[arista]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

He is not very respectful of other people's religious views, and has an air of condescending arrogance about him.

He knows Better than You do.

Buy his great book
I did

[Nedusa]

Originally Posted by arista

He knows Better than You do.

Buy his great book
I did

That's just it.... He doesn't know better than me or you or anyone else for that matter.

He only knows what all of us know but is better at putting the anti religious viewpoint across.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

That's just it.... He doesn't know better than me or you or anyone else for that matter.

He only knows what all of us know but is better at putting the anti religious viewpoint across.

That's his whole point, he deals in science and logic and facts religion doesn't do that it can't.
He isn't anti religion, it's a theory is all and the burden of proof is not on him.

[Nedusa]

Originally Posted by Kizzy

That's his whole point, he deals in science and logic and facts religion doesn't do that it can't.
He isn't anti religion, it's a theory is all and the burden of proof is not on him.

Maybe so, but I ask you if 4/5 of the Worlds population believe in a Deity and one fifth do not believe , then surely it is slightly arrogant for the minority to assume they are right and everybody else is wrong.

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

Maybe so, but I ask you if 4/5 of the Worlds population believe in a Deity and one fifth do not believe , then surely it is slightly arrogant for the minority to assume they are right and everybody else is wrong.

This is a misrepresentation really. They don't all believe the same things. You can't lump numerous belief systems into one group for a "versus"... They can't ALL be right, it's impossible. At best, you could give the title" majority" to the biggest of the bunch (is that Catholicism or a branch of Islam? I'm not entirely sure...) but even then it's far from being an overall majority. There are more non-Catholics than Catholics, there are more non-Muslims than Muslims, etc etc.

There are more non-atheists than atheists, but it's no more arrogant for an atheist to assume that they are right than it is for a Catholic or a Muslim or a Scientologist.

Show me a devout Religious person who doesn't talk about God as if he's sure that God is real (and by necessity, believes that anyone who believes in any other God, or no God at all, is wrong).

[Nedusa]

Originally Posted by Toy Soldier

This is a misrepresentation really. They don't all believe the same things. You can't lump numerous belief systems into one group for a "versus"... They can't ALL be right, it's impossible. At best, you could give the title" majority" to the biggest of the bunch (is that Catholicism or a branch of Islam? I'm not entirely sure...) but even then it's far from being an overall majority. There are more non-Catholics than Catholics, there are more non-Muslims than Muslims, etc etc.

There are more non-atheists than atheists, but it's no more arrogant for an atheist to assume that they are right than it is for a Catholic or a Muslim or a Scientologist.

Show me a devout Religious person who doesn't talk about God as if he's sure that God is real (and by necessity, believes that anyone who believes in any other God, or no God at all, is wrong).

Look you don't need to lump together like minded religious people v non religious people to have this argument.

If you take ALL THE people in the World that believe in some form of higher existence and a Deity of some description and pit them against avid non believers then the proportions are quite overwhelming.
90% or more of the Worlds population believe in something so there must be something in our DNA that hard wires us to believe there is more.

So this must be the default position and as much as atheists and the like argue smugly with their scientific logic they must wonder why so many billions of people still believe passionately in something that cannot be proven scientifically.
So yes it is for that reason that I say it is slightly arrogant to assume the 5% is right and smile condescendingly at the other 95%.

[Kizzy]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

Look you don't need to lump together like minded religious people v non religious people to have this argument.

If you take ALL THE people in the World that believe in some form of higher existence and a Deity of some description and pit them against avid non believers then the proportions are quite overwhelming.
90% or more of the Worlds population believe in something so there must be something in our DNA that hard wires us to believe there is more.

So this must be the default position and as much as atheists and the like argue smugly with their scientific logic they must wonder why so many billions of people still believe passionately in something that cannot be proven scientifically.
So yes it is for that reason that I say it is slightly arrogant to assume the 5% is right and smile condescendingly at the other 95%.

Hang on .. it's gone from 80% to 90% to 95%, it wouldn't matter if it was 99% though, he has a right to say what is known and has been proven.
That is not to say he suggests there is no religious education, at the moment nobody is right or wrong it's unknown, that may change...one day.
what of those who don't identify as religious or anti theist?
Would that not be the default position to hold until there is something we can understand on a more solid basis?

[user104658]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

If you take ALL THE people in the World that believe in some form of higher existence and a Deity of some description and pit them against avid non believers then the proportions are quite overwhelming.

But they all believe different things, sometimes wildly different things, and can't all possibly be right. Even if you argue it's possible that one of those groups is right... Most of them are wrong. And if most of them are wrong then it becomes perfectly feasible (in my opinion, probable) that ALL of them are wrong, even if there is a nondescript higher power of some form.

Chances of there being some sort of intelligent creative force? We don't know anywhere near enough about the universe to state either way, so you could call it 50/50. Chances of ANY organised religion having stumbled upon the absolute truth in a universe of near infinite possibility? Miniscule. Miniscule to the point of being effectively zero.

90% or more of the Worlds population believe in something so there must be something in our DNA that hard wires us to believe there is more.

There is. It's called survival instinct. Fear of death is a huge part of what keeps us risk averse and allows us to keep on living. We can't live forever, but we are inclined to wait to believe that we will continue to exist in some form after death.