How is it that some atheists are good people?

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As I implied:
Einstein should have kept to his field of expertise, imo.
I haven't come across any individual who was brilliant in all things.
Not even me.
I suspect he had "Illusory Superiority". <facetiousness>
<musing>
Who would have thought I am smarter in some areas than a mathematical genius?

I believe he has a hotline to god.

OK, now I can't help myself

The hell you say!.


But,
But,
It was in the bible.
It must be true.



Wasn't ISIS doing the bidding of their religious beliefs?

I was talking about personal experience/individuals, not groups. What I observed is that usually, it's not religion making people nasty, but nasty people using religion to validate, justify and even enhance their nastiness if that makes sense.

If we're talking about groups or organisations, yeah... that is something completely different, Catholic Church and ISIS included.

What is this alternate field of expertise? Where is this university of what is impossible to know?

As I've said previously:
Collectively/globally speaking, religious people scare the bejesus out of me.

Also, Mr Smartypants, Einstein is not offering much tangible here, he can't. He is - with humility so sorely lacking in atheists - expressing the most basic conceit of an intelligent mind - having some understanding of the limits of one's mind, how little you actually know and how little you can know. I will go as far as saying, at the risk of pissing everybody off, that true intelligence and atheism are incompatible.

I haven't read anything which inspired me to embrace his theological beliefs.
Hardly surprising since I am a hardcore atheist.

It is believed Einstein was an autistic savant.
My understanding is that autistic savants tend to have a specialised ability.

He has used his mind to first identify and then reject atheism as a valid belief. Keep going, you're so close. You're about 2 posts away from realising that atheism is as much faith as any other theism.

It's a stereotype that goes both ways

Yes,
Yes,
"The more you know the more you know how little you know". <yawn>

BTW, You wouldn't be a theist, by any chance?
How is it that you have total faith in your POV, yet you aren't also considered arrogant?

Laurance Kraus put it nicely when he said humanity/huwomanity had no need to understand quantum physics since it had no survival value in the developmental stage of the neocortex,
Yet we still embrace intellectual constructs regardless of our lack of total understanding of "life, the universe and everything/k" to service our needs.

Consider:
"Man" created the Atomic Bomb.
No amount of belief in magic, fairies at the bottom of the garden or religious superstition would have achieved this monumental, err, achievement.
This achievement was, err, achieved even though our knowledge base is incomplete. <beam>
Science rulz, man.

Also:
Why is it wrong to have self-confidence?
Confidence in one's thought processes is vital in "oiling" one's "psychological mechanism".
To doubt oneself is to cripple one's ability of concept recognition and building.
How does it benefit the individual to constantly second-guess themselves?
Why would you want to do that to me and others who have found a life strategy which works for us?

Do I think I have all the answers to our life system?
Can I see reality in an absolute sense?
Of course not.
I'm not infallible,
I am not omniscient,
Just close to it.

Scientists use models to help understand conceptual, err, concepts.
Successful paradigms are useful tools which can be built upon,
And if there is a need for change, the scientific approach/methodology is to accept the need and change accordingly.

My experiences have brought me to the position I find myself now,
And my personal strategy has served me well to date.
Why would any rational person discard a system that works so well for them?
A rather odd concept, if you ask me.

If humility works for you,
"You go gurl."
But accept that there are:
"Different horses for courses",
"Whatever floats your boat",
"Whatever bakes your cookies".

Regarding:
"...that true intelligence and atheism are incompatible".
As John Oliver would say: "WOW!
What cereal box have you been reading?
The implication is: True intelligence and theism are compatible?

One of the mysteries of life to me is: How is it possible that mature intelligent people can believe in Santa Clause, err, I mean god?
I have a theory in development, but that is for another day and thread.

Damn!
That must hurt.

Cheers, my friend.
Always a pleasure to "talk" with you. <big wet kiss>

Not a good sign.



I don't. This is the point that I and apparently Einstein understand and you do not. You cannot reasonably have "total faith" in Theism or Atheism - you do not know enough and likely never will in this life. You might be seeing the whole tapestry of the universe from the wrong side, a tapestry science cannot penetrate. Like the theoretical 2-dimensional being, you could never hope to perceive the mysteries of the 3rd on your own. Once you reach the only intellectually honest and rational position in this debate - agnosticism (which is the default position of humans by the way, not atheism) - you either remain in this unsatisfying limbo or make a choice, usually based on desire.



In some areas of life it's useful. In matters of thought, lack of doubt is usually a warning sign of a closed, and therefore useless, mind.



It's the foundation of all serious thought?



Your need to debate these things is an invitation. If you don't want your views to be challenged, don't post about them.



Yet you're a "hard atheist" You're certain there is no God or anything else - at least certain enough to live as though that were the case.



Not really. If you know how the political divide looks on the intelligence spectrum, this shouldn't be a surprise, nor is it much of a boon to atheists. "On average" doesn't tell you much about the extremes of intelligence.

I'm not trying to convert you to theism by the way or my Christian-ish Deism, that's a journey best made on your own, if at all. I'm just trying to help you out of the unthinking, spiritually dead black hole that is Atheism. It is as dumb and as rigidly stupid as Bible literalism. But then again at least the literalists have to think a little bit about how to reconcile the different gospels.

It's almost like some people would choose to be good even without the fear of eternal torture to motivate them.

A lot of people just want to be good and do what they believe is right.
My parents also seem to believe that the only reason people become atheists is to reject morality.
My experience finds them completely wrong on it.

Jesus told a story of the good Samaritan. (Samaritans were enemies of the Jews)

A man got beaten up and robbed and stripped of his clothes at the side of the road. People passed him and left him for dead, even a Jewish priest.

In the end only the Samaritan saved him. Fed him, gave him clothes, got him an inn to heal in