Ok so I'm going to say it

[lizzie_and_ari]

I find The Atheist Bus Campaign really offensive.

Oh yeah she did.

Lxxx

Comments

[andrewducker]

it is explaining away people's beliefs by saying that they are based on nothing.

Any explanation of peoples beliefs would be based on psychology and sociology. Atheism is merely a reply to "which God do you believe in" of "None".

If I was a Christian then my explanation for the universe would be the Christian explanation. If I was a Hindu then it would be a Hindu explanation. Being an Atheist doesn't mean I have an atheist explanation - there isn't a unified atheist explanation for the universe, being an atheist merely means saying "I've never seen a good reason to believe it was done by a God." - which leaves all sorts of other explanations - or even not having an explanation at all.

And I don't remember arguing that atheism was more intelligent. Can you point out where I did?

[lizzie-and-ari.livejournal.com]

Oh no - you didn't and I wasn't saying you did, sorry. I really was just asking whether you were - my point about some atheists being less intelligent was purely a counterpoint to the 'atheists are more intelligent' argument. Some people use faith, or lack thereof, as a tool to make up for a lack of understanding of something. Some people have, or don't have, faith, because of a genuine belief/lack thereof.

I asked the question because unless you are saying that atheism is the more intelligent route, then we're just arguing over the semantics of why some people in a group may possibly believe a certain thing, which seems a bit of a pointless debate. So I just wanted to clarify whether we were or not, and I really think we are - on this point!

Lx

[andrewducker]

I'm not saying anything about intelligence. I am saying something about reason and rationalism - but those are only marginally linked to intelligence.

If you want to compare religion and IQ you can:
http://www.w-uh.com/posts/031226a-religion_vs_IQ.html
but I certainly wasn't bringing it up.