Friday, January 25, 2013
“Atheism isn’t winning” and other insights into self deception of the religious
“Atheism isn't winning in the world. Quite the opposite. Besides atheists reproduce at a slower rate than people of faith. We’ll see who is right. ”
The above is a synopsis of a reply I received from a Catholic believer to a Huffington Post comment I left about another disgusting Church misstep. It demonstrates the degree of denial that pervades the unthinking mind of the religious. My reply follows:
Respect for reality, for science, for allowing women to control their own bodies is winning. Acceptance of people for who they are, not for who they love is winning. Realizing killing in the name of a god is delusional, is winning. Reason over myth is winning.
Oh… no, not among the third world nations, the least educated, the most impoverished, the most hopeless and repressed. In that respect you're right. Islam is growing faster than any other religion, then Mormonism and the Evangelical branches of Xtianity in those places. There religion and its promise of a better life after death will always flourish. For indeed, much as though a cup of warm urine would be welcomed by a dehydrated person in the throes of death, so too will those who have nothing to lose drink the poison of delusion and false promise that is religion and the supernatural.
The number of atheists in Europe, Japan, Australia/NZ, and the US has been growing in double digits for years, while those identifying as Christian has steadily declined. People come to reason on their own, not en mass like sheep through religious indoctrination. I know few who were born into an atheist family and "brought up" atheist. Virtually all the atheists I know were once religionists who came to reason - through reason.
It's not about reproducing so children can be brainwashed at infancy into belief or non-belief, albeit that's the Church's preferred method. It's about the exponential growth in respect for science and scientific discovery; communication via internet spreading fact and truth; undeniable shrinking of blind beliefs and growth in demand for evidence that makes secular numbers increase.
And no, we won't see. We'll both be dead. It will be another 60-80 years, based on poll extrapolations before the US is majority non-believers, and before the practitioners of supernaturalism and ignorance in the other industrialized nations are but a small minority...like Druids, and dismissed as clinging cultists, like Scientologists.
Meanwhile, I will happily watch the implosion of the Church under its own perversion, corruption and lies; watch its influence continue to decline, parishes close, priest position go unfilled, the unending prosecution for misdeeds; and watch countries start taxing them.
But deny all you like; reject the Pew and Gallop Polls over the past decade; turn a blind eye to the increase in secularism in the industrialized / educated / and producing world. It makes no difference. Christianity is witnessing its own near death experience. Reality doesn't change because you reject it, ignore it, or fear it.
{{{ NOTE TO MY READERS: I will be interviewed on "Atheists Talk", a radio show live from MN, this Sunday January 27 at 10:00 am (eastern) that's 9:00 a.m. Central time. Here's the link to listen live. Sign in as a Minnesota state resident. http://www.am950radio.com/am950-podcasts . Enjoy. }}}}
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16 comments:
The religious always make up their own facts. It is part of their delusion.
Also, congratulations on doing the Atheist Talk radio on Sunday morning with Stephanie Zvan.
If the spread of the "nones" follows other societal trends, usually there's a "tipping point" and then it'll take off exponentially (look at race relations, women rights, gay rights etc.). For example, look at how gay marriage (from the economist) is now becoming legalized:
“FOR the first time in America, three states voted on November 6th to allow gay couples to wed—ending a succession of electoral defeats for the measure in 32 states. A fourth state rejected a proposed ban. In Catholic France the new Socialist government has just approved a bill to permit same-sex marriage. New Zealand is preparing to pass similar legislation next year. Governments in England and Scotland have also pledged to do so soon. And in Spain a gay-marriage law passed seven years ago has finally been given a seal of approval by the Constitutional Court.
Just a dozen years after the Netherlands became the world’s first country to legalize gay nuptials, the global trend toward giving homosexuals full marriage rights seems to have gained unstoppable momentum. Same-sex marriage is now legal nationwide in 11 countries (see map), including Argentina and South Africa, as well as in parts of a further two. In Mexico it is allowed in the capital. In America nine states along with the capital have legalized it, mostly as a result of court challenges.”
I think this applies to Atheism as well, and I suspect it will be a lot faster in coming then 60-80 years (more like 20-40) so you and I have a chance to see this happen in near the end of our lifetimes.
- Fastthumbs
Good one Bart. Hope to listen this Sunday too
Bob..Indeed, and thanks.
fast... Yes, the changes born of reason and the evolution of society that you ID'ed are all around us. Yet the religious prefer to ignore it, or dismiss it. I hopeyou're right about secularism accelorating and coming to fruition faster than 60-80 yrs.
But even if it is 20-40..I'll miss it ;)
Kris..thanks. And you can call into the show I'm told. Feel free to throw some questions or comments at me.
Bart...you don't know me that well I suppose but I was one who was pretty much born agnostic and, when the country church preacher came over and...with my parents permission!!??!!...took me out in his car on a 95 degree day for nearly 3 hours (I was 8 years old...it may have only been an hour but seemed a lifetime) and tried to scare the hell into me that is the moment I became an atheist. He was so full of shit and could not explain any of his claims except to say it was god's will. So...no you know one person that has NEVER been religious. But....on the larger scale...another very good rant. And, I agree with The Anon person...20 years, maybe even less to gain a majority. When the realization hits the common man and woman look out!!!
Glad to hear nothing was wrong with your brain scan...hope you can conquer the headache thing soon...you are too valuable to lose...you are our atheist Minute Man on constant patrol. By the way I was just elected Treasurer/Minutes taker/self appointed Sgt at Arms of the Inland Northwest Freethought Society. We will continue to inform the desperately wilfully ignonrant in spite of themselves at every opportunity.
