I had an email from soneone who was particularly upset with the tone of one of my blogs — when I was talking about my lack of religious belief and (imho) gently mocking those of a religious persuasion. The gist of his email was “You think you are so clever and you think you have an enormous IQ which is bigger than Gods. It isnt. When you die you will find the truth and feel stupid“. Obviously there were the standard threats of eternal torment and burning in hellfire – from his particular loving god. Invisible Space Monkeys never threaten that, they just promise an eternal supply of bananas. *sigh*
I was tempted to fire back an equally rude email but decided to have a chat instead.
As it turned out the chat was friendly and interesting and thought I might share it:
Me [Atheus Maximus]
Hi [religious chap] – I do believe that modern society is seeing Religion on the decline. That mutch seems to be self evident But, I wouldnt say todays *reduction in religious belief* is IQ related. I wouldnt be that rude. This generation is better educated, has a wealth of facts in our hands (internet) and we’re encouraged to think and research things ourselves…
We are continuing to see that people choosing to worship Gods, Spirits or any other invisible space-monkeys is reducing in the face of common sense.
The link is from Pew, an independent group, but it also says “social theorists have suggested that as countries develop economically, more of their residents will move away from religious affiliation, as has been seen in Europe….. To be clear, the total number of religiously unaffiliated people (which includes atheists, agnostics and those who say they have no particular religion on censuses and surveys) is expected to rise, from 1.1 billion in 2010 to 1.2 billion in 2050. But this growth is projected to occur at the same time that other religious groups – and the global population overall – are growing faster.” While religious groups are telling their “flocks” that birth control is a bad thing… it’s hardly surprising.
Most projections seem to show that the future holds a world with roughly 30% Christian and 30% Muslim. That’s scary for us Atheists because we get caught in the violent backlash of religious wars and terrorist acts from both sides!
Hopefully both groups will finally understand that their God(s) are basically telling them to be nice to each other. Anyway, I appreciated having a sensible convo with you… Whatever your religious affiliation. Goodnight, Thank you, and may your God go with you…
[Religious Chap]
“Biased view perhaps?” Well considering that other non-religious groups are saying the same thing, it seems that their study here isn’t biased. Also, if you want to just throw out any Christian study then you should also throw out any study done by pro-atheist groups too, just so you’re not a hypocrite. you are choosing the polls that fit your atheist beliefes. that is being a hypocrit.
Me [Atheus Maximus]
LOL. I ignore pro-religious and anti-religious polls. if you want impartial information then you should to. I don’t see how you can blindly ignore the evidence-based trend of continual growth of non-religious belief systems for the educated peoples, and conversely, religious beliefs going the other way.
Science says one thing to educated masses, Priests say “its magic” to the uneducated. #facts.
We all have a life choice – “Science and evidence based assumptions” or “magic and faith with no evidence”.
Choose the side that makes you most happy. But don’t try to force other people to believe.
Don’t kill them because you believe you imaginary friend is better than theirs.
[Religious Chap]
You danced around it a bit, but you did concede my point. Atheism will increase numerically, but compared to the increase in global population it will decrease in proportion.
Me [Atheus Maximus]
I dont mean to dance. Whichever way you want to mask the facts they speak for themselves – Christianity is on the decline, atheism is growing and the fasting growing religion is Islam. Facts are facts.
[Religious Chap]
“That’s scary for us Atheists because we get caught in the violent backlash of religious wars…” In the 20th century it was atheism that was doing most of the violence in the world. More people died from atheistic governments in the 20th century then all deaths from all wars in the previous 19 centuries combined.
Me [Atheus Maximus]
Your argument that atheism is the biggest cause of wars is laughable. Conveniently forgetting the images of Christian Priests both sides of Troops in World Wars 1 and 2? Forgetting incredible volumes of meaningless deaths during the Religious Crusades? In the USA, Priests of all flavors bless the troops leaving for every war that the USA has been involved in… Do we need to look at terrible things happening in the name of “Jihad”?
[Religious Chap]
“Hopefully both groups will finally understand that their God(s) are basically telling them to be nice to each other.” Christianity says that but Islam doesn’t. Islam says to kill anyone who isn’t Islamic.
Me [Atheus Maximus]
Christianity says you can beat your slaves as long they dont die within two days. Christianity threatens an eternity of hellfire and pain and suffering for non-believers. Islam justifies pedophilia and death to non-believers. Both “Loving gods” – my arse!
[Religious Chap]
<reaction> some threats of eternal hellfire
Me [Atheus Maximus]
I dont believe in life after death so threats like that are immaterial.
Enjoy your God. I hope your belief in him/her enriches your life. God doesn’t enrich mine.
Thor is pretty cool, that hammer is awesome, so I think he’s my favorite one out of all the invisible deities.
/me gets bored of this game of trying to talk reason to someone that believes in Santa and the Tooth Fairy. I decided to get back to work and copies/pastes the more interesting parts of the thread into this blog 😉
I don’t think the title of your article matches the content lol. Just kidding, mainly because I had some doubts after reading the article.