Silicon Valley’s young atheists problem

Thisman · Jun 12, 2018

Nivash said:
Don't get me wrong, I'm not going around insulting people over this or anything. I actually prefer to know nothing at all about what people believe in for this exact reason. But if I found out that you go to church every sunday and say the Lord's Prayer for supper every night, I'm definitely putting a "believes in the supernatural" sticker on your file in my mental filing cabinet. It's probably not going to change anything about how we interact but it's still going to be there in the back of my mind.

It's probably a cultural thing too. I'm a Swedish and university educated, I can't come up with a single person I know for sure to be religious apart from some girls I went to high school with ten years ago. At best I've heard rumors about others. I get the imression that most people under 40 who aren't themselves part of some kind of revival movement over here have similar attitudes.

If you are the hiring manager and you ask the Person what they do on spare time and if they talk about attending church and doing religious things among other things, will your view that they can make irrational decisions cloud your judgment on hiring this individual ?

Luchashaq · Jun 12, 2018

shnurgleton said:
spoken like somebody who doesn't know anything about christianity besides what has been juxtaposed to the word "Evangelical" in political reporting

edit
granted yes American christianity often aligns with shitty GOP conservatism. at the risk of committing a no-true-scotsman I don't think Jesus would approve of DJT

Went to a religious middle school, a slightly different Christian sect highschool, and a third sect university (due to scholarship).

Of course Jesus wouldn't approve of DJT, but guess what Christians didn't on average vote the way Jesus would have thought so what Jesus would have thought means NOTHING in this context.

Min · Jun 12, 2018

Страна Мечты said:
The author has yet to explain to us how this is a problem. Religion is an instrument is violence and oppression.

I mean the same could be said about the surveillance state created in part by Silicon Valley.

corasaur · Jun 12, 2018

Cocaloch said:
The national churches of Scotland and England for two. Those are pretty famous.

Calvinism was made by a lawyer. The entire point is that it's supposed to be a logically internally consistent system based on certain axiomatic assumptions. It succeeds pretty well on that front, but predestination is an obvious logic necessity given an omniscient god.

As an aside, most major non Catholic denominations today, outside of Germanic Europe, are Calvinist or derived from Calvinism.

i guess the "Derived from" bit is what got me. i left history class thinking of it as a step in the evolution of protestantism. only ever heard the church of england called just that when growing up.

adj_noun · Jun 12, 2018

shnurgleton said:
Christianity at its heart has always been countercultural, anti-capitalist, compassionate, and culturally tolerant.

I wish that was the Christianity I grew up around.

Kyougar · Jun 12, 2018

Zoe said:
So you guys never talk about what you did over the weekend? Never talk about evening plans?

"No one" is going to church in Germany, so it would never come up.
And even if that someone goes to church on a Sunday, is that a full-time activity? IS there nothing else he/she did that weekend? Do you expect a full weekend rundown hour-by-hour by your colleagues?

honest_ry · Jun 12, 2018

I look at people who go to church/chapel like they are mental.

Not literally but inside I laugh a wee bit and think "mental"

Cocaloch · Jun 12, 2018

Like there are absolutely many theists that I'd say are far smarter than the average vocal non theist on this website. Part of the problem is evident in this thread, where people are showing that they think they are absolutely smarter than other people just based on an axiomatic assumption that ultimately isn't even important in itself. I'll admit I'm personally somewhat surprised when I meet a deist, but they aren't necessarily morons. More importantly for this community to learn, non theists aren't necessarily not morons in comparison.

SRG01 · Jun 12, 2018

BocoDragon said:
That would be a slightly different skillset than developers, wouldn't you agree?

Like I wouldn't say "highly intelligent people" are necessarily less likely to be religious. But I think developer types are. Open question.

Yeah, I'd say there may be some correlation for software developers. My own social circle of developers is actually very small though.

nStruct · Jun 12, 2018

Literally an episode of Silicon Valley on HBO

Thisman · Jun 12, 2018

honest_ry said:
Never mind

No I caught that post. You said you view religious people as mental and snicker in private and call then mental

Shyotl · Jun 12, 2018

Yes, it is kind of annoying when some athiests act like aloof dicks. Thenagain, where's the followup 'Rural America's Religious Problem', because I can assure you that outing yourself as athiest in most of America will earn you some pretty negative responses too.

