The retarded christian.

[SirYeen]

Hello there,
I've been thinking lately and I wonder, should we oppose atheists who describe religious people as idiots. Now I am not talking about nephilimfree, I am talking about general vague statements that anybody who is religious is idiotic. I realize I sometimes do this too and I think I shouldn't.

I'm afraid that by dehumanizing them, by attacking their intelligence we are missing an important point. They *are* humans, they are *not* stupid. In every other aspect of their life they may very well flourish. I've been booking up on evolution theory lately (now reading the greatest show on earth, it's also related to some of my courses at uni) and I think this is exactly the behavior we should expect. I feel like they just have one more obvious delusion than we do.

Now to get things straight, I'm not trying to share this as an epiphany. I'm not saying we shouldn't criticize religion on the contrary. I know some of you may experience this as captain obvious or straw-man or both. However I thought I'd post the general thought anyway because I might be able to link your ideas and expand this further.

 

[australopithecus]

I totally agree, it's as ridiculous as when fundies like Bob Enyart describe all atheists as fecally obsessed animals.

 

[Inferno]

In general, yes. Some people specifically, no.
There are those who can be reasoned with and I have absolutely no problem with those. They are intelligent, they just base their views on absurdities.

That being said, there are those who would be, in any other society that does not care or accept those who could not function in society on their own, dead by now. Take as an example the Jehovas Witnesses who come to my place every now and then. They can function in society, even though I'd have to say that they don't have a grasp of even the most basic concepts of many things. (Like evolution and cosmology.) They at least have an argument, no matter how silly that argument may sound to anyone who has a basic grasp of these topics.
However, there are those who have already admitted that all evidence is contrary to their point of view, yet they STILL have faith in whatever cherished fairy-tale they defend. If it weren't for the social constructs of our modern society, they would NOT survive and they would NOT function.

I have a bone the size of an Amphicoelias fragillimus femur to pick with them all, but the latter category just piss me off to no end.

 

[Dean]

Also: experience on the internet , and in real life , has taught me that it's pretty hard, if not impossible, to maintain any kind of dialogue with someone once you've called them an idiot.

 

[Laurens]

I agree, I think most religious people are perfectly intelligent. Its important to try and understand them, rather than simply thinking they're stupid because they believe different things.

That being said there are plenty of idiots out there, atheist and theist....

 

[Visaki]

Are religious people idiots? No. Stupid? Yes. Semantics? You betcha! But bear in mind that I'm talking about stupidity in a very narrow context here and that context is religion. Just because I think people who believe in one or more deities for no rational reason are stupid in that regard I don't think their stupidity automatically applies to other subjects also. One of the most interesting things in religion (or any belief system) is, in my opinion, how some of us can compartmentalize their usage of logic and reason only to things that are outside religion.

 

[SirYeen]

I'd argue we all do the same thing. It's just so much more obvious with religious people because well science.

 

[Gnug215]

Hello there,
I've been thinking lately and I wonder, should we oppose atheists who describe religious people as idiots. Now I am not talking about nephilimfree, I am talking about general vague statements that anybody who is religious is idiotic. I realize I sometimes do this too and I think I shouldn't.

I'm afraid that by dehumanizing them, by attacking their intelligence we are missing an important point. They *are* humans, they are *not* stupid. In every other aspect of their life they may very well flourish. I've been booking up on evolution theory lately (now reading the greatest show on earth, it's also related to some of my courses at uni) and I think this is exactly the behavior we should expect. I feel like they just have one more obvious delusion than we do.

Now to get things straight, I'm not trying to share this as an epiphany. I'm not saying we shouldn't criticize religion on the contrary. I know some of you may experience this as captain obvious or straw-man or both. However I thought I'd post the general thought anyway because I might be able to link your ideas and expand this further.

While I think it's fair to ridicule people like Nephilimfree, or rather his ridiculous ideas, I don't think it's ever fair to ridicule all Christians. And I agree with the "one more delusions" sentiment, because it would be arrogant of us to assume that we're not suffering under all kinds of bias and preconceptions - and more fundamentally, that were are "suffering" under our particular physiology and upbringing, which has resulted in us as we are.

If we expect everyone else to come to the same conclusions as us because of how plainly we see the world, we're just committing the Typical Mind Fallacy.

Beyond that, it's not constructive. People only seem to become more entrenched in their belief when opposed by ridicule or arrogance. That is my experience, at least.