ILX Religiosity and Spirituality and Agnosticity and Atheicity Poll

eh i was broadly sketching what atheists outlook on religion was in the real world, not commenting on the discussion of religion in a thread about religion, if you see what i mean.

but if it's not clear after i don't know how many posts to this thread, i'm not against "discussion of religious topics, ever, anywhere"

and i think most atheists (as i do) still find it a fascinating topic, you can't seperate it from any aspect of human history. and even to hear those with faith/belief discuss it like in this thread is a fascinating read imo.

I think it's quite easy for Atheists to fall into the trap of saying "religion is the cause of 90% of the world's problems!" when actually it's something more like "humanity is the cause of 90% of the world's problems" and "90% of the world's humans are the cause of the world's religions." B and C may be true, but that doesn't mean that A follows.

Amen.

After several of my friends and I saw that Bill Maher movie, the discussion was not so much about theology as about what percentage stuffed with fluff Bill Maher was.

(Consensus: pretty high.)

he's fucking nuts, he doesn't believe in germ theory

That's overstating a little bit, but he has said things about vaccines that are way Hollywood, imo.

BM: I don't believe in vaccinaiton either. That's a... well, that's a... what? That's another theory that I think is flawed, that we go by the Louis Pasteur theory, even though Louis Pasteur renounced it on his own deathbed and said that Beauchamp(s) was right: it's not the invading germs, it's the terrain. It's not the mosquitoes, it's the swamp that they are breeding in.

...

BM: You're in denial, about I think is a key fact, which is it is the at... people get sick because of an aggregate toxicity, because their body has so much poison in it, from the air, the water...

i think he may have rescinded somewhat under pressure. still nuts though.

Again with someone saying "Something is terribly wrong with the world, and I have decided what it is."

But let's not go there again.

it's violent video games imo

and those harlots in music videos

i do understand if (reasonable) religious people feel a bit put out with the prickliness of a large segment of the atheist population. but you have to expect some degree of backlash. atheists have been (and still are imo) treated like pariahs by, like, practically everybody who's not one.

Depends what circles you move in, I guess.

true

Religious people generally don't have to suffer responses like 'oh, you ARE NOT' and similar when they define their beliefs, and if that makes me a bit spiky, fine.

Religious people generally don't have to suffer responses like 'oh, you ARE NOT' and similar when they define their beliefs

Not sure about that. Actual Christians seem a bit thin on the ground here for instance.

suzy mega-otm

That's never happened to me, as far as I can remember

As someone who is usually the lone "theist sort of person" in a friend group of liberal atheist skeptics I can actually definitively state that Suzy *not* OTM.

kate mega-otm

admittedly my bible belt environs prob shades the way i see this issue

We're an irreligious lot this side of the pond

Just as my "snarky London media types" environs probably shades mine.

It is a "lone X in a group of Y" problem, not related to being X or being Y.

but wouldn't you say that "snarky London media types" is a relatively recent development?

Not, really, no. I mean, you have to remember that my priest mum was the first non-atheist in her Britishes (atheist, freethinker Scottishes) family for about 200 years or so.

interesting!

It's my impression that "being an atheist" has been kind of common currency within the London intelligensia type for at least 50 years, probably at least a century - Britain has, by design, since a couple of bloody civil wars, been a lot less for making-an-issue of religion (or lack thereof) than the states, but my history isn't good enough to state this with any real conviction, but it's certainly the case in bohemia and academia and has been for some time.

but wouldn't you say that "snarky London media types" is a relatively recent development?

It's not just "snarky London media types" who are irreligious in the UK! I don't think I know anyone who is esp. religious - including my mother!

(i mean really. i hope that didn't read as sarcastic)

xpost

Yeah, it's funny - I mean, pretty recently I've had the experience of making a friend who is definitely arty-intellectual type but not Londoner or snarky media type - who actually said to me "OMG, I had actually forgotten there *were* people who weren't atheists" in a way that read - I couldn't tell if she was being snarky or not, but it was definitely like... ::step back::

Kate, I'm talking about conversations with Normal People, not media people. Am completely on the money WRT my own life experiences, which I am not really interested in having judged valid or otherwise - they happen, they are what they are.

Hahahahaha Tom, just because it's never happened to you doesn't mean you won't someday enjoy the spectacle of someone less educated than you who claims to be a Christian (or, worse, that America is a Christian nation) trying to 'explain' why you're misguided or Christian, really. Evangelicals of the Benny Hinn variety also use the term 'downcast' to describe people who are not into Jebus - I love it when not terribly bright people spend time feeling sorry for me for my godlessness, generally after they've sent $39.95 to Robert Schuller or someone.

Having a self-confessed believer like Tony Blair as Prime Minister was considered weird in the UK. No idea who the last openly religious PM we had before that? Possibly in the 19th century.

i do understand if (reasonable) religious people feel a bit put out with the prickliness of a large segment of the atheist population.

i dunno about it being a 'large segment of' really.

unless you'd contend that reasonable religious people by % is somehow higher than reasonable atheist people by %, which I don't know how you'd measure.

Cake or death?

admitting atheism where i am was essentially tantamount to saying "i eat babies" until prob the last 30 years or so. and still like o_O

i do understand if (reasonable) religious people feel a bit put out with the prickliness of a large segment of the atheist population lots of vocal atheists

I don't generally hand out the pricklies unless someone of faith says something really dumb or emotional-blackmaily to me about my lack of faith. My favourite response is generally 'according to your religion it's blasphemy to use God as an inducement like that. Am I worth BLASPHEMY?'

i've not been harassed recently for my atheism, but then again I don't actively advertise it either. I will say in my life I've been persecuted more by religious sects than I've ever done persecuting.

I think that much of Britain is so far the other way that pretty much admitting anything beyond "yeah, I go to Church on Christmas/Easter, for the kids, really, you understand, but I'm not *overtly* religious" is viewed on with - not so much suspicion, but some kind of "tall poppies" in reverse thing. We don't really want to be seen as too much, too emotional, extraordinary in any way, it's viewed with the same mistrust as showing off, really.

I find that it's much easier to tell white-ish lies and nod and smile than to actually engage casual acquaintances in religious conversation. I've rarely had anyone get pushy about the topic, if ever. Among friends, it's still kind of a non-issue. On the scale of intimate things that friends talk about, there are usually more interesting things than our ill-defined, non-standard religious beliefs. I have religious conversations with my very closest friends and ILX. And that's it. Apart from that, nobody asks and I don't tell.

Yes, considered all a bit "American" or "European/Catholic" (xp)

I suppose it can come up awkwardly in the office sometimes. "So, do you have any plans for Easter?" This is where I would tell a really vague lie. "I'm going to wear a suit, I think."

i don't think 'any plans for easter?' is necessarily a leading question on religion, but tthat's maybe because we get a long weekend, so 'any plans for easter' is just basically 'are you doing anything with these bonus three days hurrah'

It could be a trap, though.

Is "Eating chocolate" considered an acceptable response?

xpost yea "any plans for easter?" isn't quite the same as "so how do you plan on worshipping our Lord this weekend? That is unless you're a disgusting savage who won't be doing that..."

we get a long weekend

We do?

http://www.unscrewingtheinscrutable.com/images/atheisttrap.jpg

Easter isn't a federal holiday here. There's no long weekend and if you have a job where yr scheduled to work on Easter Sunday, for instance, yr employer doesn't have to ask for volunteers and/or pay extra. Have always found that confusing, considering...America.