One would go mad if one took the Bible seriously; but to take it seriously one must be already mad
Aleister Crowley
Because they are educated.
The rev is telling us he believes there is a god because he was in the maternity ward and beheld a little baby. I must ask the reverend if while at the labour ward, did the cries of agony of the mothers trying to deliver their little babes into his loving arms remind him of god?
Next, he says we are atheists because of our inability to answer, satisfactorily, the problem of evil. I wonder if the good reverent has an answer.
The reverent also thinks some of us are atheists because we were hurt by the messengers of the good news of redemption.
The reverent has a question. He says
I’d love to ask any of them what they think of Jesus Christ. I’d furthermore like to invite their responses to the question, “What do you think of the comments made by historian after historian down through the generations that this man Jesus Christ is the most important man who ever lived?”
I will venture to answer him. Some anonymous persons wrote stories about Jesus. And this biographers had Jesus live such a short life. Had he got himself a wife, had children, suffered loss of seeing a child die before you or the death of a mother, maybe then we could start to have a conversation. But their Jesus is a man-god, pops into existence and out like a pulsar. He writes nothing, teaches nothing new and then gets himself killed for religious intolerance. Tell me about someone else. Your Jesus, reverent, is not the most important man that ever lived. We don’t know he lived. Your Jesus, I venture, has been raised from obscurity by the church and thanks to Constantine, it has taken long to bury this superstition with others.
In his conclusion, the rev writes
For let’s face it, if you forthrightly profess to be an atheist, deep down, at least according to you . . . there’s a substantial reason why!
And I venture to say, with Percy Shelley, that as ignorance gave birth to the gods, education will lead to their death. The substantial reason why I don’t believe is because I am educated.
Random thoughts 
Nice one!
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Thanks
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There is a strong correlation between atheism and intelligence, the more developed European countries are mostly atheist, whereas the lesser developed countries such as parts of Africa are less that 1% atheist. Unfortunately it appears that a few of the US states also seem to be very unintelligent in general. But that’s the willingly ignorant creationist’s faults.
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You observation makes a lot of sense.
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The more developed European countries, apart from having a strong educational system, also have social security systems, low inequality, are all relatively wealthy and are free of any serious political or military conflict. The same is also true for the countries such as Japan, Canada, South Korea and Uruguay and in these countries they are now allegedly reporting some of the lowest belief rates in the world. If any of these countries were to suffer a major ongoing crisis of some kind such as famine or war I’m fairly certain that the statistics would also change regarding peoples beliefs. Religion is a crutch that people turn to when times are really bad, when literally all hope is crushed and the future looks as dark as satanic mills.
There me be a little influence as regards education but I don’t think it has any major impact on the statistics. Some of the most intellectual cultures throughout time that have greatly influenced society in many aspects were also deeply religious. Arabs for example have always had a deep connection with religion whether it be Islam as is the case today or in ancient times before the spread of Islam where most Arabs followed a pagan religion with a number of deities. Yet despite this they still managed to contribute greatly to the world in many ways most notably in Science, mathematics, music and architecture.
To base a theory of intelligence having a correlation with atheism on just a few facts that are all only relevant to this moment in time is wrong. To even suggest such a theory whilst at the same time mentioning that Africa is less than 1% atheist is bordering on racism, although I’m sure that was not your intention but I’m also sure that you can understand why some people may perceive it that way.
I admit that America is a bit of an anomaly when it comes to developed, stable and prosperous nations and the rates of atheism within those nations. But I think that there are so many unknown factors involved with that particular country when looking from the outside, although I don’t believe intelligence is one of those factors.
Excellent post my friend, sorry if I’ve slightly wandered off topic.
All the best,
Mark
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Mark, you need not worry about wandering off topic. That is not only allowed but also encouraged.
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Also I feel as though I should add that I make a distinction between intelligence and education. They are not the same, one can be intelligent without being educated just as one can be educated without being intelligent. Intelligence is not governed by any prerequisite other than existence, whereas education depends greatly on a number of factors most notably amount of wealth.
Thought that this would make clearer the point I was trying to get across.
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Indeed, intelligence, to a certain extent is inherent. Education is an acquired trait through training and so on.
