Good news from America!

[Ace]

CNN is reporting that a new study shows that people who have "faith" are down 10% from a few years ago. (77% v. 87%) They also mentioned that self-described atheists are up. (I'll catch the proper percentage next time around.)

Good news indeed, since when I finally go to visit America, I'd like to go there without having to put up with delusion.

Keep up the good work on free-thought, soon you'll have as much atheists over there as we do here.
If I walk down the town centre I'd find that most people I see and walk-past happen to be atheist or at least agnostic. Skeptic either way.

[Trolldor]

No, it doesn't.
Belief becomes whatever the individual needs or wants it to be, meaning technology can fit nicely in to something it's never encountered before if the individual so desires.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

No, it doesn't.
Belief becomes whatever the individual needs or wants it to be, meaning technology can fit nicely in to something it's never encountered before if the individual so desires.

Belief survives only as long as doubt is not overwhelming. Technology introduces the doubt and the seeds of rationality are planted.

[Trolldor]

No, technology is not synonymous with rationality.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

No, technology is not synonymous with rationality.

Never said it was. I was pointing out the insidious erosion of woo by exposure to technology.

[Trolldor]

Technology introduces the doubt and the seeds of rationality are planted.

You've correlated technology to rationality, there is no such link between the two.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Technology introduces the doubt and the seeds of rationality are planted.

You've correlated technology to rationality, there is no such link between the two.

"Small moves, Ellie, small moves." The first step is to wean them from woo. Technology trumps woo. Then, and only then, can we work them toward rationality.

[Trolldor]

How does it?

Besides, woo is woo, and if someone wants it bad enough they'll make their woo what they want it to be.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

How does it?

Simple, God didn't make the computer, or any of the other science, people did. Humans have done more in the last 200 years than God did in the last 6,000.

Besides, woo is woo, and if someone wants it bad enough they'll make their woo what they want it to be.

"if someone wants it bad enough", true. But woo suffers from exposure to technology.

[Trolldor]

How does it?

Simple, God didn't make the computer, or any of the other science, people did. Humans have done more in the last 200 years than God did in the last 6,000.

So? Someone who believes everything is god's plan will just see this as more of God's plan.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

How does it?

Simple, God didn't make the computer, or any of the other science, people did. Humans have done more in the last 200 years than God did in the last 6,000.

So? Someone who believes everything is god's plan will just see this as more of God's plan.

This "someone" is rather nebulous. And I think the "someones" will be an ever shrinking percentage. For example, we've already taken pixies, elves, and fairies pretty much out of the loop. Harder to believe in such now than it was when A.C. Doyle was alive.

[Trolldor]

That's not technology which revealed them to be false, though.
Secondly, those three myths were superfluous and not related to someone's personal life, they weren't an escape, they were just the Big foots or Loch ness or Eskimoes of their time. If someone wants their woo, they'll have it irrespective of whatever might surround them.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

That's not technology which revealed them to be false, though.

I beg to differ. What else proved tiny humans with wings just wouldn't work?

Secondly, those three myths were superfluous and not related to someone's personal life, they weren't an escape, they were just the Big foots or Loch ness or Eskimoes of their time. If someone wants their woo, they'll have it irrespective of whatever might surround them.

It's a start, as I said.

[Trolldor]

That's not technology which revealed them to be false, though.

I beg to differ. What else proved tiny humans with wings just wouldn't work?

Physics, not technology.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

That's not technology which revealed them to be false, though.

I beg to differ. What else proved tiny humans with wings just wouldn't work?

Physics, not technology.

You win.