I just posted an interesting piece by Sam Harris that I found regarding the truth about atheism. It was written in 2006 for the LA Times and holds some ideas as to how atheists as a general rule view the world, and how religious people view atheists.
Here at Believers Anonymous, I want create a place for folks with a "believing problem" to be able to easily find resources, whether that be an article that concisely talks about atheism, opinions and "testimonies" of other people finding their way, or well, just about anything that might be helpful to you.
This is a journey for me as well, because, while I've been an atheist for a long time, I've come to feel that I need to be a bit more proactive about my lack of faith. Hence the creation of this site, obviously. I'm comfortable in my godlessness, but you might need facts, information and/or support to help you with your beliefs. That information isn't always easy to come by, so it might take awhile.
Anyway, I'm on a Quest for this information. (Any tidbits or suggestions are always welcome, by the way... or help even.. I would love that too!) As I find it, I'll present it to you as best I can. This brings me to a couple small things I want to talk to you about.
First, a word about polls. In the article about the truths of atheism I just shared with you, Sam Harris refers to several polls that had been done back then in 2006 or earlier. My friend, Hess at The Feeble Lance asked for links to those polls. I tried to find them but didn't have any luck. Why didn't I? Because there are over 3,000 polls referenced in the archives of Newsweek, and that's just for the first one I looked up.
That seems like a lot, doesn't it? As I scanned them in search of the proverbial needle in the haystack, I noticed that the dates of each article were frequent and that each poll was talked about, in the brief synopsis, like it was rock solid fact.
While it would be nice to know what the country is thinking, a poll of a few thousand people (at most) is certainly not the way to get that information. Study statistics and how polls are taken, and you'll come to realize they are complete and utter nonsense. Really. They say nothing of facts and the real feelings and thoughts of people.
Polls are carefully crafted word by word by people with degrees in number crunching and manipulation to get the response they are after. Ask a pollster and they'll tell you that. This drives me crazy because people believe them and listen to them, especially when they agree with a person.
So basically I'm trying to tell you, don't believe everything you see or hear. Numbers are easily warped and manipulated just like pixels in a photograph can be changed to just about anything and you'd never even know it. Who gets polled anyway? People who are bored, lonely and don't have Caller ID. That's who. Polls are fluff and air, nothing more.
Next, a little bit more about Sam Harris. While hunting down the article I just shared with you, I found his website. On his home page, which I just linked you to, he says that he needs volunteer editors for The Scripture Project. This caught my attention and I read up on it and enlisted.
The Skeptic's Annotated Bible, a great resource, is being moved to the Reason Project, which is a Sam Harris undertaking. If you have never seen the SAB, it's quite a treat. I have had cause to refer to it several times and have it bookmarked. The creator of the SAB/Koran/Book of Mormon has annotated those works with comments throughout where there are contradictions in the text, intolerance, cruelty, injustice, absurdity, and so on. The Scripture Project is going to transfer that and refine and expand it.
I must admit, it's a bit selfish of me to volunteer for this, because I have an interest in the bible and its absurdities, and also want to bring such information to you. At any rate, I edited my first page today, and hope I can be of some use to the endeavor.
If you're interested, go here to Sam Harris' site to look into it further.
That wraps it up for now, have a great day! :)
No comments:
Post a Comment