Education exposes one to a different set of ideas, a different way of looking at the cosmos and our place in it that often but not necessarily leads to questioning of dogma
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Mak, this is a great question and one which I started exploring only about three years ago. The best I’ve been able to come up with as to why there are so many people who DO believe, is this – they just seem to have an emotional NEED for religion. I ‘get’ the emotional need, I really do. It’s nice to be part of a church family – there’s a certain comfort to be had there. Also, there’s safety in numbers. Many of these people will never question their beliefs because they’d have to leave their social/emotional comfort zone. So, for me, I guess I now realize that it doesn’t matter how intelligent you are, if you are one of those people whose emotional needs are being met through religion, no amount of appealing to the intelligence factor is going to have any effect. (I mean, for MOST people – we’ve all ‘met’ individuals who end up deconverted from the presentation of facts)
Hope your day’s going well; mine’s just beginning! 🙂
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My day is going on well.
Can I join you for breakfast?
Yes, those factors that you mention and many more. I think some are just unable to decide after the presentation of contrary opinion.
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Not sure if you’d like fruit smoothies. . . . 🙂
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I have a feeling it will be delicious. I am in.
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“Jesus Christ is the most important man who ever lived?” Has the Rev. spoken to the one and a half billion Muslims in the world? They’d surely disagree with him on this. More of the same tripe from a christian minister brainwashed into believing that his views, and only his, are the right ones. Childish, oafish, and offensive. Nice post, my friend.
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Or the billions of Buddhists who revere Buddha?
Small minds, these people have
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OH, and Mak – I read through that pastor’s gag-worthy screed. It’s as if they all work from the exact same script. 😦
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Do these people attend the same school? How can they all reason so bad?
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I think, Mak, that in fact schooling has a great bearing on their ideas. The point of Victoria’s last post was to identify the difference between education and indoctrination — the latter being what most of these fundamentalists have in common. They’ve all been thoroughly indoctrinated and, as such, they spout the party line. Critical thinking is a bad word – indeed REASON is to be avoided at all costs.
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Indoctrination is the problem here. It is not education.
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It was appalling. Truly vomit inducing.
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Difficult call. There are many educated believers, so why would a degreed individual believe in this crap?
I reckon it is the various forms of indoctrination suffered that causes it.
Something goes ‘click’ for those that deconvert.
Of course, fear and guilt keep a lot of people chained to it as well.
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Educated, many are, that I don’t dispute. But in a way, it is like they are trained for the market or field in which they work with little or no ability to question their faith.
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This is what I was getting at about indoctrination.
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Jesus Christ is the most important man who ever lived?
What? Perhaps the good Rev can show me one country that has succeeded and thrived by employing the Sermon on the Mount.
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Perhaps he should tell that to the Chinese and Mao or the Buddhists and their Buddha. Or as inspired asked, tell it the Muslims and their Muhammad
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Great opening quote, my Nairobi brother! Missed you, man! 🙂
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Missed you too.
That quote is far much better than the post 😦
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This guy seems to be a little bit confused. I am actually a student of history (at “Fernuniversität Hagen” in Germany). I have studied some of history for some time. I have encountered quite some works written by historians and a couple of lectures. I have not encountered any historian who has made a comment that “,this man Jesus Christ is the most important man who ever lived?”. His very existence is questioned, and there is no definitive proof of it. What in heaven and on earth does he mean. Does he tell this to the people in his comunity and they take that as a fact? Ask him for citations. I would like to see citations of historians “down through the generations” making such a statement. Who are these “historians”?
I must also say that the problem of evil is one of the problems that convinced me that this religion is nonsense. It does not have any satisfactory answer.
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Historians in his case, I think, refers to his village head pastor.
These people are unbelievable
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amazing how these idiots so rarely actually have the courage to ask one of “them” (us atheists) their questions. It’s not like it’s hard to find an atheist willing to give an opinion. 🙂
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I think you left out insufferable.
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I’d like to agree with mark. Education per se is no qualifier firvrational thinking. Look at the numbers of people who graduate from seminaries in America. OK so I only know of two, but they held degrees and were fundy flipped. And I only know them because they have chucked it. Compare that with the average person in the street, who thinks little about a god. Makes no difference whether it is my two debrees or someone else’s lack of education if we came to the same conclusion.
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American seminaries? That I consider advance level indoctrination. It is being taught how to make impossible passages in the bible look rational.
But in general we are in agreement.
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Oops typo!!
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