Catholic Writer Thinks He Can Prove Atheism is the Uncoolest Choice Ever (He Cannot)

[trotsky]

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/friendlyatheist/2017/05/22/catholic-writer-thinks-he-can-prove-atheism-is-the-uncoolest-choice-ever-he-cannot/

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Got that, kids? Atheism is uncool and daddy over here knows we shed our faith only because it was the “in” thing to do, not because our own questioning and search for answers led us away from religion.

...

"As a Christian, my wife looks at me like I’m a gift from God. Seriously, to her that’s what I am. Your atheist girlfriend (should you ever get one after you move out of your stepdad’s basement) will see you as a gel-haired accident in skinny jeans on a lonely rock orbiting a meaningless sun in a mistake of a universe. See the difference? It’s kind of a big one."

If Matthew Archbold is a gift from God, then we should all pat ourselves on the back for becoming atheists because we clearly aren’t missing out on anything.

I’m sure some of this is exaggerated for effect and he thinks he’s just being funny. But the underlying idea here — that atheism makes no sense — is absurd. If I wanted to make fun of Catholics who mock atheists, this is the piece I would write.

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[guillaumeb]

1. The response is as simplistic as the original premise.

But apart from that...........

[trotsky]

3. And now you understand the responses you get.

Congratulations!

[hatrack]

2. Gosh, he was getting all . . . epistemological there, wasn't he?

[AtheistCrusader]

4. Author is in the 'it was a joke' stage of denial.

http://www.creativeminorityreport.com/2017/05/atheist-blog-shows-it-has-absolutely-no.html

[Lordquinton]

5. Jokes are funny

This was just cringe worthy

[trotsky]

7. LOL

"OMG you atheists have such a horrible sense of humor!"

No, you just really suck at writing a humor piece. NOW I'm laughing!

[Mariana]

6. Where does he get the idea that atheism is a choice?

Does he have the idea that atheists can simply choose one of the assortment of supposed gods and decide to believe it is real? I don't think it works that way.

[trotsky]

8. Because that allows him to keep his religious worldview intact.

It's very important - from many Christian perspectives, not just Catholic - that atheists are considered to have "chosen" to reject god. That way they are convicted and punished for a choice they made.

[Iggo]

9. I've read on this very forum that one can choose to believe something.

So, yeah. There's that.

[Voltaire2]

10. It is possible that there is no free will and that

we don't actually freely choose anything. Meanwhile I think most people don't think about their beliefs and just "believe" what they were taught to believe, so in that sense I agree with you. But they had to be taught those beliefs as, unlike gender or sexual orientation, religions are taught not inate.

[Humanist_Activist]

11. Choosing to disbelieve is a tricky proposition...

atheism can come in two basic forms, one of which is like the polar opposite of belief, never being taught about gods/deities. Without the concept of deity in your head, you either invent one, or never believe in one in the first place. This makes you an atheist, but one who is thoughtless about it, who simply can't think about it. So you have to be ignorant. This type of atheist is theoretical, most societies on Earth developed god beliefs of one sort or another.

The most common type of atheist today, at least in western societies are skeptical-atheists, who came to their non-belief through skepticism. The thing is, that skepticism, through critical thinking exercises, has to be taught, or, if it is an innate trait, reinforced, because it can be and has been abandoned by many people. I sometimes struggle to understand my own source for skepticism. I was raised nominally Catholic, however, my parents emphasized that I should examine and learn things on my own. Never take things at face value, and to argue things out with others, used to debate my mother all the time about all sorts of topics.

The thing is that these skills in critical thinking I was honing, I applied them to my entire life except to my religious beliefs, still believed in a god, even, at one point, attempted to resolve the my moral dissonance(problem of evil) with the biblical god by attempting polytheism through Wicca. This lasted quite a while, but eventually my effort at maintaining the mental blocks necessary to not apply skepticism to my religious beliefs fell apart, and so those beliefs also fell apart once critically examined. What's interesting is that I think I spent more mental energy trying to maintain those beliefs than I ever did applying critical thinking, introspection and skepticism to them. The question I have is did I have a choice here?

[Mariana]

12. That's quite a jump

from "atheism may not be a choice" to "it is possible there is no free will". I can exercise free will in many things, but I don't think I can choose not to be atheist. I think my lack of belief in any gods is involuntary. If some compelling evidence should be presented that this or that particular god really does exist, then I'll believe, and that will also be involuntary.

[Voltaire2]

13. There are neurological studies that appear to indicate that

we do not make conscious choices but instead become aware of the unconscious choices we have already made. So far the data is relevant to only very simple and contrived experiments. The existence of free will may be an illusion. But I brought that up as an interesting digression. My main point is that religious beliefs are pretty clearly learned behavior.