quote:
gabe_billings wrote:
Also, as far as the Kirk Cameron idiocy presented earlier, I submit this as an alternate view:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5015557
nice article. put into words some things that i've felt since i became an atheist. when i was religious the world wasn't as important as it is now. it was all just a means to heaven. but now the world is really all there is, and that's a good thing. all the diversity and differences are much more interesting when they speak directly to human nature and reality. before, if they didn't agree with christianity, they were just unenlightened or temptations to be avoided. not that i told myself that conscoiusly, but that was what it came down to assuming there was a god and a "way"
the thing that scares the shit out of me about mike seaver is how sure he seems. it's definitely a product of faith, not insight (as evidenced by crocoduck), which i'm sure is a pleasant thing that brings him some contentment, but it creates absolutism, which is dangerous for the rest of us. my motto is 'life is hard. if you find something that makes it easier for you--religion, non-religion, baby juggling, whatever--more power to you. but extend that same courtesy to me even if what i find to be helpful isn't what you find to be so." but that's hard for absolutists to do, since they think they know some absolute truth they must push on everyone.
and some atheists are just as guilty of it, and maybe even a little more dangerous since we all know to be wary of the logic of the religious faithful, but not many of us know to be wary of the logic of the "scientific" faithful. scientific in quotes because real scientists don't have faith. or preference. if research and experience were to point to there being a god, or not being a god, or crocoduck being god of jello, they'd be equally satisfied, since they were pursuing the truth.
i guess that's why religious people in general don't bother me, but those people, religious or not, who seem way too fucking sure of something scare the shit out of me.
