Faith in Religulous

For us Skeptics, there is probably no better video Bible than the documentary entitled Religulous. It stars Bill Maher as he travels across the country talking to religious people. The name is a play on the words ridiculous and religious. While I will claim I have been a member of Skeptics Anonymous since my childhood, I was moved by this documentary quite a bit.

As you can surmise from the brief description above, Bill Maher believes religions are the downfall of modern society. His contention is that they are holding us back as a species, and should focus our efforts on more useful endeavors. One of my favorite parts about this documentary is that at no time does he ridicule or make fun of his interviewees. He definitely skirts the line, but most of his questions are very sincere and he really wants to learn why people believe the things they do.

As sincere as I would like to paint this movie, it is most assuredly a comedy. But I think most of the comedy comes from the other side of the table. A strand that weaves throughout the conversations is Faith. We'll capitalize Faith also because of how important it is to the topic of Skeptics. Often people will extol Faith as a virtue second to none. As they say "Through faith, all things are possible."

Faith is a trend present throughout the Bible and other important religious texts. But as Bill Maher puts it, you're selling an invisible product. It's too easy. Because like the word "magic" you can use Faith to explain away just about anything. I have heard this conversation time and time again:

"I can't believe this terrible thing happened, why would God put me through this?"

"You have to have Faith, God has a plan for us all."

That's a great tool to have don't you think? It reminds me of the Harry Potter books where they can just say "It's magic" to explain away strange circumstances. How do the trains run without coal or another energy source? There is smoke coming from a fire. What fuels the fire? Magic. Just a random example, but you see what I mean.

I strongly suggest Skeptics and non-Skeptics alike see this movie. It paints a very realistic picture of what religious people think about the world. Moreover, it shows how little they really have in their arsenal when confronted with questions about their religious beliefs. To be fair, Atheists have just as little in their arsenal to answer life's tough questions. But the difference is that Atheists aren't the ones with extraordinary beliefs.

That will be the next topic I discuss. Stay tuned!

Introduction to Skeptics

I am going to refer to this introduction post often because it's very easy to read blogs and have knee-jerk reactions.

So first off, I am Ben and I am a Skeptic. What does that mean and why did I capitalize it? Let's get a Wikipedia definition for triteness.  Skepticism is "generally any questioning attitude toward knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, or doubt regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere."

I like to think of Skepticism as the opposite of Gulliblism (that's not a word). Gullible people believe anything they are told, despite any strangeness and with little critical thinking. Skeptics pride themselves on doubt and logic.

So why Anonymous? Because in today's world, being a Skeptic is like being a cynic. It's seen as a pejorative term.  But when we talk about it being the opposite of gullible, it sounds pretty good right? If it wasn't for Skeptics, parents wouldn't tell their kids: "Don't talk to strangers." We say that because we are skeptical that a stranger has our children's best interests at heart.

Then why is Skepticism frowned upon? Mostly because its virtue is only applied to certain situations like the one above. We are taught to be skepitcal of strangers, but to never question the stories we are told in Bible school. All this being said, there are some fantastic and compelling reasons to support religion and a deistic religion. One example is Evidence for God from Science.

I will refer to this website often because frankly it has some of the best-formed reasons why Christians are right about their worldview. Often both sides sling mud, and discussions quickly deteriorate. The opinions and arguments are well-formed on EGS, which makes them quite interesting to read.

I want to make one last point on the introduction. My feelings on the subject at hand are going to be largely obvious, but I will do my best to present arguments from the opposite viewpoint. This way, readers can determine on their own whether to be a Skeptic or not. Additionally, as you can probably tell, I am writing this in a very conversational tone. I won't pretend to be an expert in this field, so I won't pretend to write in a technical or authoritative tone.

All that said, let's get to work Skeptics!