Last modified on December 2, 2023, at 13:45

Atheism and gullibility

A common and legitimate criticism of the atheist worldview is that atheism is irrational.[1] See also: Atheism and irrationality

It has often been said, "A man who won’t believe in God will believe in anything."[2]

The psalmist David declared: "The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.' They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds; there is none who does good." (Psalm 14:1). See also: Atheism and morality and Atheist population and immorality

Many atheists have embraced a number of far fetched, unworkable, and errant notions and ideologies such as communism, abiogenesis, the universe being infinitely old, evolution, various superstitions and various unsound medical practices, despite abundant evidence of their falsity. A significant number of these ideologies were either immoral and/or bred wickedness (see: Atheism and human rights violations and Social effects of the theory of evolution and Atheism and morality).

See also:

Atheism, gullibility and superstition

The Wall Street Journal reported: "A comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows ...that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians."[3]

See also: Irreligion and superstition and Atheism and irrationality

In September 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported:

The reality is that the New Atheist campaign, by discouraging religion, won't create a new group of intelligent, skeptical, enlightened beings. Far from it: It might actually encourage new levels of mass superstition. And that's not a conclusion to take on faith -- it's what the empirical data tell us.

"What Americans Really Believe," a comprehensive new study released by Baylor University yesterday, shows that traditional Christian religion greatly decreases belief in everything from the efficacy of palm readers to the usefulness of astrology. It also shows that the irreligious and the members of more liberal Protestant denominations, far from being resistant to superstition, tend to be much more likely to believe in the paranormal and in pseudoscience than evangelical Christians....

This is not a new finding. In his 1983 book "The Whys of a Philosophical Scrivener," skeptic and science writer Martin Gardner cited the decline of traditional religious belief among the better educated as one of the causes for an increase in pseudoscience, cults and superstition. He referenced a 1980 study published in the magazine Skeptical Inquirer that showed irreligious college students to be by far the most likely to embrace paranormal beliefs, while born-again Christian college students were the least likely.[4]

In 2015, Rodney Stark wrote in his book The Triumph of Faith: Why the World is More Religious Than Ever about secular European countries: "35 percent of the French believe in astrology, 35 percent of the Swiss agree that 'some fortune tellers really can foretell the future'..."[5]

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Asian atheism, gullibility, superstition and unsound medical practices

See also: Asian atheism and Atheism and medicine

Illustration of Confucius

The current atheist population mostly resides in East Asia (particularly China) and in secular Europe/Australia among whites.[6] See: Asian atheism and Secular Europe and Western atheism and race

Razib Khanm wrote at Discover Magazine:

...the most secular nations in the world are those of East Asia, in particular what are often termed “Confucian societies.” It is likely therefore that the majority of the world’s atheists are actually East Asian...

This is not to say that East Asia is necessarily a haven for a critical rationalist perspective, what with the prominence of Chinese medicine, geomancy, Korean shamanism...[7]

Atheism, gullibility and medicine

See also: Atheism and medicine

China has the world's largest atheist population (see: China and atheism).[8][9] China is a communist state which practices state atheism (see: Atheism and communism).

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) is a type of traditional medicine based on 2,500+ years of Chinese medical practices which includes various types of herbal medicine, acupuncture, massage, exercise, and dietary therapy, but recently has also incorporated modern Western medicine. The efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine is poorly researched and supported.[10]

The Chinese government's National People’s Congress Standing Committee regulates TCM.[11]

The atheist, communist dictator Mao Zedong revived and heavily promoted Traditional Chinese medicine in China. He didn't believe in it himself, but pushed it as a cheap alternative to real medicine.[12]

Steven Salzberg wrote in Forbes magazine concerning TCM:

The Nature writer, David Cyranoski, presents this news in a classic two-sides-of-the-story format, describing the "endless hours" that TCM proponents spent on such important topics as the "correct location of acupuncture points and less commonly known concepts such as ‘triple energizer meridian’ syndrome." Later in the article (but much later), he points out that scientists have argued that qi and meridians simply don't exist.

Were you thinking this was about health care? Afraid not. Cyranoski goes on to point out some serious problems with TCM, for example:

"Critics view TCM practices as unscientific, unsupported by clinical trials, and sometimes dangerous: China’s drug regulator gets more than 230,000 reports of adverse effects from TCM each year."

Actually, it's much worse than this. Here's what TCM really looks like: the horrific slaughter of the last remaining rhinoceroses in Africa in order to hack off their horns, which are sold to become part of elixirs that some people mistakenly think confer strength, virility, or other health benefits. Last year, National Geographic ran a heart-wrenching photo essay showing some of the awful results of rhinoceros poaching in Africa; take a look at these photos here.

TCM also looks like this: black bears kept in grotesquely cruel "farms" with a permanent tube inserted into their abdomens so that their bile can be harvested. Despite a growing movement to end this inhumane practice (see this NY Times story), it persists today, with thousands of bears kept in cages so small they can barely move. No one can view photos such as these and say that TCM is a good thing...

Well put. On the other hand, Cyranoski does point out that the major motivation for TCM is money:

"[China] has been aggressively promoting TCM on the international stage both for expanding its global influence and for a share of the estimated US$50-billion global market."...