I've been punched for replying that I wasn't religious... when directly asked.

saenima · Jun 12, 2018

I don't go around being shitty to religious people just because, but i do think less of them. I see religion as a dangerous superstition and a tool for control of the uneducated. I find it harmful to society at large and social minorities in particular.

Maybe religious people should open their eyes to the harm their fairytale of choice has wrought on millions of people, even to this day, and stop being perplexed at people hating on it.

Deleted member 19066 · Jun 12, 2018

saenima said:
I'm not gonna go around and be shitty to religious people just because, but i do think less of them. I see religion as nothing more than a dangerous superstition and i don't really understand what's wrong with this stance like some people in this thread seem to think. Maybe religious people should open their eyes to the harm their fairy tale of choice has done to millions of people.

The difference is when you say "religion" you seem to talk about historical and contemporary institutions, and when I say "religion" I'm talking about the outgrowth of personal spirituality into a formal, communal, culture-wide framework.

Doggg · Jun 12, 2018

Cocaloch said:
Like there are absolutely many theists that I'd say are far smarter than the average vocal non theist on this website. Part of the problem is evident in this thread, where people are showing that they think they are absolutely smarter than other people just based on an axiomatic assumption that ultimately isn't even important in itself. I'll admit I'm personally somewhat surprised when I meet a deist, but they aren't necessarily morons. More importantly for this community to learn, non theists aren't necessarily not morons in comparison.

This is the most irritating part of it, for me personally. Some people act like the worst atheist is automatically smarter, more ethical, and more mature than the best religious person, like that's all you need know about other people before you can dismiss them entirely.

shnurgleton · Jun 12, 2018

Luchashaq said:
Went to a religious middle school, a slightly different Christian sect highschool, and a third sect university (due to scholarship).

Of course Jesus wouldn't approve of DJT, but guess what Christians didn't on average vote the way Jesus would have thought so what Jesus would have thought means NOTHING in this context.

what christians say on average doesn't mean anything about what Christ says "on average". The great thing about the protestant reformation is that we have the authority to interpret scripture for ourselves. There's a lot of room for social justice liberal christianity out there that is underutilized among american christians, but lots of christians are losing their faith rather than recontextualizing the gospel to modern times.

hurlex · Jun 12, 2018

People shouldn't feel out of place for their religion, but this is basically how most atheists feel around the country. You absolutely would get funny looks (if not worse) if you told people you didn't believe in some God.

shnurgleton · Jun 12, 2018

hurlex said:
People shouldn't feel out of place for their religion, but this is basically how most atheists feel around the country. You absolutely would get funny looks (if not worse) if you told people you didn't believe in some God.

where I live and with whom I associate anti-religiosity is the norm. it's extremely hard to keep the faith in modern western urban culture

Nivash · Jun 12, 2018

Thisman said:
If you are the hiring manager and you ask the Person what they do on spare time and if they talk about attending church and doing religious things among other things, will your view that they can make irrational decisions cloud your judgment on hiring this individual ?

It probably would, to be honest. I'm not in hiring though. But if I was, I'd have to remind myself to focus on their documented achievements and leave my own prejudices behind as long as there aren't any red flags. But... I might be a bit more thorough in looking for said red flags.

SweetNicole · Jun 12, 2018

This thread is off to a bad start and doesn't seem likely to get better. We're locking it and will be reviewing posts.

Silicon Valley’s young atheists problem

Thisman

Luchashaq

Min

corasaur

adj_noun

Kyougar

Cute Animal Whisperer

honest_ry

Cocaloch

SRG01

nStruct

Thisman

Shyotl

saenima

Deleted member 19066

Doggg

▲ Legend ▲

shnurgleton

hurlex

shnurgleton

Nivash

SweetNicole

The Old Guard