I don't know if I'm allowed to do this but I read a new article on Cracked.com called 4 Things Both Atheists and Believers Need to Stop Saying. The article, while not terribly well-written or insightful, left me feeling like I had something to say on the subject. I do not pretend to be as well-read or well-informed in my lack of faith as I wish to be, however, I did take the time to, hopefully, clear up some misconceptions about Atheism. I have posted those thoughts below but I do encourage you to check out the original article in order to understand where these responses are coming from.
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You are absolutely correct in stating that "not believing in God will not, in itself, make you smart." The correlation actually happens the other way. Dawkins, in "The God Delusion," which is only dismissed in passing in this article, takes the time to erode the fantasy of the religious intellectual. It is *possible* for an intelligent, learned person to have a faith or a belief in a personal God, however the higher the level of education and/or academic accomplishment, the smaller the likelihood that the person in question will subscribe to specific beliefs. This is not because of an intellectual conspiracy stemming from the separation of church and state but rather because of an increase in knowledge.
The more you learn, the more you become aware of how much you do not know. While this may seem like it would inherently lead to the individual clinging to whatever beliefs they could have, in order to have *something* as a firm foundation for whatever new ignorance they are stumbling into, it becomes nearly impossible to gain perspective on any branch of any supernatural belief system without compromising one's ability to adhere to it with authenticity or conviction.
Most "Atheists" acknowledge that there very well could be a creator God and that any given faith could, hypothetically, have all the right answers. It is the incredible unlikelihood of any of these possibilities which drive them toward skepticism. Along this line of thought, the Flying Spaghetti Monster, an admitted joke, acts a metaphor for any other "God" figure. While its existence cannot be unproven, its unlikelihood forces even its alleged followers to recognize that an unlikely God is not worth serious consideration. Christians, Jews, and Muslims are Atheists when it comes to everything but the Abrahamic God. They assume, and probably rightly so, that Thor, Hoth, and Aphrodite are not real, despite the honest reverence they once received. So-called "Atheists" are simply willing to extend the same skepticism to all deities, including the Abrahamic God.
It was also inferred, either in the article or in a comment (and it's all the same now), that Atheists shouldn't nit-pick the specifics of religious beliefs. But that is the very nature of the Atheist mind. Take the immaculate conception of Jesus, for example. A so-called Christian is asked to believe that Mary conceived, while still a Virgin. Belief in this story grants it an immediate, supernatural awe. An Atheist, however, is willing to probe into the story. Firstly, they will discover the possibility of the easy-to-make mistranslation, of a word meaning "young girl" to mean "virgin." Having learned this, they will assess the situation: Is it more likely that a human being made a mistake when translating decades-old text which had, itself, been passed through generations of oral history, OR is it more likely that a being with the power to create existence, navigated the 1,419,079,260,000,000km of universe to subvert the biological rules He himself put into place, in order to demonstrate to one species of creature amongst over 1,000,000,00, on one planet, that they have His favour. Yes, the second option is possible but no rational mind would conclude that its likelihood is comparable. Atheist nit-picking is not a jealous tantrum, trying to rob spiritual people of the peace they've found in divinity. It is about pulling back the curtain, seeing how the machine works, and realizing that Oz is still an amazing place, even if there is no Wizard.
Read more: 4 Things Both Atheists and Believers Need to Stop Saying | Cracked.com http://www.cracked.com/blog/4-things-both-atheists-believers-need-to-stop-saying_p2/#ixzz1hWQF1000
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