Friday, March 24, 2006
This Is Depressing
Moving on from zany comedians impersonating wacky religious presidents to pollsters identifying the wacky (and not in the "ha ha" way) prejudices of the religious American public. I haven't made the leap to full-fledged atheist status (I'm comfortably agnostic, thank you), but you could see why I'd be concerned that non-believers and skeptics fare worse than any other minority group in this study by the University of Minnesota. Sad.
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4 comments:
They only came in last because the survey didn't include all religions. Had it included a certain albino Melnibonean wielding a soul sucking sword screaming "Blood for Lord Arioch!", I can assure you the results would be different.
DMD
There's my DMD... always looking on the bright side. :)
If you haven't seen the movie "Contact" based upon Carl Sagan's novel, I highly recommend that you do. In addition to being an excellent movie it brings up some thought provoking ideas about religion and atheism.
DMD
I saw it and enjoyed it very much. I can't remember the details, but I do know that Jodi Foster's atheist character was left with no proof of her experience in the end, thus reaching a bit of an understanding with what the preacher guy was telling her earlier. I think. Like I said, it's been a while.
I'm not an atheist, but I understand its appeal to rational people. Religious experiences are very personal... but if you've never had them then how are you supposed to believe? It's one thing to form a belief on your own experience (like Jodi Foster's character), it's another to believe what somebody told you, despite a lack of proof (or even evidence to contrary).
I'm agnostic because I'm a skeptic. It's not that I think mystical events are impossible.... I keep an open mind. But I can't know for sure without proof. And I think that all our crazy religions probably have something of the truth... but there's so much human muddle mixed in that it's hard to know for sure what that truth is.
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