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Atheism - Naive Behavior

Expert: Clint - 11/5/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hello. My name is Zach Shanks and I'm 18. First off I just want to clarify i was raised as a Methodist Christian. Or, now i prefer saying i was indoctrinated into being a Christian. I've grown up going to church and Christian camps. But I've always thought for myself as to why the Christian God seems to be somewhat immoral and, for a lack of a better word, fictional. I'm an Atheist now, but I am "In a way" open to the idea of a higher power, so i guess i fit under the Agnostic category. I am a well rounded individual, and understand why religion can be beneficial and why it can be harmful, making me non bias on the subject. I've look at many products from individuals such as Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, Christopher Hitchens, and the under appreciated genius Charles Darwin. Which then gets to my question, why are people so against the theory of evolution by natural selections, and the theory of ape to human transformation from it? It is beyond me to consider people being so naive to this idea, when it has presented an overwhelming amount of evidence backing it up. It would only make sense to teach the "proof" of evolution, instead of the "theory" of evolution in our schools today. We can then progress ourselves logically and rationally, by scientific means. It is then the peoples decision to except it, or refuse to believe it. It is not my place to decide what a person is to believe, or not believe in, but to simply display the flaws, logic, rationality, and morality, in they're beliefs. Thank you very much Mr. Clint, and please answer as soon as you see fit.

ANSWER: There are several reasons a person might be naive or opposed to evolution. Opposition from the church comes in the form of fear. The church fears that if evolution is proven, and it has been (ardipithecus-ramidus), then it would discredit the bible by disproving it's claim that humans were created as-is in his image from sand. That aside people have other reasons to reject evolution. They don't want to think they were a lower life form at one point, such as an ape, because the thought is demoralizing to them for whatever reason. Or they don't want to believe it because close religious friends and family would possibly label them as a heretic, aka peer pressure. And some are simply to simple-minded to understand it at all and prefer to discredit it rather than study and learn it. They simply just don't understand and don't want to, preferring simpler explanations their simple minds can grasp, ie magic, "God did it". Everyone has their reason but mostly I would contribute it to the church, they are the ones that spread fear among their followers, hoping to steer them away from logic, evidence, and reason before they figure out that religion is wrong. Its funny how they, the churches, have to at least claim to embrace evolution because if they don't, seeing how science isn't a lie, people will see how stupid and dogmatic they really are. But we know deep down that they also try to discredit it at every other opportunity, ie intelligent design. By the way, not trying to be mean but I think you may have a misunderstanding of what a theory in science is compared to a layman's use of the word. A theory in science is an evidence supported explanation that can be tested and measured. There is no such thing as "truth" in science because truth, or fact, is speculative, theory is provable. However, layman theory is a guess, science doesn't guess, but it does speculate based on observable evidence, and any educated person can tell the difference when they read about it. The wonderful thing about science is that you can make your own mind up as to how you want to interpret the evidence, that's the reason why sometimes scientific theories are disproven and changed. It's really very complicated but if it's too much to understand then church has an alternative, God did it. Read up more on what theory really means in science. The theory of evolution is our current best speculation based in observable evidence, it isn't a guess, and it can be taught as the current accepted answer because that's what science currently works with. The Big Bang theory for instance is a theory because no one has or ever will actually observe it but the evidence of the movement of galaxies proves that everything is in fact spreading from a center point. It's not saying we know it to be true, but that from what we can observe and measure this is our current educated speculation and here's the evidence to support it. You don't have to believe or go along with the speculative part but you should form your own speculation at least based on evidence, not on thousand year old stories.

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QUESTION: Wow. Thank you very much. I'm sorry for my miss use of the word theory. I thought of it more as a guess than backing of factual evidence, such as proof. I will take that into mind in future confrontations on the subject. Being an intelligent atheist yourself, how do you deal with a naive conversation with a Christian? It seems like no matter how much logic, and evidence you throw at an evangelical christian, they will always hold on to they're fictional characters for comfort, even though half the characters are immorally insane "God". It makes no damn sense!

Answer
Faith is the key word your looking for as to why people cling to religion no matter how strong a case you make. The church uses the word 'faith' to enforce their mind control over the congregation by questioning the strength of their faith in its teachings. It's not enough to just have faith, the church wants its people to have 'unquestionable' and 'undeniable' faith. In other words they want people's faith in what they're teaching to be so delusionally enforced that no amount of evidence to the contrary will brake them from the church's control over their mind and thoughts. The church even goes so far as to call anyone who questions their faith a heretic and a sinner. This type of childish behavior is called peer pressure and is used to alienate, segregate, and even hate others who do not share their sentiments and become one of them. And of course no one wants to be rejected and alienated by friends, which is exactly what they know will happen if they question anything the church claims, kind of like Nazis. So basically the church uses hidden threats against those who would question them by threatening to take away their friends and loved ones, oh and sending them to hell. You can't argue with a true believer, all we can do is plant seeds of knowledge and hope it sprouts reason. An atheist doesn't try to convert others, there is nothing to convert to. Instead we stand on logic, reason, and evidence to spread knowledge and education, letting everyone else to make up their own minds. It's not arguable, either they will or they won't. Education is the enemy of religion, use it wisely, not forcefully.

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