Thread: Gallup Poll: 4 in 10 believe man created by God 10,000 years ago

Originally Posted by Glenn24

FUNDAMENTALIST !!!!

When I wrote the above, I first declared myself a fundamentalist, but deleted it because I wanted to see if anyone else would point it out. You're the winner!

Originally Posted by Utopian

Well, it doesn't work for agnostics, but atheists firmly and strictly adhere to the belief that your beliefs are false.

-1

I am an atheist. I firmly and strictly adhere to the belief that your beliefs are false IF they cannot or will not be shown.

Big difference in that 'if'. Fundamentalists will change their minds under no circumstances and that is what defines it. Not what one believes or how passionately, but whether there is room for change, room for reason.

Originally Posted by xman

I firmly and strictly adhere to the belief that your beliefs are false IF they cannot or will not be shown.

I guess I assumed that to be an agnostic.
BTW, when I wrote "your beliefs," I was directing it at a Christian.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I guess I assumed that to be an agnostic.
BTW, when I wrote "your beliefs," I was directing it at a Christian.

You can be agnostic and atheist.

Originally Posted by NYCshaver

How can an agnostic or atheist be a fundamentalist?

Fundamentalist is not a belief, but a state of mind. Take the religous belief away from a fundamentalist Christian, Jew or Muslim and you would still have a person who thinks fundamentally. Even though they have no particular belief or the belief in non believing, in the case of agnostics and atheists, they really can't change their cognitive maturity level.
Fundamentalist meaning they are concrete thinkers and not capable of abstract thought.

I totally agree with that. I've met and seen my fair share of fundamentalist americans, british and dutch people for instance.

All believing that which ever country they were putting forward was the best regardless of evidence.

And by that definition, yes there ARE fundamentalist atheists who even IF evidence was shown to them regarding de existance of a god....would still not believe it and come up with an alternate story i.e. it must've been a trick, you're lying to me, I must have been drugged etc etc.

No-one is calling all atheists fundamentalists.....but there are atheists that are fundamentalists.
Quoting the great atheist advocate Richard Dawkins:

"The true scientist, however passionately he may “believe”, in evolution for example, knows exactly what would change his mind: evidence! The fundamentalist knows that nothing will."[41]

Richard Dawkins, "How dare you call me a fundamentalist: The right to criticize ‘faith-heads’," The Times, May 12, 2007

Implying that it's also possible for someone who doesn't believe in anything to continue in that state regardless of evidence.

Originally Posted by xman

-1

I am an atheist. I firmly and strictly adhere to the belief that your beliefs are false IF they cannot or will not be shown.

Something is not necissarily false if it cannot be shown. For example, the beleif that a god exists is not false. It cannot be shown that god exists, but the opposite is also true. You can disagree with the beleif of the existance of a god, but based on what we know / don't know today, under no circumstance can it be said that the beleif of the existance of a god is false.

And you definitely cannot say that a beleif is false if it will not be shown, because it's impossible to predict what will and won't be shown in the future.

You know the old saying-"if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to see it did it fall"?

Do you think other animals believe in some supreme being or is it just us? If we could really communicate with a Chimp for instance what do you think they would say about this? Would their answer have implications?

Think about it.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

You know the old saying-"if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to see it did it fall"?

Do you think other animals believe in some supreme being or is it just us? If we could really communicate with a Chimp for instance what do you think they would say about this? Would their answer have implications?

Think about it.

This is hypothetical of course but surely Chimps would think that the higher power is Chimp. And surely they would also think that they are on the top ladder of the evolution.

*So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish*

Originally Posted by Utopian

BTW, when I wrote "your beliefs," I was directing it at a Christian.

Yes, I took that meaning.

Originally Posted by Kingfish

Fundamentalist is not a belief, but a state of mind. Take the religous belief away from a fundamentalist Christian, Jew or Muslim and you would still have a person who thinks fundamentally. Even though they have no particular belief or the belief in non believing, in the case of agnostics and atheists, they really can't change their cognitive maturity level.
Fundamentalist meaning they are concrete thinkers and not capable of abstract thought.

This is simply incorrect. There are no fundamentals of atheism, no dogma, no book, no anointed bishops, etc. As mentioned, an atheist may be fervent, passionate, even unyielding, but 'fundamentalist' is attributing a quality which is technically absent. At best it may be metaphorical.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

Do you think other animals believe in some supreme being or is it just us? If we could really communicate with a Chimp for instance what do you think they would say about this? Would their answer have implications?

Think about it.

I quite imagine, if they had a need for such abstraction which I bet they don't, that they would see us as some kind of gods. Mostly I think they view us as curious, industrious, complicated and dangerous animals.