What is Digg?947 Comments
- meez, on 10/12/2007, -54/+582The church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is the geek religion of choice.
Inaccurate! - PleaseJustDie, on 10/12/2007, -31/+375We are just an advanced Sim Life running as god's screensaver. My only fear is that eventually we'll discover he's running on windows and has to reformat.
- charli2na, on 10/12/2007, -15/+257I thought geeks were the ones who write in "jedi" as their religion on census information.
- shad0walker, on 10/12/2007, -26/+229I'm gonna say geeks prefer to know how things work instead of saying that everything is sorted out by god and we don't need to figure things out.
- coldfusion055, on 10/12/2007, -34/+230The most dangerous people on the planet are those who are convinced that they know the truth.
- babar77, on 10/12/2007, -28/+214@sniperxpx
Religion does not start wars. Money, scarcity of resources, and ambition for more power does. Religion is often used as a control mechanism by those in power who want more money, resources, and power to convince the masses they need to go to war.
Even if you abolished Religion, there would still be basic cultural differences that could be used against people. And you will never get rid of anger. People get mad, and there's nothing we can do to stop that. - experimentalist, on 10/12/2007, -67/+211Are most actually Atheist or are they just believers in something outside of what is considered
the "norm" when it comes to belief? I have beliefts, but dont call myself Christian or Catholic
or Muslim or anything really.. I am, I believe in what I believe. Thats that :) - Jonty, on 10/12/2007, -18/+102I'm a perfectly happy Christian geek. I believe the Universe is however many billions of years old, that evolution happened at that much of the old testament is metaphorical, simplified for the people of that time. I believe the Big Bang happened. I won't exclude a scientifically proven concept, or refuse to consider one that may not be proven, simply because it isn't compatible with some part of the OT.
I believe all men are equal, I have no prejudice against gay people - such things seem, to me, completely contradictory to most other parts of Christianity.
And every so often things happen to me which reaffirm my faith, regardless of what would currently seem logical.
But I still haven't found any geeks who agree with me, but I don't really have long term contact with many and I never really ask most, so I don't really know.
So yeah, I hope I've helped some of you who are tearing your hair out at the very thought of religion understand why I'm like this. - bobslaede, on 10/12/2007, -20/+100That would be agnosticism, and not atheism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnosticism
- AtheistAcolyte, on 10/12/2007, -21/+101We'll get the BSOD long before that.
- inv1c7u5, on 10/12/2007, -24/+92religion (and by religion, I mean religious organizations, such as catholicism, judaism, etc) are ruled by faith, and faith by nature is deemed as truth without knowledge, truth by belief, which in logical terms is completely irrational, and I dont think "geeks" are the only ones who are often atheists, but instead I just see atheism (or agnosticism) as a belief in nothing but rationality and truth, and instead of keeping a close mind about what is true and what isn't, like many if not all religions, atheism is about having an open mind about the world, and accepting it as we discover it.
Many of the smartest people I have ever met, from fellow students to professors, are often atheists, and I think through science and the spread of information (especially through the internet) the numbers of atheists in the world is going to rise tremendously. I mean we already see it in Japan: about 65% of the entire population is atheist. Also in high GDP per capita countries such as Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, etc., and I mean, atheists have been persecuted for their beliefs ever since 400 BC with Socrates because since then, governments have NEEDED religion to control the people.
I am very happy as an atheist to be living in such a great time like now, because personally, I think the world is going to go through a big change. Higher morals, not ruled by religion, but ruled by themselves, no more wars due to beliefs based on irrationality, and my favorite, no more ****ing church. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -57/+123ATHEISTS DON'T CLAIM "THERE IS NO GOD"
nope. Atheists take the view that if there isn't a god, prove it. If there is a god, prove it. If you can't prove either then it's not reasonable to believe in a god. If you want Atheists to believe there's probably a god then prove it. If you go around claiming that belief in something is just a matter of what assumptions you make, you are wrong. Atheists believe, based on the evidence, that fire will burn a person. you can go around with the assumption it can't. should you experiment you would quickly find that even though you logically satisfied yourself based on the assumptions you made, experimentation and objective data quickly dispelled your error and burn your sorry ass.
Good Science changes, we learn more, it begins with observation and moves to hypothesis testing and debate, while non science is rigid, it begins with works of fiction and proceeds to asserting, insisting, twisting the facts and sometimes even torturing those who disagree. You can learn something from that. Whether intelligent design makes sense to you or sounds just ***** crazy doesn't matter, it just not science.
Nuff said. - SniperXPX, on 10/12/2007, -83/+144Religion is the source of just about every conflict. To me, religion is something for the weak minded as they cannot comprehend that there is no solid evidence that the fate their culture has believed in for many years, just simply cannot be true.
