Why do some atheists care that there are theists?

[Jeff V]

[ QUOTE ]
The only real problem with religion is that it is almost certainly incorrect. And, to most extremely smart people, obviously so.

[/ QUOTE ]

Your good at leaving yopurself the tiniest amounts of outs David. So does "most" extremely smart people mean 50.000001% here? If not how much?

[JackWhite]

[ QUOTE ]
1)
Charity exists outside of religion. We would still have formed communities and charitable organizations would still exist.
2)
a: I went to a Catholic school and was never molested there or knew of any such thing going on.
b: I am fairly sure little boys have been molested in public schools.

[/ QUOTE ]

I appreciate your answer. Very fair. Let me just respond to the point about the charitable organizations. Sure, they are many great non-religious private charities. But there are so many great religious based charities. Presumably, many of the people involved in these do this work because they think God wants or demands they do it. If they stopped believing in God, would they still feed the sick and take in the homeless etc..

Some still would do the work, but I am guessing a lot wouldn't. It is asking a lot for somebody to sacrifice part of their life to help others. I just think many atheists don't take into account all the great work done by believers. They point out all the bad, while ignoring the good. You have to take into account both, and I think there are some who don't.

[purnell]

Koresh was motivated by religion to hasten the destruction of the human race, something I would call unacceptabe.

[David Sklansky]

Over 90%. Of the three hundred or so that I have met in my life it is 100% to the best of my knowledge. But I will admit that it is not a fully random sample.

[sexdrugsmoney]

</font><blockquote><font class="small">En respuesta a:</font><hr />

In other words while there is more good than harm in allowing the majority of the world to believe in these myths of religion, it is important for the five percent of the population that we count on to make progress, to be shown that their doubting thoughts are indeed scientifically, logically and statistically valid (given the knowledge of the last 50 years). Hopefully that includes a lot of two plus twoers.

[/ QUOTE ]

Don't you believe humanity's progress is being somewhat 'stunted' by allowing only 5% of the smart to "see the truth" while the rest of the "plebs" - who have the power to vote on important things like government policies (some regarding scientific advances) are "hoodwinked" by supposed ancient "myths"?

[IronUnkind]

I suspect that you would automatically demote someone to a lower intellectual status based upon his espousal of religious belief. I know you are capable of such errors, based upon your belief that Leibniz's dice error somehow compromises his obvious genius. Is religion the reason you left Ramanujan off of your ten best list?

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
1)
Charity exists outside of religion. We would still have formed communities and charitable organizations would still exist.
2)
a: I went to a Catholic school and was never molested there or knew of any such thing going on.
b: I am fairly sure little boys have been molested in public schools.

[/ QUOTE ]

I appreciate your answer. Very fair. Let me just respond to the point about the charitable organizations. Sure, they are many great non-religious private charities. But there are so many great religious based charities. Presumably, many of the people involved in these do this work because they think God wants or demands they do it. If they stopped believing in God, would they still feed the sick and take in the homeless etc..

Some still would do the work, but I am guessing a lot wouldn't. It is asking a lot for somebody to sacrifice part of their life to help others. I just think many atheists don't take into account all the great work done by believers. They point out all the bad, while ignoring the good. You have to take into account both, and I think there are some who don't.

[/ QUOTE ]

So you are saying that if they didn't believe in God, these "good Christians" wouldn't give a [censored] about their neighbors? How encouraging. And how wrong. I suspect that those who want to help others don't need a God construct -- I seem to do just fine helping others without one, I would hope a good Christian could do the same.

[imported_luckyme]

I'm surprised to find thoughts even resembling these on a Bayesian-aware website.
- Most criminls in the USA are xtians.
- Most charity workers in the USA are xtians.

[ QUOTE ]
It is asking a lot for somebody to sacrifice part of their life to help others.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually, altruism is fairly common in social animals and manifests itself in various forms. The reasons for it have nothing to do with religion even though it may be experienced in those terms by some, which is fair enough.

luckyme,
..if I thought I was wrong I'd change my mind

[David Sklansky]

"Don't you believe humanity's progress is being somewhat 'stunted' by allowing only 5% of the smart to "see the truth" while the rest of the "plebs" - who have the power to vote on important things like government policies (some regarding scientific advances) are "hoodwinked" by supposed ancient "myths"? "

It's a trade off and it's close. Especially for the next highest ten percent.

[David Sklansky]

"I suspect that you would automatically demote someone to a lower intellectual status based upon his espousal of religious belief. I know you are capable of such errors, based upon your belief that Leibniz's dice error somehow compromises his obvious genius. Is religion the reason you left Ramanujan off of your ten best list?"

Both guys easily make it into my top 5% list. And I have little doubt that Ramanujan would would never buy into Judeo Christian myths, especially with a little training in physics.