Bravo to your speech (the bit in blue). Or should I say "Amen", lol? I've lived in Australia (24 years), shortly in Japan, and have been in Europe for over 10 years.
Not a sign of any wacko religious nut anywhere in sight in any of these places. Born-again nutjobs are the curse of today's USA. Thankfully they don't exist anywhere else. But even in the US, their contagious impact is negligible. And they thankfully die at a higher rate than they can convert, lol.
All in all, it is safe to say that hard-core religion is a dying phenomenon and is likely to be an extinct species before long.
ALLELUYA, lol!!!!
Yes, but, (channeling Eddie Izzard)
do you have a cross?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEx5G-GOS1k
Jim...
Thanks.
We were all BORN ATHEIST. I too was never fully indoctrinated, albeit, I was raised in a family that believed and thus I believed in a god at some level, rejecting it in total by age 18/19.
But you may have misunderstood my point: you weren't "brought up in an atheist family" "indoctrinated to atheism" as I suggested in my article. You describe the experience you had as having escaped the attempted religious immersion / indoctrination through reason stimulated by that crazy shaman experience.
Thus, (and this was my point) the birthrate of atheist households has little to do with the growth of reason and demise of religion.
It's the rate at which people have come to accept reason and rejected their early religious exposure.
Whynot.. R'amen too ;)
Anon...LOL. Thanks for the link.
This Atheist Camel blog site is filled up of lunatics, who gets drunk before they think. And I don't like the cartoon I saw about the Prophet Muhammad (S.A.W) and his wife Aisha, about the 9 years old marriage of a thing. This will cause violence within the society. Muslims doesn't mock other religions, because Islam is all about peace and unity. And we the muslims can't just sit back and look at some lunatics insulting our prophet. Because I myself might accidentally kill the person making these cartoons, if I should see him/her.
A K Panti, you made a threat to kill someone. I hope you get arrested and thrown in prison for this because your threat is disgusting, just like your religion.
Islam is the farthest thing from peace or unity, but is full of lies and threats and racism and misogyny and hatred and violence.
Islam must be mocked for its insidious delusional tactics.
AK,
Thank you for that thoughtful comment.
Actually, I don't drink. Never liked the flavors or effect. That you dismiss the sommentaries here as having been alcohol induced implie youyourself may be under the influence of a mind altering substance.
I'm delighted that you object to the cartoon of Muhammed (Piss be Upon him)raping a 9 yr old child, which is historically accurate, and that it drives you to want to commit mayhem. It reconfirms my assesment of the mindlesness and medieval think of your ilk.
I live in southwest NH. Stop in at the Alstead post office, ask for"The Camel" and they will contact me. I'll be happy to meet with you. Wear your best suicide vest...nothing too flashy as this is NH and we prefer flannel. I assume I'll recognize you by the lice in your beard, the rag on your head, and the unmistakable stench that you likly share with your pedophile prophet.
Stay well.
Hump
Good point, Hump, about atheists not needing to reproduce just to indoctrinate. I still doubt the statistics though. There is also evidence that the growing group of "nones" is well populated with believers who just have no particular religious preference. There are quite a few people out there who are turned off by organized religion, but just don't give their beliefs enough thought to end up rejecting the supernatural. Also, I believe (pun intended) in the ability of religion to evolve into something that can be accepted by people as our mores change. Actually, I don't believe it. I just take the long history of the evolution of Christianity as evidence of it.
Love your response to AK, Hump. FOMCL (Fell off my camel laughing.)
Bob... we think alike. I was writing my retort to the sheep screwing follower of Muhammed as you were wrting yours. ;)
Longhorn,
yes... many of the nones are non-affliated, low level believers. So unpolitical and unthreatening that they are a non-issue to our freedoms, or scientific advancement. I'll take it for now as just an interim stage of their evolution to reason. Remember, they were "Christians" before they were "nones" based on the decline in the % of Xtians in the US (now at 76% vs 78% and 80%+)
In 30, 40 years there is no reason not to epect that many of those "nones" will complete their evolution to non-believer, and hence, their offspring will be less likely to face religious indoctrination.
Texas Mike...Heheh..thanks. I enjoyed writing it too.
Wear your best suicide vest.....bahahahaha! Fucking hilarious!
I like the description "low level believers". I think a great number of Americans fall into this category. Unless they are forced by serious life circumstances, they are just Christians because it is easier to go along to get along, they don't have to think too far past NFL Sunday, or their favorite reality show, and society tells them Christian = moral = good. I think people like this will just choose what ever society suggests is the most popular view point. Until atheism becomes the most popular form of moralism, they will continue to choose a non-threatening, intellectually vapid, feel good form of Christianity. That's where their non-threatening, intellectually vapid friends and family are on Easter Sunday, and they like playing on the church softball league where they can promote their businesses. And since there are plenty of Christian shamans out there who are wiling to reform Christianity into whatever it needs to be for them to continue to collect their 10% tithe, and self-help book royalties, I think it's a long uphill road for atheism to become a less threatening, easy choice to make without too much critical thinking. I'm not sure I even want atheism to be the easier choice, now that I think about it. I went through hell to get here, to borrow a phrase. I'm not sure people who are too lazy to think and make difficult, intellectually honest choices deserve to be atheists. I'm just sayin.
Wow! That was a rant. I hope somebody enjoyed it :-) And I don't really think that atheists are better than everybody else, nor am I.
Longhorn,
yes,a first class rant.
And yeah..I enjoyed it :)
Thanks!
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