Then you should have a place of worship built for you at great expense to the tax payer. Do you have a nice costume to wear? I just love the big beard and huge hat combo that Orthodox jews wear, no mistaking what team they support.. Or maybe flip flops and pyjamas with a neat little white cap also with big messy beard as long as your hand?. The greatest thing about religion is the snazzy costumes, how about a bowler hat suit orange sash and a **** off great drum strapped to your front, absolutely no mistaking who they like?
That's called indoctrination and it's usually practiced on children and gullible adults. I don't see many atheists waging war in the name of non-believing (and before someone mentions them, Hitler and Stalin were not atheists.)
Would you not say a-theism is necessary for religion? If everyone believed in the doctrine of christianity, for example, we'd still be stuck in the middle ages. Religious people have 'faith' so they follow what someone said (or didn't say) 2000 years ago, without questioning it. Religion is only properly questioned by atheists, who point out the issues with parts of the dogma. This forces the religion to go away and 'reinterpret Gods word' in a more 21st Century manner, and this keeps religion up to date enough for most people to accept it. My own reason for not accepting mainstream religion is the hypocritical attitude (mainly of Christianity) to science. When the 'holy shroud' was supposedly found in Turin a few years back, they happily accepted Carbon dating as proof that it wasn't old enough. However, when Carbon dating suggests that the Earth may be older than the bibles figure of 8000 years, the response is "Na,Na,Na Not listening!" and they go back to telling everyone that dinosaur fossils were placed their by God to confuse the ignorant.
Can i suggest that we all put our faith of choice under our chosen avatar? That way i can pick and chose who i hate in seconds without ever needing to read the posters comments
I think Atheism gets the perception of being pushy from one or two public figures like Richard Dawkins, with these exceptions, the majority of atheists quietly get on with their lives. Whilst you can also say theists could be summed up similarly, there is no such thing as an Evangelical Atheist, atheist rock does not exist. Large scale events are not organised by atheists, super-churches are not built by atheists. As for the first question you asked, I don't think you can label people that way at all. It'd be interesting to see a comparison in the average IQ of a theist and atheist, but I'd imagine they won't be that different. I know a girl who doesn't believe in God because "He never gave me a pony when I wanted one", and equally the reverse argument can be made: "I believe in God because he'll give me a pony". Its a stupid argument (this girl is 23), which goes to show neither religion or atheism solely attracts stupid people, but equally the worlds top scientist are a healthy mix of theists and atheists.
Wars have been fought before Christianity was invented WW1 was almost a wholly Christian affair....no clashes of religion there Science has created mustard gas and A bombs, preachers did not do this However I digress Are atheists just bigots?
Aye, because no one else of a scientific bent would have invented printing eh? What's religion ever done for us? Some wonderful art, poetry and prose. I don't doubt that. What has science ever done for us? No competition really.
