spacer1

I was wondering how my fellow atheists explain the large majority of religious believers in the world. I believe that atheists make up roughly 10% of the world's population (???). Therefore, my question is how do you explain this? Is the world's population really so foolish as to believe in some unseen, unverifiable entity, without some good reason? I know it may be possible for some, but 90% seems way too high a figure to leap to the assumption that they're the ones who are deluding themselves. It seems almost paradoxical that we atheists who pride ourselves on verification, evidence, and intersubjective agreement, should overlook this statistic.

[Edited to add: Mods - on reading this back, this might be better suited to GRD....feel free to move it or keep it here, as you see fit.]

Tyler Durden

Very simple. Man is a weak, stupid, and cowardly creature prone to herd mentality, habitual behavior, who is incurably addicted to the comforts of his security blanket and sucking his thumb.

spacer1

So you're not a man, Tyler?

Tyler Durden

Correct. I am a celluloid character.

LVLLN

Didn't the majority of the world believe that the world was flat and that the sun revolved around the Earth at one point too?

spacer1

Okay, so why haven't we shaken the obvious(?) falsehood of religion then?

Tyler Durden

Because there are more important things than "truth/falsehood" which explains the continued existence of such institutional artifacts (psychological security blankets) we like to call "religion."

Ab_Normal

While we concentrate on those with strong religious belief here, my personal experience has been that the majority of religious people in the US can be best characterized as "apatheists". Religion to them is a comforting social milieu, a group to belong to, and not a dreadfully significant part of their lives.

When the extent of your religious practice is going to church on Sunday (and not all the time, at that - Christmas Christians, anybody?) and the occasional social function, it's pretty easy not to question the logical/rational/emotional bases of belief.

spacer1

If these things are "more important", as you say, then aren't atheists mistaken in valuing truth over them?

Tyler Durden

Oops! Could you re-read my edited post?

Edited to add:

What is true for one person is not necessarily true for another. While there may be better truths than others, there are also psychological impulses that have nothing to do with truths. And they need to be satisfied.

Atheists are not mistaken for valuing what they think is true, but they are mistaken for taking the value of their truths to be universally objective and transparent for all human beings. Man is not a rational creature, and never has been.