Pablum

Fellow atheists: Things are not as bad as they sometimes seem. Most Christians don't actually believe the pablum they are fed. They are Christians only by the default of tradition. The ones who really believe the pablum hook, line and sinker, are the most weak minded of the lot and their loudness obscures their lack of numbers!

Originally posted by 667joe
Fellow atheists: Things are not as bad as they sometimes seem. Most Christians don't actually believe the pablum they are fed. They are Christians only by the default of tradition. The ones who really believe the pablum hook, line and sinker, are the most weak minded of the lot and their loudness obscures their lack of numbers!

Fellow atheists? That's like "fellow cats."

Unfortunately, the opposite of "atheist" is not "christian". There's still a lot of religion based misery around the world. Even if most of it is not Christian based.

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Originally posted by 667joe
Fellow atheists: Things are not as bad as they sometimes seem. Most Christians don't actually believe the pablum they are fed.

Actually that is what makes it so bad. A significant proportion of people are living a lie and essentially deceiving everyone around them for selfish purposes. They are pretending to believe something they do not believe for various reasons, and they use this deception in various ways, usually to try and manipulate others.
People have very curious psychology when it comes to religion. We find it harder to criticize others if they use the religion card. And everybody knows this and takes advantage of it.

Do you think that many theists are in fact not theist at all? I hate it when somebody says that most atheists are in fact closet theists - obviously they're trying to make their own position stronger by undermining the other's position. Ofcourse it would then not be a good thing to say the same thing about theists ("They don't really believe" ).

I do think most theists have to work very hard - and make unusual mental leaps - to keep believing what they've been told.

Christinans have the virgin birth.
Jehovas have the "Do not give your child blood when it bleeds to death".
Muslims have the Sharia law and what not.
Scientologists have Tom Cruise.

That is an awful lot for the simple human brain to accept.

Originally posted by Great King Rat
Do you think that many theists are in fact not theist at all?

I think many theists are really agnostic ie they are far from certain that God exists and skeptical about many of the claims their religion makes.
I have seen surveys where a significant proportion of people say they are a member of a religion but are not sure if there is life after death.

For example:
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2657404?uid=2&uid=4&sid=21102639677287
says 85 percent of protestants believe in life after death.
This means 15 percent of protestants are members of the religion but don't believe its most basic tenets.