You're most likely right in believing that there is no God, that homeopathy is bullshit and so on. Those are definitely not the worst beliefs you can have.
But there is something that a lot of you seem to think: That you have reached some sort of point where you can look at the world objectively from. That you having the beliefs you have is completely based on your own rational thought processes and has nothing to do with the culture you live in, the information you've been fed from the outside world etc.
You do have prejudices. You have so many prejudices that it would be a hopeless task to fact check them all. Some of them are useful and more or less correct. Others are just wrong. But you wouldn't be able to navigate this strange world if you didn't have them, for instance if you didn't base how you treat people on ideas you have about how such and such people are. You can never be a blank sheet, a tabula rasa. You probably don't appreciate biblical references (I do! It has some interesting stories in it, and it has formed our culture in ways I doubt you are able to escape, however hard you try), but: You know the log in your eye? That's what you see with.
I understand that you care about having the Right Beliefs, or at least as close as you can possibly get.
You can use as much logical thinking as you want, but it won't help you if you don't have an understanding of context. What ideas and events have influenced you throughout your life, from your parents, the school system, the Internet and what ideas and events have influenced the people you're talking to/with/about?
Finding the time to have the Right Opinions about Life, the Universe and Everything is a privilege, and not very high on the list of elementary human needs. Beyond their physical and emotional needs, humans mostly just need a set of ideas that bring meaning to their life. Religion is often the safest way to get that. Coupled with heavy social pressure, it is also the easiest. And even then: People are more than their religions, genders, genitals, political ideas and favorite music. They're complex, but of course you have to simplify things to be able to engage with the world. Just keep the complexity in mind when you do so.
And remember that it's never an excuse, at least not after the first time.
By the way, you're not the end point of human thinking. You're just recycled half-assed 19th century positivists.
Amen.
I would have been a lot more impressed if you had said "we" rather than "you", which is quite ironic in the context of the point you seemed to be making. Aren't you displaying the air of arrogant superiority that you seem to be decrying in others, I mean "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? Matthew 7:3 New International Version of the Bible. We all have planks, it seems to be an inevitable part of the human condition. The point is to deal with our own planks and not to slag off other people for theirs. Sharing our planks with other people would seem [to me] to be a better way of getting other people to look at their own rather than poking them in the eye with a sharp stick, if you'll excuse the pun.
NB I can't speak for all atheists [obviously] but, from my POV, its not an issue of "having the Right Beliefs" the important thing is "not having Wrong Beliefs"
BTW, you're not the end point of human thinking either. You're just recycled half-assed 19th century positivists[insert disparaging comment of your own choice here] .
If you judge yourself by comparing yourself to people with other beliefs/non-beliefs, then you have already lost and are just another gibbering monkey posturing on the side of the poop stack.
Valid points, MMIX. In the OP I ignore my own plank while arguing that everyone have planks.
Quote from: Lenin McCarthy on August 16, 2014, 07:02:43 PM
Valid points, MMIX. In the OP I ignore my own plank while arguing that everyone have planks.
Yeah, its a real pisser but its easier to learn to think outside the box than it is to
discuss things outside the box. Acknowledging our planks is a good step forward; they are, after all, the ground on which our weltanshauungs rest.
(http://lolsheaven.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/If-Retarded-People-Dont-Think-Theyre-Retarded.jpg)
But I think IM retarded, that must mean I'm Illuminated.
Seriously now, I did really like the part on how some people think that they hold a neutral objective viewpoint that is TRULY TRUE and cannot be contested by the different subjectivities every single human has.
The guardians of "truth and objectivity" are always either despots, bigots or just plain clueless... rather the posture of doubt and uncertainty, channeled thru the proper means of a methodology (im looking at you conspiracy theorists) is the closest we can get to veracity and not being assholes.
How troof seems to get perfidiously conflated with objectivity is, well, beyond me.
Excellent OP, Lenin!