(split) Atheism and acceptance of science

Discussion in 'General Science & Technology' started by S.A.M., Jul 10, 2009.

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  1. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Couldn't that be dangerous ?
     
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  3. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    Now you're talking.

    The struggle against the disproportionate acceptance of science among the atheistically inclined has never, to my knowledge, been well funded.
     
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  5. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    Droll, mon ami.

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  7. quadraphonics Bloodthirsty Barbarian Valued Senior Member

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    Not me. I rarely hear anything about people's religious beliefs, "in science."

    Right about what? "Creating a whole generation?"

    What about the countless religious nut schools (and home schoolers) that are creating a whole generation of people that think evolution is wrong?
     
  8. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Two sides of the same coin.
     
    Last edited: Aug 21, 2009
  9. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    The coin is the fact that certain major scientific theories directly conflict with the specifically theistic beliefs of a very large number (probably a majority) of Abrahamic theists.

    Most Muslims, most Mormons, probably most Christians, and a very large proportion of Jews, hold specific theistic beliefs that are in at least partial disagreement with standard Darwinian evolutionary theory, for example.

    Many more seem to have characteristic difficulties with the basic concepts of evolutionary theory altogether - objecting to "selfish gene" theory on the supposed grounds that it assigns "the gene" puppetmaster authority and control not visible in real life, for example.

    Before a bunch of theists devote time and effort to complaining about the attitudes of people like Dawkins driving their fellow theists away from "science", they need to look at the mechanism by which that recoil actually takes place. Dawkins seems to hit a nerve of some kind, and it's not because what he says about the standard theisms and their common manifestations is alien to our experience - or mine, anyway.
     
  10. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Whether you frame evolution as theistic or atheistic, you're wrong. It has nothing to do with either belief.
     
  11. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    Acceptance and understanding of it seems to, however.

    You just don't meet very many people who reject Darwinian theory because it conflicts with their atheistic beliefs.
     
  12. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    Well, you can certainly argue that a majority of people not believing in it are theists. At the least, there would be a theological objection to naturalistic evolution.
     
  13. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Do they give the same attention to anything other than evolution?

    Theists have centuries of science conflicting with their beliefs. They get over it, atheists are only in the picture now because they think they finally have a creed. I wonder how many of them actually care about the science.
     
  14. iceaura Valued Senior Member

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    I've never met an atheistic person who had rejected any scientific hypothesis, even, because of their specifically atheistic beliefs.

    I've met some who rejected various paleontological and anthropological hypotheses because of their religion or culture - US reds who found their tribal myths more persuasive than some Bering Strait migration notion, for example. IIRC you don't accept those people as atheistic anyway, so never mind.

    But after Copernicus and Galileo have been more or less grudgingly forced upon them, and before the theistic have really caught on to what the modern physicists have been saying, Darwin remains the bone in the throat. Nothing else really comes up.
     
  15. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    Well not me, naturally.
     
  16. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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  17. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    A lot of Christians think that it has everything to do with their belief. Their belief says that humans are a special, one-off direct creation of God. The idea that we evolved and share a common ancestor with other primates is taken as a direct assault on their faith. This is particularly the case for fundamentalists who believe in the literal truth of the Genesis story, complete with Adam being made in God's image, Eve springing from Adam's rib, talking snakes, the Tree of Knowledge and the whole shebang.
     
  18. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    So are they right?
     
  19. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    Right about what?
     
  20. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    That it has everything to do with their belief?
     
  21. James R Just this guy, you know? Staff Member

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    SAM:

    It depends. If you're a fundamentalist Christian who believes in the literal truth of Genesis, then that story is obviously directly incompatible with the theory of evolution. Thus, evolution is a direct assault on what you believe.

    If you're a moderate Christian, then for you evolution and your religion may be quite compatible. A moderate Christian might, for example, accept that the Genesis story is an allegory and morality tale, as well as a warning to obey God, but not the literal truth. Such a Christian could believe in evolution and his or her religion with minimal, if any, conflict.
     
  22. S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Always the diplomat. I would not be so politic.

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  23. GeoffP Caput gerat lupinum Valued Senior Member

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    Yerp. It don't bug me.
     
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