Who is winning in the west: christianity or atheism?

Quote from bigarrow:

To answer the thread title "Who is winning in the west: christianity or atheism?
The real question who is winning christianity or knowledge and yes knowledge is winning and will win. Education, progress, easy access to information has doomed christianity and all other religions. Worried about muslims in the middle east, our foreign aid dollars should be used to set up internet that can't be disabled by state governments, knowledge and information can lead to the unradicalization of the muslims, like it's done for the christians around the world.
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I agree with your point about more education helping world affairs. Not just to counter Religion, but to expand the knowledge that we are all here on this planet together, and should consider working together instead of invading, conquering, wars of policy or finance. I know this is kind of a Duh thing to say, but with all the tools we have now, there is no reason for so much of the World to live life uneducated.
 
Quote from L-Kabong:

I think we could argue all day but it seems we are both right if we agree that there are different strains of agnosticism.
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All of which run the gamut of atheism. :)
 
Quote from bigarrow:

...Worried about muslims in the middle east, our foreign aid dollars should be used to set up internet that can't be disabled by state governments, knowledge and information can lead to the unradicalization of the muslims...
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Not an entirely bad idea. Are enough of those goat humpers literate enough for it to work?
 
Quote from Lucrum:

Not an entirely bad idea. Are enough of those goat humpers literate enough for it to work?
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Maybe not, but I'll bet their kids and anyone under the age of 30 will be with in a few months of playing with a computer.
 
Quote from Free Thinker:

had you bothered to look deeper at the data you would have found that their term "scientist" includes many professions not related to the question at hand. it includes computer scientists,social scientists,building scientists ect. if you go to scientists who actually study the question at hand like biologists or cosmologists the number of believers drops to like 7%.
francis collins is an interesting case. if someone such as him actually presented evidence for his belief in god we would have to take notice. however if you read his work you find no such evidence. he simply "feels" there has to be a god. no evidence needed.

http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2006/12/deluded-scientist.html
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Where did you get the 7% number?

There are many studies that show 40-50% of scientists believe in god, but none that I can find that show 7%.

And there are many other top scientists who believe in god, it's not just Collins. William Phillips won a Nobel Prize in physics and Jerome Groopman of Harvard is one of the most highly respected medical professors in the world. Should Collins, Phillips and Groopman be ridiculed for their beliefs? You spend a lot of time ridiculing people who believe in god so I assume you hold these accomplished scientists in the same contempt that you hold all people who believe in God. And while you're at it, don't forget to ridicule Max Planck.

Also, please provide a reference for your statement that only 7% of scientists believe in god or a higher power.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/2466974...ience/t/how-scientists-really-feel-about-god/

I'm an agonostic, but I can't completely discount the possibility of god because there are brilliant people who hold these beliefs.
 
Quote from bigarrow:

To answer the thread title "Who is winning in the west: christianity or atheism?
The real question who is winning christianity or knowledge and yes knowledge is winning and will win. Education, progress, easy access to information has doomed christianity and all other religions. Worried about muslims in the middle east, our foreign aid dollars should be used to set up internet that can't be disabled by state governments, knowledge and information can lead to the unradicalization of the muslims, like it's done for the christians around the world.
More...

+1 brother
 
Quote from tomdavis:

Where did you get the 7% number?

There are many studies that show 40-50% of scientists believe in god, but none that I can find that show 7%.

And there are many other top scientists who believe in god, it's not just Collins. William Phillips won a Nobel Prize in physics and Jerome Groopman of Harvard is one of the most highly respected medical professors in the world. Should Collins, Phillips and Groopman be ridiculed for their beliefs? You spend a lot of time ridiculing people who believe in god so I assume you hold these accomplished scientists in the same contempt that you hold all people who believe in God. And while you're at it, don't forget to ridicule Max Planck.

Also, please provide a reference for your statement that only 7% of scientists believe in god or a higher power.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/2466974...ience/t/how-scientists-really-feel-about-god/

I'm an agonostic, but I can't completely discount the possibility of god because there are brilliant people who hold these beliefs.
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Best Answer
Answer

The first thing is to decide what is meant be "recognized scientists" - eminent scientists, less eminent scientists who do perform pure research, or persons with advanced science degrees but perform little or no pure research. If reliable data on belief in creation within the scientific community is not available, we could start by establishing how many scientists believe in a personal god, because the number who literally believe in creation must be somewhat smaller than this.

· In 1998, a study by Larson and Witham appeared on the leading journal Nature ("Leading scientists still reject God"), showing that of the American scientists who had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, only about 7 percent believe in a personal god.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Approxima...of_recognized_Scientists_believes_in_Creation
 
Quote from Free Thinker:

Best Answer
Answer

The first thing is to decide what is meant be "recognized scientists" - eminent scientists, less eminent scientists who do perform pure research, or persons with advanced science degrees but perform little or no pure research. If reliable data on belief in creation within the scientific community is not available, we could start by establishing how many scientists believe in a personal god, because the number who literally believe in creation must be somewhat smaller than this.

· In 1998, a study by Larson and Witham appeared on the leading journal Nature ("Leading scientists still reject God"), showing that of the American scientists who had been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, only about 7 percent believe in a personal god.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Approxima...of_recognized_Scientists_believes_in_Creation
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The study showed that 7% believe in a personal god, which is different that a belief in god or some higher power. Max Plank didn't believe in a personal god (despite what some people say), but he did believe in a higher power. Where do people like Planck fit in?

When you ridicule people who believe in god, please remember to ridicule Collins, Groopman and Nobel Prize winners Phillips and Planck.
 
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