I don’t think religious people are stupid per se for being religious, but I do think in most cases that they lost a crucial opportunity in childhood to form independant opinions and rational thought.
You make some good points though re trying to reason with religious people. Aside from the deep, deep lifelong programming… there’s a little voice in the back of their mind that must be silenced, because it would be incredibly damaging to their psyche to realise they’ve tied themselves & their lives to something false.
You can say the same about any ideology and conviction. But, it is clearly false. Questioning dogmas is nearly the ONLY way to put people into rational path. Yes, most of them refuse, but some of them will. There are a lot of people who got helped by others questioning their dogmas. You also will help yourself when you question yours.
I mean, that’s certainly not exclusive to religion. If you can’t reason with anybody who identifies as part of group there’s really not a lot of people left.
Religion is part of identity. You can’t make fun of someone’s religion without also making fun of them for being stupid enough to believe it.
Don’t sell yourself short. I know exactly what it is like being brought up religious and I have many people close to me who are devout, you can manage if I can. I feel bad with people infected with the mind virus. I want to help them. They are just as wise, as smart, as good as I am. The difference is, by pure luck, I am less infected than they are.
My sister is my best friend, but what you talked about has been a real problem for us ever since I dropped Christianity. I only told her I don’t believe anymore pretty recently, so we’re still figuring out how to talk about religion and god (which is a very big deal for her) while we both disagree. It’s tricky, but we always figure stuff like this out. She’s quite open-minded, especially for a religious person, and that helps a ton. It’s still tricky though
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I don’t think religious people are stupid per se for being religious, but I do think in most cases that they lost a crucial opportunity in childhood to form independant opinions and rational thought.
You make some good points though re trying to reason with religious people. Aside from the deep, deep lifelong programming… there’s a little voice in the back of their mind that must be silenced, because it would be incredibly damaging to their psyche to realise they’ve tied themselves & their lives to something false.
I don’t disagree with any of that. However, deconversion does happen past childhood in some cases, thankfully.
You can say the same about any ideology and conviction. But, it is clearly false. Questioning dogmas is nearly the ONLY way to put people into rational path. Yes, most of them refuse, but some of them will. There are a lot of people who got helped by others questioning their dogmas. You also will help yourself when you question yours.
I mean, that’s certainly not exclusive to religion. If you can’t reason with anybody who identifies as part of group there’s really not a lot of people left.
Don’t sell yourself short. I know exactly what it is like being brought up religious and I have many people close to me who are devout, you can manage if I can. I feel bad with people infected with the mind virus. I want to help them. They are just as wise, as smart, as good as I am. The difference is, by pure luck, I am less infected than they are.
It takes around 20 seconds to find the first logical fallacy in the Bible. So no, they’re not as wise and smart.
I don’t recall getting any smarter or wiser when I left.
I don’t recall becoming any smarter than when I was 15, yet when looking back I can clearly see it being so.
You’re generalising behaviour too much. Many people just accept that you feel differently.
Not everyone is radicalised.
My sister is my best friend, but what you talked about has been a real problem for us ever since I dropped Christianity. I only told her I don’t believe anymore pretty recently, so we’re still figuring out how to talk about religion and god (which is a very big deal for her) while we both disagree. It’s tricky, but we always figure stuff like this out. She’s quite open-minded, especially for a religious person, and that helps a ton. It’s still tricky though