I just don't get it.
There are things in this world that baffle me but nothing so much as people's ability to stare facts straight in the face and still argue to the contrary. Okay I'll come straight out and say it, I'm talking about religion, and it could be my own atheist arrogance to presume I'm right about these things, but that's because I am.
I jest of course, and fully accept that however confident I am about something there is always the possibility that I can be proven to be wrong, and often have been.
Having an empirical outlook on life I find it hard to comprehend how someone can commit themselves to something that there is no evidence to support, and base their lifestyle completely on faith. Accepting what they are told or have read to be true without demanding any kind of facts or figures to back it up.
If I told you I was a multi millionaire but had lost my bank card and needed to borrow a grand on the assurance that I am a multi millionaire and I'm good for the money. You wouldn't just go ahead and take my word for it, you'd want to see some hard evidence to back it up. A bank statement or something.
But people stake more than just money on things that they are assured to be true by some figure head or book or institution. They live their lives according to it. They deny themselves things, they promise themselves and their time, blood and sweat. In essence they give up their lives and let their beliefs define who they are. All on the basis that they are promised a grand reward in return. A reward that there is absolutely no evidence, no proof that any of it exists other than words on paper and the loud voices of those set to benefit from the devotion of others.
No thanks, if you want me to commit myself to something so unequivocally I need something tangible, some greater reassurance that I will get the promised payoff other than "have faith."
I by no means refute people's right to religion and to practice their beliefs, as long as they in return respect everyone else's freedom and right to their own beliefs, be it atheism or another religion or lifestyle.
It just does not compute in my brain how anyone can hand themselves over so devoutly and so unquestioningly to something that cannot be in any way quantified. Whilst at the same time actively denying the hard facts that are in front of them. They would argue that water isn't wet if it being so contradicted their beliefs.
I could rant on about this for a long time. I could go into Christians that pick and choose which parts of the bible they believe and which they don't, (you either believe it or you don't, you can't just cherry pick what's convenient for you.) And don't get me started on "revised editions" of the bible!! "I think what god meant to say..."
Maybe I'll just start going door to door - "Can I interest you in Atheism?"
I jest of course, and fully accept that however confident I am about something there is always the possibility that I can be proven to be wrong, and often have been.
Having an empirical outlook on life I find it hard to comprehend how someone can commit themselves to something that there is no evidence to support, and base their lifestyle completely on faith. Accepting what they are told or have read to be true without demanding any kind of facts or figures to back it up.
If I told you I was a multi millionaire but had lost my bank card and needed to borrow a grand on the assurance that I am a multi millionaire and I'm good for the money. You wouldn't just go ahead and take my word for it, you'd want to see some hard evidence to back it up. A bank statement or something.
But people stake more than just money on things that they are assured to be true by some figure head or book or institution. They live their lives according to it. They deny themselves things, they promise themselves and their time, blood and sweat. In essence they give up their lives and let their beliefs define who they are. All on the basis that they are promised a grand reward in return. A reward that there is absolutely no evidence, no proof that any of it exists other than words on paper and the loud voices of those set to benefit from the devotion of others.
No thanks, if you want me to commit myself to something so unequivocally I need something tangible, some greater reassurance that I will get the promised payoff other than "have faith."
I by no means refute people's right to religion and to practice their beliefs, as long as they in return respect everyone else's freedom and right to their own beliefs, be it atheism or another religion or lifestyle.
It just does not compute in my brain how anyone can hand themselves over so devoutly and so unquestioningly to something that cannot be in any way quantified. Whilst at the same time actively denying the hard facts that are in front of them. They would argue that water isn't wet if it being so contradicted their beliefs.
I could rant on about this for a long time. I could go into Christians that pick and choose which parts of the bible they believe and which they don't, (you either believe it or you don't, you can't just cherry pick what's convenient for you.) And don't get me started on "revised editions" of the bible!! "I think what god meant to say..."
Maybe I'll just start going door to door - "Can I interest you in Atheism?"
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