I realize that this is my fourth or fifth thread propagating my militant atheism. But please bear with me. As I explained in another thread, Satan gives prizes for the most zealous efforts.
I already have two bronzed Renaissance popes (Satan delivered them last night). Now, for this thread, I will get a picture encyclopaedia of all the good servants of God from the Borgia Popes to Jimmy Swaggart having sex with hookers, other men, etc. (There is a volume about priests in the Boston Archdiocese, but I asked that it be left out of my collection because I refuse to have any child porn.)
Anyhow, here is my proposition:
People of religion tell us that their beliefs are logical and reasonable, and not based on simple brainwashing in their childhood or societal pressure.
“Logical and reasonable” would imply that their religious beliefs are based on the human brain examining reality and evidence and drawing reasonable conclusions that lead to these beliefs.
That being the case, how do you explain the religious belief varies enormously on a geographic basis? Look at a map of religions in the world.
Why is it so evident to the vast majority of people born in Muslim countries that there is no God but a unitary God, that Mohammed is his final prophet, that Jesus was not the Son of God but a prophet who came before Mohammed, and that the Koran is the inspired word of God?
Why is it that the majority of people in Christian countries are equally convinced by logic and the observation of reality (using the same human brains as Muslims use) that there is a trinitarian God, that Jesus was his only-begotten son, and that Mohammed was a false prophet, etc.?
Now apply my same question *mutatis mutandis * to Shintoism, Hinduism, etc.
Why is it that over 90% of the people whose rational minds and logic dictate the “correctness” of Hinduism are located in the Indian sub-continent? Is there something in the water that makes them reason differently than Christians and Muslims?
Now I realize that there are Muslims, Hindus etc. in North America (mainly because of immigration) and Christians in India and Muslim countries. I also realize that there is such a thing as conversion. But these are the exceptions. The vast majority of Muslims in the west are immigrants from Muslim countries or the children of such immigrants, and were indoctrinated into the religion at an early age.
So how do you explain the phenomenon that the vast, vast majority of believers in one religion or another were born into that religion and into a country where that religion is predominant, and were taught that that religion is right when they were children?
If religious belief were based on logic and reason rather than childhood indoctrination and societal pressure, would the various and contradictory views of various religions not be more equally interspersed among humans everywhere on Earth?
In science, there are different theories and hypotheses about many things, to be sure. A theory can be slightly more popular among scietists in one country than another. At one point, there may have been more scientists in America who believed in plate tectonics and the movement of continents than in Europe, or vice-versa. But now pretty much every scientist today accepts plate tectonics. And even when the idea was controversial, you did not have the kind of geographic breakdown that you have with religion.
So if religion is based on rational conclusions, why does reason operate differently on different continents and in different countries? My conclusion is that for the vast majority of people, religion is a matter of childhood indoctrination and societal pressure.
Your opinions?
