I don't know why I feel the need to educate people. Usually I know within a few moments of talking to someone that they're so much less intelligent than me that we'll never be on the same wavelength, and certainly I am not prepared to undertake the gargantuan task of addressing the fact that most people simply need to start their entire philosophical outlook from scratch, so why do I get drawn into arguments?
I think it's a primitive urge. But, like sex with people you hate, it feels good for a few moments, but it quickly begins building up inside you like lactic acid, burning your your insides as you try desperate to fuck one or more retards.
When I look at great intellectuals like Richard Dawkins, who has clearly become utterly addicted to winning mind numbingly easy debates (that is not to say his opponents aren't smart; but Einstein himself would lose religious debates to an 8 year old, where he to take any position that argues there's any form of supernatural), and I hope I don't end up like them.
I am already like them. I can't help myself.
On the topic of Dawkins, I am finding more and more that, like Feminism, the existence of Dawkins and his rabid atheist ilk is giving religious people valid reason to criticize us. I know it's important to lobby against religion, but more and more people are lobbying for atheism. I preferred simply knowing that there was no god, and stating it without shame when it became relevant.
Whilst Richard Dawkins' heart is in the right place, and I don't think he should stop in the slightest (he may be spawning new lines of bullshit, but religion was always total bullshit), I am massively inconvenienced by the fact that religious people seem to ignore whatever is coming out of your mouth and simply remember something Richard Dawkins said and argue against that.
I used to enjoy the changing, flailing nature of religious bullcrap. A bit like hurling a Pipe Bomb on Left 4 Dead; Dawkins has got all the idiots in one place, fighting over one person, and in that way that are easier to pick off, but frankly I don't like lots of idiots in one place.
It makes the place smell of idiot.
You spelled the post title wrong, genius.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteYou spelled the post title wrong, genius.
I suppose that's the advantage of pissing people off. You get a free spellcheck :P
And no friends! And you never learn anything! You never even have to think anything!
ReplyDeleteOkay, seriously now: intelligence is a complex topic. You can define it in terms of achievements, or academic aptitude, or as measured on various tests. And many people who would rank as intelligent on these grounds--probably much more intelligent than you, I'm guessing, unless you have some major achievements you haven't mentioned--hold religious beliefs.
Bear in mind, religion's not simple or unitary. Many religious people do not believe in a God whose actions are comprehensible or predictable to mortals. There's a lot of people out there who are open to the idea of an overarching intelligence in the universe but don't perceive it as anything as simple as "he wants me to avoid premarital sex and pork and then he'll make sure only good things happen to me." My understanding of God is mysterious and uncertain--not necessarily omnipotent, not necessarily omniscient, not necessarily omnibenevolent, and definitely not the God of the Bible--but I believe there is an awareness and intelligence to the universe.
It's okay to not believe in a God. A lot of very, very smart people don't. But it's not self-evidently obvious.
ReplyDeleteBear in mind, religion's not simple or unitary. Many religious people do not believe in a God whose actions are comprehensible or predictable to mortals.
If a religion does not believe in anything for which there is no evidence they've not made a logical error. Find me such a religion and I will give you a cookie, because there aren't any.
It's okay to not believe in a God. A lot of very, very smart people don't. But it's not self-evidently obvious.
It is more than self-evident; it is a non issue. The deity is a human invention, but without the fragile failings of a human mind the question of whether or not there's a suspiciously human-like intelligence behind it all never comes up, because it is not relevant.
It is self-evident that we should not even have the idea of a god in our minds. It is self-evident that such a being is absent from the universe. And this is all something that is not falsifiable can be; absent. It never existed to interact, so it can never be self-evident that it ISN'T responsible for something, except in the same way that it is self-evident that Thor isn't responsible for the universe either.
And many people who would rank as intelligent on these grounds--probably much more intelligent than you, I'm guessing, unless you have some major achievements you haven't mentioned--hold religious beliefs.
Argument from authority. It's a fallacy Holly.
ReplyDeleteMy understanding of God is mysterious and uncertain--not necessarily omnipotent, not necessarily omniscient, not necessarily omnibenevolent, and definitely not the God of the Bible--but I believe there is an awareness and intelligence to the universe.
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