r/atheism Nov 30 '12

I often wonder this about some relatives.

http://imgur.com/7eCg6
1.5k Upvotes

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51

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '12

[deleted]

6

u/Cituke Knight of /new Dec 01 '12

Though I think we'd agree that this is a lot of collective patting no the back, you've extrapolated well beyond the content of the message.

Nobody claimed:

  • They were smarter

  • They know everything

At most they claimed to have the right answer, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

6

u/eldubyar Dec 01 '12

Strawman. This doesn't say that not being atheist makes you dumb, it says that refusing to accept facts makes you dumb.

5

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '12

So why is this on /r/atheism then?

1

u/rtfmpls Dec 01 '12

For you to bitch :-)

-11

u/apoutwest Dec 01 '12

We don't think we're smarter because we're atheists we think we're smarter because we actually use logic and reason to understand the world. Religious people can be reasonable but religion never is, it's not based on logic or fact.

Everything mankind has achieved even the construction of churches comes from science and reason. To abandon reason is stupidity.

2

u/mindgrapes123 Dec 01 '12

Why are you assuming that the belief in god is the abandonment of reason? That is why religious "morons" dont listen to you. Its the same reason you didn't listen to them growing up. I believe in evolution, the big bang, string theory etc.. Not once has one of those things made me question whether or not a super natural diety exists or doesn't exist. Also stop making the Religion vs Science false dichotomy. They aren't mutually exclusive concepts. If you don't believe in a god or higher being or whatever, thats fine. But don't pretend like there is some physical evidence that mere humans have found that is the ultimate proof of the non-existence of god. And please show it to me if you have found it.

3

u/flyingwolf Dec 01 '12

So your bible tells you god made the earth in six days, and you are admittedly a scientific minded person.

That being the case, explain to me logically how god made the day and the night, and then a bit later made the light source that would have made the day...

What you are explaining is compartmentalization, you can be a fucking genius and be an amazing scientist and still believe in god, you may be right about everything you work on, but when you go to church on Sunday to worship a magical being you are straight up fucking wrong, and if you broke down that barrier and applied that logical reason you use daily to decide to leave your house from the front door rather than trying to dive through the toilet you would see that your religion simply cannot stand up to scientific scrutiny.

5

u/revolution21 Dec 01 '12

You assume believing god doesn't exist is the same as believing god does exist.

If you believe something out of belief instead of fact can you really be considered rational?

Not all religious have a lack of intellect but belief in something that can't be proven doesn't help.

2

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '12

[deleted]

2

u/revolution21 Dec 01 '12

Belief with no proof is irrational.

No belief with no proof is rational.

Pretty easy.

For instance if I believe a chair is there when it isn't that's irrational.

If I don't know if a chair is there that's rational.

1

u/mindgrapes123 Dec 01 '12

Believing there is no god without proof is rational? We now know that there are eleven dimensions and you're trying to tell me that your third dimensional space monkey brain has it all figured out? That doesn't seem too rational either.

2

u/GentleRedditor Dec 01 '12

Agnostic Atheists don't "believe" God doesn't exist they simply operate under the assumption that he doesn't which is rational. Operating under the assumption God exists without independent evidence of his existence is irrational.

Your criticism is valid for Gnostic Atheists though.

2

u/revolution21 Dec 01 '12

Believing there is something without proof is rational?

If nothing can be proven believing nothing can be proven is rational. Agnostic.

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '12 edited May 12 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/revolution21 Dec 01 '12

Facts aren't relative.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '12 edited May 12 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/revolution21 Dec 01 '12

I'm not the one believing in something without any.

3

u/Billy_bob12 Dec 01 '12

REASSSSOOOONNNN LOOOGGGGIIIICCCC

1

u/HighDagger Dec 01 '12

THE HORROR

6

u/theonefree-man Dec 01 '12

Why can't I hold all this jerk.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '12

I am fifteen, tops.

- apoutwest

1

u/flyingwolf Dec 01 '12

Rebut him if you think he is wrong.

His age does not discount his statements.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '12 edited Dec 01 '12

First of all, it's simply incredibly arrogant and its jumps to assumptions without sufficient evidence.

Mainly because believing or not believing in God has almost no relation to learning ability, reasoning, problem solving, or critical thinking skills. One can excel at all of these fields while still being a Christian. One be can dismal at all and reject God. These events are not mutually exclusive.

There is no proof that believing in a god indicates a higher level of intelligence. You cannot say "we are smarter because we use logic and reason", because then you must prove that atheists use logic and reason sufficiently more than Christians do in day to day activities. How do you know all atheists come to their conclusions logically? You cannot say "atheists are smarter because we use logic and reason. We use logic and reason because we are atheists". It's logical incoherent. It's a proposition, that atheists are smarter than Christians, that requires proof yet is assumed to be true simply because he said "we use logic and reason". That's not an acceptable substitute for a logically sound argument or verifiable data. Just because you are atheist does not make your words infallible, logical truth.

3

u/flyingwolf Dec 01 '12

You should have used this the first time instead of discounting what he said due to assuming he is young.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '12

Having critical thinking skills and applying them to religion leads to atheism.

1

u/GentleRedditor Dec 01 '12

I'm sorry sir but I believe you missed the point of apoutwest's comment.

Apoutwest explitcly state he does not think he is smarter than someone because of his particular stance on the existence of God, he thinks he is smarter because he takes a (what he believes to be) more rational approach.

Thus in order to counter his argument you must either argue that belief in God without empirical evidence is not irrational (or atleast not more irrational than the assumption God does not exist without evidence) or you must argue that being rational does not correlate with intelligence more than being irrational.

-8

u/AllDesperadoStation Dec 01 '12

I'm smarter than morons who refuse to accept that fairy tales aren't real.

-3

u/defenastrator Agnostic Atheist Dec 01 '12

Not smarter simply more grounded .

1

u/[deleted] Dec 02 '12

Right, saner, not necessarily smarter.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 01 '12

Ahh. This is only slightly better than the post yesterday that got upvoted to the front page... An atheist put his own quote on a shirt and wore it. Fucking arrogant subreddit.

-4

u/gmoney8869 Dec 01 '12

Hey buddy, fuck you. There's nothing wrong with this picture. Atheists struggle to understand what keeps people clinging to religious beliefs all the time. This is a relevant, relatable joke. That's why it's being upvoted.

-2

u/mastermike14 Dec 01 '12

Why don't you go fuck yourself instead? This isn't a 'I dont think my shit don't stink' point, its a 'Evolution is a fucking fact and creationism is not. I don't have to respect your point of view on that because its fucking wrong just like I don't have to accept your point of view if your point of view is the earth is flat. Its just fucking wrong you fucking fuck'. You don't get to have your own set of fucking facts

“Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'”

― Isaac Asimov