2015-03-18

Why Religious Believers Want Atheist Seal of Approval

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

by Neil Godfrey

Why Religious Believers Are So Desperate for the Atheist Seal of Approval

By Greta Christina / AlterNet

Excerpt:

I’ve been getting into these debates with religious believers for many years now. I’ve seen how they start out, and where they end up. I’ve seen many, many theists desperately try to get the Atheist Seal of Approval for their religion. And I’ve reached two conclusions about why they’re doing it.

They think atheists have higher standards than most believers, so our approval will mean more.
And they don’t want to think their religion has anything in common with those other sucky religions… and getting atheists’ approval would let them keep on thinking that.

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One thought on “Why Religious Believers Want Atheist Seal of Approval”

Doug Shaver says:

2015-03-18 21:27:44 GMT+0000 at 21:27

She makes a couple of points I could quibble with, but overall, that’s an essay I’ve been trying to write for a long time. I wish she hadn’t beat me to it, but I’m glad somebody did it.

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Neil Godfrey on Paul’s Letters as Products of Marcion’s School: “There is nothing single and simple-minded about the Paulines. They contain a mysticism that is way over Marcion’s head. Ooh…” Jan 30, 21:31
Neil Godfrey on Paul’s Letters as Products of Marcion’s School: “The only discussion NL has of Justin that is related to your question is a comparison of Justin’s methods (in…” Jan 30, 21:12
Neil Godfrey on Paul’s Letters as Products of Marcion’s School: “1 Clement, because of some kind of intertextuality with Hebrews, has been the primary source by which Hebrews has been…” Jan 30, 20:46
Petr Jancar on The Folly of Bayesian Probability in “Doing History”: “We seem to be from different planets 🙂 Let me bring a (vaguely related) quote by J.L.Savage from wikipedia “……” Jan 30, 20:22
RParvus on Paul’s Letters as Products of Marcion’s School: “I notice NL’s quote from Balas: “Marcion’s doctrines are marked by a certain simplicity, not to say single- and simple-mindedness…” Jan 30, 16:34
Clarke W Owens on Paul’s Letters as Products of Marcion’s School: ““[T]he Jewish rejection of Christian typological or spiritual exegesis of the Old Testament, which seemed to threaten Christianity’s claims to…” Jan 30, 15:00
ABuddhist on Paul’s Letters as Products of Marcion’s School: “>What we see at the beginning — gospel and Pauline letters in the hands of Marcionites — was the beginning…” Jan 30, 14:56
Neil Godfrey on Paul’s Letters as Products of Marcion’s School: “I don’t mean to give the impression that Jews were being hunted down after the Bar Kochba war. The destruction…” Jan 30, 12:12
Stephen P Ruis on Paul’s Letters as Products of Marcion’s School: “I seem to be firmly in this camp, now, but re “The evidence likewise informs us that the first “Christian…” Jan 30, 11:32

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