Atheist kids feel about this?

 

[Curious George]

Some of the greatest intellectuals of all time include the following: Euler, Pascal, Descartes, Newton, Kepler, Leibniz, among many others. They all were brilliant mathematicians/scientists who made new discoveries in mathematics that were groundbreaking and took genius intellect and tremendous amounts of critical, careful thought. What do these brilliant intellectuals have in common? They were all strong believers in God. How do you hip New Atheist kids feel about this?

I don't think the hip kids are chillin' on RF. Just sayin.

 

[Twilight Hue]

Some of the greatest intellectuals of all time include the following: Euler, Pascal, Descartes, Newton, Kepler, Leibniz, among many others. They all were brilliant mathematicians/scientists who made new discoveries in mathematics that were groundbreaking and took genius intellect and tremendous amounts of critical, careful thought. What do these brilliant intellectuals have in common? They were all strong believers in God. How do you hip New Atheist kids feel about this?

What about idiot savants?

 

[Twilight Hue]

I don't think the hip kids are chillin' on RF. Just sayin.

Smile of the day. :0)

 

[Shadow Wolf]

How do you hip New Atheist kids feel about this?

Raise you Einstein, Hawking, Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Turing, Gates, Crick & Watson, Sagan, as well as Tyson and Darwin for Agnosticism, and Hubble who didn't really talk/write about the subject.

 

[YmirGF]

Some of the greatest intellectuals of all time include the following: Euler, Pascal, Descartes, Newton, Kepler, Leibniz, among many others. They all were brilliant mathematicians/scientists who made new discoveries in mathematics that were groundbreaking and took genius intellect and tremendous amounts of critical, careful thought. What do these brilliant intellectuals have in common? They were all strong believers in God. How do you hip New Atheist kids feel about this?

Anyone who has studied most of the figures in the past understands that most were deeply religious. Newton, if I recall correctly, was also a Sunday school teacher. You have to understand, I am secure enough in my atheistic stance not to be troubled by this in the slightest. Virtually everyone, 100 years ago plus, was religious as the religious establishments held the population tightly in the palm of their sweaty little hands and you gave them sass at your own peril. Fortunately, with the aid of great scientists and a better educated population we have managed to slip away from the authoritarian grip of the religious mobsters.

 

[SomeRandom]

Some of the greatest intellectuals of all time include the following: Euler, Pascal, Descartes, Newton, Kepler, Leibniz, among many others. They all were brilliant mathematicians/scientists who made new discoveries in mathematics that were groundbreaking and took genius intellect and tremendous amounts of critical, careful thought. What do these brilliant intellectuals have in common?

What did they all have in common? They all lived during eras where the word "atheist" was tantamount to a slur.

They were all strong believers in God.

Well duh. Isn't that like saying Shakespeare or Homer were strong believers in God? Of course they were, how many famous atheists were there during even the Enlightenment era? Religion had such a stronghold over the public, I doubt Atheists were not scared to "come out" to the public. They would have been shunned.

How do you hip New Atheist kids feel about this?

Oh don't speak like Grandpa Simpson, please. It's cringe.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I don't think the hip kids are chillin' on RF. Just sayin.

Especially on a Saturday night.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris

Dawkins was a decent and respectable scientist years ago but is now a joke. Hitchens and Harris are largely overrated and offensive crap. They don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the others. Mind you, I see Descartes as a disgusting animal torturer.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Some of the greatest intellectuals of all time include the following: Euler, Pascal, Descartes, Newton, Kepler, Leibniz, among many others. They all were brilliant mathematicians/scientists who made new discoveries in mathematics that were groundbreaking and took genius intellect and tremendous amounts of critical, careful thought. What do these brilliant intellectuals have in common? They were all strong believers in God. How do you hip New Atheist kids feel about this?

Raise you Einstein, Hawking, Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Turing, Gates, Crick & Watson, Sagan, as well as Tyson and Darwin for Agnosticism, and Hubble who didn't really talk/write about the subject.

I mean these are both arguments from authority in the most classical, literal sense. Trying to justify an argument or a position on the basis of a person's qualities (including intellect or accomplishments) rather than their actual arguments is authoritarian.
The fact that the majority of famous intellectuals throughout history believed people outside their race were objectively inferior lends no credence to the argument.

I'm not an atheist because so-and-so number of well regarded people are atheist, nor would I accept that because so-and-so number of well-regarded people are theists means I should be too.

