On the Argument from Admired Religious Scientists!
This is in fact the most hilarious of all attempts by the professor for an argument thus far! All it comes down to is the already self-evident fact that it makes no difference at all how many “intelligent” men believe or don‟t believe in a certain faith; this doesn‟t make it the truth! You can count as many revered and honored hiorical figures in the west or anywhere in the world, who were atheists, this certainly does not make atheism the truth! You can bring forth all the statistics in the world that may prove that the majority of high IQs in the world were atheists, it still proves nothing!
This is the very same argument that every blind follower clings to whenever something within him starts pushing him towards doubt and disbelief! A voice speaks within him saying: “Calm down, sleep tight and leave those thoughts behind! There‟s no way that all those great men who accepted this religion were mistaken; they must have an answer!”!
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Atheists, like all holders of false beliefs do play that very same trick! And that‟s exactly what the professor is doing in this part! No longer is he searching for evidence as he should be! He is now telling Christians that if they think the greatest number of smart people in the world were Christians; they‟re mistaken, they were actually atheists! Well great! So what? Where‟s the truth? What are you proving?
Nothing!
Just look at this statement:
―What is remarkable is the polar opposition between the religiosity of the American public at large and the atheism of the intellectual elite‖ .. (Dawkins, p. 100)
Remarkable for whom? And what does it prove?
I couldn‟t care less what faith all the elites of the world would choose! I couldn‟t care less what those scientists who claimed to be Christians really believed! I couldn‟t care less what Darwin did or did not say on his deathbed! I couldn‟t care less what Dawkins will do when death eventually comes to take him! (Although of course I do hope for his sake that he reconsiders his choices before it‟s too late)!
The point is; any sane respectable man should not hang his faith on the choices of other men like himself! This blind appeal to intellectual authorities is only a big issue for those who seriously lack evidence for their faith, and suffer from deep holes of doubt within their souls! Only those who chose to believe for the wrong reasons and on false evidence, would be devastated when they see those reasons crumble before their eyes! They placed uncertain claims, with no evidence at all, in a place in their hearts where a man can take no less than certainty! Certainty is a necessity in the way man understands the answers he seeks to those questions! I have no problem to die skeptic about – for example – the claims of astronomers concerning the actual size of the visible universe, or the real function of an appendix in the human body! But I have every reason to worry and fear if I do not know with certainty what the universe is all about, and what I came
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here in this world to do! This is why many stars and prosperous people in the west are seen to make the choice of committing suicide, after a long psychological struggle; right there at the very peak of their earthly success! Why? Because they know it‟s short-lived! All their lives they kept muting those deep worries and doubts on the hope that perhaps when the day comes and they get everything they ever dreamed to get in this life, they will find no need to worry about them at all! But when that day eventually comes, and they have all the fame, fortune, money and power they ever dreamt of, the question becomes a load of morbidity in their empty souls! What‟s next? Now that I‟ve had it all, what am I supposed to do? What am I to expect? I know I can‟t keep it for myself any longer than anyone who ever had it before me! I‟ll start growing old like everybody else does, I‟ll start losing what I‟ve put my blood, my heart and my entire lifetime in gathering, gradually, maybe even suddenly, and painfully indeed, to go where exactly, and for what reason? And to what fate? I have done it all now, so what?
Nothing! Just devastation, emptiness, and doubt!
Uncertainty in those matters is indeed a disease that has to be cured before it‟s too late!
It must be understood that the truth in questions addressed by religion is not to be known by assumption or hypothesis; it is to be received directly from its only rightful source! While assumption and hypothesis may be a plausible path to attempt research for answers to many questions about nature; it is not the way to acquire answers to questions about what is – by necessity of reason – beyond all nature! So intelligence and brilliance is really of no significance in regards to those questions that constitute the basis for a man‟s faith in purpose, death, afterlife, and the divine! One is either holding on to the evidently revealed truth, or all that he has is myth or unverifiable theory made up by himself or by another man like himself! Ergo; the least intelligent, prosperous or famous man on earth may indeed happen to know the true answers to those questions that may have led some of the most brilliant and socially “elite” men ever born to kill themselves of desperation! It doesn‟t take an „Einstein‟ to know the truth, professor, it only takes a man who is true to himself and is willing to let go of the bias and just listen!
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The professor mischievously makes the note that he should take care to keep a tape recorder installed so that when it‟s time for him to die, he would leave proof that he didn‟t convert before his death!
This is quite disappointing because he claims that as a “scientist” he is prepared to accept any evidence even if it proves him to be wrong! I wonder, if he were indeed honest about that, how could he be so sure that when the moment comes, he will have no reason whatsoever to even consider changing his mind? How can he be sure that it is on this particular belief that he will die, no matter how long he still has to live, and no matter what he may still come to learn in the rest of his life?
