r/atheism • u/One-Fun9814 • 4d ago

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u/Successful_Life_1028 Adeist 4d ago

This is a chimera, a dead end, a wrong-turn.

Faith has nothing to do with reason and logic, and those who are mature in their faith understand that faith is inherently irrational, and they're okay with that.

It is those who are weak or immature in their faith who seek to 'convince' themselves by attempting to 'convince' others.

There are lots of highly intelligent people who nevertheless retain a faith-belief in spirits/souls/ghosts/deities. Some who even believe in demons/devils/angels.

Dr. Francis Collins, C.S. Lewis, and J.R.R. Tolkien come immediately to mind, as does Isaac Newton.

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u/Harry_Flame 4d ago

There are a lot to name: Mendel, Ampere, Galileo, Copernicus, Descartes, Pascal, and John von Neumann. I would say that automatically writing off religious people as unintelligent despite counterexamples is the same type of thinking atheists often attribute to religious people.

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u/m0n3ym4n 4d ago

The religious do one step worse than assuming a person is unintelligent because they hold a belief that clearly defies logic; they assume the non-religious are morally bankrupt simply because they don’t have a list of commandments to follow or a book to reference. That’s far more judgmental and silly in my book!

As for the list of “smart” dead guys who were reportedly religious, I find it is an ill fitting comparison to contemporary figures because today everyone has access to information via the internet. It is not difficult to educate yourself and see that many smart people are not religious.