Neither side should be playing more-intellectual-than-thou because it's a ****ty thing to do and it doesn't work. It's boiling down the debate to a member measuring contest. (Pun very much intended.)

 

[Rational Agnostic]

Raise you Einstein, Hawking, Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Turing, Gates, Crick & Watson, Sagan, as well as Tyson and Darwin for Agnosticism, and Hubble who didn't really talk/write about the subject.

Einstein was not an atheist, though I agree he certainly was not religious. I agree that Hawking was a brilliant scientist who was also an atheist. Dawkins is a decent biologist, but not in the class of the scientists I mentioned. Hitchens and Harris: over-rated pseudo-intellectuals. Sagan was agnostic, and one of my favorite popularizers of science, but was not exactly an innovative scientist who made great discoveries. Neil Tyson is entertaining and certainly intelligent, but is primarily a pop scientist. Darwin obviously was a scientific great, although I am partial to mathematicians and physicists, which Darwin was not.

The point of my post is obviously not to make an appeal to authority as an argument for theism, as I'm obviously not a theist. What I'm trying to do is illustrate that there are intellectual greats on both sides of the atheism/theism debate, and we should not look down on those whose beliefs differ from ours.

 

[Rational Agnostic]

I mean these are both arguments from authority in the most classical, literal sense. Trying to justify an argument or a position on the basis of a person's qualities (including intellect or accomplishments) rather than their actual arguments is authoritarian.
The fact that the majority of famous intellectuals throughout history believed people outside their race were objectively inferior lends no credence to the argument.

I'm not an atheist because so-and-so number of well regarded people are atheist, nor would I accept that because so-and-so number of well-regarded people are theists means I should be too.

Neither side should be playing more-intellectual-than-thou because it's a ****ty thing to do and it doesn't work. It's boiling down the debate to a member measuring contest. (Pun very much intended.)

I'm not making an argument for belief in God here, since I'm obviously not a theist. Nor do I think theists are more intelligent than atheists as a whole (in fact, evidence suggests the opposite may be true). My point is that there are intellectual giants on both sides, and many "New Atheist" types like to look down their noses at those who are religious as being less intelligent than them. Obviously, this is not true, as many theists are much more intelligent than them (just as many atheists are much more intelligent than some other theists).

 

[ADigitalArtist]

we should not look down on those whose beliefs differ from ours.

I 100% agree with this. I just think the OP (and the post I am quoting) goes about it in a way that is, to me, indulgent of that behavior (calls to authority, even as a devil's advocate) rather than dismissive of it. I might be reading too much into it. Maybe because this stuff comes up played straight too frequently to maintain levity. xD

 

[SomeRandom]

I'm not making an argument for belief in God here, since I'm obviously not a theist. Nor do I think theists are more intelligent than atheists as a whole (in fact, evidence suggests the opposite may be true). My point is that there are intellectual giants on both sides, and many "New Atheist" types like to look down their noses at those who are religious as being less intelligent than them. Obviously, this is not true, as many theists are much more intelligent than them (just as many atheists are much more intelligent than some other theists).

Well played, Mr Poe, well played.

 

[Kangaroo Feathers]

Some of the greatest intellectuals of all time include the following: Euler, Pascal, Descartes, Newton, Kepler, Leibniz, among many others. They all were brilliant mathematicians/scientists who made new discoveries in mathematics that were groundbreaking and took genius intellect and tremendous amounts of critical, careful thought. What do these brilliant intellectuals have in common? They were all strong believers in God. How do you hip New Atheist kids feel about this?

I'll take "appeal to authority" for $500, please.

 

[Augustus]

How do you hip New Atheist kids feel about this?

They tend to be alright with this much.

The problems start when you try to explain how important Christianity was in the development of modern science...

 

[Mock Turtle]

Dawkins was a decent and respectable scientist years ago but is now a joke. Hitchens and Harris are largely overrated and offensive crap. They don't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as the others. Mind you, I see Descartes as a disgusting animal torturer.

Hardly, if you had half the intellect and achieved half what he (Dawkins) has, you'd be grateful.

 

[Jumi]

What do these brilliant intellectuals have in common? They were all strong believers in God.

You wouldn't have wanted them to debate about their beliefs though and you could add Planck and Clerk Maxwell to that list for someone slightly more modern.

 

[Stevicus]

What do these brilliant intellectuals have in common?

They've never been in Cliff Clavin's kitchen.

 

[BSM1]

They've never been in Cliff Clavin's kitchen.

Would that be the "Norm"?