What makes you think SpaceCowboy has a religious faith? Nothing they’ve said in this comment gave me that signal.
Fwiw I am not religious, but I know religious people who I respect, and who are intelligent, rational people, knowledgeable about and interested in science and history etc. I don’t think having ‘faith’ automatically makes a person stupid or contemptible, and I don’t think being an atheist automatically means you’re more rational or intelligent than someone else
Their reference to atheism as a religion (it isn’t) which ‘creates its own history’ tipped me off.
And their lack of reply to my simple question really says it all. A non-religious could simply reply ‘no, obviously I would not believe in him if the experts consensus was they did not exist’. SpaceCowboy however cannot state this, as my suspicion is the expert consensus has no impact on their beliefs whatsoever. Which is why I asked … why even talk about the expert consensus at all?
Also this comment chain further reinforces my view. Referring to atheists as ‘they’ implies SpaceCowboy is not an atheist.
And I’d argue that you actually don’t know any truly ‘rational’ people who are also religious as those concepts are fundamentally at odds with each other. There is no rational basis for the supernatural. I’m sure they are generally nice, well-meaning, intelligent and knowledgeable people though, most religious people I know are too. And yes I also know asshole atheists too, lots of them. But I don’t see what that has to do with what I stated/asked. I made no assessment on religious or non-religious people being good or bad, smart or stupid. I made no claim that atheists are magically more rational or intelligent than someone else, although on average they may be but I would have to review the data before jumping to any conclusions. I didn’t attack SpaceCowboy in any way, I just asked a simple question.
What makes you think SpaceCowboy has a religious faith? Nothing they’ve said in this comment gave me that signal. Fwiw I am not religious, but I know religious people who I respect, and who are intelligent, rational people, knowledgeable about and interested in science and history etc. I don’t think having ‘faith’ automatically makes a person stupid or contemptible, and I don’t think being an atheist automatically means you’re more rational or intelligent than someone else
Their reference to atheism as a religion (it isn’t) which ‘creates its own history’ tipped me off.
And their lack of reply to my simple question really says it all. A non-religious could simply reply ‘no, obviously I would not believe in him if the experts consensus was they did not exist’. SpaceCowboy however cannot state this, as my suspicion is the expert consensus has no impact on their beliefs whatsoever. Which is why I asked … why even talk about the expert consensus at all?
Also this comment chain further reinforces my view. Referring to atheists as ‘they’ implies SpaceCowboy is not an atheist.
And I’d argue that you actually don’t know any truly ‘rational’ people who are also religious as those concepts are fundamentally at odds with each other. There is no rational basis for the supernatural. I’m sure they are generally nice, well-meaning, intelligent and knowledgeable people though, most religious people I know are too. And yes I also know asshole atheists too, lots of them. But I don’t see what that has to do with what I stated/asked. I made no assessment on religious or non-religious people being good or bad, smart or stupid. I made no claim that atheists are magically more rational or intelligent than someone else, although on average they may be but I would have to review the data before jumping to any conclusions. I didn’t attack SpaceCowboy in any way, I just asked a simple question.