Jordan LeDoux rebuts something

Everyday I walk into a room full of my friends and co-workers with the knowledge that as an Athiest I am alone. Everyday I am confronted with their irrational religious beliefs. I don't care what they believe - I never have. I believe in nothing.

I will talk about religion with anyone. Normally, we don't discuss science because many people would not know science if it were a big shaggy dog that had just bit them on the ass. Religion offers many opportunities for discussion that science does not. So yes, I will chat about the vengeful nature of a loving god, or the fact that Jesus became divine a century or so after his death. Because in my book, religion, all religions mind you, is made up.

Jordan LeDoux responded to a small post I made concerning a post he recently wrote. In his response, he tries to play fair. But right away states atheism is a religion, and that atheist are simply unreasonable folk. We writes well, yet annoys the fuck out of me.

This behavior is not unique to Christians, or actually, even to theists. As you probably noted near the beginning of the post, I dignified atheism as a religion. Indeed, atheism follows many of the same psychological principals that plague many religions: there are those who believe it because it is what they have proven to themselves to be true, and there are those who deny everything. Just like Christians, there are militant atheists, evangelical atheists, smart-ass atheists and what I like to call "magician" atheists. These are the atheists who inflict their beliefs on other using a lie they know to be false, but a lie so carefully constructed and so subtle, that only a truly vigilant intellectual would notice. Their closest Christian counter part would be the sensationalist healing preachers. These "pastors" use clever tricks and the power of suggestion to provide short term results for their claims. Just enough to convince other people.

Source: Jordan LeDoux: There Is Only One Policy: Deny Everything

So here is the deal Jordan. I can't describe the physical world without science, so science science science is all I have. The metaphysical is a figment of your imagination. I can talk freely about what you believe, because you and your ilk talk and write about it ad nauseum. If your holy book is full of death, deceit, destruction and lies, then rewrite it and I'll stop talking about it. If your history is full of murder, politics, discrimination, wars, repression and hypocrisy, then perhaps you should listened to your history. Something is wrong on the good ship Christianity. Any time your kind gains power, my kind heads for the lifeboats.

It's not that I'm complaining. You see, its a numbers game. There are so damn many of you religious types and so few of us athiest types, that the teams are unbalanced. Billions to millions does not even come close to qualifying the advantage your team has. I've been an atheist for over 25 years. To this day I have only met 4 other people who will say they are atheists publicly. Four people! It used to be five, but one became a theists.

Yet, you continue with the angry Athiest crap. What did you call it? Magician Atheists? Those of use who rely on science to explain our world are pigeon holed as magicians? I can't prove that your god does not exist, but I can tell you the earth is older than 7000 years, or explain germ theory, or even apply scientific methods to study metaphysical assertions made by religious people. Does the water at Lourdes cure the sick? Science says no, but it does a possible job flushing toilets.

You talk about xenophobia. It strikes a cord. Only you need to look in a mirror. Atheist are not xenophobic, they are the antithesis of xenophobia. They seek knowledge while turning their backs on superstition and dogma. I cannot be convinced of the truth of your religion because I have no faith, no believe in the spiritual world, and no inclination to take the flights of fantasy necessary to believe in your god. It's not xenophobia - it is like trying to describe what I know to be a photograph as a painting, not matter how well you describe the painting you see. I see a photograph.

And one other thing...

Just like their Christian counter parts, magician atheists work by misrepresenting science, (hear me out on this one, please all you reasonable atheists), and making a house of cards out of science as inconclusive as spiritual healing. Healing through the power of prayer, or by divine intervention is spotty at best. There are no predictable ways for it to occur, nor no way to effectively measure it, making it difficult to apply to the scientific method. This puts it outside of acceptable science. Something which is inconclusive because you cannot eliminate unknowns is not science.

Spiritual healing, by prayer or divine intervention, is not science. The only thing science can do is validate the efficacy of the spiritual healing process. Science can study prayer to determine if it has a beneficial outcome for the sick. (btw - it has been done - no impact found) As an intellectual exercise, it might be fun to once again prove that prayer has no noticeable affect on healing, but what a colossal waste of time. As an Athiest, I would laugh at the notion - we should spend whatever energy we have on trying to heal the sick through the application of modern medicine. Praying for the sick or studying the affects of prayer, is a fools quest.

Just look at Pray for Katie. The poor girl was prayed over by millions of the faithful while her cancer treatment was halted by religious fanatics. Now she has cancer again. Is this science? nope - just religious stupidity.

Technorati tags: Rants, Religion, atheism