How many creationists are just intellectually lazy?

Question

I know a number of people who are about as willing to understand evolution as they are willing to understand how a hybrid car works or the campaign platform of a presidential candidate. It seems that by falling in line like this and following the crowd rather than doing what it takes to understand something as complex as evolution they are just intellectually lazy.

The same goes with many of my religious friends. I'm not talking about those who are active and go to some sort of weekly service here. I'm talking about those who answer the "Do you believe in god?" question with a shrug and a "Yeah, sure."

So, without addressing the *active* theists and active atheists, are theism and scientific ignorance the default position of those who are lazy, unintelligent, uneducated, disinterested, or who don't or won't think about things that require critical thinking?

If that's the case then only atheists have bothered to go outside the norm and taken steps to alter inertia, right?

This is not a pointed question. I am atheist, but my intention of this question was not to insult the positive (i.e. active) theists.

Those positive theists who believe in creationism have made a positive decision to believe. My question is meant to address those who have made no positive election to believe. I guess you could call them the passive theists or the passive creationists.

I contend that active theists do not counter intertia because, even though they are positive in their belief, they are still in line with the default position.

Answer 1

The default position in the US is a casual theism, just like the default position in the UK seems to be a casual agnosticism. And I don't know if it's intellectual laziness so much as intellectual incuriosity.

Answer 2

Probably about the same percentage of atheists who are intellectually lazy. There are probably plenty (note that this only covers some, not all) of atheists who don't know how much of a challenge that the Cambrian explosion poises to the Theory of Evolution, that Haeckel faked the similarities in his drawings of embryos, and that the evidence is against the Earth's early atmosphere being similar to what Stanley Miller used in his experiment (and if one uses the best guess of what the atmosphere was like, it ends up producing formaldehyde and cyanide). There was even someone recently asking whether humans embryos going through a stage where they have gill slits was evidence for evolution, when the problem is, they don't. It's ironic how Christians are ridiculed for believing (yes, sometimes blindly) what a preacher tells them, but atheists that uncritically believe whatever their science teacher tells them are somehow "freethinkers".
And wouldn't your final question about whether it's "only atheists [who] have bothered to go outside the norm and taken steps to alter inertia" be refuted by your acknowledgement that there are some "active theists"?

Answer 3

I'm not a Christian either, but I have met atheists who are intellectually lazy as well. There whole foundation for their belief is like, "Daddy did not get me that pony I wanted, so now I hate him." Of course, I know not every atheist are like this, but don't put yourself on the pedestal when it comes to intelligence. Besides, I know a lot Christians who do believe in the evolution theory; they just simply believe that this how God created the world. Not all of them take the Bible literally.

Answer 4

Wrong. I am not a creationist, but I am a Christian. Normally I too point out the problems that creationist "create" for themselves...but I will not stand by and let them be called lazy and unintelligent as that is no more than a personal bias and assumption on the part of some non-believers.

Belief and faith are very fluid, they continue to grow, wax and wane, throughout life. They are not ignorant of evolution, they simply choose not to believe it is how life began...that is their right.

The Ol' Hippie Jesus Freak
Grace and Peace
Peg

Answer 5

i think that they are terrific suited on that. Mutations at the instant are not new genes. that's merely a concern the place genetic information is lost. If products are lacking, that doesn't make something new. it quite is like asserting that once your shoelace is lacking, which you have a clean shoe. No, it quite is the comparable shoe, there is merely a bite lacking. that doesn't make it a clean form of shoe. It merely makes it an incomplete one.

Answer 6

I think that the vast majority of them are, but their problem is at least as much a matter of having committed already to creationism and being afraid to challenge their core beliefs no matter how clearly false those beliefs are.

Answer 7

None that I am aware of."Willing to understand evolution" has nothing to do with acceptance of a false theory...which it most certainly is.I understand it well,and it is isn't true.

Answer 8

Less than you might think. Some are just intellectually incapable of more.

Answer 9

At this point, ignoring that much evidence is no longer easy, they are working hard for their belief.

Answer 10

They'd rather use their brains on how to create more crocoducks.