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I think that in intellectual pursuits, it's best to err on the side of a liberal approach. You tend to be more open to different perspectives and viewpoints, which promotes learning. When you live by a religious code, your ability to be open can be stifled. I'm just sayin'. Being a Baha'i, I feel that I can follow the teaching of my faith and pursue knowledge at the same time. But it's a balancing act, for sure!
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I havent read all the posts yes but here is my take on it. The more you know about science the more you think you can "prove" God wrong your nonexistent. The more intelligent you are the more you think you are God, yourself, since you "know it all." The more people around you telling you it's impossible, the more you think about it that way. BUT I know many religions, such as my faith- that asks us to educated our children, to expand our childrens minds, education is the key... especially for this day in age because things are growing so rapidly and kids are learning so much quicker through peers, tv, school, the more close knit environment comparing to 200 years ago. Now God gave us free will to learn this information and either except or deny. What I always land on is... Okay I know all this... I took all these courses... now whats the point? What does it all come from? Why do we act this way? Why is nature so complex? And all my questions lead to the same BIG ANSWER. God. So my point is it's all how you think about things, because I am very intelligent in all areas but I still have faith in God. It's how much you put yourself and your own brain processing and instincts and discoveries to truth, or how much you allow Him to answer the WHY questions.
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In high school (back in the day...) we were covering n**i Germany. It was interesting some of the grounds for attack that the Jews were stealing all the good jobs, they were "overrepresented" as bankers, teachers, intellectuals etc. In this particular religious community, there tended to be a greater focus on the pursuit of higher education...so I guess it depends very much on the time and the place :) Or maybe, as society became more irreligious, people began to replace it with pursuits of academic knowledge?
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Higher education teaches critical thinking and forces you to look closely at your beliefs. Those two tend to do a number on religious belief.
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Not that I assume it's your intent, MadlyMadeline, but it bothers me when atheists use this line of reasoning to advance their beliefs, because it's a fallacious appeal to authority. On another note, the discussion of yearning reminds me of a famous quote from Satre: “God doesn’t exist—the b*****d!”
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I can definitely believe that, because of the laws of science that are being blatantly broken by what I believe to be, misinterpreted religious doctrines. I also know of Ph.D's who are very religious.
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Atheism is the position that deities do not exist. So that does not cancel out spirituality all together, it simply rules out deities/ Gods that would exist as entities separate from human beings. Please do not assume that because a person is agnostic or even identifies as (gasp!) atheist, that they are incapable of experiencing a spiritual dimension in their lives. There are some of us who believe in a collective consciousness which we are all a part of---(along with everything that exists) and which is as mysterious, unknowable, sacred and wonderful as any God that any religion has put forth, we just don't choose to employ religion to experience this consciousness and we do not believe that exists outside of ourselves, but that we are a part of it. Even if one does believe in God as a separate, omniscient, all-powerful being who created all life, didn't that God give human beings the incredible capacity for rational, intelligent thought? The ability to reason, to think, to explore and learn? Would He want you to blindly accept the teachings in a book or would He want you to question and come to know Him in your own way?
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One thought I have is that "non-believers" still yearn, as do all humans, to believe in something bigger than themselves. The "bigger" for atheists might be the presumably better educated folks at universities who have, or purport to have, answers to the burning questions. Perhaps atheists are disproportionately drawn to higher education because they are looking for external/intellectual answers to the big questions that the devout find within and/or through their religious experiences.
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I think that is misnomer. Look at the universities across the United States how many are religiously affiliated. Almost all of the Ivy league schools were created by church bodies. In fact, Christianity in the US has been responsible for a significant amount of education and higher education in the US. Before there were public schools, it was the task of the church to educate. In fact, one Christian reformer said it was education and faith that transforms a society.
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Higher Ed is based on religious dogma, albeit a naturaliatic and analytical one one. If you remove the idea of deity from religion, you are left with a system of faith in a particular way on understanding the world around you and the things that occur in that world. These beliefes lead to certain rituals and practices: "religion: a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects" - dictionary.com I think we need to seperate ourselves from the notion that Higher Ed is somehow "free from bias". Think about the rituals in higher ed - classroom teaching, research based on the scientific method, publishing research in scientific journals (the holy writ of higher ed) just to name a few. So the question is, what are the dogmas of higher ed and what faith are they based on?
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whatever our education level is, I think we are all equal before nature's mysteries. Science and scientists shouldn't claim to be able to explain everything since imho it wouldn't be sience anymore. Indeed, I think scientific discoveries and the process to get to know about these discoveries ie education should be focused around humility. "To know that we don't know anything" leads to an infinite progress of human knowledge. Unlike claiming "we will be able to explain everything" would lead imho to a finite point in time when ultimately progress would stop since all knowledge would be reached...
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I think it all depends on which path of higher education you take. For me, I went to college for science, and experiments, and learning how and why things work. I always want to know the reason behind something and the explanation for it. There's logic in everything and things can always be explained. I wouldn't call myself an atheist, but I definitely have a hard time telling myself to have faith. I always want proof and evidence and facts. I could see people who took another path, like pursuing a bachelor of arts degree, being less inclined to atheism. I'm not stating that as a fact, just a thought. Faith may come easier to that type of person because they may not have the need to find out why things are the way they are. They don't need the physical proof of something.
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I think em_me has a good point. More enthusiastic theists tend to search for their understandings of the universe in religious texts and churches while atheists can only take a naturalistic approach.
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Maybe it's atheism that draws some people into higher education? Sommerset Maugham wrote 'it does not know what refuge it is seeking, but it is seeking'. Maybe there's just more of a push to keep seeking when religion doesn't occupy that space?
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