As the Nature article points out, TCM has been a scam for decades: it was revived and heavily promoted in China by former dictator Mao Zedong, who didn't believe in it himself, but pushed it as a cheap alternative to real medicine.[13]

Communist China and baby meat eating

See also: Communist China and baby eating and Atheists eat babies meme

China has the largest atheist population in the world.[14] See also: China and atheism

In 2014, The Washington Times reported:

China’s one child policy, baby trafficking, and sex trafficking of North Korean women aren’t the worst human rights violation happening in the country. Aborting innocent and healthy unborn children and eating them to boost one’s stamina and sexual health is.

South Korean customs officials recently seized thousands of pills filled with powdered human baby flesh arriving from China. Since August 2011, South Korean officials have intercepted more than 17000 pills smuggled from China.

South Korean officials became aware of a horrific practice of eating aborted fetuses after Seoul Broadcasting System showed a documentary on Chinese doctors who performed abortions and then ate the fetuses. One Chinese doctor on the documentary took out fetuses from his refrigerator.[15]

For additional information, please see:

Atheist PZ Myers on gullibility among atheists

See also: Atty Awards and Anti-Theism International Convention 2020

Stephen Fry and Ian McEwan will serves as judges for awards being given to atheists at the Anti-Theism International Convention 2020. The awards have been given the name the Atty Awards.[16]

Subsequent to reading information about the Atty Awards being given out at the Anti-Theism International Convention 2020, the atheist PZ Myers in a blog post entitled How did the so-called rationalist community become so gullible? states:

One of their big things is a gala awards banquet, in which they’ll be handing out awards for “Atheist of the Year” and “Jesus Mythicist of the Year” and “Best Atheist Video of the Year”, etc. You can make nominations, if you’d like, but a panel of unnamed judges will make the final decision, and I suspect that all the winners will conform to the organizer’s somewhat regressive political leanings. Furthermore, the hyperbole will turn your stomach.
You’ve heard of the Oscars, Emmys and Baftas?
This is the Attys! (the Anti-Theism International Awards)

Yes, I’ve heard of the Oscars, Emmys and Baftas. The “Attys” are not exactly of the same rank. It gets worse.

The Atty Awards are probably the most prestigious Awards in the Atheist Community and winning a Atty Award will not only get you recognition within the Atheist Community, it will give you a chance to enjoy giving worldwide speaking engagements as well as Keynote presentations at many events around the world. The Awards will be presented by some of the most famous atheist on the planet and the winners will be invited to the VIP area of the after awards ceremony for photo opportunites and press talks.

These “Atty Awards” have not been given out before, are a new invention of this oddly new and nebulous organization, and they are already the most prestigious award an atheist can get? Wow. Winning one will get you worldwide speaking engagements? Really? I sure hope none of the winners proudly advertise themselves as recipients of an Atty Award, because it’s not going to impress[17]

Evolution as a secular origins myth

See also: Evolution as a secular origins myth and Atheist indoctrination and Atheism and deception

Evolution is a secular origins myth of atheists, agnostics and members of other theologically liberal religious sects (theologically liberal religious sects often dismiss out of hand various supernatural events in history due to their hostility towards God and the supernatural). See also: Atheism is a religion

The atheist philosopher of science Michael Ruse said "Evolution is a religion. This was true of evolution in the beginning, and it is true of evolution still today."[18]

The Canadian anthropologist Paul Gosselin wrote:

In the world of myth, miracles are commonplace and occur regularly. Much the same could be said of evolutionary myths of origins. Just like in the Aboriginal Dreamtime stories and the Wolverine stories from the First Nations of North America, in the evolutionary origins myth one regularly encounters phenomena that are contrary to natural law and which have never been observed by any human. And the first of these miracles is abiogenesis, the transition from inert matter to living organisms, capable of reproducing themselves. But that is just the beginning. From there we go on to the transition from invertebrates to vertebrates, then there’s the transition from marine organisms, such as fish, to terrestrial organisms, the transition from reptiles to mammals, the transition from land mammals to marine mammals and then the transition from crawling reptiles to flying birds. But the greatest miracle of all? This is undoubtedly the appearance of functional genetic code and its chemical basis, DNA, and all this without the intervention of a Programmer. It is clear that miracles abound in the evolutionary origins myth. The faith of evolutionary believers is great, but for my part I have to admit lacking enough faith to believe in such miracles.[19]

See also:

High-profile evolutionists P.Z. Myers and Nick Matzke, agree that the origin of life is part of the evolutionary paradigm, as does Richard Dawkins.[20] The naturalistic hypothesis of the origin of life is called abiogenesis and the evidence strongly points against such an idea (see: Origin of life).[21]

Although he is not a creationist, the atheist philosopher John Gray admitted in 2008 in The Guardian: "A great deal of modern thought consists of secular myths - hollowed-out religious narratives translated into pseudo-science. Dennett's notion that new communications technologies will fundamentally alter the way human beings think is just such a myth."[22]

Atheism, gullibility, evolutionary belief, other pseudoscience, UFOlogy and the occult

See also: Atheism and the occult and Atheism and aliens and Atheism and the occult and Evolution, Liberalism, Atheism, and Irrationality

