Apparently I’m sending mixed messages to people. First I say I’m not a fan of Richard Dawkins and then go on raving about how I’m an out loud atheist.
I’m not about to go and say that all people who believe in God are stupid like Brian Sapient, Richard Dawkins or PZ would. I don’t appreciate or respect the way that Dawkins speaks about religious people. I live with two fantastic people who are religious. I work with an incredibly kind and intelligent girl who is christian.
I am no more intelligent now than I was when I was christian. For all intents and purposes - I haven’t really changed. I still abide by the rules I was taught while I was a christian, because they’re pretty moral and make a lot of sense - they are things that people really wouldn’t argue with in general. My community has changed from Sheridan United Chruch or Campus For Christ to the Center For Inquiry, University of Guelph Skeptics and the Freethought Association of Canada.
I guess I lucked out in that I was born into a very liberal christian family - rather than a conservative one, which I feel is where I would struggle more with adapting to the idea of respecting everyone and their choices.
I just don’t believe in God. In any sort of definition. My step-dad often pulls out the “reason is your god” line on me (that which you hold highest), but I don’t think it’s right for someone else to define for me what God is in such a …vague and weird way. …What if I’m a biologist and hold mitochondria in the highest regard in my life? Does Paul then get to deem mitochondria my god? Something just isn’t right about that.
Anyway - I’m an atheist. I don’t hate christians. I don’t like people who don’t respect christians who are perfectly open minded - like my parents and some of my friends. I will forever be thankful to my mother for bringing me into a family where I was raised with the option of being religious - but given the resources and knowledge to question.
In other news - I am sooo tired. Something about being at work from like 6 am - 5 pm just doesn’t sit right with me. I am also the new vice president for the Freethought Association Of Canada - which is now a charitable group. Woo. I’ll be more excited after I get some food into me.
Also - I don’t think I’m sexual active enough to date boys… they’re always so ready to go, when most of the time I’d rather watch American History X or talk about philosophy… or math. … or math and logic fused together - mmm. mathematical logic > sex.
Just stumbled upon your blog today and enjoyed it. Lots of great content!
Hi, new here but I have a comment. I don’t believe Richard Dawkins said that all religious people are stupid. In fact, in his book The God Delusion, he mentions people like Ken Miller and the Bishop of Oxford as people he admires. In fact, he mentioned that he wishes more Christians would be like Ken Miller or “liberal” Christians. The Christians to which he is referring would be like LeHaye, Dobson, Haggert, and Falwell. Those are the type of people that he believes are “stupid”, people who want to ignore all scientific evidence that doesn’t support their particular holy book, people who think that people who believe differently are morally inferior, people who want to change the United States into a theocracy. The only way to combat these people is by pointing out how illogical they are acting. Sometimes this spills over, and I can see how “moderate” Christians can see this as aggressive, but in the U.S. we are actively fighting to keep creationism out of our schools. The more moderate of stand atheists take, the more ferocious the religious right become. The best would be is if moderate Christians joined the fight, but right now, its pretty much only atheists. Unfortunately, this creates an us vs. them structure, but, if every Christian was like your friends and family, we wouldn’t have to fight:)
Number theory > mathematical logic.
Pfft. Logic is SO much better than number theory. Logic at least keeps me awake instead of putting me to sleep.
Thanks for the compliment Docmike
Sabrina - I’ve heard dawkins/pz/hitchens… all of them… give the argument that being religious is a matter of being stupid. they’ve all said it. that there is a direct correlation between intelligence and atheism.
I think that christians should be joining forces with atheists, (liberal christians) for most of us we all agree on the same basic things. the only this we disagree on is the existence of some sort of higher power.
Oh, the basics of logic are fun to learn… but try taking a class that delves into it, with axiomatic set theory, model theory, predicate calculus, and Gödel’s theorem.
Number theory remains fun at all levels.