Comments on: 25th June 2009

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:35:34 +0000

Sorry to confuse, OXY. Stopped church long ago. Went on Eoster with my folks as a child. They gave up long ago. As to why man started believing in the first place – read Daniel Dennett. He proposes a very solid reason. In short, we have “hyperactive agency detectors” that make us prone to thinking that things that happen, from leaves rustling to rain to the sun moving across the sky, are caused by thinking beings like us. A predispositon to thinking the noise we just heard was a lion and not the wind was advantageous to survival and natural selection reinforced it.

By: Scepticus

Scepticus — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:42:26 +0000

“Adults[Some] still have childhood memories of being taken to church, and they[some] maintain a nostalgic affection for Christianity but that is dying out.”

I don’t know of anyone in my family – past or present – that followed a religion. The only time they went or go to church was/is for the occasional wedding, christening and funeral (including their own). Even then, they – the living ones that is – would joke about the whole affair; they’d take the piss out of the priest, the rituals and the hymns. All my family members found/find Christianity embarrassingly silly and unbelievable – although some loosely believed in “something” but weren’t quite sure what. None of them (that I have spoken to) had heard of the terms: theist or atheist – I guess that can be put down to the quality of education in most areas of the UK. However, I’m pleased to say, the majority of my family now consider themselves atheist/agnostics.

By: Oxymoronic Christhinker

Oxymoronic Christhinker — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 20:27:43 +0000

So if atheism is the “default position” (debatable) of humanity as a whole, and if “people who aren’t raised in a religion don’t generally start one as adults,” then how in the hell did we end up with religion at all?

The “generational progression” in my family looks very much like the opposite of Chris’. Chris – why do you go to church “on Eoster if not busy?”

I would say that “naturalism” can be – but not necessarily so – quite “religious.”

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:46:46 +0000

I know many people in this boat but can’t generalize from my small sample of similarly situated people. The generational progression in my family looks like this:

1. Great Grandparents – went to church every week and confession regularly.
2. Grand Parents – went to church every week and fish on Fridays. What’s confession?
3. Parents – made me go to church in pre-teen years only. Friday is burger night.
4. Me – church? Maybe on Eoster if not busy.
5. My kid – who is this God person anyway?

To borrow an idea from MLK – The arc of history is long and bends toward naturalism.

By: AtheistAdvocate

AtheistAdvocate — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:55:15 +0000

Thank god for small favors!