Since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists and agnostics.[23] High-profile evolutionists P.Z. Myers and Nick Matzke, agree that the origin of life is part of the evolutionary paradigm, as does Richard Dawkins.[20]

The notions of extraterrestrial life and UFOlogy are fast growing pseudoscientific religions which are perpetuated and/or substantially aided by the ideologies of evolutionists, atheists, liberals and other promoters of quackery.[3][24] However, the ideologies of extraterrestrial life, UFOlogy, exobiology, evolution and abiogenesis are anti-biblical ideas which are not supported by sound science.[25][26]

The agnostic and liberal Carl Sagan, an avid smoker of marijuana who claimed that marijuana gave him scientific insights, was a prominent peddler of extraterrestrial life, evolution and other pseudoscientific nonsense.[27]

Irreligious/atheistic France and the Soviet Union and UFOlogy

Astronomer Dr. Hugh Ross indicates that ninety-nine percent of what people have told him were UFOs, experienced astronomers can identify as a star, cluster, or other object in the night sky. The 1 percent of sightings, which he calls residual UFOs, have attracted his attention.[28] According to Dr. Ross very few astronomers have seen "residual UFOs".[28]

The following Toledo Blade newspaper excerpt[28] summarizes Dr. Ross's findings:

In 1969, however, Dr. Ross met two astronomers who were having regular UFO encounters. Both also happened to be involved in occult activity.

Upon investigation, Dr. Ross consistently found a connection between occult involvement and residual UFO encounters. For example, he said, countries with a high degree of occult activity such as Russia during the Soviet era, France, and certain parts of Brazil also had high percentages of UFO encounters. During Russia's Soviet period when every expression of religion except occult activity had been outlawed, he said, “Russians were seeing UFOs at five to eight times the rate Americans were.

Atheism and the occult

See also: Atheism and the occult

Christian and Library of Congress researcher's explanations for reports of UFOs

See also: Christianity and UFOs and Atheism and satanic deception

The fall of Lucifer by Gustave Doré.

Christian apologists who reject naturalistic explanations of life such as the theory of evolution argue that difficult to explain UFOs are spiritual in nature and not amenable to naturalistic explanation.[29] Gary Bates of Creation Ministries International wrote a book entitled Alien Intrusion which gives a biblical Christian perspective on the unscientific notions of extraterrestrial life and UFUlogy.[30]

Lynn Cato, senior bibliographer for the library of Congress, created a 1600 entry on UFO bibliography for the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research. After a two-year investigation, in which she reviewed thousands of documents, Catoe stated:

A large part of the available UFO literature...deals with subjects like mental telepathy, automatic writing and invisible entities...poltergeist manifestations and 'possession'....Many of the UFO reports now being published in the popular press recount alleged incidents that are strikingly similar to demonic possession and psychic phenomenon which have long been known to theologians and parapsychologists.[31][32]

Prominent UFO researcher John Keel concurred. After surveying the literature on demonology Keel declared: "The manifestations and occurrences described in this imposing literature are similar if not entirely identical to the UFO phenomenon itself."[32]

Ben Stein Interview with the evolutionist Richard Dawkins

See also: Ben Stein Interview with Richard Dawkins and Richard Dawkins and pseudoscience

In the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed, Ben Stein demonstrated the folly of evolutionism in his interview with Richard Dawkins (A clip of the interview has been uploaded to YouTube ).

The Discovery Institute provides an transcript of part of the interview along with some commentary:

BEN STEIN: "What do you think is the possibility that Intelligent Design might turn out to be the answer to some issues in genetics or in evolution?"

DAWKINS: "Well, it could come about in the following way. It could be that at some earlier time, somewhere in the universe, a civilization evolved, probably by some kind of Darwinian means, probably to a very high level of technology, and designed a form of life that they seeded onto perhaps this planet. Now, um, now that is a possibility, and an intriguing possibility. And I suppose it's possible that you might find evidence for that if you look at the details of biochemistry, molecular biology, you might find a signature of some sort of designer."


Ho,ho! That is precisely what the Raelians say:

Years ago, everybody knew that the earth was flat. Everybody knew that the sun revolved around the earth. Today, everybody knows that life on earth is either the result of random evolution or the work of a supernatural God. Or is it? In "Message from the Designers", Rael presents us with a third option: that all life on earth was created by advanced scientists from another world.

Richard Dawkins and Rael; "clear thinking" kindred spirits! [33]

Atheism, gullibility and the belief the universe originated from nothing

See: Atheism and the belief the universe originated from nothing

Atheism, gullibility and poor critical thinking

See also: Atheism and critical thinking and Atheism and groupthink and Atheism and dogmatism

Tony Wichowsk of the Christian Apologetics Alliance wrote:

,,,I have encountered numerous atheists and other critics of Christianity who by all accounts have stopped thinking critically themselves. The common perception among them is that by being critical of religion (particularly Christianity in the west), they are exercising critical thinking. However, critical thinking implies not only questioning authority and commonly held views, but your own views as well.

Critical thinking has often been popularly described as “thinking about thinking.” Stephen Brookfield is an award winning expert on education and teaching critical thinking skills. Below is his definition of what critical thinking really is.

