Monday, September 22, 2008
When "rationalists" become irrational
Once upon a time, I worked with a feller who was a self-described "super atheist." Mr. Super Atheist dubbed anyone who had religion - yours truly included - a "Jesus Crispy," even Jews. When I tried to explain how ridiculous it was to call a Jew a Jesus Crispy ... well, he didn't want to hear me explain nothin'.
My atheist co-worker and I once found ourselves driving to Chattanooga on b'iness. It was cold and spitting snow, and we got stuck in traffic trying to drive up the west side of Monteagle Mountain. We started talking about anything and everything -- baseball, booze, women, Monica Lewinsky's knees, the Jerky Boys, our dumbass boss. You name it and we talked about it.
All of a sudden, my supposedly "enlightened" atheist friend told me that his grandfather once scuffled with Bigfoot. I thought he was kidding. When I started laughing, he got all serious and launched into a 10-minute tirade about how Bigfoot was real and anyone who didn't "believe" was a fool. I tried to change the subject, but my bud wouldn't entertain no subject-changing. I had to listen to an in-depth anthropological lecture about Bigfoots from the time we passed the Tracy City exit until we got to Chattanooga.
I couldn't help but think about Mr. Bigfoot-Atheist when I read this in the Wall Street Journal:
The Gallup Organization, under contract to Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion, asked American adults a series of questions to gauge credulity. Do dreams foretell the future? Did ancient advanced civilizations such as Atlantis exist? Can places be haunted? Is it possible to communicate with the dead? Will creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster someday be discovered by science?
The answers were added up to create an index of belief in occult and the paranormal. While 31% of people who never worship expressed strong belief in these things, only 8% of people who attend a house of worship more than once a week did.
Even among Christians, there were disparities. While 36% of those belonging to the United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama's former denomination, expressed strong beliefs in the paranormal, only 14% of those belonging to the Assemblies of God, Sarah Palin's former denomination, did. In fact, the more traditional and evangelical the respondent, the less likely he was to believe in, for instance, the possibility of communicating with people who are dead.
More:
[W]hile increased church attendance and membership in a conservative denomination has a powerful negative effect on paranormal beliefs, higher education doesn't. Two years ago two professors published another study in Skeptical Inquirer showing that, while less than one-quarter of college freshmen surveyed expressed a general belief in such superstitions as ghosts, psychic healing, haunted houses, demonic possession, clairvoyance and witches, the figure jumped to 31% of college seniors and 34% of graduate students.
We can't even count on self-described atheists to be strict rationalists. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's monumental "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" that was issued in June, 21% of self-proclaimed atheists believe in either a personal God or an impersonal force. Ten percent of atheists pray at least weekly and 12% believe in heaven.
Read the rest here.
My atheist co-worker and I once found ourselves driving to Chattanooga on b'iness. It was cold and spitting snow, and we got stuck in traffic trying to drive up the west side of Monteagle Mountain. We started talking about anything and everything -- baseball, booze, women, Monica Lewinsky's knees, the Jerky Boys, our dumbass boss. You name it and we talked about it.
All of a sudden, my supposedly "enlightened" atheist friend told me that his grandfather once scuffled with Bigfoot. I thought he was kidding. When I started laughing, he got all serious and launched into a 10-minute tirade about how Bigfoot was real and anyone who didn't "believe" was a fool. I tried to change the subject, but my bud wouldn't entertain no subject-changing. I had to listen to an in-depth anthropological lecture about Bigfoots from the time we passed the Tracy City exit until we got to Chattanooga.
I couldn't help but think about Mr. Bigfoot-Atheist when I read this in the Wall Street Journal:
The Gallup Organization, under contract to Baylor's Institute for Studies of Religion, asked American adults a series of questions to gauge credulity. Do dreams foretell the future? Did ancient advanced civilizations such as Atlantis exist? Can places be haunted? Is it possible to communicate with the dead? Will creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster someday be discovered by science?
The answers were added up to create an index of belief in occult and the paranormal. While 31% of people who never worship expressed strong belief in these things, only 8% of people who attend a house of worship more than once a week did.
Even among Christians, there were disparities. While 36% of those belonging to the United Church of Christ, Sen. Barack Obama's former denomination, expressed strong beliefs in the paranormal, only 14% of those belonging to the Assemblies of God, Sarah Palin's former denomination, did. In fact, the more traditional and evangelical the respondent, the less likely he was to believe in, for instance, the possibility of communicating with people who are dead.
More:
[W]hile increased church attendance and membership in a conservative denomination has a powerful negative effect on paranormal beliefs, higher education doesn't. Two years ago two professors published another study in Skeptical Inquirer showing that, while less than one-quarter of college freshmen surveyed expressed a general belief in such superstitions as ghosts, psychic healing, haunted houses, demonic possession, clairvoyance and witches, the figure jumped to 31% of college seniors and 34% of graduate students.
We can't even count on self-described atheists to be strict rationalists. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's monumental "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" that was issued in June, 21% of self-proclaimed atheists believe in either a personal God or an impersonal force. Ten percent of atheists pray at least weekly and 12% believe in heaven.
Read the rest here.
# posted by Joltin' Django @ Monday, September 22, 2008 
