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cbayer

(146,218 posts)
Thu Sep 18, 2014, 02:09 AM Sep 2014

Paradiddling All Over Religion

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/aestheism/2014/09/paradiddling-all-over-religion/

September 15, 2014 by David Mason

I don’t have anything against atheists. Atheism makes perfect sense to me. Really. Half the time, I am an atheist. There’s no empirical evidence for a super-being god, so we may as well believe in spaghetti monsters. Granted.

But the argument that sometimes emerges from atheism’s justified efforts to defend itself that the march of the world toward enlightenment will eventually, inexorably, inevitably, eliminate religion altogether seems to me a fantasy. I can see humanity eventually giving up on the super-being god. But I can’t see religion ever going away.

In a recent post at iranian.com, Dr. Reza Varjavand argues that religion isn’t going anywhere, even if god disappears, partly because believing is much easier than exerting the effort that scientific study requires. People will always believe, Varjavand seems to argue, because people will always be lazy.

I agree with Varjavand on a couple of points. I think believing is, most often, much easier than study and reason. And I think that people will always be lazy.

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Paradiddling All Over Religion (Original Post) cbayer Sep 2014 OP
Um. No. AtheistCrusader Sep 2014 #1
I agree that it means doing something as a ritual and with dedication. cbayer Sep 2014 #2

AtheistCrusader

(33,982 posts)
1. Um. No.
Thu Sep 18, 2014, 05:26 AM
Sep 2014

"There’s a reason why we still talk about habit as doing something religiously. The person who mows the lawn “religiously” is not acting on a belief in nature spirits. The doing is its own, hard and joyous justification."

Justification has nothing to do with it. Nor joy. (Though some people undoubtedly extract joy from yard maintenance.) It means regularly, dependably, or conscientiously, like clockwork. Just like believers in the Judeo-Christian tradition, in many cases, go to church regularly, on principle. They don't miss a day. Same-same.

Edit: And it seems the author has some grasp of that, given the 'paradiddling' comment.

cbayer

(146,218 posts)
2. I agree that it means doing something as a ritual and with dedication.
Thu Sep 18, 2014, 05:51 AM
Sep 2014

I would agree that joy doesn't necessarily enter into it, but I think justification might. To me it implies doing something for a purpose and with a reason.

At any rate, I think the point he is trying to make is that religion is something other than belief. It is about discipline and acts more than thoughts and beliefs.

The paradiddling of religion, as he notes.

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