"Critical thinking describes the process we use to uncover and check our assumptions. First we need to find out what our assumptions are. We may know some of these already (these we call explicit assumptions) but others we are unaware of (implicit assumptions)…. Once we know what our assumptions are, we enter the second phase of critical thinking, that of research. We try to check out our assumptions to make sure they are accurate and valid… The third and final phase of critical thinking puts the first two stages into practice by applying our analysis to our decisions. Decisions based on critical thinking are more likely to be ones we feel confident about and to have the effects we want them to have.”

– Stephen Brookfield Developing critical thinkers: Challenging adults to explore alternative ways of thinking and acting. (1987, Page 9)

If an atheist wants to be a good critical thinker, and not simply a cynic, I would recommend that he or she would do as Brookfield suggests, and check their assumptions. This might entail opening a book by an apologist that they do not like, such as William Lane Craig or a conservative text critic like Daniel B Wallace, and be open minded that they might have some things right.

Checking multiple sources that disagree with each-other and weighing the evidence in your mind is sometimes tedious, but in the end it is worth it.[34]

The fallacy of exclusion is a logical fallacy where "Important evidence which would undermine an inductive argument is excluded from consideration. The requirement that all relevant information be included is called the 'principle of total evidence'.".[35] Atheists avoiding and ignoring the many legitimate arguments against atheism and for theism are engaging in fallacious reasoning (see also: Rebuttals to atheist arguments).

Atheism and groupthink

See also: Atheism and groupthink

Groupthink is a psychological phenomenon that occurs within a group of individuals in which the quest for harmony/conformity within the group results in irrational and/or poor decision-making.

The atheist website Atheist Revolution declared about segments of the atheist population:

We've seen various cliques emerge, some of which have largely abandoned critical thinking for dogma. This mutual admiration society strikes me as being antithetical to free thought, as similar ideas are rewarded through promotion while diverse perspectives receive less attention. This sets the stage for a type of groupthink that runs counter to big tent atheism...

By elevating some in our movement to the level of celebrities, I fear we have cheapened it through irrational hero worship.[36]

In 2018, the atheist PZ Myers wrote:

I noticed the “troubling turn” about 8 years ago, as more and more atheists began to rally around two themes: the Glorious Leaders who were fonts of inarguable Reason & Logic, and a definition of atheism that exempted them from all social responsibility or ethical obligation.[37][38]

See also: Celebrity atheists

The Shadow to Light Christian blog says about the atheist movement and groupthink:

...more and more of us are starting to view the atheist movement as being cult-like...

It is this irrational hero worship that not only prevents many within the atheist movement from criticizing people like Dawkins and Harris, but it causes them to behave in an overly protective and defensive manner of such leaders, especially when the criticism comes from a theist or accomodationist.

...what we have is a group of people drifting toward group think and hero worship, where a sense of belonging is maintained by erecting online gated communities from which to toss out rhetorical bombs at theists. Yet because this group is only unified by its admiration for its leaders and its hatred of religion, it takes very little to start some nasty infighting. Recognition of such problems is the first step in trying to correct them.[39]

The atheist Jerry Coyne said about atheist conferences which he attended:

But to me the speakers and talks have often seemed repetitive: the same crew of jet-set skeptics giving the same talks.

...a few things bothered me, most notably the air of self-congratulation (which I excused on the grounds of enthusiastic people finding like-minded folks for the first time), the “fanboyness” directed at some of the famous atheists (they hardly let poor Richard alone, and I’m not sure he liked that!), and the lameness of quite a few of the talks. Again, how much new can you say about atheism?[40]

The atheist blogger Galen Broaddus wrote about atheist groupthink:

...I am practically beside myself with rage at how many atheists in the movement have conducted themselves in particular over the past few weeks. These are largely people who openly castigate religious people for their credulity, for their lack of compassion, for their groupthink and wagon-circling — only to perfectly and completely obliviously act out those same behaviors.[41]

The atheist Neil Carter wrote in 2015: "atheists are just as prone to tribalism as are the members of any religion they oppose..."[42]

Atheist cults

See also: Atheist cults

Within the atheist religion, there are and have been a number of atheist cults and atheist groups which have had a cultish following. Some of these cults/groups still exist today. In 2015, FtBCon which is an online conference organized by the Freethought Blogs network, recognized that nonreligious/secular cults exist (for example, the atheist cult of objectivism).[43][44]

The atheist cults or atheist groups which have had a cultish following which have formed in history or exist today are often a result of factors such as: utopian thinking, fanatical devolution to various atheistic ideologies, a poor understanding of science/technology (or a penchant for materialist pseudoscientific thinking) and wishful thinking.

For more information, please see: Atheist cults

List of atheist and agnostic pseudosciences

Atheism and communism

See also: Atheism and socialism and Atheism and communism

The Heritage Foundation declares about atheism and socialism:

What most millennials mean by “socialism” seems to be a mix of our welfare state and what they perceive to be Swedish democratic socialism. But Sweden and the other Scandinavian countries including Denmark favor the free market and are content with private rather than government ownership of their major industries. However, Danish domestic spending including comprehensive health care has a high price — a top personal income tax of 57 percent.

