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is religious belief like your girlfriend’s orgasm June 13, 2007

Posted by ocmpoma in : supernaturalism , trackback

Over in the forums, whoneedsscience started a thread about atheists’ opinions of religious belief. Loyal ocmpoma reader ubs commented that believers are faking it:

“I just don’t believe that they believe. If they do, why aren’t they all killing each other to get there? Why aren’t they rubbing up against lepers or something?”

I have to disagree. Hopefully I don’t lose one of my few readers! It’s not that I don’t think ubs’s question is sound — most religious believers certainly don’t follow through on their supposed beliefs (hence the prevalence of the no true Scotsman argument in a lot of atheist–theist tag team events). Why aren’t they, then, hastening their own journey to the pearly gates?

I don’t think it’s fakery, or even really cowardice (and I don’t think it’s ’cause being a True Believer is so damned hard). Rather, I think it’s for the same reason that many of us don’t follow through, not only on our beliefs, but on what we actually know — a little human nature and a whole lot of comfort.

Take, for example, politics. How many people do you know claim to like career politicians, lawyer-speech, inaction in the political chambers, and corrupt officials? Why, then, do the same schmoes keep getting re-elected?

Or global climate change. I haven’t seen too many speakers about the impending disaster of climate change get as worked up as this guy. You would think that those who know what’s going to happen would ditch their cars, if only to no longer be part of the problem.

On a lighter note, take sports. Ever hear a fan gripe about how athletes are underpaid or about how those cheap ballpark tickets allow all the riffraff in? And yet…

No, it’s not that people don’t take these things, or their religious beliefs, seriously. It’s that people tend to be rather lazy and enjoy their creature comforts, and they aren’t willing to sacrifice what they have now for what they’ll get (or avoid getting) in the future, no matter how certain they are about it.

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