Posted: Mar 09, 2010 6:21 am
IanS wrote:byofrcs wrote: Atheists are only Atheists pretty well because we have not yet seen credible evidence for god (or gods).
.....(snip).....
So it's not merely a case of lack of evidence in favour of gods or religious claims. But instead it’s the positive and irrefutable evidence from centuries of modern science, which is all in complete contradiction to the traditional claims of religion.
Continued belief in religion and miraculous gods is not simply belief despite the absence of any evidence, but actually belief in complete contradiction to all known evidence. And that really is "blind faith".
Ian.
But it matters little to the average person in the street if they believe of not. They never have to make decisions that would be significant beyond their near network. Someone else though, a scientist or a researcher, or even a civil servant, must not rely on supernatural intervention or causes because the decisions they make have far greater reach and to date there has been no examples of the supernatural that have not had a better natural explanation.
The problems with politicians though is that they are elected by the people. The politician must pander to the people. So though reason guides the majority of those that make decisions there are some significant influencers who are doomed to follow whatever faith gets them into office.
Which is why we must educate the people and given that they have no incentive to believe either way then we must identify reasons why they should adopt reason and a naturalistic worldview in a non-coercive way. Whomever works out that trick changes humanity forever. The tower of cards that supernatural-based religions are with their legal and taxpayer funded protections will and should collapse. One of the biggest, if not the main reason, why religions persist is that it is profitable to do so. They are profitable because the first thing religions do is protect themselves legally through aligning themselves with the rulers of a nations, which in our democracies are the elected politicians. Democracy will be the undoing of religion but only if we educate the people and make them want to believe that reason offers a greater reward.
To date though if you wander around the average non-religious forum you would find fuck-all clues that would be an incentive the average voter on the street.