Not Going to See People Again Athiest
Many atheists think that their atheism is the production of rational thinking. They use arguments such as "I don't believe in God, I believe in science" to explain that evidence and logic, rather than supernatural belief and dogma, underpin their thinking. But just considering y'all believe in bear witness-based, scientific research – which is subject field to strict checks and procedures – doesn't mean that your mind works in the aforementioned style.
When you ask atheists about why they became atheists (as I do for a living), they oftentimes indicate to eureka moments when they came to realise that religion simply doesn't make sense.
Oddly perhaps, many religious people really take a similar view of atheism. This comes out when theologians and other theists speculate that it must be rather sad to be an atheist, defective (as they think atheists do) and then much of the philosophical, ethical, mythical and artful fulfilments that religious people have admission to – stuck in a cold world of rationality only.
The science of atheism
The problem that whatever rational thinker needs to tackle, though, is that the scientific discipline increasingly shows that atheists are no more rational than theists. Indeed, atheists are just every bit susceptible equally the side by side person to "group-think" and other non-rational forms of cognition. For example, religious and nonreligious people akin can end up following charismatic individuals without questioning them. And our minds often prefer righteousness over truth, as the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt has explored.
Fifty-fifty atheist beliefs themselves have much less to practise with rational inquiry than atheists often think. We now know, for instance, that nonreligious children of religious parents bandage off their beliefs for reasons that take picayune to practise with intellectual reasoning. The latest cerebral inquiry shows that the decisive factor is learning from what parents do rather than from what they say. So if a parent says that they're Christian, simply they've fallen out of the addiction of doing the things they say should affair – such as praying or going to church – their kids simply don't buy the thought that religion makes sense.
This is perfectly rational in a sense, only children aren't processing this on a cerebral level. Throughout our evolutionary history, humans have oftentimes lacked the fourth dimension to scrutinise and weigh up the evidence – needing to make quick assessments. That means that children to some extent just blot the crucial information, which in this case is that religious belief doesn't appear to affair in the manner that parents are saying it does.
Even older children and adolescents who actually ponder the topic of organized religion may not be budgeted it as independently as they think. Emerging inquiry is demonstrating that atheist parents (and others) pass on their beliefs to their children in a like way to religious parents – through sharing their culture as much as their arguments.
Some parents take the view that their children should choose their beliefs for themselves, but what they and then do is pass on certain means of thinking almost religion, like the idea that organized religion is a matter of selection rather than divine truth. It'due south not surprising that almost all of these children – 95% – terminate up "choosing" to be atheist.
Science versus beliefs
But are atheists more probable to embrace science than religious people? Many conventionalities systems can exist more or less closely integrated with scientific knowledge. Some belief systems are openly critical of science, and think it has far likewise much sway over our lives, while other belief systems are hugely concerned to learn nearly and respond to scientific cognition.
But this deviation doesn't neatly map onto whether you are religious or not. Some Protestant traditions, for case, run across rationality or scientific thinking as central to their religious lives. Meanwhile, a new generation of postmodern atheists highlight the limits of human knowledge, and see scientific knowledge equally hugely limited, problematic even, peculiarly when it comes to existential and upstanding questions. These atheists might, for case, follow thinkers like Charles Baudelaire in the view that true knowledge is only found in creative expression.
And while many atheists do like to think of themselves as pro science, science and technology itself can sometimes be the footing of religious thinking or beliefs, or something very much similar it. For example, the ascent of the transhumanist movement, which centres on the conventionalities that humans can and should transcend their current natural state and limitations through the utilise of engineering science, is an example of how technological innovation is driving the emergence of new movements that have much in common with religiosity.
Fifty-fifty for those atheists sceptical of transhumanism, the role of science isn't simply nigh rationality – it can provide the philosophical, ethical, mythical and aesthetic fulfilments that religious beliefs practise for others. The science of the biological world, for case, is much more than a topic of intellectual curiosity – for some atheists, it provides meaning and condolement in much the same way that belief in God tin can for theists. Psychologists evidence that belief in science increases in the confront of stress and existential anxiety, just as religious beliefs intensify for theists in these situations.
Clearly, the idea that existence atheist is downwards to rationality alone is starting to await distinctly irrational. But the good news for all concerned is that rationality is overrated. Man ingenuity rests on a lot more than rational thinking. Every bit Haidt says of "the righteous listen", we are actually "designed to 'do' morality" – even if we're not doing it in the rational way we think nosotros are. The ability to make quick decisions, follow our passions and human activity on intuition are also important human qualities and crucial for our success.
Information technology is helpful that we have invented something that, unlike our minds, is rational and bear witness-based: science. When we need proper evidence, science can very often provide it – every bit long as the topic is testable. Importantly, the scientific evidence does not tend to support the view that atheism is virtually rational thought and theism is about existential fulfilments. The truth is that humans are not like science – none of us get by without irrational activity, nor without sources of existential meaning and comfort. Fortunately, though, nobody has to.
Source: https://theconversation.com/why-atheists-are-not-as-rational-as-some-like-to-think-103563
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