Atheists, Agnostics know more about religion than the religious

You know I will be sharing this, but I think it’s sort of like knowing thy enemy, or why so many moderate Republicans seem infinitely smarter than moderate liberals.

INFINITELY.

It’s because, when you are constantly persecuted, challenged, and have unpopular view points, you need to be able to defend yourself, and deeply understand why *YOU* arrived at this viewpoints – unlike most deeply religious people who just passively accepted indoctrination in their youth without ever questioning it.  Arguments of authority, silly nonsense, magical ideas that we were told to stop believing around the age of 6 at Christmas time or after all our teeth had earned us a quarter.  I admit, I have always been a skeptic.. since the age of 6 when I started with my love affair with the human condition and the concept of mortality.  I knew God wasn’t real about the same time I figured out Santa Claus wasn’t real – and actually believed in Santa Claus for a lot longer because it makes so much more sense than God.

Atheists are, for a fact, the single most persecuted people in the history of mankind.  They have been collateral damage in almost every major religious or political or idealogical war. It makes people nervous – “Whoah there buddy. Why are you questioning that?  Don’t you dare make me think about it”.

Those who have deeply searched and found religion… I am not sure there is something more beautiful.  ever.  I envy it, to a degree.  I am not going to delude myself, but I am also open to meeting a ghost, a God, or an alien.  Wide open.  That’s what being a skeptic is… it’s fence sitting.

But it’s also a lack of belief, in this case.  It’s impossible to explain, which is why I default to humanism when talking about this, because it’s so much nicer to explain that with a hug.

(If you like this stuff, you will like YOU ARE NOT RATIONAL – my science-y quote blogg-y thingy)