Socialism in all its forms — Marxism-Leninism in the Soviet Union, Maoism in China, “state socialism” in India, “democratic socialism” in Sweden, National Socialism in Nazi Germany — has never come close to realizing the classless ideal of its founding father, Karl Marx. Instead, socialists have been forced to adopt a wide range of capitalist measures, including private ownership of railroads and airlines (United Kingdom), special economic zones (China), and open markets and foreign investment (Sweden).

Marx was an atheist socialist who insisted that his was the only “scientific” socialism based not on wishful thinking but the inexorable laws of history. The whole of history, declared Marx and his close collaborator and friend Friedrich Engels, is the history of the class struggle between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie. The inevitable collapse of capitalism and the victory of the proletariat would end the conflict and usher in a classless society and pure socialism or communism (Marx used both terms interchangeably)...

There were the costs in thought control. The content of everything in print and broadcast was limited to authorized “truths.” The Soviet press dismissed the 1932-33 forced famine in Ukraine that took the lives of seven million innocents as an anti-communist myth....

This is the reality of socialism — a pseudo-religion grounded in pseudo-science and enforced by political tyranny. This is the case against socialism — a god that failed, a science that never was, a political system headed for the ash heap of history.[45]

For more information, please see:

Atheistic ideologies breeding immorality

Atheism and morality

See also: Atheism and morality

The perverse and cruel atheist Marquis de Sade in prison, 18th century line engraving.

Not possessing a religious basis for morality, which can provide a basis for objective morality, atheism is fundamentally incapable of providing a coherent system of morality.[46] See also: Atheism and ethics and Atheism and the problem of evil

For example, atheists have been the biggest mass murderers in history (see: Atheism and mass murder and Atheistic communism, mass murder and sociopathic leaders). Dr. R. J. Rummel's mid estimate regarding the loss of life due to atheistic communism is that communism caused the death of approximately 110,286,000 people between 1917 and 1987 (See also: Atheism and communism).[47]

Atheism and various types of immorality:

Atheistic communism, mass murder and sociopathic leaders

Joseph Stalin's atheistic regime killed tens of millions of people.

See also: Atheism and mass murder and Atheist atrocities and Atheism and human rights violations and Atheism and violence and Atheism and leadership

Historically, atheism has generally been an integral part of communist ideology (see: Atheism and communism).

According to the University of Cambridge, historically, the "most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power."[48]

In a Washington Post article entitled Lessons from a century of communism Ilya Somin wrote:

Today is the 100th anniversary of the Bolshevik seizure of power, which led to the establishment of a communist regime in Russia and eventually in many other nations around the world. It is an appropriate time to remember the vast tide of oppression, tyranny, and mass murder that communist regimes unleashed upon the world. While historians and others have documented numerous communist atrocities, much of the public remains unaware of their enormous scale. It is also a good time to consider what lessons we can learn from this horrendous history.

Collectively, communist states killed as many as 100 million people, more than all other repressive regimes combined during the same time period...

There is no doubt communist governments had more than their share of cruel and even sociopathic leaders.[49]

Theodore Beale notes concerning atheism, mass murder and sociopathic atheist leaders:

Apparently it was just an amazing coincidence that every Communist of historical note publicly declared his atheism … .there have been twenty-eight countries in world history that can be confirmed to have been ruled by regimes with avowed atheists at the helm … These twenty-eight historical regimes have been ruled by eighty-nine atheists, of whom more than half have engaged in democidal acts of the sort committed by Stalin and Mao

The total body count for the ninety years between 1917 and 2007 is approximately 148 million dead at the bloody hands of fifty-two atheists, three times more than all the human beings killed by war, civil war, and individual crime in the entire twentieth century combined.

The historical record of collective atheism is thus 182,716 times worse on an annual basis than Christianity’s worst and most infamous misdeed, the Spanish Inquisition. It is not only Stalin and Mao who were so murderously inclined, they were merely the worst of the whole Hell-bound lot. For every Pol Pot whose infamous name is still spoken with horror today, there was a Mengistu, a Bierut, and a Choibalsan, godless men whose names are now forgotten everywhere but in the lands they once ruled with a red hand.

Is a 58 percent chance that an atheist leader will murder a noticeable percentage of the population over which he rules sufficient evidence that atheism does, in fact, provide a systematic influence to do bad things? If that is not deemed to be conclusive, how about the fact that the average atheist crime against humanity is 18.3 million percent worse than the very worst depredation committed by Christians, even though atheists have had less than one-twentieth the number of opportunities with which to commit them. If one considers the statistically significant size of the historical atheist set and contrasts it with the fact that not one in a thousand religious leaders have committed similarly large-scale atrocities, it is impossible to conclude otherwise, even if we do not yet understand exactly why this should be the case. Once might be an accident, even twice could be coincidence, but fifty-two incidents in ninety years reeks of causation![50][51]

Beale also wrote: "I believe that a small minority of atheists are rational sociopaths - unfortunately, these are the ones who seem to have the will to power."[52]

Theodore Beale wrote about the secular left and mass murder:

...it does, however, cast serious doubt on the common atheist assertion that a godless society will be a peaceful one. The significant question has never been if atheism causes political leaders to kill in large quantities, it is why political leaders who happen to be atheist have been inordinately inclined to kill in large quantities.

