I followed one of 420’s links, the one about atheism not being rational. It had a scholarly-ish look to it, but it was jumping to conclusions. I could see how 420 was taking phrases from it and claiming that he had done some research. Following the links, I kept coming to sites that looked religion based, but were talking about scientific studies. The abstracts of the studies weren’t quite in line with the conclusions from the summary links, but I’m not ready to fully evaluate the studies.
So, thank you “Big Think”. Here’s the bottom line from their article, and my bet is, the studies lead to this conclusion:
Langston discovered that religious importance predicted a delay in the age which people became atheists, while choice and conflict hastened the process. And, as he initially predicted, CREDs did indeed lead to an earlier onset of atheism. When children hear their parents talk but they don’t walk, it’s the children who end up walking away.
CREDs are big displays of religious belief, like fire walking, people watch them and think there must be something to this because people have invested so much into it. An atheist version of CRED might be a convention, I’m not sure, I haven’t found anywhere that describes that.
But atheism or theism, if those displays are not followed up with a life that is in line with whatever philosophy is claimed by the display, children won’t buy it in the long run.
I followed his links as well, and I searched for him online on sites he didn’t provide here. Plus, I have read all the stuff he wrote here! LOL ALL this makes it plain to see that in his brain, his priorities are:
Weed
Weed
Weed
Weed
Jesus
God
Weed
Weed
But he is right and going to heaven! Christianity is so fucked up.
He doesn’t comprehend these topics enough to research them properly and present his arguments rationally. Hilariously, in my case, he has used sources that agree with me, thinking they agree with him.
The only reason I wasted time here is that his points are so stereotypical, it helped me hone some of my own.
Edited to add: @420SOS is the epitome of “Cheap Grace.” This is a pretty recent phenomenon in Protestant Christianity … the idea that you can ask Jesus to be your savior, and boom, it’s done, presto-chango. No life changes, no religious devotion necessary. Pure CRED.
Ironically IT EXISTS BECAUSE OF MARTIN LUTHER. It is the logical extension to the theology that originated with him … that people are saved by faith alone, and not works.
Without Luther, SOS would not even be thinking his thoughts!
I have not before encountered someone who would fit so well into a group called “Potheads for Jesus”. I wonder whether, with marijuana, more and more, becoming legal in other countries and in more US states, whether there will be more and more people who could self-identify as such.
Back in college, when I would have been consuming at nearly the same rate as 420SOS, I wondered around the 9 story library on campus. I’m sure I’m not the only one who did that, but I felt like I was pretty smart for doing it. I don’t remember how I found it, but I picked up a small book on practices of an itinerant guru/shaman or something. Again, long time ago, lots of drugs.
The story I read was one of master taking a student on his rounds. They were going to visit a sick woman. Along the way the master picked up a stone in a stream. He gave it to the woman and told her to rub it on some schedule and that would draw healing energy to her. After they left, he explained to the student that he couldn’t do anything for that woman, the stone had no magic, it would just keep her focused on something other than her pain, and really the prescription of soup and liquids is what would help her.
This talk of cheap grace, and these CREDs that impress people but may or may not be believed by those who do them, reminded me of that.
People are into that psychobabble BS these days. You know, the things people say which sound smart on the surface but ultimately have no meaning when you think about them? I once say a PSA where the lady said, “We often say to our children, ‘You always’ or ‘You never’. Nobody ever always or nevers.” My very FIRST thought to that idiotic saying was, “You mean they…NEVER do?” That sounds exactly what you guys are talking about here. Some guy saying things that he thinks are smart, that sound almost intellectual if you’re stoned or too lazy to ponder them for a second, but which are really the dumbest things a human being has ever said.