Therefore, I don't believe in religion or fate. If there was no religion, there would be a hell of a lot less conflict happening in todays society. - dorianh49, on 10/12/2007, -26/+81I'm not an atheist, but I'll take a stab at this. Geeks are usually logical thinkers who like to get hands-on, or at least see what it is that they're working with. It certainly doesn't make sense that a loving god would tolerate so much suffering. Also, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that almost every war in the history of mankind has been caused by religion.
Among other things. I could go into why I'm not an atheist even with all of these factors, but this is hardly the place. - mortigon, on 10/12/2007, -12/+62If we don't have religion to fight about, we will fight about something else - skin color, social standing, etc...
- ArchieAndrews, on 10/12/2007, -4/+53What?
- sir1real, on 10/12/2007, -14/+62@foxifiednutjob
"ATHEISTS DON'T CLAIM "THERE IS NO GOD" "
Then what DO you call someone who believes "There is no God?"
Please find a dictionary and look up two words: atheist and agnostic. You really need to understand the difference in order to have a meaningful discussion of these issues rather than adding confusion. - Peepsalot, on 10/12/2007, -15/+56Meez: I believe you mean Pastafarianism ;-)
- BrianC, on 10/12/2007, -27/+66Because most geeks are too smart to believe in religious crap. Of course, some have been brain washed since they were children (it is truly amazing what you can get people to believe, if you start on them when they're young), and breaking through that kind of indoctrination takes a lot of effort.
For more information, see http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/
For a thorough debunking of the Christan crap, see http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/
For the theist non-Christians, there are probably other sites that debunk their religions (hey, this post is an equal opportunity offender!) - MatttK, on 10/12/2007, -5/+42bobslaede (and a few others) got it right. Everybody else needs to hop off the atheist bandwagon and check a dictionary. Atheist DOES mean that you DO NOT BELIEVE in a god. Theist means you believe in a god. Monotheist means you believe in ONE god. Polytheist means you believe in n gods. AGNOSTIC means you don't know either way.
The problem is that society believes that you're an atheist if you don't believe in one of the major religions. For example, since I am agnostic, my Christian relatives all believe that I am an atheist. If you don't believe in the ONLY god, you must be an atheist, right? Wrong.
I think many geeks are agnostic, not atheist. Often when "atheists" on digg start going on about what they believe, they actually mean that they're agnostic. Don't use the false label society ignorantly has given you. - pixelmixer, on 10/12/2007, -7/+41I think you're right there. We see things more logically, i think, seeing as we deal with computers all the time, where logic is 99% of the time correct. The world around us seems to reflect this view (eg. gravity) where things can be made sense of using finite math. To us, believing in something supernatural that we have never experienced is like trying to believe one day gravity will stop working.
- Enasni1212, on 10/12/2007, -6/+39I agree with Mortigon. Religion is a great pretext for supporting hatred and ignorance, but if your stereotypical Southern-white-Christian homophobe/warmonger suddenly lost his religion, he'd still be a homophobe and a warmonger.
Hatred doesn't need an excuse. - AtheistAcolyte, on 10/12/2007, -7/+40It might be an interesting corollary to see how many internet trolls are theists. :)
- threemagic, on 10/12/2007, -19/+51Because geeks are logical by nature. And logic suggests there is no god.
- domlachowicz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+32"This makes them the single largest religious group on Digg"
"No religion" is not a religion any more than "no food" is your favorite meal. - circa1015, on 10/12/2007, -7/+37I am an agnostic, and I've heard more crap come out of the atheists on this board than any of the christians.
Atheism DOES mean that you do not believe in a god. You aren't apathetic about it; your position is that a god does not exist. That is why there is an 'a' in front of that 'theism'.
The bright movement is so grossly pretentious, I have to laugh at anybody that associates themselves with it. Why not just call it the "we're so much ***** smarter than you" movement.
The reason that I chose to consider myself agnostic as opposed to atheist is that atheism is doing the exact same thing that any religion is doing: claiming knowledge about the supernatural. Obviously there is no proof that anything supernatural exists, but that is all, a lack of proof. To claim that god doesn't exist means that your frame of knowledge extends beyond the natural universe, and is at that point, ironically, a faith based statement.
To say that all Christians are dumb/stupid/whatever is not only intolerant, but ignorant. Now, when we start getting into the realm of fundamentalists, who are blatantly disregarding scientific evidence in order to support their own beliefs, that is a different issue. But most Christians would gladly admit that the way that they live their life is predicated on how they interpret the world around them, and that their religion is simply an articulation of their belief system or moral code. I cannot fault anybody for that. - JorgeGT, on 10/12/2007, -9/+39"But you read a lot of books, I'm thinking. Hard to have faith, ain't it, when you've read too many books?"
