Politics and religion make me cringe a bit

Recently I was reading an article titled 9 signs you may be an intellectually dishonest atheist, by Andy. I’m going to guess it is not the same Andy who knows Buzz and Woody but just a guy named Andy or maybe a woman. Either way no other information about Andy was available. Andy posted his essay of 9 reasons on the site Christian vision. Now those of you who know me are probably asking then how the hell did you find this article. Randomly. One link led to another and then I found it. I don’t have the link back to the original blog but I think the title should be enough to get you there if you are interested. The article beings with a take and a spoiler of a movie. I can relate to this, a lot of lessons in life are in art. I disagree with Andy’s view of the film as it isn’t the only way to look at things occurring in the story but his take on it is certainly valid and one way to explain the events. Essentially the short film review set up the points of the article which is that we delude ourselves or hide from the truth. Andy decided that this applied specifically to atheist because it is for him an opposite view point than his own. I’m landing on that assumption in that Andy is a guy not for any reason other than it will keep things easier in my writing and that he is not an atheist because of where he posted the article. However some of the things he says apply to any point of view and the idea of intellectual dishonesty is the bigger thing being discussed. I have a sneaky suspicion that this idea isn’t really Andy’s idea and he is breaking one of his own points by repeating others ideas, but expanding on a general idea of dishonesty and inserting atheist as the target. The first point is that the intellectually dishonest will only seek out information with which they agree. While I will agree that many people do this but to be cliché a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Anyone who only looks at only one point of view isn’t an intellectual. No matter what the belief hold such a narrow view is dangerous. Andy goes so far as to say if you avoid anything that is contradictory to your own beliefs you are being dishonest. Again I can agree to a point. One of the great things about the internet is that there is easy access to information about anything. One of the worst things about the internet is that there is easy access to information about anything. If you avoid things in your browsing of the internet a lot of the time it is to make it easier to find what you are looking for rather than sifting through an endless sea of stuff and most of which is only regurgitated from something else and doesn’t not add to understanding. Andy uses several of his points to say that if someone disagrees with you they are viewed as stupid, it makes you angry or you are afraid to confront an opposing view. Well Andy sometimes people say really stupid things. I have been known to utter a few. Should we be more gracious, sure however it doesn’t make the stupid thing any less stupid but perhaps the better way to say that is ignorant meaning not informed. Anger, gets a bad rap these days as an emotion, which is really all about how people choose to express their anger not so much anger being a bad thing. Anger serves a purpose which is to change the world. Lots of things make people angry and if you just passively accept things as they are nothing changes and the world stagnates and dies. By the world I mean ideas, logic, reason, intelligence, ect. We do need to learn better ways to express anger but becoming angry about something does not make the person’s point of view less authentic. The last few points that Andy makes in his article are attacking the person with the opposite point of view rather than the idea, and that people don’t really know why they believe what they believe. I agree we don’t know how to argue as a society, by that I mean we don’t know how to disagree without taking it personally. I think this is especially true in the US as opposed to other westernized nations but the rest of the world fails in being able to disagree. Because you disagree with me does not always mean that you are less of a person, less intelligent or less what ever it simply means you have a different idea about something. Like the movie. However Andy’s main target are the atheists and that they hold an opposite view from his own concerning god. However do the masses follow along without a full understanding the why of any idea. Sure, it is easier that way, have someone telling you what to do, what to think is great. The article’s title is really an attack on people who see things differently than Andy it is name calling or designed to belittle while it is a veiled insult it is an insult and was meant to be an insult. I would venture to say that most of what gets tossed around as belief about any topic not just religion / or the lack of religion most people are really only repeating what someone else has told them. In my work teaching there are concepts which I talked about and felt that I understood them and I did well enough to explain them. However, I have developed a deeper understanding of the concepts in the years of teaching and can pass that on to others. The point is intelligence is always growing and just because you are not as well versed as someone else does not preclude you from speaking your mind. However if you are at an impasse in a discussion hopefully you seek out more information from others rather than resort to name calling or attacking the person and not the idea. Sun Tzu and others have said, knowing the enemy (opposing view) is as important as knowing your own strength (own view). I have paraphrased others because Andy says it is not valid to rely on greater minds in making arguments. Usually these are included not because the person doesn’t understand what they are talking about but to show that it is an idea that has lasted and in the case of Sun Tzu for several thousand years. Not that longevity of an idea lends to validity but that there is proof in that idea. The article penned by Andy is built on this corner stone to seek out knowledge to better understand your position and defend it. The thing is that while Andy makes his case that the atheist is the intellectually dishonest person he never once own that the people who share his values are as guilty of the same points he ticks off in disputing the idea of atheism as valid. I would say there are closed minded people out in the world who do not want to see the world in any way but how they were told by other that it should be. One of the rules I try to live by is never discuss religion or politics unless you are paid to do it. You are not likely to change anyone’s mind about and you will only serve to frustrate yourself. We need to learn how to argue and how to disagree or more to the point re-learn these skills and to see that extremes or one way thinking about any belief are bad even for those within the group. Why do you think the major religions are so splintered with sects and all the differing faiths within a religion? There is more that one way to see the world and not everyone is going to agree with your way of thinking. Well, that’s all for now, other stuff to follow most likely Happy Birthday if it’s your birthday and a very merry un birthday if it isn’t your birthday Thank you for reading, please subscribe, Have a great day and play nice in the neighborhood. Ciao, PS 3 Gamer Tag: invisible don PO Box 4425 Roanoke VA 24015