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My personal experience would indicate this article is wrong in some places and does not give an acurrate view of how to tell if an article is written by an atheist.
:::Regarding "[[User:CodyH|CodyH]] 11:43 28 March 2009 (CST)": Cody, are you "editing from the future" as a comment on your belief in black holes? It won't convince people here.
:::Regarding "[[User:CodyH|CodyH]] 11:43 28 March 2009 (CST)": Cody, are you "editing from the future" as a comment on your belief in black holes? It won't convince people here.
:::I won't add to Aschlafly's comments except to say that the [[Black Hole]] page needs a serious rewrite to remove both honest mistakes and DinsdaleP-style confusion. Unfortunately, I don't have time for that right now. [[User:BHarlan|BHarlan]] 13:10, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
:::I won't add to Aschlafly's comments except to say that the [[Black Hole]] page needs a serious rewrite to remove both honest mistakes and DinsdaleP-style confusion. Unfortunately, I don't have time for that right now. [[User:BHarlan|BHarlan]] 13:10, 18 March 2009 (EDT)
:::: The existence of black holes has been shown mathematically possible (and necessary under certain conditions) and matter has been observed falling into them. As for the way science works, if future observations disprove the existence of black holes (which is considered to be unlikely) then the idea of black holes will be thrown out as erroneous and new ideas will be generated to explain the data. That is the beauty of science: it is not afraid to find its own errors and fix them. And by the way, NASA gets its money from the government. If it was allowed to make money and sell magazines, we'd have had manned missions to Mars by now. However, the potential conflict of interest you pointed out is exactly why that's not allowed.
:::: As for the actual article "Atheistic Styles," allow me to make my statements on the issue as an agnostic and friend of several atheists: 1: If democracy was first practiced in pre-Christian Greece, how does democracy rely on Christianity? Also, Israel is a Jewish state with a functioning democratic system.
::::2: Many atheists credit the faith of Newton, Galileo, etc. for inspiring them to devote their lives to studying the beauty of the universe.
::::3: I do not know of any atheists who disbelieve in the concepts of love, honor, and beauty. Indeed, many substitute faith in the universe's beauty for faith in a church.
::::4: Whether a person chooses atheism or faith is considered a matter of upbrining at least as much as intelligence. There are stupid atheists and devout geniuses, and this is fine (it is true, however, that many atheists consider intelligence and reason to be the best things about being human).
::::5: Atheists don't think humans have been getting smarter, per se, rather than having more time to study and accumulate data. More data leads to better conclusions, and thus to a more accurate picture of the world.
::::6: Regardless of how much is out there to learn, we sure know a lot more than Isaac Newton. Both eras may well be right. Also, "most" is relative. There are enough mysteries out there to last us all a long time.
::::7: Relativism, yes. Materialism, no.
::::8: Goodness no! All the atheists I know regard life as fun, interesting, and generally a good thing. Atheists who happen to be scientists are characterized by the scientist's typical love of discovery and fascination with the world. When one is paid to probe the mysteries of the universe, this isn't surprising.
::::9: Scientists don't have "unshakable faith" in any of these concepts. If evidence comes along that disproves the existence of any of them, that concept will be thrown out and replaced by one that is consistent with all observable data. So far, however, all the evidence we have supports these things as existing.
::::10: This isn't true. Atheists, like everyone else, respect the accomplishments of the best and brightest and give them awards and praise.
::::11: There is no known correlation between atheism and any of these traits.
::::12: Being forced to pray to a god that isn't yours is offensive. A Christian being told by his teacher to pray to Vishnu would offend Christians, and a Muslim being told to pray to Jesus would offend Muslims. Ditto for an atheist being forced to pray to anybody. As for censorship, any student can pray any time s/he likes as long as it doesn't distract his/her classmates.
::::13: I do hope that humanity is moving towards a utopia. I also hope that science's contributions (medicine, renewable energy, spaceflight, etc.) and the contributions of other religions will be recognized for their usefulness in this effort. Also, what are Christianity's contributions to human progress, other than inspiring scientists to work for the benefit of mankind? Please don't say discrimination against homosexuals; I like my utopias egalitarian with a side of tolerance.
:::: If nobody else objects, I would like to rewrite this article for clarity, accuracy, and non-offensiveness. As this article was apparently written by a parodist, and he wants it down too, I doubt anyone will mind, but I don't want to be overhasty. [[User:BlueMoon|BlueMoon]] 11:35, 26 June 2009 (EDT)