How could it be that there are people in the world who, on the one hand, post videos on YouTube, and on the other, believe things about the universe that are manifestly and self-evidently false? (Yes, I'm referring to all religions here.)
Religion -- all religion -- is so obviously nonsense, and yet the human race goes on and on and on, having endless tortured discussions about the earthly consequences of religious tenets, with a straight face.
How can we even begin to address these problems when all religious viewpoints are considered with an air of seriousness and profundity? On what ground do we (non-"holy warriors") stand when we say their viewpoint is wrong? None, so long as any religious viewpoint is taken seriously.
There is only one proper response to this and that is to make damn sure that I laugh religious people out of the room whenever possible.
Let us stop playing games and acknowledge that so long as grownups are considering religious viewpoints alongside secular ones when making important decisions, we will get absolutely nowhere.
"There is only one proper response to this and that is to make damn sure that I laugh religious people out of the room whenever possible."
That approach has proven to not work. Didn't you realize that the "religious people" would do the same to you? Their reality is different from yours.
So you have ferreted all the gods out of all the gaps in human knowledge? That is an amazing accomplishment!
Bases for belief are weird, even when they are not based on religion. Many mentalities are based on absolutes, it seems you have replaced god with no-god.
I don't think the anti-theist mindset is particularly useful. You cannot use facts to change someone's mind, especially where facts were not used in the first place.
Religion is a largely emotional experience to most people; denying them that experience is just hurtful, not constructive.
Supernatural claims made by religions are not among those. Those are just self-evidently false.
I'm not denying anyone anything. I'm just saying that the supernatural claims made by religions are obviously false. I don't really care if anyone's feelings are hurt by that.
I agree. But how can you realistically solve this?
The majority of adults will never give up their beliefs. Even if we convinced every single child that religion is bullocks, it would still take ~60 years to flush out the adults. Maybe we should just hop on the rocket with Musk and start over on Mars.
Religion -- all religion -- is so obviously nonsense, and yet the human race goes on and on and on, having endless tortured discussions about the earthly consequences of religious tenets, with a straight face.
How can we even begin to address these problems when all religious viewpoints are considered with an air of seriousness and profundity? On what ground do we (non-"holy warriors") stand when we say their viewpoint is wrong? None, so long as any religious viewpoint is taken seriously.
There is only one proper response to this and that is to make damn sure that I laugh religious people out of the room whenever possible.
Let us stop playing games and acknowledge that so long as grownups are considering religious viewpoints alongside secular ones when making important decisions, we will get absolutely nowhere.