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The origin of the Religions - Part 3: Stupidity

Started by Ivan Tudor C McHock, March 20, 2010, 09:38:15 AM

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Ivan Tudor C McHock

Firstly, a word of caution. This thread will be blunt. If you are a theist, or a believer in the supernatural more generally and you are a tad sensitive about your superstitions, please don't whine about my insensitivity. Stop reading now.

As stated in part one, it is my contention that stupidity is at the core of all religious faith. A dull intellect is an absolute must for the faithful and this manifests itself in far too many ways to list here. I will therefore keep it brief and deal with the more commonly stated reasons for faith.

Probably the most common excuse offered by theists is "well, how did the universe and life come into existence?" The answer to this question is that we don't know. Darwinian natural selection explains the process by which life evolves, but it does not claim to explain how life began, nor how the universe came into being. The sad fact is that we don't know. To attribute the cause to "god" simply replaces the words "we don't know" with "god". It explains nothing and it fails to address the awkward (for the theist) question of who made god. If your watch requires a watchmaker, then your god requires a god-maker. If your faith in god is due to your need to explain the origin of the universe, and you do not apply this same logic to the origin of god, then you are an idiot.

Popular opinion seems to be another frequently held "reason" for the pious clinging onto their favourite god. Millions of people can't be wrong, right? Wrong. Millions of people once "knew" that the earth was flat. They were all wrong. Every one of them. And if miilions of people can't be wrong, then the millions of people who barrack for a different god also can't be wrong, right? Popular opinion has never been an indicator of empirical truth and never more so than in attempting to answer the biggest and most complex question of all.

Another commonly offered "reason" for faith goes something along the lines of "the world is too beautiful for there not to be a god." This line of "reasoning" implies that if the world was, to a sufficient degree, less beautiful than it is, then there would be no need for a god in order to explain its existence. This not only requires the believer to be able to precisely quantify such a subjective quality as beauty, but it also requires that the theist be able to identify the exact threshold of beauty above which a god is necessary and below which a god is unnecessary. If one wanted to accurately gauge the beauty of this planet, surely the only way to do it would be to compare it to a significant number of other planets in the universe. How many other planets have the "humble" theists compared this one to?

The preparedness of the faithful to swallow not just any supernatural story, but the most ridiculous supernatural story ever told, is further compelling evidence of their abject stupidity. We live in a world in which there has been not a single verified example of the supernatural. Not one. And this is despite the best efforts of millions of people searching for thousands of years. No ghosts. No fairies. No psychics. Nothing. And yet despite the total absence of even small-scale supernatural events, there are dolts who will nod their heads when told that an invisble guy zapped up the universe with a magic wand.

The fact that there have been around 5,000 different, and often explicitly mutually exclusive gods invented by man over the millennia should have offered a clue to the faithful. A clue to the fact that, had they been born in a different country or in a different era, they would be worshipping a different "one true god". But it hasn't and I'm sure I don't need to tell you why. Ah, what the hell. I'll tell you anyway. It's because they are morons.

I would ask all theists to consider the reasons why they don't believe in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy. Think about the logical process which leads you to reject these stories. The exact same logical process is used to eliminate god. If you are unable to do this with god, it is because you are not very bright.

One final point I want to make concerns agnostics. I would suggest that most agnostics are not sitting on the fence with regard to the Tooth Fairy. I dare say the average agnostic "knows" that there is no Tooth Fairy. But somehow they find themselves sitting on the fence about a far more ridiculous story than that of the Tooth Fairy. And while I don't have a problem with agnostics as they are a pretty harmless bunch, I would ask them to consider why it is that they are sitting on the fence about god, but not about the Tooth Fairy.
Faith = 1/I.Q.

Dries

Nonsense, I just met god. She works at the local pub  :D  :D

Ellainix

Quote from: "Ivan Tudor C McHock"If your faith in god is due to your need to explain the origin of the universe, and you do not apply this same logic to the origin of god, then you are an idiot.

Tanker

Pah sha I say. I know his Noodlieness exits for I feel his devine starchy tenticle holding me down to earth. If he wasn't holding us all down then we would float into space. Since we don't float away it proves he does hold us down and therefor he is real. RAmen.

Thank you for the great post. I would however argue that it's ignorance (often willful ignorance) and not stupidity. Which to me is far worse. You can't help being stupid if you are but ignorance is correctable.
"I'd rather die the go to heaven" - William Murderface Murderface  Murderface-

I've been in fox holes, I'm still an atheist -Me-

God is a cake, and we all know what the cake is.

(my spelling, grammer, and punctuation suck, I know, but regardless of how much I read they haven't improved much since grade school. It's actually a bit of a family joke.

elliebean

Intelligent people can make stupid assertions.
[size=150]â€"Ellie [/size]
You can’t lie to yourself. If you do you’ve only fooled a deluded person and where’s the victory in that?â€"Ricky Gervais

Ivan Tudor C McHock

Quote from: "Tanker"Pah sha I say. I know his Noodlieness exits for I feel his devine starchy tenticle holding me down to earth. If he wasn't holding us all down then we would float into space. Since we don't float away it proves he does hold us down and therefor he is real. RAmen.

Thank you for the great post. I would however argue that it's ignorance (often willful ignorance) and not stupidity. Which to me is far worse. You can't help being stupid if you are but ignorance is correctable.

That's a good point, Tanker, and it's one that I had intended to address but forgot to. I guess those who are wilfully ignorant would be that way because they fall into one or more of the three categories.

I would like to add that this thread is not aimed at those who never received a decent education (eg those brought up in third world countries).  People who never went to school, but are theists due to the influence of missionaries, are not the target of this thread.

That said, I'm not suggesting you need a masters degree to see through the lies of religion. Completing primary school should do the trick.
Faith = 1/I.Q.

Ivan Tudor C McHock

Quote from: "elliebean"Intelligent people can make stupid assertions.

That's true. Some intelligent people are theists and the reasons for this are listed in parts 1 and/or 2.
Faith = 1/I.Q.