-- (Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum) - dclowd9901, on 10/12/2007, -4/+33"You sound pretty cocky for a guy who can't spell "break" correctly."
Oh noes! One word in my 136-word post was misspelled! Please, disregard my point entirely. It would be completely appropriate.
By the by, I dugg you up, because you are, indeed, correct. - noots, on 10/12/2007, -23/+49humans have a need for everything to have a start and an end, that is the fatal flaw.
- Boshow, on 10/12/2007, -23/+48It may be true that a lot of intelligent people are atheist, but in the same tone the wisest people I know are religious/spiritual. Wisdom and knowledge are different, but often go hand in hand.
- essjay, on 10/12/2007, -11/+35Wow, I stopped reading the article as soon as I saw "Famous Atheists/Agnostics" as if they are the same thing. Unfortunately, a number of comments above this one just reinforce my feeling that most people don't know the difference between the two.
- nixr, on 10/12/2007, -4/+28I love all the references to the fact that geeks are smart, therefore they aren't religious. There can't possibly be any smart religious people, right? They're all gap-toothed yokels aren't they? I am an agnostic and even I find this stereotype extremely condescending. The fact is there are plenty of engineers, scientists, lawyers, doctors, judges, and professors who are all far more intelligent than your average geek and are also deeply religious. So I fail to see where intelligence and education even play a role in this debate. If anything it's the WAY geeks think and not the fact that they can that play a role in their religiosity or lack thereof.
- Litzau, on 10/12/2007, -5/+28sometimes when in doubt i ask myself.. "what would jesus do?" then i remember that he was crucified and that maybe his decision making skills werent all that great...
- AtheistAcolyte, on 10/12/2007, -0/+22Eh. Who cares?
- Tempest811, on 10/12/2007, -5/+25@philbutler
That was the most rantily ranted rant I have ever read.
You went from almost being on topic and actually addressing the article to some long-winded story about helping a kid out and being his god (or angel?) to a series of oddly worded sentences that made no coherent sense as a whole.
"So we agree on a most powerful entity"
No, we don't. And your story certainly doesn't convince me to believe that my god is out there to save me from fisticuffs.
"You pick your own poison! A quasar a billion parsecs from Earth, our Sun, the richest man in the world or freaking Google. God exists in your heart, I am just sad for the darkness of those hearts who were not rescued."
Your words are english....but......can't...find...a..point or...make sense. This literally made me laugh. I have seen inanimate objects prove the existence of god more convincingly - StarManta, on 10/12/2007, -3/+22'"Is there a god/God?"
Atheist says: "no"
Agnostic says: "I don't know"
-----
There are a couple different types of agnosticism. One says "I don't know", and the other says "I don't believe it is possible to know." - AtheistAcolyte, on 10/12/2007, -4/+23Here's what I think makes the most sense:
Since the initial matter distribution of the Big Bang was uneven, as evidenced by the Cosmic Microwave Radiation Background, some parts of the matter-filled early universe had a greater gravitational pull than others. These coalesced into great big swirling masses, of which parts became the galaxies we know today.
Failing that, the Great Green Arkleseizure sneezed the galaxies into existence. - bacon_skoda, on 10/12/2007, -11/+29logic and religion don't mix.
- jmgrogg, on 10/12/2007, -4/+22@ Jonty
I just thought I'd let you know that you are not alone. I hold very similar beliefs (though I don't completely write off the possibility that God didn't do it exactly as Genesis says, he is God after all, and if he is all powerful he could do it that way and make it look otherwise, but that's neither here nor there). You are not alone, and I suspect that as the younger generations begin to mature you will see more Christians like us, Christians who are not afraid of reconciling God and science, who recognize that it's not how things happened that is important, but why they happened. - airayn, on 10/12/2007, -21/+39I myself am both a geek and a explorer... but fall into the Taoist category of belief.
I write about similar topics and would suggest. It's not that more geeks are atheists as much as geeks are willing to think outside established pre-packaged religions. If they find a logic flaw in one of the packaged religions they toss it away and quickly move on to the next package. Many pick Atheism simply as a handy holding spot (of no-religion) or a pointer so to speak... till they find something that does match.
I think many geeks would list a religion if they found one that fits without logic flaws to their personal belief structure.
For myself that's Taoism: the practice of being oneself.
Peace
A Personal Tao
http://www.personaltao.com - nestafett, on 10/12/2007, -4/+22
@tom
that would be a good point except that its not true.
alot of Christians realize they dont know everything about how the universe works and alot of atheist think they know how its ran, and visa-versa.
