a month ago
Anecdotally,seems to be less of atheism online: the Dawkins/Rationalist types seem to have retreated from public debates.
a month ago
I'd argue because religious stupidity these days has increased to such a high order that in many adherents, its in the not even sane point to be even debated. Rationalists also haven't yet committed a few mass genocides and taken over countries, which is the bare minimum to be taken seriously among religions.
a month ago
Headline asks a question... the answer is No.
a month ago
It does suggest that the decline has stopped. Maybe also true in other western countries.
It is what I expected. Given stable rates of loss religious belief and non-religious people converting (ignoring conversions between religions) there will be an equilibrium.
It still matter what religion people follow. One of the big changes, especially in the US, has been the growth of evangelical Christianity (often Biblical literalist and right wing) at the expense of traditional big denominations.
a month ago
…I thought I saw Amongus in the title. I'm going back to bed.
a month ago
Materialist magician incoming!
a month ago
Hopefully!
a month ago
"Recent polling shows no clear evidence of a religious revival among young adults"
a month ago
Betteridge's law strikes again!
a month ago
[flagged]
a month ago
Its hard to imagine a non-neurological basis for the ardent believers, it takes a lot to stick to belief in obvious falsehoods. There have been hundreds of religions throughout history, all of them thought they were the true one. None of them even stand scrutiny to basic arguments, let alone the very high amount of rigor such a supposedly fundamental truth must demand.
a month ago
The point of a religion is to provide a devoted in-group with a coherent set of values and principles, subsequently fulfilling an individual's social needs of stability and belonging. God and other supernatural concepts are just social communication tools to enable the same, and are not meant to be treated as scientific theorems to prove or disprove.
Your ad-hominem tirade is embarrassingly juvenile.
a month ago
I think this kind of belief system is relatively common with the kind of people who frequent HN but vanishingly small out in the rest of the world.
a month ago
I have met very few religious people who claim the god and supernatural stuff isn't capital T Truth. They'd be offended if I said religion is just a lifestyle or moral system, some even to the point of violent genocides.
a month ago
Of course they do, because that intangible symbol of God is the base of the whole social structure. Just like how cash is nothing but paper without the underlying intangible idea of a nation to give an exchange value to it. It doesn't matter that it's artificial, what matters is that it's held up with collective faith to give validity to a set of ideas and values.
a month ago
Normally we'd call that schizophrenia, hallucinations or any number of serious mental illnesses. The religious are on the other hand coddled. I'll be honest, at a fundamental level, I don't trust religious people at all, I work with people as needed to, but its like trusting a wild unpredictable beast, you never know what dangerous form their insanities would one day pop up as.
a month ago
Cash has value because the government, which is a real thing that verifiably exists and has power because of collective decisions made regardless of whether you agree with them, demands that you pay taxes and will put you in prison if you don't.
What verifiably happens to me if I don't pretend I believe your particular god exists?
a month ago
What gives a government legitimacy and power to extort taxes and punish people? Collective acceptance and trust, nothing else. Same goes with religion.
> What verifiably happens to me if I don't pretend I believe your particular god exists?
Used to be not that long ago that you'd face similar punishment. It's fairly recently that religion as a social institution has weakened to obscurity. If you attack its symbols, you attack its society.
a month ago
And how many governments claim no other country or currency is legit and anyone who isn't their country is a blasphemer or at least seriously misguided? Does French government say Germans are fundamentally wrong, the German government should be dissolved and every German should be French?
a month ago
Show me which government claims cash came from outside the universe and the govt itself invented the universe and is omnipotent and can read everyone's minds.
a month ago
They are liars because they don't just say "Let god fix it" when they face crime, disease, what not. Well, some are insane enough that they do yes, I'd at least consider those people honest who go to faith healers for problems.
a month ago
But why do they claim god has powers over man if he needs mans hand to execute it? Cash or governments don't claim to be some all powerful fundamental truth of the universe. Nobody ever said that. Why do we infantilize and accept such utter absurdity from religious people? And what's funnier is most religions hate "LGBT" because its made up....how is it more made up than their beliefs? At least gender is a real thing that we can see, and one day in theory the body could be modified to truly change gender. Religion hasn't even, in principle given us any reason or explanation for their absurdities yet violently push back on anyone saying doubts.
a month ago
[flagged]
a month ago
Iran and Afghanistan are nice religious countries. I'd gladly fund your deportation there if you think religion is true.
a month ago
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a month ago
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a month ago
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a month ago
Why is this flagged?