
More Young People Are Moving Away From Religion, But Why? - codegeek
http://www.npr.org/2013/01/15/169342349/more-young-people-are-moving-away-from-religion-but-why
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gfodor
Because most religious myths are pretty absurd and it's become less and less
difficult to admit it without persecution.

One of Dawkins' theses is that many Christians just identify as such because
"Christian" has historically meant "good" or "normal" in many communities. In
these communities to introduce yourself as a Christian gets a slight nod and
the conversation moves on but saying you are an atheist (or otherwise) makes
it "a thing."

I remember growing up Catholic and hearing news that some friends admitted to
being atheists. This had the same feel as hearing friends had admitted to
being thieves, liars, or cheats. Lots of whispering, rumors, and altogether
reprehensible behavior for such a stupid thing. It had less to do with
disagreements about true, deep belief in an all powerful deity and more about
saying "we are not part of the team" and being tarnished by admitting such.

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EugeneOZ
"Love each other" is main rule of the Christianity and it's not a myth,
definitely. Rites are absurd, love is not.

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jonsterling
“Love each other” is almost certainly not the main idea of Christianity (rule?
perhaps). The main idea of Christianity is that you are inherently in a state
of sinning, and that Christ has sacrificed himself to atone for your sins: if
you accept Him, you will be forgiven your sins and accepted into the Heavenly
Kingdom. If you do not believe in (or know of) Him, you will burn for eternity
in the pit of sulfur.

That's the main idea of Christianity.

~~~
danilocampos
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protection_racket>

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alwaysinshade
Start with Yusaf's story regarding Abraham - it would be difficult for an
educated, critical-minded person to believe or respect the narrative when it
doesn't even have a good moral to back it up. Many stories from the various
holy books fail to show the actions of an all seeing, all knowing creator – by
today’s standards it would come across as a creepy psychopath with magical
powers.

Combine education with technological advancement, better medicine, better
understanding of the mind, and the simple notion that you don't require a
supernatural sky-policeman to be a loving, caring, empathetic individual
leaves religion looking a bit impractical.

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thorum
I'm a bit sad that none of these quotes include, "Because there's no
evidence." I wonder if this is because none of the people interviewed said it,
or because it didn't make a good quote.

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fusiongyro
I suppose it's only natural. Us religious folk have had thousands of years of
practice with people being religious for the wrong reasons. Now you atheists
finally get a chance to experience people being atheists for the wrong
reasons.

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theevocater
What? Everyone starts out an atheist. There can't be a wrong reason to be an
atheist because its the default setting on the human.

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thorum
Why does atheism being the default setting on a human mean there can't be a
wrong reason to be an atheist? That doesn't follow at all.

~~~
fusiongyro
I also doubt it's true. Most kids seem perfectly willing animists to me. Not
ascribing supernatural causes to things is learned, not built in.

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EliRivers
Religion is a social phenomenon. It is the codified, formalised expression of
a given group's customs and rules (which is why writing it down and letting
people outside a narrow priesthood have access to it is generally a disaster -
it makes it very hard for the religion to change as the culture does, because
there's always someone ready to take the words seriously). Successful
religions tend to be those with a significant social aspect. Even churches
that are nominally the same religion often have deep divides across the social
groups.

With the opportunities young people have now to explore beyond their immediate
group, both physically and mentally, it's hardly surprising that religion
won't take.

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fjorder
It bothers me when people say that science conflicts with religion. It
certainly conflicts with specific religious dogmas, such as young-earth
creationism, but the frontiers of science fall well short of proving or
disproving the existence of any possible deity.

If you go strictly by evidence, agnosticism is a tenable position, but both
theism and atheism require leaps of faith beyond scientific fact. As such,
atheists who claim science is on their side bother me almost as much as young-
earth creationists.

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tensor
Atheism requires no leap of faith. You can not believe in a god, and operate
your life as such, while still acknowledging that you have no proof that there
is not god. Nearly every single self described atheist has this position.

On the other than, people who claim to be somehow neither atheist nor theist
are being intellectually dishonest to both themselves and everyone else. You
operate your life under one of these assumptions.

edit: and for reference, you can either be an agnostic atheist, gnostic
atheist, agnostic theist, or gnostic theist. These cover all possibilities as
the concepts are defined.

~~~
rtpg
> you can either be an agnostic atheist, gnostic atheist, agnostic theist, or
> gnostic theist

I have a TV. I don't know how it works. Some people say it's because of
electrical waves in the air (whatever that is), others say its because there
are small people in the box acting things out for me.

I don't care, and have no opinion on the subject.

Being this form of agnostic (being intellectually honest with yourself to say
you don't have an informed opinion either way) is valid.

~~~
trowftd
It's pretty straightforward to check if there are people in your TV box or
not. Doesn't sound like a reasonable (or valid) position.

What about Santa or the Spaghetti Monster? Do we have to be (or claim to be)
agnostics about everything we can't prove it doesn't exist? There's no need to
prove these things because there's no good reason to believe otherwise. And
no, just feeling you're right and visions don't count.

TLDR: Burden of proof is on religious people, not on atheists. Thus,
agnosticism seems like an unnecessary compromise.

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taproot
I watched a Jodi Beggs Ted Talk this morning "Context is King" she discussed
how the human mind will attempt to alter its perception of its environment
until things make sense. This altering is far less possible the more we make
sense of the world and universe in which we live.

My guess is that now we've answered and explained scientifically much more of
those questions which religion generally sought to explain, we're much less
susceptible to fairy tales.

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plg
Young people today have more access to information (via the internet) than
ever before. Live in isolation you can be brainwashed to believe almost
anything. Live in a connected world where you can inform yourself, you make up
your own mind, typically (hopefully) based on reason and logic.

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drucken
Education.

