Joe Rogan-Religion is helpful for dumb people

Post Reply New Topic

I don't think her belief is strange. It's actually a pretty common logical fallacy, the Argumentum ad populum
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum


edited to add;

d'oh! LoveNotHate types faster than me and said the same thing.

Her argument doesn't fall under these categories and most people would still find it silly.
The fact that the argumentum ad populum exists doesn't mean that it is our case. The "God must exist because they build nice places" argument has such a faulty logic that most people would have no trouble finding it strange and simplistic. Do you really think most people would agree with that?

The premise is that these worshipers would not be building these speculator places if GOD did not exist.

Behold! Do you doubt GOD now ? Now that you have seen one of these speculator structures?

Here is another example ...

Look at all the people
and the size of this place ...

GOD MUST EXIST! All these people can't be wrong!

I don't understand your post. What are you trying to say?

People go to these churches and become awed by them.

They get awed by:
-sculptures
-paintings
-engravings
-marble
-stained glass
-painted walls
-massive size

These things portray deep conviction that gives one the impression that these worshipers are to be listened too

Perhaps those are the most likely to be known as atheists.

People usually have no trouble incorporating totally obvious fallacies into their ideas, as long as they like the conclusion. I've actually seen very little evidence that they ever follow sound logic to any meaningful extent. If you show them your thoughts on something, they quickly decide whether to agree or disagree based on how they like your conclusion, without even listening to your premises or the logical process that led you to it. Your reasoning means absolutely nothing to them. Besides, they'll usually judge you as a person based on your conclusion, taking for granted you reached it because you had already chosen it all along.

Last edited by Spiderpig on 22 Jul 2015, 10:47 am, edited 1 time in total.

I don't see why the beautiful churches would mean that God exist, that makes no sense and most people would agree, I think.

True but I think most people would be aware of how weak of an argument it is. And surely being an Aspergian is not needed to see that! My original point was that the beliefs of this mother would seem strange even to normal people.

At this point, what really impresses me is that the concepts of logic, debate and science ever came to exist. I wonder how it could happen.

Why?

The reasoning is that people around the world build beautiful churches (temples/mosques etc.) because they all feel the same sense of awe about the divine and build to honor that. If they all feel the same sense of awe at the divine, therefore there must actually be a divine that makes Itself known to all, otherwise these lovely structures wouldn't be everywhere.

This is the core of LoveNotHate's and my parallel posts: everybody does it for the same reason>therefore the reason must be legit.

That word, "just," is incorrect. As others have said, dumb people abound in any form, from Atheist to Christian to Buddhist to whatever.
However, I dare you to come to my church and call the people there dumb. The other day, my dad was talking to another member about Newton's law of motion:

And how it has yet to be proven, that we just take it on faith. He and his wife are actual rocket scientists, my dad's a biologist, my mom is a biologist and reference librarian... we have a lot of really intelligent people in our church who have all come to their own conclusions as to why they believe in God.

You are making a gross over generalization, which is highly unfair to many, many people.

I agree. Plenty of intellectuals have also been religious. Not the least of them, the great theologians, from Aquinas, to Luther, to Calvin, to Barth.

Roughly 1/3 of American scientists are or identify as spiritual and/or religious, including several Nobel Prize winners in the last couple decades. The current head of the National Institutes of Health and former leader of the Human Genome Project is a devout Christian. Nearly every US President has been a practicing Christian or Catholic. And, on a different societal spectrum, even the brilliant Stephen Colbert is a Catholic Sunday School teacher.

While I don't disagree there's an inherent naivete behind blind faith, it's a rash error in judgment to discredit religion for those who truly utilize it to practice their theology based solely on those "dumb people" who attend church solely out of unquestioning cultural tradition.

I do not personally care for unanalyzed faith. However, I do know intelligent people who do not care to analyze their faith (or lack thereof).

I do not personally care for "follow me and don't ask questions" religion or an authoritarian, LTI (literally true and inerrant) understanding of the Bible. I really, really do not care for those things; they have not borne good fruit in my life and I have seen them bear bad fruit in others' lives. However, I still know intelligent people who adhere to those things. I wouldn't dream of calling them dumb and don't like to hear others do it.

I like having religion (even if I don't get on well with any organized religion I know of to date). It makes it easier to get out of bed in the morning, and more possible to believe that there is worth and purpose to my existence. This is known as "avoiding my existential crisis." I had an existential crisis for years; the resolution was that I discovered that I very much preferred not having an existential crisis.

The jury is out on whether or not I'm included in the ranks of "dumb people." I'm not really in a position to make that judgment.