I‟m amazed at how lightly he treats the issue of death as though when it is time for him to leave, he‟s sure he will have had everything prepared, and will just lie there in his bed peacefully, and close his eyes with a broad smile on his face, waiting for his life to end! Is it not possible that this moment comes today, or tomorrow, when you least expect it; in bed or on board of a sinking ship or in a tremendous car crash?! Well, regardless of how it will come to find you professor, rest assured that you will see the absolute truth for yourself, with your own two eyes, there at the point of no return!
He probably wonders why many people do take the question of a deathbed confession or conversion seriously! Well, the reason is quite obvious! No matter what choices a man has come to make in his life, it is at that point in particular when he knows he‟s waiting for his final moment on this Earth, that he faces a moment of truth and asks himself more seriously and honestly than ever before: “Am I on the truth? Have I really made the right choice? Am I absolutely positive that this faith I lived by in what comes to follow after death; is indeed the truth? What am I to expect, now that I‟m leaving this world?” It is right then that every man who has been lying to himself and to others about the divine and about what‟s there for a man to expect after death, realizes that this is his very last chance on earth! It is then that he realizes that he should have listened and acquired certain verifiable knowledge about what is coming up next for him, and not been so stubborn about it all!
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Any man who may have seen the truth with its real evidence, or may – at least - have seen good reasons to question and doubt his chosen beliefs, and has been hiding the fact that deep down inside, he knew that he was wrong to live by that choice he chose for his life, and that he might indeed have wasted his life and left the truth behind, is very likely at that moment, more than ever before in his life, to express his fear, or burst out with a confession or even declare his conversion! This is true of every stubborn follower of a false questionable faith, no matter what it is! After all, he realizes at that point, that it‟s either now or never! And that he either knows (with evidence) or he doesn‟t; he can‟t stand anywhere in between! And that there‟s going to be no returning from wherever it is that he‟s about to go! This uncertainty, this doubt that has been hidden deep down in his heart, and has been muted by all means possible, is confronted honestly and truthfully at that moment, and for the last time in that man‟s life! He knows and realizes this meaning far more than ever before! No matter how arrogant a man may have lived in his life, he is indeed humbled by the seriousness of that moment! This is why confessions by a figure of fame at that moment are perhaps more significant than anything he may have ever said or done in his life!
Now I can‟t help commenting on certain surveys and studies the professor mentions here in attempt to study a relationship between education and “religiosity”! How can any scientist who respects himself be so “vague” about defining the variables of his experiment? I mean, what kind of religion in particular, and what kind of education in specific, are you examining the relationship in between? If you‟re initially assuming that “the more educated a man gets, the less religious he becomes”, is the result you should expect regardless of what the religion is, or what the subject of education is, and no matter what other variables may have their input in the relation; you‟re certainly not to be called a scientist!
It is no surprise that if you teach a man a certain content of knowledge, theory, philosophy or whatever, that opposes, or at least sheds doubt over his religious beliefs; he will very likely become less religious! No surprise! So when you teach Christians that man is the descendant of hominids, and that life came about accidentally in a lake of proteins, and you keep confirming
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those concepts as though they were absolute unquestionable facts; they are – naturally – expected to lose their faith! If on the other hand the education you‟re giving them is not secular, but adopts a religious basis, it is likely that they become more religious as they proceed with it!
It also should not be neglected that there is a plenty of other social inputs and variables that may affect a man‟s attitude to his religion, none of which has anything to do with the education level of the people to be surveyed!
Moreover, not all who carry a tag of Christianity (for example) are initially equal in everything they believe in Christianity, even within the same sect; and hence they will not all undergo the same impact of education on their core beliefs!
So fact of the matter is; such a study is nothing but is a monumental work of pseudoscience, even if it is performed by Michael Shermer!
Equally pseudoscientific and scholarly valueless is any study that attempts to define a particular relationship between religion and IQ level! Even though it is quite arguable that certain false beliefs and negative personal convictions may indeed affect certain aspects of intelligence negatively one way or another; there is no particular religion – no matter how mythical and futile its basic tenets may be – that may be proven statistically to impact the IQ level! I mean, what is intelligence and how do you define it in the first place? If we came to agree on the theoretical definition of what intelligence is, then perhaps we could examine what particular beliefs (religious or even secular) could impact it directly! And then of course we must not forget social, financial and psychological factors that have nothing at all to do with faith! So the assumption that we could isolate the test subject from all other impacting variables in their lives is clearly false!
This is another desperate attempt by atheists to prove the un-provable, and to twist the neck of the scientific method in favor of their blind faith, so they could at least find comfort in claiming that statistical studies support their baseless position against everything that has anything to do with religion!
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At this point they may argue that they only use such statistics to draw the attention to an “indication” that this might be the case, they do not use it for proof that it actually is! And I say even this objective is valueless, because just as you have your reasons to believe that it might be an indication, we have our reasons to believe it‟s not! So at the end of the day, none of these statistical studies adds anything to the actual debate, and they are by all means nothing but an unfortunate waste, and a childish attempt to intimidate people of religion using the illusion of a „scientific proof‟!