<p>Jumping to conclusions is dangerous, and in the face of lack of evidence that proves with a high degree of confidence (p < alpha), it is much better not to reject the null hypothesis.</p>
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That is largely because atheists come from much more privileged backgrounds.
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<p>Say what? It is Christians who tend from more privileged backgrounds. (And unlike you, I used the word "tend".)</p>
<p>Oh, did I mention I was a low-income student? I usually don't. But since you're being all demographic on me I thought I'd chime in as a counterexample to your generalisation.</p>
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Most of the great institutions of higher education had their genesis as religious institutions.
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<p>Thankfully, I do not have to worry about that at the University of Virginia, since Jefferson based his school around the Rotunda and not a chapel.</p>
<p>Galoisien, I don't think you are aware of how much you reveal about yourself in your posts. It seems as if you have a desperate need to differentiate yourself from your mother and all that she holds dear. Understandable, but your need to rub your mother's nose in your new-found atheism is sadly pathetic. Our old pal Bill said it well, "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child." It seems that your mother did the best that she could under very difficult circumstances. You owe her some respect.</p>
<p>A few months in Charlottesville have revealed a new and exciting world to you. Universities are supposed to do that! If your new world construct is one without a god, so be it. I suggest that you try it on for size for a while. There is no need to phone home and announce to your mom that she is clueless and that you now have the answer for all of life's questions. Doing this will not make you more of an adult, it will make you a class A git!<br>
Be wary of girlfriends who insist that you take an action that will hurt, yes hurt your mother. If you feel that you must proclaim your atheism from the rooftops, then you must man up and refuse the scholarship from your mother's religious organization. To accept it under these circumstances would the ultimate hypocrisy.</p>
<p>My strongest suggestion is to come to peace with who you are and accept where you come from. You will not find happiness until you do that.</p>
<p>I'll just go out and correct- atheism can be either a lack of a belief OR a belief. Sounds to me more that he believes, actively, that there is no god. Hence belief. Constructed otherwise, then religiosity isn't a belief, its a lack of a belief (in atheism). See how that doesn't work?</p>
<p>Philosophy, hooooo!</p>
<p>Note: Atheism as a "lack of belief" is agnosticism. Agnostics, for the most part, acknowledge that there could be a god, but reserve judgment.</p>
<p>I don't know how my sons stand on religion but I do know that they are not practicing Catholics. However, while they are on our dime and visiting us, they have to go to church with us and participate in family events even with a religious overtone. Once they move out of our wallets and bank accounts and house, they will be guests here and can decline to join us at mass. My H's rules, and he's paying the bills.</p>
<p>btw islamic fundamentalism is different to fundamental Christianity or Judaism. They are all completey different religions in the first place. So to say they're similar in that aspect is just ignorant.</p>
<p>don't argue w. me on this. I probably won't check this thread for a while, I'm not a regular poster on here xD</p>
<p>I don't care whether it's Islam, or Christianity or I-have-to-get-high-on-peyote-to-achieve-religious-visions-ism. All religions are all fundamentally unsound as they jump to conclusions, reject the null hypothesis without proven significance, have no rigour to their claims, and any religion leads to false comfort with oneself and gives people false promises and purposes -- bliss in ignorance. </p>
<p>And this false bliss can be very dangerous. Why, people don't have to worry about how that Indian Ocean earthquake was caused by seismic plate tectonics. Why, religion fills in that gap for them. The remedy? The cause of the disaster was clearly immorality. And otherwise benign polytheistic religions are suddenly used as a basis to reaosn that to prevent such a similar disaster again, one has to clamp down on immoral couples, premarital sex, "decadent" infiltration Westernism, mixing with strangers, interracialism, not sacrificing enough goats, and encouraging other wasteful acts as "remedies" or "atonements". </p>
<p>Basically, what people do not understand, they tend to fill in the blanks with religion to comfort themselves. And this I did MYSELF for the last 6 years. And why should this be tolerated? It only promotes a lack of investigation and a lack of curiosity. A lack of intellectual rigour. Religion hinders education and progress because people think that their cancer ailment can be cured with burning joss sticks to some deity, constant supplication and a mass slaughter of livestock, and not you know, investing in tumor-suppressing drugs, apoptosis-enhancing medication, lysyl-oxidase inhibition, or particularly precise ultrasound tumor-destruction. The reason for crop failure is because those women have had so much freedom that they have become immoral. This country has suffered violent terrorist attacks because God is angry with the onslaught of Hollywood movies and Electronic Arts video games. </p>
<p>mamazilla: I want to keep my atheism hidden from my family, but my gf thinks that's just being deceitful. (I'm also afraid that she'll think that if I can keep such an important change hidden from my family, that she'll think I'll hide things from her.) I also do not have a religious scholarship. My scholarship money is purely secular. And my Thomas Jefferson explicitly created my school with a solid secular foundation. My mother simply has a religious friend.</p>
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Religion has a viral nature? Do you have a brain?
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<p>I don't know how else to explain to you. Do you get the concept of the selfish gene? If not, you should read up the concept on Wikipedia. </p>
<p>The same mechanism for why worker bees are selected for the traits that enhance the reproduction of the queen (and not themselves) is the same mechanism that gives religion its viral nature. </p>
<p>Hint: think about natural selection pressures and extend it to cultural ideas, e.g. replicating memes instead of replicating genes ... Parents spread certain memes, e.g. eat your broccoli, language (a particularly viral meme, and a particularly useful one), and so forth. Memes don't have to help their host brains, only encourage the propagation of themselves. Now of course if a meme hurts host brains too much, they hurt their own propagation because the brains die before the memes can be spread. And if there are too many negative memes around, an ecological-cultural niche for "good" memes is created because a "good" meme that equips brains to fight against negative memes will flourish against its competitors. </p>
<p>Now think what religion does to a person's willingness to accept alternative hypotheses versus simply exerting a selection pressure that favours the spread of religion (either strengthening religious belief in the person or to others). Viral products are not necessarily tantamount to bad ones -- all it says is that the product propagates rather effectively. Like prions, or Rickrolling, or bt-immunity (carried by agrobacterium tumefaciens). It's the payload that matters. What is religion's payload? More harm than good. </p>
<p>You should also think about the Nash equilibria and evolutionarily stable strategies for a population that religion helps establish. The green-beard effect comes in here. In the same way that scientists hope to select against the current wild type trait in malaria-carrying mosquitoes (not resisting the malaria incubation), as religious traits are selected for in a population, areligiousity/atheism starts to be selected against (and here is where the violation of liberties start to come in). Positive feedback occurs. Think of why this is so.</p>
<p>Galoisien, not everyone believes that those things were due to religion or something like that. They understand that science is necessary and etc.</p>
<p>However, I don't think that religion should be outwardly disintegrated...
There are some benefits of religion and provides hope and belief for some people.</p>
<p>As long as we can keep a balance between the two then I think it's fine and some people can achieve that.</p>
<p>As a parent, I think you are entitled to your beliefs. I also think you can take your parents' college money and I don't think you have to tell them what you don't believe. Giving children a certain amount of money for college is normal and you shouldn't have to feel guilty about it. You need to have a good future, so get your education. As far as being a hypocrite by not telling them, well, that's too bad for them. If they will only accept you if you play along with them, then go ahead and do that, if that's what you want.</p>