@cystic:
@F_alk:
@Yanny:
Name one culture that developed an Athiestic Culture from the get-go. Name one culture who didn’t develope a Religion.
None, of course.
Atheism needs knowledge. Theism and religions do not.
F_alk: of course this derives from the assumption that every culture/person ignorantly wondered “where did these pretty lights and me come from - must be God!” Atheism - a belief that there is no God - requires that you do not have any knowledge of a God, whereas in this day and age, i believe that theism may …
You are right. I take my position from that assumption.
Your counterargument is more or less uselss, as you state it’s valid in our times. We on the other hand were talking about the history of cultures. That is a few 1000 years back :)
I don’t think that it’s anything special to not believe in something, or to believe in the absense of something when it is not demonstrated to us that it exist (i.e. a non-belief in the tooth fairy requires knowledge???). To believe in something contrary to a rational discourse (i still do not believe for a moment that atheism is more rational than agnosticism) requires a knowledge that those supporting the “rational point of view” do not have.
I think it would be very special for anyone not to try and “explain” phenomena that he/she sees. If you have a scientific background and knowledge, you may find explanations there. If you don’t have that, you start looking around…. you have seen (as a kid) that your parents could do “amazing” feats, and were nearly “almighty”… why not assume that the parents of all parents’ parents …etc … could do even more amazing feats, like let it rain, let their spirits watch over me and my family, just like they did when they were alive …
You assume a situation of today, with a huge knowledge about how nature works. This then offers the question: intelligent design, or luck/antropic principle. But for people 3000 years ago, what was the source and reason for the annual flooding of the nile, the flooding that let them grow crops and survive, live… it was a life-giving event! And therefore, as it was supporting them, it clearly had a purpose (the pupose of supporting them), which means it must have been “caused”, by something “superior, intelligent and caring”…
i bet they would have called it god.
Pretty much the same argument for the intelligent design, isn’t it?