As I wrote in TIA, the answer is probably to be found in the fact that atheists who have committed great historical crimes are almost exclusively left-wing atheists with utopian visions of restructuring human society; Ayn Rand atheists aren't exactly known for attempting to violently restructure societal order.[53]

Social effects of the theory of evolution

See also: Social effects of the theory of evolution

Since World War II a majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the evolutionary position which employs methodological naturalism have been atheists and agnostics.[54]

There have been many social effects of evolution in regards to its acceptance by various individuals in the course of history (see also: Belief in evolution). The theory of evolution has been influential in regards to Social Darwinism, Nazism, Communism, and racism.[55][56][57][58][59]

‎The staunch evolutionist Stephen Gould admitted the following concerning the prominent German evolutionist and atheist Ernst Haeckel:

Haecke was the chief apostle of evolution in Germany.... His evolutionary racism; his call to the German people for racial purity and unflinching devotion to a "just" state; his belief that harsh, inexorable laws of evolution ruled human civilization and nature alike, conferring upon favored races the right to dominate others; the irrational mysticism that had always stood in strange communion with his brave words about objective science - all contributed to the rise of Nazism. - Stephen J. Gould, "Ontogeny and Phylogeny," Belknap Press: Cambridge MA, 1977 (pp.77-78).[60]

Robert E.D. Clark in his work Darwin: Before and After wrote concerning Adolf Hitler's evolutionary racism:

The Germans were the higher race, destined for a glorious evolutionary future. For this reason it was essential that the Jews should be segregated, otherwise mixed marriages would take place. Were this to happen, all nature’s efforts 'to establish an evolutionary higher stage of being may thus be rendered futile' (Mein Kampf).[61]

Dr. Clark also wrote “Adolf Hitler’s mind was captivated by evolutionary teaching — probably since the time he was a boy. Evolutionary ideas — quite undisguised — lie at the basis of all that is worst in Mein Kampf — and in his public speeches”.[62]

Richard Hickman in his work Biocreation concurs and wrote the following:

It is perhaps no coincidence that Adolf Hitler was a firm believer in and preacher of evolutionism. Whatever the deeper, profound, complexities of his psychosis, it is certain that [the concept of struggle was important for]. . . his book, Mein Kampf clearly set forth a number of evolutionary ideas, particularly those emphasizing struggle, survival of the fittest and extermination of the weak to produce a better society.[63]

Noted evolutionary anthropologists Sir Arthur Keith conceded the following in regards to Hitler: “The German Fuhrer, as I have consistently maintained, is an evolutionist; he has consciously sought to make the practices of Germany conform to the theory of evolution”.[62]

B. Wilder-Smith wrote the following regarding Nazism and the theory of evolution:

One of the central planks in Nazi theory and doctrine was …evolutionary theory [and] … that all biology had evolved … upward, and that … less evolved types … should be actively eradicated [and] … that natural selection could and should be actively aided, and therefore [the Nazis] instituted political measures to eradicate … Jews, and … blacks, whom they considered as “underdeveloped”.’ [64]

Pulitzer Prize winning author Marilynne Robinson wrote the following regarding Hitler's racism in the November 2006 issue of Harper's Magazine:

While it is true that persecution of the Jews has a very long history in Europe, it is also true that science in the twentieth century revived and absolutized persecution by giving it a fresh rationale — Jewishness was not religious or cultural, but genetic. Therefore no appeal could be made against the brute fact of a Jewish grandparent.

Dawkins deals with all this in one sentence. Hitler did his evil "in the name of. . . an insane and unscientific eugenics theory." But eugenics is science as surely as totemism is religion. That either is in error is beside the point. Science quite appropriately acknowledges that error should be assumed, and at best it proceeds by a continuous process of criticism meant to isolate and identify error. So bad science is still science in more or less the same sense that bad religion is still religion. That both of them can do damage on a huge scale is clear. The prestige of both is a great part of the problem, and in the modern period the credibility of anything called science is enormous. As the history of eugenics proves, science at the highest levels is no reliable corrective to the influence of cultural prejudice but is in fact profoundly vulnerable to it.

There is indeed historical precedent in the Spanish Inquisition for the notion of hereditary Judaism. But the fact that the worst religious thought of the sixteenth century can be likened to the worst scientific thought of the twentieth century hardly redounds to the credit of science."[65][66]

Joseph Stalin was greatly influenced by the work of Charles Darwin.[67]

Dr. Josef Mengele's evolutionary thinking was in accordance with social Darwinist theories that Adolph Hitler and a number of German academics found appealing.[68] Dr. Joseph Mengele studied under the leading proponents the "unworthy life" branch of evolutionary thought.[68] Dr. Mengele was one of the most notorious individuals associated with Nazi death camps and the Holocaust.[69] Mengele obtained an infamous reputation due to his experiments on twins while at Auschwitz-Birkenau.[69]

The prominent evolutionist and agnostic Richard Dawkins stated in an interview about the evolutionary racist, dictator and mass murderer Adolf Hitler: “What’s to prevent us from saying Hitler wasn’t right? I mean, that is a genuinely difficult question."[70] The interviewer of Richard Dawkins wrote the following regarding the Richard Dawkins comment about Hitler: "I was stupefied. He had readily conceded that his own philosophical position did not offer a rational basis for moral judgments. His intellectual honesty was refreshing, if somewhat disturbing on this point."[70]

See also: World War I and Darwinism

In addition to greatly influencing Hitler's Nazism, evolutionary ideas influenced the thinking of the Communists, including Marx, Engels, Vladimir Lenin, and Joseph Stalin.[67] Marx wrote, "Darwin's book is very important and serves me as a basis in natural science for the class struggle in history."

Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn was asked to account for the great tragedies that occurred under the brutal communist.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn offered the following explanation:

Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

Since then I have spend well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." [71]

Charles Darwin wrote: "When we descend to details, we cannot prove that a single species has changed; nor can we prove that the supposed changes are beneficial, which is the groundwork of the theory.”[72] In addition, Charles Darwin was an evolutionary racist.[73]

As noted earlier, evolutionary ideas contributed to the scourge of racism.[59][74] Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley contributed greatly to the theory of evolution broadly being accepted in the 1900s.[59] Darwin, Huxley, and the 19th century evolutionists were racist in sentiment and believed the white race was superior.[59] For example, Charles Darwin wrote in his work The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex the following:

At some future period not very distant as measured by centuries, the civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate and replace the savage races throughout the world. At the same time the anthropomorphous apes...will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest Allies will then be wider, for it will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as the baboon, instead of as now between the Negro or Australian and the gorilla.[75]

John C. Burnham wrote in the journal Science the following:

After 1859, the evolutionary schema raised additional questions, particularly whether or not Afro-Americans could survive competition with their white near-relations. The momentous answer was a resounding no.... The African was inferior — he represented the missing link between ape and Teuton." [59]

Harvard University's Stephen Jay Gould stated, "Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1859, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory."[76] See also: Evolutionary racism and Atheism and racism

Australian atheist and philosopher David Stove argues that evolutionary ideas were influential in regards to the sexual revolution. In his work entitled Darwinian Fairytales: Selfish Genes, Errors of Heredity and Other Fables of Evolution, Stove states that The “new religion of selfish genes” classifies all humans as biological errors.[77] Stove further states that “the great sexual emancipators after 1859” (Ellis, Freud, Lenin, Stopes, Sanger, Mead, Reich) "were all Darwinians" and that genetics supplied "the new religionists" their gods ... the chromosomes of the sex cells.” [77]

Belief in evolution and sexual immorality

Dr. Carl Wieland is the Managing Director of Creation Ministries International

See also: Geographic areas where bestiality is posing a notable problem and Bestiality and Germany and Bestiality and Sweden

In July 2000, Creation Ministries International reported:

For years, many people have scoffed at any suggestion that the evils in society could be linked with the teaching of the theory of evolution. But new research has confirmed what Bible-believers have known all along—that the rising acceptance of Darwin’s theory is related to declining morality in the community.

The research survey of 1535 people, conducted by the Australian National University, revealed that belief in evolution is associated with moral permissiveness. Darwin himself apparently feared that belief in evolution by the common man would lead to social decay. The survey showed that people who believed in evolution were more likely to be in favour of premarital sex than those who rejected Darwin’s theory. Another issue which highlighted the contrast between the effect of evolutionary ideas and that of biblical principles was that Darwinians were reported to be ‘especially tolerant’ of abortion.

In identifying the primary factors determining these differences in community attitudes, the author of the research report, Dr Jonathan Kelley, said: ‘The single most important influence after church attendance is the theory of evolution.’[78]

Recommended book

See also: I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist

A notable book regarding atheism is Dr. Norm Geisler's and Frank Turek's book entitled I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist.[79][80] The title of Geisler's and Turek's book I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist is not surprising given that notable people who claimed to be atheists have had difficulty maintaining thoughts in accordance with atheism.

Shockofgod on atheism and gullibility

The Christian YouTube channel Shockofgod is produced by a Christian who is an ex-atheist. Shockofgod produced a video entitled Atheists are not skeptical they are Gullible.

