Menzo wrote:I don't think it's right to say Religion is made out of ignorance though. Wtf is that? And the point mentioned about 'dumb' people only believing in God..uhh, didn't Einstein believe in God? Along with that one fucker in the wheelchair who can barely talk (LOL I can't remember his name at the moment). I think those people are pretty smart. Or if they don't 'believe' in God per say, they've at least said that the complication of the universe could only be created by a divine and incredibly intelligent being.
But whatever. The last few pages were really good, and peaceful pieces of debate, which I love. Nollie

You'sa dope anti-theist.
-one last thing, EminemBase. You were born into a family of atheists, and into a community of atheists...wouldn't it make sense to ultimately grow up as one..? You've got exterior influences being stuffed into your mind at a young age - the same thing happens with those following God (had to throw that there so it wasn't mentioned later by you or any other atheist).
Cheers.
Firstly, you say you don't think it's right to say religion was born from ignorance. All religions hijack themes from not only each other but from Pagan mythology. This is why every religion in history has a miraculous son being born of a virgin who is visited by three kings etc. This is mythology of Egypt which was passed on and on. And shaped and molded to each culture.
All religions were invented by people who understood hardly anything about the World. Or Science. The very definition of ignorance is 'lack of understanding'. So it's actually perfectly fair and grammatically correct to say religion was born from ignorance. It quite literally was.
There's also been numerous polls and tests of recent times to try and determine a correlation between intelligence and religion. And everytime it's shown that the more intelligent you are, the less likely you are to believe in god. Again, this is a fact not personal slander from myself.
Next, no neither Einstein or Hawking believe(d) in god. They're both physicists and use the word as a metaphor for what we have yet to understand about the origin of the Universe. Basically, Einstein used it as a metaphor for nature.
Many times in his lifetime religious people tried to claim he believed in god because they misinterpreted his words. Actually his fault for even using the word. But he clarified it, most famously in a very strong letter against the idea of any personal god. He called the idea of any kind of personal god (one that is conscious, involves itself in human affairs etc.) as childish and wishful-thinking.
Finally. No I wasn't born into a 'family of atheists'. Some people in my family believe in god. My sister does, vaguely believe in some kind of 'creator'. I actually went to a Roman Catholic primary and secondary school. So these were actually religious schools. I had religious classes.
The reason I'm an atheist is not because I was surrounded by atheists, quite the opposite, because I was being taught religion as a serious subject and immediately saw through it as false and the idea of god as obviously false. My country (Britain) even has a connected Church and State. The Queen who is head of the Church is also head of the country.
So religion actually sticks its head in our politics. Not on a large scale but legally they're connected and we have to pay tax for a Church whether we want to our not. It just so happens that there's a lot of atheists in Britain. I don't know why. Most of Europe are atheists. So no it's nothing to do with me being surrounded by atheism.
There are also a lot more atheists in America than people think. A lot more. Problem is persecution, everybody in America thinks everybody else believes in god. So atheists there feel like outsiders and hide the fact they're atheists. But gigantic book tours from Dawkins and Hitchens with halls and halls full of atheists prove how numerous they are. With many at the meetings themselves even saying that atheists in their town are viewed like evil people so they hide it.
America is technically less religious than Britain. America was built on a constitution that barred any interference from religion and politics and politics in religion. It separates the two by law. Yet we see many US politicians lying, pretending they are religious because it's thought almost impossible for an atheist to get elected in America. They constantly say it's "One nation under god" and a "Christian nation". It's nothing of the sort. At its root, it's a SECULAR nation. Religion has hijacked it.