As a humanist, I am scared... nay, petrified about the current state of affairs in this country regarding religion. After having been on Yahoo! Answers this long, I am truly saddened by the amount of willful ignorance, irrational thought, and absurd beliefs I have seen represented in this section. Is critical thought on the decline or on the rise? Are there other atheists/freethinkers/humanists that share my concern?
2006-11-18 06:31:02 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Wow, so many great answers already... I can't decide the best one!! I'm going to leave this up and let the voters decide.
Thanks, everyone!! You've given me some hope for the rest of the day.
2006-11-18 06:47:43 · update #1
Well, I'm not American (Canadian) but my husband is. We're working on bringing me down there by Visa.
But, I completely agree with you. And so does my husband. Interesting thing is, his father's a Methodist Minister. But then, even his father admits that the bible is just a book.
I find it extremely disturbing what seems to be happening in the United States. The Christians seem to be winning and soon peoples rights that they already have are going to start to be taken away. And all in the name of the Christian religion.
Land of the free, my big fat butt. Christianity is doing everything it can to remove that.
It's very very frightening.
I'm even to the point where, if he and I have kids, I'd rather home school them than have them go to any established school in the US. I can't imagine the abuse they'd suffer from the supposedly "loving" Christians.
2006-11-18 06:41:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Ah, you see, YA! has something that the material world doesn't. The Digital Mask, as I call it.
Consider this. Would you walk into a crowded room and blurt out the question you just posted? I wouldn't. Mainly because of the response I would get.
You go to Iraq and call Islam an ' Absurd belief ', you might get shot. The same would hold true in the in the Bible belt about Christianity.
But on YA!, you can say pretty much what you want because there is no fear here. Barring some basic text filtering, it truly is freedom of speech. nobody knows you because you are behind their "Digital Mask "
This works both ways. Some people use it to sooth there ego's by insulting others. Since there is really no consequence, then can do it as much as they please. Should they get reported and banned, start new account and try again.
Okay, I'm blathering, but you get my point....
2006-11-18 06:41:49 · answer #2 · answered by Odindmar 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I dislike what I see, but I am not alarmed by it. Christian domination in this country is wavering. They are so fractured by competing dogma (33000 sects and counting world-wide) that I think the belief system as a whole (and major dogmatic religions in general) will decline steadily and eventually become less dominant in world society. Just gonna be a lot of pain along the way as society evolves.
My personal opinion is that the figures quoted for non-believers, agnostics and atheists are grossly underestimated, as there are many such in relationships, jobs, political positions and so forth where common knowledge of their beliefs would pose a threat in the current climate. You can drive anywhere here with a fish symbol or some other Christian icon on your car, but can get your car (or yourself) vandalized in some communities with an atheist, pagan or similar symbol.
2006-11-18 06:40:21 · answer #3 · answered by Skeff 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
This is an excellent question, but rest assured that what you read here on YA is NOT an accurate representation of the religious strata in this country. Rather, I believe that we see more of the extreme ends of the spectrum here, i.e. the religious zealots and fanatics, and the angry atheists. In reality, I think those two groups combined only account for maybe 15-20% of the population in the country. But here they probably represent three times that. Too, Alot of people here use this forum as a place to vent, rather than to seek knowledge like you do. So do not get too discouraged and despair of the human race just yet! LOL
2006-11-18 06:39:50 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
I share your concern. I've recently decided to come out swinging against religion, mainly because I know have a son and I want to teach him not to believe in imaginary gods.
2006-11-18 06:41:56 · answer #5 · answered by thirddownman 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think this is an accurate representation of the extremes on both sides only. I think there is a huge slab in the middle that "just doesn't think" about religious beliefs.
2006-11-18 06:34:15 · answer #6 · answered by Black Parade Billie 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
If you mean here on Yahoo answers then I'd say no. What you see here on this site is just a small percent of people in the U.S.
2006-11-18 06:40:00 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I don't think that it is an accurate representation. There are many Christians that don't know how to use computers and they are probably the most radical ones.
2006-11-18 06:37:17 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
logic seems to be gone in the wind, we have replaced philosophy with science, when In fact we should have both, as they were ment to work together.
2006-11-18 06:37:34 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
yes
2006-11-18 06:33:55 · answer #10 · answered by jen 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