Support NeoGAF

[Ignatz Mouse]

Thing is, I don't doubt that some of the mainstream religious would look at any possible "decline" of Athiesm with glee "See we were right hee hee!" and the comments about fear of "paganization" are also predictable. As one person who was once a Christian, then Agnostic, and then Neo-Pagan told me: once you think some things you can't un-think them. Once something like say, Christianity falls through for you in a certain way, you can't just "go back". You can reconsider some concepts associated with it. But as a box, a package, it's not going to work ever again in the same way it did. What some Christians fear as paganization is, in some cases I have seen, people who realize the need for some kind of spiritual or metaphysical component to their perspective and having already been out of the box of one religion, do not believe they have to be in any one box again. Or they simply can't be.

I do suspect that there may be some increasing degree of disillusionment - but not neccessarily decline as such - with athiesm and extreme rational materialism. These things were once latched on to by some as a weapon to use against the "evils" of superstition and religion and for those people became a crusade of their own. Once they made the same mistakes the religious made because they were human too, well...

Wow. this has been a pet view of mine for a while, but I have never seen anyone else expouse it. It's the reason why, although I identify myself as a weak atheist, I also identify with Christian faith, deism, and strong atheism (having believed on or the other at some point). People tend to be in deep denial about their own conflicting views, thinking that for consistency sake they have to have an absolute view.

I don't believe in God, but I have the lifelong experience of knowing what that belief feels like, from when I did. So in a sense, I can never un-believe it.

 

[Nerevar]

No shit. 76% of all people know that.

Come on now, you're just making that up.

 

[Che]

Just out of curiousity, where do statistics that claim to know the percentage of the population that is religious/believes in god/etc come from? And how do we know it's not the equivalent of the gay rights movement claiming one out of every three people is gay, or whatever the hell it is they say? Is every person that answers yes to "do yo believe in god" religious? Is every person who's a casual church-goer a devout Christian? I suppose I've known quite a few people who have some belief in a higher power or who goes to church out of habit or because they're dragged there, but a huge majority of people I've known or encountered in such discussions the past several years are not devout Christians. I've always had a suspicion that the statistics on which these "studies" are based are inflated and manipulated.

I think that you're taking the article too seriously. Like DC said it's just right-wing propaganda. Now if you're asking in general, well, like you said there'll never be accurate data on that. There are many many people who consider going to church a business decision.

 

[Che]

90% of all statistics are made up or fabricated.

No shit. 76% of all people know that.

:lol:lol:lol Nice combo guys.

 

[White Man]

What? It's not POPULAR to be an atheist anymore? FUck, what are the hip designer religions these days? What about that Zoroasterism thing all the kids love?

 

[Justin Bailey]

The link is truly there...as you go up the IQ chain, you will find less and less faith.

Yeah I ain't down with no gods and stuff. I want all the pompous pseudo-intellectuals to think I'm smart too.

 

[Hitokage]

For somebody boasting about their IQ, you'd think he'd know the difference between correlation and causation.

 

[Justin Bailey]

For somebody boasting about their IQ, you'd think he'd know the difference between correlation and causation.

True, but then again, spelling ability does increase with shoe size am I rite?

 

[Maxwell House]

For somebody boasting about their IQ, you'd think he'd know the difference between correlation and causation.

If your argument is that maybe intelligence isn't the reason that intelligent people tend to be less faithful, then come up with a decent third factor that might explain the link. I can't think of anything. Logically, it makes plenty of sense that intelligence is what causes the lack of faith directly. Afterall, what empirical evidence is there of any God? Intelligent people would more likely tend to notice the basic lack of fundamental proof, don't you think? Scientists especially see the big hole there.

If you are going to attack my intelligence at least come up with a decent argument. You can't just throw out causation vs correlation without another possible explanation for the results of these studies. The people running the studies obviously thought intelligence was the key factor to focus in on.

It seems very simple and logical to me. Inteligent people tend to have less faith than less intelligent people. Even further, as you study people at higher and higher IQ stratas, you find less and less faith. People at genius and higher levels hardly ever are religious.

 

[op_ivy]

...aaaaaaand that's where I stopped reading and burst out laughing. :lol

you too? :lol

great article