Want to know why I am Atheist? It's because of how the story of Jesus came to be. His story was not written down for at least 40 years; think of all the misconceptions that could have happened between that time. I mean, it is much like gossip. It works for the first few people, but then the story starts to mutate uncontrollably.
Who isn't to say that at first, Jesus was just a psychotic whom talked to his imaginary master, named god? He could have just been walking down the road talking to "god" about the basis of his life, and what he shall not do. Later, he commits euthanasia because god told him to. See how that could mutate into the modern story that it is?
Of course there should be religion! Any true rational and scientific minded person realizes the neccessity of religion. Saying that there should be no religious people is like saying that there should be no white people. Both groups of people have caused the majority of historical problems, and therefore an argument exists for their eradication. However, white people are not subject to all the same diseases (or not to the same extent) as other races are. Their unique genetic codes are needed in case of a race-targeted pandemic, so that the human race can survive. This argument applies to all races. The same is true for religion: what if something happens that only kills atheists? This could be any number of things. First of all, one religion could be true, and God decides to wipe out our heathen planet. Or a theist alien race arrives on our planet, and kills us for not having any faith. These both probably won't happen, but seeing as we don't know what will happen, it is better to be safe. For all we know, there is a gene mutation that causes people to be more likely to accept religion. This same gene mutation also makes people immune to certain diseases. In fact, people who belong to an organized religion tend to live longer than athiest on average. This is after correcting for the fact that religious people also tend to be married and do less drugs. I guess the point of my rant is that humans should never, under any circamstances, do anything to reduce diversity. This applies both to idealogy and genetics. However, this doesn't mean we should allow religious people to roam free. After all, some religions (IE mormonism, Jesuits, etc) are really into converting people, therefore reducing the diversity of Earth. Others are really into flat out killing other religious people (IE pretty much all religions). Therefore, we should seperate all the religions, and ship them out to islands where they can't bother anyone. This will keep Earth diverse enough to safegaurd it from catastophy while allowing everyone else to live a rational, Atheist life.
I'm sorry, but you have no clue about what genetics is at all. For one thing, a religion is made, it is not part of the human body. People can CHANGE their religion by way of choice. A disease is a biological affliction that hurts the human body, IN NO WAY does it have any sort of bearing on the fact if the host is religious or not. The same principle applies to people that, as you have said "gain immunities based off their religion". What if I change my religion? Do I lose my immunities even though they are set in stone?
In fact, people who belong to an organized religion tend to live longer than athiest on average.
How is this any truth at all? Again, what we believe in has no biological bearing on how we as animals live.
Why don't you go find me an objective poll about the lifespan of theist and atheist people? Oh, and it seems you already know this for a fact, so you really shouldn't need to google an unread article out of your butt. Many people do this and it makes me sad.
I don't think he was saying that you get your religion from your genes, just that there may be a gene that influences the chance of having more faith. That would be an example of sociobiology, I think.
And yeah, I don't think religion has much of an effect on life span. He was pretty much just basing it on the stereotype that all religious people are good, while non-religious people are bad and do all sorts of illegal things, such as drugs and murdering people. It's such a retarded stereotype...
Actually, there may be a gene that influences ones propensity towards devout belief in mythology (religion), as there are genes that dictate one's propensity towards drug addiction, alcoholism, gambling...
Some genes are actually harmful and are counter-intuitive from an evolutionary standpoint, however in our age of unnatural selection, these genes persist.