The man that started the human Genome project is religious and I highly recomend you listen to this interview with him on npr so you stop saying things that are just as judgmental as fundamentalist are.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=9207913
p.s. "Truth is, there is no GOD.",
-I thought that people like you realize you dont know the deeper mysteries of the way the universe runs and that makes you better or "smarter"? I'm confused, so you do know the answers or not? - spookyttws, on 10/12/2007, -0/+171300 on the 1600 scale, I would assume. Remember, that new scale was implemented less than 4 years ago.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+17Its because there isn't Orcs, Wizards, Demons, Hobbits, and Walking Trees in most all religions.
- frostieDude, on 10/12/2007, -5/+22Hard atheism isn't as irrational as you believe. Would you consider yourself agnostic about the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Or any one of thousands of dieties that have been imagined?
I don't believe in things there is no evidence for. Period. That makes me an atheist, not an agnostic. - Tacobake, on 10/12/2007, -11/+28"secular humanism" is another big word(s)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_humanism
One view that I resent is when people say, "we stopped believing in God because we're smarter." I think a key distinction to point out: as we have evolved into a global village, it's gotten to the point where we look at all the world's histories and we see that each independant culture grew with their own religious or historical view. Why would you pick one view over another from a logical standpoint? You can't. It's only since following World War I -- and especially since World War II with the change in the education system -- that we as individuals within a culture have become educated.
To further things, I think it's insulting to our past generations of men -- the ones that didn't sit around digg but rather went to the tavern after a hard day's work -- to say that each and every one of them was a bible beater. Authority in their communities was often divied up along religious lines, and if someone thought the idea of a bunch of angels was a lil iffy they'd be pretty stupid to let people know about it. - AdebisiTheGamer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+19Anyone that has run windows for a while knows the power of prayer.
This article is obviously false. - Waterispoison, on 10/12/2007, -12/+28I don't have to disprove God, you have to prove him. There is no reason to believe that a supernatural being exists other than through the creation by human imagination.
- Stunn, on 10/12/2007, -8/+23Well, I'm going to risk being unpopular... again. This post is generally concerning this "brights" crap. I haven't heard of it up until today. I'm not going to digg anyone down who disagrees with me.
I don't believe in anything and I hate being classified as an atheist. Why should I live my life with a classification that generates stereotypes? For some odd reason, you have to be classified with some organization.
"Do you believe in God?"
"Nope."
"So... you're an atheist?"
"Nope."
"Well, you have to be something"
"No... I don't."
Then I have to start getting into your mom jokes so they'll start leaving me alone.
Now, what the hell is up with this Brights junk? I don't believe in a super being and I don't "define myself negatively in reference to religion." I just don't believe in a God. I don't give a damn if you do or if you don't. I don't want to be classified. I see things the way they are too, but don't drag me in your silly internet religion.
"The Brights' umbrella is large, very large. For example, Brights can be agnostics, rationalists, skeptics, atheists, objectivists, igtheists, and so on. There are any of a number of self-identity labels they might apply to themselves. No label at all need apply...just plain "nonreligious" or "uninterested in religion" without any real consideration beyond that might be how a person is seeing himself/herself."
My goodness. What the hell? I get it now. Has these Brights done anything useful for our society yet? Whats the whole goddamn point?
"Hey look. I'm open minded and I'm naturalistic, I wanna be a Bright." Then what? Huh? Whats the point? Maybe if I was allowed in the forums without joining a 21st century religion, I would know. Its sorta a religious affliction but everyone has different beliefs? It is so stupid I can't even explain myself correctly. Why do you need to be a part of this? I think if you need to part of a silly organization to prove to people that you have realistic views on society, then I don't care what you think about organized religion in general. If you want to be with a bunch of people who have naturalistic views, you probably can find a forum. Why do you have to be classified as something?
"I'm an atheist, what are you?"
"I'm not a Catholic, or a Muslim, or a Jew. I'm a Bright"
"Oh... you're part of a online religion. Good for you buddy."
I think you should just be yourself. Being a part of some phony religion isn't going to change things. Its silly.
Also, I strongly dislike people who have ideas but they don't do anything about it. I can imagine that the Brights' forums are full of ideas. The user just types it out, sits on their ass, and waits for what other people have to say. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -5/+20I cannot disprove Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, or that the moon is made of cheese.
Just because I cannot disprove a negative doesn't mean I'm going to waste my time entertaining the idea that it exists. But you're right about one thing, atheist is a dumb term. I don't identify myself by not believing in god, same as I don't identify myself as a non-believer of astrology or Santa Claus. - USAOwnz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19Because masturbation and spending too much time on tech stuff and pr0n is not supported by very many religions!
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