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Goodbye Jesus

#882: Stop Calling Theists Stupid


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Matt Dillahunty and Jen Peeples. Stop Calling Theists Stupid. Jenn urges atheists to not dismiss Christans and other believers as stupid.

 

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An important point, too sad that people so often behave in opposition to it that it has to be pointed out.

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There is a big difference between being uneducated, stupid, and indoctrinated. People who have been indoctrinated have lost their ability to think critically. I have known a number of people who have graduate level degrees in science, medicine, and engineering that are believers. The purpose of indoctrination is to destroy a person's critical thinking skills, and it has proven to be disturbingly effective.

The first and usually the most difficult step in de-converting is to see the problems, inconsistencies, contradictions, and circular reasoning for yourself. Until a personal realizes the Bible is filled with problematic issues, and historical inaccuracies, breaking the hold that indoctrination has on them will likely not be possible.

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hmmm, stop calling theists what they are?

 

Im sorry if you believe in some gay bashing, woman hating, blood thirsty psychopathic lunatic, who has a son, who is himelf born from a "virgin" woman who became a zombie, people raising from the dead, two of every animal on a ship, only cared for by a few people during global flood that has zero evidence of existing, talking snakes, donkeys, and bushes, and a whole host of other wildly unbelievable crap, because the buybull says so, and because the buybull says it's true * slip into ad-infinum*. Then yes, you are stupid, 100% stupid. Why should I or others sugar coat it? It's fiction, badly written unbelievable, demented bullshit. If you believe it, then there is something wrong with you. Same with islam, and ho hum yadda yadda. I really get sick of being told I should respect a belief system that is downright awful to people, has been awful to me personally, been the cause of some of the worst crimes, and atrocites against mankind that has ever existed. I do not respect abrahamic religions, and I do not respect those who practice it.  

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My former pastor was one of the smartest people I knew, yet he was a sincere Christian who sacrificed much to pursue his "calling" and he served tirelessly. Indoctrinated, brainwashed or gullible, he wasn't stupid. There are some very smart theists and some very dumb non-theists. There is no rule, but there is a documented trend; the less educated are more likely to embrace religion and the highly educated are much less likely to do so. Smarter people are more inclined to think about issues and educate and inform themselves.

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hmmm, stop calling theists what they are?

 

Im sorry if you believe in some gay bashing, woman hating, blood thirsty psychopathic lunatic, who has a son, who is himelf born from a "virgin" woman who became a zombie, people raising from the dead, two of every animal on a ship, only cared for by a few people during global flood that has zero evidence of existing, talking snakes, donkeys, and bushes, and a whole host of other wildly unbelievable crap, because the buybull says so, and because the buybull says it's true * slip into ad-infinum*. Then yes, you are stupid, 100% stupid. Why should I or others sugar coat it? It's fiction, badly written unbelievable, demented bullshit. If you believe it, then there is something wrong with you. Same with islam, and ho hum yadda yadda. I really get sick of being told I should respect a belief system that is downright awful to people, has been awful to me personally, been the cause of some of the worst crimes, and atrocites against mankind that has ever existed. I do not respect abrahamic religions, and I do not respect those who practice it.  

 

I'm with you on the stupidity of the religious concepts, but I think the point is that often times people believe for reasons that have nothing to do with intellect or having critically thought about their religion. People compartmentalize their belief systems so that they never come under scrutiny. They may be totally scientifically minded in everything else, but because they've set that part of their life apart from critical analysis, they never even touch the absurdities that are so blatantly obvious to others.

 

I don't think that makes a person stupid, just human. I think a good way to approach it is that you refuse to respect a belief system or to "keep the peace" and not voice objections to stupid ideas, but I think that if you ever want to do anything other than alienate people, you have to be able to approach the actual person differently than you deal with their beliefs.

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I would never call somebody stupid for having a religion.  However when somebody repeatedly engages in stupid behavior I do not excuse that for the sake of their religion.

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My former pastor was one of the smartest people I knew, yet he was a sincere Christian who sacrificed much to pursue his "calling" and he served tirelessly. Indoctrinated, brainwashed or gullible, he wasn't stupid. There are some very smart theists and some very dumb non-theists. There is no rule, but there is a documented trend; the less educated are more likely to embrace religion and the highly educated are much less likely to do so. Smarter people are more inclined to think about issues and educate and inform themselves.

 

My old philosophy prof could wipe the floor with most of us (probably all of us) here on the subject, he had published his own book of biblical contradictions, which he handed out to the fundies in class, yet he still attended mass every Sunday. 

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I tend to think that indoctrination and fear are the two main reasons people come to and remain in religion. Without one or the other, religion realty wouldn't exist. Many intelligent people can be fearful and many come from being indoctrinated as kids. There are studies out there however, that suggest that atheists are more intelligent (on average) than religious people. I've read a few articles to that effect. Not sure of the parameters that were used in those "studies."

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Several of my extended relatives (that I now have little contact with) are devout Christians. Because of brainwashing and fear-based indoctrination, they believe the ridiculous, despite otherwise being very smart people. I adore my aunt Arlene, but we would disagree strongly about politics and religion if we got into discussion about either subject. 

 

I'll say whatever the hell I want to about Christianity or the Bible, but these days I rarely level personal attacks against believers, unless they are busy being bigoted assholes, and then they deserve it. 

 

Only the power of indoctrination and brainwashing would make otherwise intelligent people take a ridiculous myth involving two obviously mythical people, a talking snake, and magic trees and magic fruit seriously and make them want it taught alongside real science in our public school classrooms. Same goes for the story of the torture and murder of Jesus. The doctrine of substitutionary atonement is barbaric.To the religious mind, it is a beautiful story of sacrifice and redemption. To rational minds it is exactly what it appears to be -- a brutal story that has no beauty or redemptive value whatsoever. 

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