Atheist - Lemmy.zip
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Atheists, skeptics, humanists, universalists, and agnostics.

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  • roofuskit@lemmy.worldEnglish
    171·
    20 hours ago

    As an atheist I never got the point of evangelizing atheism. Isn’t that half the problem with religions?

    • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
      72·
      11 hours ago

      When a person believes in a religion, they have trained their brains to ignore part of reality. Once you’ve trained your brain to do that, manipulative people can more easily abuse your brain into thinking other incorrect things.

      And that’s how you get MAGA

      So the purpose is less about evangelizing atheism, and more about fixing other people’s brains for the betterment of society.

        • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 hours ago

          Maybe. But the scientific method and logic are provably functional. You see a thing, you replicate the thing, you can then do more things.

          So it’s not a huge stretch to say that getting people to follow those methods is an improvement.

          • the_crotch@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            2·
            2 hours ago

            That really depends on how they follow them. For example, eugenics is scientifically sound. It’s morally depraved in practice, but the scientific method doesn’t account for ethics.

            • surewhynotlem@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              1 hour ago

              Is it though? Time and again it’s been shown that having a very wide basic genetic options is the healthiest for a species. Evolution favors adaptability.

              Now if you’re talking about weeding out and genetic issues, diseases, and known problems, yes. We do that today.

              • the_crotch@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
                1·
                33 minutes ago

                Is it though? Time and again it’s been shown that having a very wide basic genetic options is the healthiest for a species. Evolution favors adaptability.

                Depends what you select for. You could breed for intelligence, strength, etc and still maintain a diverse gene pool. Look what we’re done with dogs, ffs. It’s a scientifically valid practice. It doesn’t matter though because there’s no ethical way to do it.

                Now if you’re talking about weeding out and genetic issues, diseases, and known problems, yes. We do that today.

                Through gene therapy, yes. Eugenics implies selective breeding.

    • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
      45·
      20 hours ago

      I do find it a bit distasteful sometimes but I’d disagree with you here. It’s a support group and the only way to wake up society to absurd flaws of religion is through community conciousness.

      • roofuskit@lemmy.worldEnglish
        121·
        12 hours ago

        In my experience most of these online groups are just memes and stories about being superior to religious people. I had to bail on them because it was gross.

        • the_crotch@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          5·
          10 hours ago

          The atheism subreddit in particular is more toxic than any religious people I’ve encountered on the internet. I identify as discordian now specifically to distance myself from that kind of atheist.

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
          62·
          12 hours ago

          You’re saying that from a privilege of living where atheism is acceptable. For many its not and its a powerful tool for resisting religion.

      • FundMECFS@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        3·
        12 hours ago

        True. I never got the point of it.

        But I’m atheist/agnostic in a place where nearly everyone else is. I guess it feels a bit different when you live somewhere where literally everyone else is religious.

        • Dr. Moose@lemmy.worldEnglish
          51·
          11 hours ago

          Exactly. It’s clearly net positive for our society even if it can be cringe just by the sheer scale of religious oppression in the world.

          If atheism forum ate a baby every day it would still be a net positive because people on Lemmy forgot that religious freedom and freedom to be an atheist is not viable in big chunk of the world.

          Thats why so many atheist converts become such zealots. Imagine growing up in what essentially is spiritual North Korea and discovering freedom for the first time. That’s where many of these cringe atheist memes come from.