Is the relationship between atheism and ignorance like a sea-saw?

Question

In ancient times, mankind knew hardly anything about the universe. It was literally the age of ignorance but of course, it was completely involuntary. This is when religion had ultimate power over humanity and true atheism was almost unheard of. Fast forward a few thousand years, with a decrease in ignorance we see an increase in atheism. Are atheism and knowledge on one side of the sea-saw, religion and ignorance on the other? Is knowledge to religion what water is to the wicked witch of the west?

Answer 1

I have to disagree. Over the last 10,000 years knowledge of our universe has increased to incredible levels, and yet at every stage the vast majority just incorporated their new knowledge into their religion, or invented new ones. I mean, eventually somebody climbed Mount Olympus and saw there were no gods. Do you think Greek religion fell apart that day? No.

However, at least we atheists don't get executed anymore. I suppose that is some progress.

Answer 2

Not sure if a sea-saw is the correct analogy for it implies, like a pendulum, that there will be an ongoing switching of positions back and forth.

Rather, the more science answers questions that believers have assigned to superstition and God, the closer we'll come to a more rational, secular, free thinking, enlightened society.

Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years.
— John Burroughs (1837-1921)

We would be 1,500 years ahead if it hadn't been for the church dragging science back by its coattails and burning our best minds at the stake.
— Catherine Fahringer

What has been the effect of religious coercion? To make half the world fools, and the other half hypocrites.
— Thomas Jefferson, (1743-1826)

"To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today."
— Isaac Asimov

"Men think epilepsy divine, merely because they do not understand it. But if they called everything divine which they do not understand, why, there would be no end of divine things."
— Hippocrates; (ca. 460-377 B.C.E.), Greek physician, regarded as the father of medicine

Whatever we cannot easily understand we call God; this saves much wear and tear on the brain tissues.
— Edward Abbey

Is it not better to place a question mark upon a problem while seeking an answer than to put the label "God" there and consider the matter closed?
— Joseph Lewis, (1889-1968)

When science and the Bible differ, science has obviously misinterpreted its data.
— Henry Morris, Head of Institute for Creation Research

God is a sound people make when they're too tired to think anymore.
— Edward Abbey

Religion is the impotence of the human mind to deal with occurrences it cannot understand.
— Karl Marx

Throughout the early Christian period, every great calamity - famine, earthquake, and plague - led to mass conversions, another indirect influence by which epidemic diseases contributed to the destruction of classical civilization. Christianity owes a formidable debt to bubonic plague and to smallpox, no less than to earthquake and volcanic eruptions.
— Hans Zinsser, Rats, Lice and History, 1934

Answer 3

no. atheism has always been a viable minority viewpoint, and knowledge doesn't seem to affect religious thought one way or the other, they can just ignore it or expend vast amounts of intellectual resources justifying their supernatural beliefs in spite of it.

just when you think there's nowhere for god to be and nothing for god to do, someone can point out that not everything is explained and maybe god is in that uncharted territory or is responsible for that unexplained phenomenon. i see no reason to think that this situation will ever change. human knowledge cannot currently account in detail for the origin of the mind, life, or the universe. if those mysteries are solved, perhaps there will be new mysteries in their place. i actually kind of hope there will be - it might be a little tedious to have it all figured out.

Answer 4

Ignorance and religion go hand and hand. Yes, knowiedge and athiesm are also hand and hand! Funny that you brought up ancient religion which focused on gods and godesses which held dominence of earthly "forces". Nature ,in other words. Knowledge will bring you time and time again to the same conclusion....nature is "god", the most powerful force.

Answer 5

haha I also have a mine weenie, 4 Pits, 2 cats. outdoors I even have approximately 20 feral cats, 15 raccoons, now a wild hog. something ought to be completed on the subject of the wild hog. I stay on the city with woods for my lower back backyard. we've had a gator previously, too. lol @ Yaznaki difficulty has a catdog? lol @ holy shaggy dog tale

Answer 6

There's a reason why when religion ruled the west it was called the Dark Ages

Answer 7

Repeated studies indicate higher IQ lower Religiosity, Lower IQ higher religiosity.

Answer 8

"In ancient times, mankind knew hardly anything about the universe. It was literally the age of ignorance but of course"

I guess that's why the Incas, Aztecs, Mayans, Egyptians (to name a few) were able to build structures that we can't duplicate today. Not only that, but there understanding of the universe seems to dwarf ours. Not only are their ancient calenders as accurate, but they were able to situate buildings in a manner to view celestial events through portholes (Mayans), and columns (Stonehenge). Don't get me started on the pyramids...

Knowing this, and still typing this question proves only that stupidity and atheism go hand in hand.

Answer 9

maybe...but there is no correlation between intellect and faith OR the lack thereof. There are an abundance of examples of genius on BOTH sides of the issue.

there is, however, a common lack of wisdom, insight, and moral awareness where God is not acknowledged.

Answer 10

in the words of Martin Luther, Where Reason advances, faith flees