And yeah, I don't think religion has much of an effect on life span. He was pretty much just basing it on the stereotype that all religious people are good, while non-religious people are bad and do all sorts of illegal things, such as drugs and murdering people
Actually, this statistic was corrected for the beneficial effects that come from using less drugs and from being married. People think that this effect has more to do with the notion that religious people might experiance less stress, due to their faith in "salvation." Stress tends to decrease the effectiveness of one's immune system. And no, I can not site who specifically came up with this theory. I remember this all from an AP psych text book (by David Myers) I used last year, which I no longer have. And yes, I realize how lame that sounds. It was in the chapter about stress and health. You can buy the book and look it up yourself. Assumming I remembered correctly (which I did), this argument also supports my genetic argument. Faith has been around for thousands of years. If faith really does lower stress, than it would make one more competitive on an evolutionary scale, because it would increase the likelyhood that one would survive. In fact, this gene has been discovered. It is called VMAT2, and is the subject of Dean Hamer's book, The God Gene. Though this book is highly controversial in the scientific community, it can't be ruled out all together. Additionally, my whole rant was a hypothetical situation attempting to explain how religion might possibly be beneficial. Here's a bonus article that I pulled out of my butt:
Then perhaps we should bring back the beliefs in Zeus, Odin, and Ra along with their pantheons.
By all means, yes. But place them on a island very far away.
If such an event were to happen chances are it would be a religion that no one on this planet would have and people would be killed for being the "wrong religion" just as much as being no religion.
If you are absolutely certain that aliens will use that logic, then yes, that is a good point. I, however, have never seen an alien nor have any idea what kind of logic they will use. It is entirely possibly that aliens, like in the book Stranger in a Strange Land, will not have a concept of multiple religions, and will not be able to comprehend that Earthly religions are very different from theirs.
aknerd, You might find some of the things said in this video interesting. They hypothesize on why we have religion. The video is little over 36 minutes.
out of all these religions, there must be one god. You're telling me that trillions of people have died for religion, yet god isn't real?
Yes. No gods exist. Your above quote is kinda like saying: "Out of all these fairy tales, there must be one that's true." That's why most atheists try to tell you gods don't exist. They don't want to see more people hurt. Some just want to put it in your face because it's rebellious, though. Most do it for the good. They want an educated society. They don't want people to hate homosexuals, or shun other religions. Most want peace.
But even if 59.9999 trillion people turned away from religion, there would still be 1 beliver. If religion wasn't invented, the closest things to wars we would have would be arguments.
True, I suppose. You can never end all wars. Even if everyone on earth was a "loveoneanother" hippie. There would still be people fighting over who was more 'eace'y. Although the lack of religion would not solve all conflicts, it would definitely help out.
Personally, I am iron-hard in my Atheist beliefs, but that doesn't make any difference.
Since God hasn't intervened in the affairs of men in a while, it doesn't matter whether he exists or not. If he exists, whatever religion he exists for is right i their ongoing crusade against all others. If he doesn't then the Atheists are right, and all religions will still spend eternity killing each other, because no amount of evidence will ever sway a true believer.
Want to know why I am Atheist? It's because of how the story of Jesus came to be. His story was not written down for at least 40 years; think of all the misconceptions that could have happened between that time. I mean, it is much like gossip. It works for the first few people, but then the story starts to mutate uncontrollably.
Who isn't to say that at first, Jesus was just a psychotic whom talked to his imaginary master, named god? He could have just been walking down the road talking to "god" about the basis of his life, and what he shall not do. Later, he commits euthanasia because god told him to. See how that could mutate into the modern story that it is?
An insane man does not, by any stretch of the imagination, create a church, unless you have a team of dedicated lawyers. Correction: An insane man does not, by any stretch of the imagination, create a church that can withstand three centuries of persecution under the greatest empire of its time, and still continue to spread to the ends of this empire and beyond.
If you think 40 years is a long time, consider that our manuscripts of the history of the Greeks and Romans were found centuries after their respective authors died. Forty years is plenty for eyewitnesses to be alive and refute any movement.
If it is this easy for a religious movement to take root, why didn't Mithraism take over the Roman empire? What happened to the worship of Dionysus, or Isis, or Osiris, or Adonis, all of whom had their followers in the Roman Empire and had more eminence than a crazy Jew?
Not only is your reason for atheism shallow, it reflects, well, a lack of reflection. Are there challenges to Christianity? Anywhere but here.
