"I can appreciate that a lot of religious leaders, etc, are very intelligent, very well read, very wise to put it simply, but I just don't agree with the idea that some else you should tell you how to believe and what to believe."
This is a slightly silly argument, don't you think? Or rather, an extremist one. Arguing that organised religion is bad because they tell you what to believe, is analogous to arguing that pubs are bad because they tell you what to drink. They don't, they just provide the drink: you chose what to drink and how much.
(It's also worth pointing out that no religion has ever lead to people killing each other. Men acting in the name of a religion do that. You're effectively protesting humanity's lamentable propensity to follow "evil" leaders, which has nothing to do with religion, organised or individual.)
'If atheists are correct and we are nothing more than a blob of chemicals that eventually ends and is gone forever, why do anything?'
Ah, a trick question begging a trick answer: "Because the collection of chemicals that we are makes us do things!"
The collections of chemicals that permitted themselves to sit down and do nothing aren't here any more! (Interestingly, contrast a recent report suggesting that suicide is linked to high intelligence or self-awareness - blobs of chemicals that became too aware of their own nature?)
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Two things
Date: 2004-01-22 06:44 am (UTC)This is a slightly silly argument, don't you think? Or rather, an extremist one. Arguing that organised religion is bad because they tell you what to believe, is analogous to arguing that pubs are bad because they tell you what to drink. They don't, they just provide the drink: you chose what to drink and how much.
(It's also worth pointing out that no religion has ever lead to people killing each other. Men acting in the name of a religion do that. You're effectively protesting humanity's lamentable propensity to follow "evil" leaders, which has nothing to do with religion, organised or individual.)
'If atheists are correct and we are nothing more than a blob of chemicals that eventually ends and is gone forever, why do anything?'
Ah, a trick question begging a trick answer: "Because the collection of chemicals that we are makes us do things!"
The collections of chemicals that permitted themselves to sit down and do nothing aren't here any more! (Interestingly, contrast a recent report suggesting that suicide is linked to high intelligence or self-awareness - blobs of chemicals that became too aware of their own nature?)