You can judge the videos for yourself, but regarding the statistics video I will say that there are definitely some difficulties with respect to interpreting the relationships that it sets up, but if 1) there is a relationship between atheism and education and 2) we are promoting atheism as a good, then clearly the path to cultivating atheism is promoting education, and likely a liberal education at that.
Unfortunately, as a result of neoliberal ideologies the amount of support that the United States government has been giving to education has dwindled in the past several years, which can partially be seen in steadily rising tuition rates, and has also been particularly damaging to those departments that are responsible for providing a liberal education. So, when you espouse a particular economic position, you should be aware of the consequences and ramifications that result from said position, and consider the hidden costs that result from it.
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I would like to add that, while I think the statistics are very interesting and I believe many of the facts to be true. The information can easily be skewed depending on who did the study, the wording of questions, etc, etc... Case in point, there is another video on youtube set up as a mockery with similar statistics in the opposite direction... however, I like to believe the atheist ones are right :)
I have mixed feelings on showing statistics like "Education and Intelligence have a positive correlation with atheism."
It may be true, but if we are trying to gather people, we're effectively saying "look at the data. if you are educated, intelligent, and religious, then you are a minority among stupid people." While this is obviously a gross exaggeration, it is not difficult to imagine somebody taking it this way.
So how to churches gather people? The community either hears about them and how great they seem to be, or a member of the community sees churchgoers in public doing good things.
People's real values are shown through their actions. I encourage everyone to show your community that we are capable of compassion and public service just like churchgoers.
“It is useless to attempt to reason a man out of what he was never reasoned into.”
- Jonathan Swift -
I'm all for compassion and community service. I don't think that the clip is meant to say all church goers are dumb. I just think it is saying that, as we increase in our education, we tend to have more questions of faith and its meaning.
Also, if people do take it this way, they may fit into that small category, all right, that one was a little mean. But, I do know a lot of fairly religious people that are pretty intelligent.
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