See also

External links

Notes

  1. Atheism by Matt Slick
  2. When Man Ceases to Worship God, The Society of Gilbert Keith Chesterton website
  3. 3.0 3.1 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122178219865054585.html
  4. Look Who's Irrational Now by Mollie Ziegler Hemingway, Wall Street Journal, September 19, 2008
  5. The Triumph of Faith: Why the World is More Religious Than Ever by Rodney Stark, Introduction section of the book
  6. A surprising map of where the world’s atheists live, By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey, Washington Post, May 23, 2013
  7. Most atheists are not white & other non-fairy tales By Razib Khanm, Discover Magazine
  8. Top 50 Countries With Highest Proportion of Atheists / Agnostics (Zuckerman, 2005)
  9. A surprising map of where the world’s atheists live, Washington Post By Max Fisher and Caitlin Dewey May 23, 2013
  10. Shang, A.; Huwiler, K.; Nartey, L.; Jüni, P.; Egger, M. (2007). "Placebo-controlled trials of Chinese herbal medicine and conventional medicine comparative study". International Journal of Epidemiology. 36 (5): 1086–92. doi:10.1093/ije/dym119. PMID 17602184.
  11. China passes first law on traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). WebMD China (December 28, 2016).
  12. WHO Endorses Traditional Chinese Medicine. Expect Deaths To Rise by Steven Salzberg, Forbes magazine
  13. WHO Endorses Traditional Chinese Medicine. Expect Deaths To Rise by Steven Salzberg, Forbes magazine
  14. Chinese cannibalism of infant flesh outrages the world, Washington Times, 2014
  15. Atty Awards, Anti-Theism International Convention 2020 website
  16. How did the so-called rationalist community become so gullible? by PZ Myers
  17. Ruse, M., How evolution became a religion: creationists correct? National Post, pp. B1,B3,B7 May 13, 2000.
  18. Myths of Origin and the Theory of Evolution
  19. 20.0 20.1 Origin of life
  20. Origin of life by Dr. Don Batten
  21. The atheist delusion, John Gray, The Guardian, Friday 14 March 2008
  22. https://creation.com/ufology-scientific-religion
  23. https://creation.com/did-god-create-life-on-other-planets
  24. https://creation.com/origin-of-life-questions-and-answers
  25. http://cosmologytalk.tribe.net/thread/7e25b81c-2529-44c6-b388-f926c2475e6a
  26. 28.0 28.1 28.2 Tarjanyi, Judy. "Astronomer links UFOs to Occultism." The Toledo Blade, January 4, 2003. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
  27. http://www.alienintrusion.com/main.html
  28. Authors unknown. "A UFO 2nd Coming." Let Us Reason Ministries, 2007. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
  29. 32.0 32.1 Gleghorn, Michael. "UFO's and Alien Beings." Probe Ministries. Retrieved November 3, 2007.
  30. http://www.discovery.org/a/4589
  31. What Is the Value of Freethought
  32. http://onegoodmove.org/fallacy/exclus.htm
  33. Feeling Disillusioned With the Atheist Movement, Atheist Revolution
  34. Get out of my head, Eiynah! by PZ Myers
  35. A shambolic atheist community faces some tough choices by Denyse O'Leary
  36. Becoming Disillusioned with the Atheist Movement, Shadow to Light blog
  37. Are there too many atheist meetings? by Jerry Coyne
  38. I’m Opting Out of the Movement by Galen Broaddus
  39. http://www.patheos.com/blogs/godlessindixie/2015/09/27/why-abrasive-atheism-will-always-sell-better/ Why Abrasive Atheism Will Always Sell Better] by Neil Carter
  40. Reminder: Secular Cults Panel at FtBCon Tonight!, January 24, 2015 by Adam Lee
  41. FtBCon3: Secular Cults
  42. What Americans Must Know About Socialism
  43. Paul Copan
  44. Rummel, R. J. (November 1993). "How many did communist regimes murder?" University of Hawaii website; Freedom, Democracy, Peace; Power, Democide, and War. Retrieved July 19, 2014.
  45. Investigating atheism: Marxism. University of Cambridge (2008). Retrieved on July 17, 2014. “The most notable spread of atheism was achieved through the success of the 1917 Russian Revolution, which brought the Marxist-Leninists to power. For the first time in history, atheism thus became the official ideology of a state.”
  46. Lessons from a century of communism by Ilya Somin, Washington Post
  47. Vox Day, The Irrational Atheist: Dissecting the Unholy Trinity of Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens (Dallas, TX: BenBella Books, Inc.), 2008, p. 17.
  48. Ammi, Ken (June 11, 2009). "Atheism [quoting Vox Day]". Creation Ministries International. Retrieved on July 19, 2014.
  49. Strange Semantics by Theodore Beal/Vox Day
  50. Atheist Demotivator #4 by Theodore Beal
  51. https://www.icr.org/article/454/
  52. http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v09n1p04.htm
  53. http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3031/
  54. http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3054/
  55. 59.0 59.1 59.2 59.3 59.4 https://www.icr.org/article/55/
  56. http://members.iinet.net.au/~sejones/social.html
  57. http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1675
  58. 62.0 62.1 http://www.christiancourier.com/articles/read/the_holocaust_why_did_it_happen
  59. http://www.creationism.org/csshs/v08n3p24.htm
  60. http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v13/i2/nazi.asp
  61. http://solutions.synearth.net/2006/10/20
  62. http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/someone-finally-said-it-dawkinss-hysterical-scientism/
  63. 67.0 67.1 https://creation.com/the-darwinian-foundation-of-communism
  64. 68.0 68.1 http://www.posner.com/book1.htm
  65. 69.0 69.1 http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/joseph_mengele.htm
  66. 70.0 70.1 http://byfaithonline.com/page/in-the-world/richard-dawkins-the-atheist-evangelist
  67. https://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=276
  68. Dr. Walt Brown, Center for Scientific Creationism, References and Notes: Distinct Types
  69. http://www.canadianvalues.ca/issues.aspx?aid=334
  70. http://www.answersingenesis.org/home/area/faq/racism.asp
  71. The Descent of Man, chapter VI
  72. https://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=view&ID=268
  73. 77.0 77.1 http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18094
  74. Morals decline linked to evolution
  75. http://www.rzim.org/slice/slicetran.php?sliceid=1029
  76. http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38125