Is 'unbelief' (in God) intellectually lazy?

Question

I saw this stated today. I don't get that accusation. How can it be 'intellectually' lazy to not believe in a deity?

Isn't it intellectually dishonest AND lazy to claim simply that a "God did it!", rather than look for other reasons and answers?

Which do *you* think is 'intellectually lazy' and why?

So many good answers!

The original statement I drew from and answer on this question (linked below):

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtTGE4QaQVFLwLmM.85BgOLsy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071128042417AAFe49v&show=7#profile-info-YbI6PKw3aa

Answer 1

I know it took me four years of being intelectually BUSY to get rid of the concept of God.

Answer 2

It does take a significant amount of work to reconcile the OT with the NT and with reality. I find the when I read the bible now it is much clearer and easier to follow than when I was a believer.

But realistically speaking, no it is not intellectually lazy not to believe, however there are some to many atheists that are on the lazy side just as there are in any group.

Answer 3

Why do we need a discussion on whether believing or not believing is intellectually lazy or not?

It's just the same as any idea and/or belief.

You can be a genius and believe in G-d (yes, there are believers who are on that level).

You can be stupid and believe in G-d.

You can be a genius and be an atheist.
You can be stupid and be an atheist.

And you can be everything in between genius and stupidity and also there is a continuum of belief - where you are a skeptic, agnostic, etc. - there can be doubts and questions and arguments even if you do believe.

Why not believe that life is complicated and so are ideas and leave it at that instead of trying to judge who is smarter with their smarter ideas?

Answer 4

It would seem more "intellectually lazy" TO believe in a god rather than not.

I mean people will do things like sign over their life's savings to their church, allow their children to suffer and die in the hope that God alone will heal them, and various other very real choices to abide by their faith in a conceivably inconceivable almighty being. These kinds of actions seem to throw intellect and rationality to the winds.

It's as if people so devout shut off the intellectual faculties of their brains, or perhaps they've just atrophied from disuse, making them immune to reason.

Even though I don't believe in a God, I'm tempted to in a way, because its existence would bring closure to a LOT of unanswered questions. I wouldn't need to try to trouble myself with thinking rationally about why the heck something wonderful or dreadful has happened in life. Rather than thinking critically, I could proceed through this Brave New World by choice as a blissfully ignorant drone, casting away the need to think about life as a rich man would toss pennies out the window.

Maybe this HOPE for easy answers to life's mysteries for some translates into reality through the wholehearted belief in God.

EDIT: Harry H, I disagree. To me being agnostic is a choice to not commit to neither total belief nor disbelief in the face of insufficient evidence. If you see George Bush standing in front of you, do you believe it's him based on what other people say they see, or what you see? Can you see all of him, what if you happen to walk behind him and it's actually just a cardboard cutout of him with a stupid grin on his face? In my case, assuming God is Bush (shudder), I refuse to live my life according to a belief in something that could be a cardboard cutout rather than real. Along these lines, I also choose to not completely disbelieve either, partly because it's a spiritual issue, and because it would be too much to assume that I know enough about the universe to say that a God absolutely, positively cannot exist. I haven't even been to Europe yet, let alone explored every corner of the universe, so I will not simply assume I'm right.

Answer 5

It takes far more intellectual effort NOT to believe in god than it does to BELIEVE in him or her. I don't mean "intelligence" -- it's just that it means it takes more work. You can be born into a family of believers and you could step in line, follow the leader and never question or doubt, respect those who came before you and simply continue to believe like they did; there's not much work involved in that. OR, you could step out of line, go against the grain, buck the system you were born into, find a whole new group of friends, read all new books (those previously banned by your old friends and family), set up a whole other life-system for yourself to follow, questioning, doubting, investigating, defending, being watchful...well, all of THAT takes hard work and effort, especially considering the stigma that follows you being associated with atheism, images of communism, soviet union style ruin, satan, hell, sin and death. So, long story short: belief in god might be considered the lazy man's stimulant.

Answer 6

Intellectually lazy is to just go along with what you have been taught, whether you can actually believe it or not. To act as if the forms of ritual substitute for sincere faith. That's why Pascal's Wager is invalid, in my opinion.

Most atheists have examined the question and made a decision. There are not that many who were brought up atheist, or perhaps I should say "freethinker," since I doubt that atheist parents make a point of teaching their children to avoid religion -- though perhaps they should. Generally, they say "That's something for you to decide for yourself when you're grown up."

Answer 7

It would be intellectually lazy to answer this question in a few lines.
I don't think intellect has anything to do with it. I consider myself of high intellect.... I still laugh at fart jokes.( I find them funny )
The only possible reason for said statement was confusion with intellect and intelligence and even then........... I can't see the relevance or connection.

Answer 8

I don't really get it, either. They come up with an impossibly complicated and illogical story involving magical, supernatural beings, fully developed adult men being created from dust, fully developed adult women being created from a rib, talking snakes, a wrathful God drowning every creature on Earth with the exception of one family, (who took two of EVERY species on a boat with them--that would mean millions of creatures on one boat) God impregnating a virgin, who gave birth to a man-God, (this list of claims could go on forever...) and then despite the fact that they can't provide a scrap of evidence showing truth for those claims, they say it's "intellectually lazy" to not believe it?

Answer 9

Funny, the more I thought about it, the less likely the existence of the huge array of gods in human history seemed. But hey, maybe I'm just intellectually lazy.

Answer 10

Seems they're trying to entice people in to believing their way by insult.In my opinion,when people believe anything without thinking for themselves is 'Intellectually Lazy'.Lot of people lead their lives in the mirror of their parents very scared to question or ditch their beliefs for their own and just follow through fear and control.Now that is intellectually lazy. Wherever this comment came from shows their mentality and arrogance,wasn't on a church advertising board was it?

Answer 11

I think, BELIEF in God is intellectually lazy... more than likely, a crazed believer wrote that. I think, to believe that God is the answer to everything and not pondering how in actuality that answers nothing... is in fact, intellectually lazy in of itself.