I feel that atheism forums online, such as this one, can often revolve a lot around all the negative ways that religion manifests itself, in our society and in people. And that’s to be expected, but today I wanted to add something a bit different.
As quite a hard atheist myself, I find John’s religious point of view extremely refreshing. I wish all religious people had this kind of understanding about their own faith.
John is not convinced that his faith is correct - in fact, he seems to recognise that whether his faith is “real” or not is irrelevant. His faith is not about being correct, because that is not inherently something that faith deals with.
I find the end of the video especially moving. John can easily agree and work with his atheist brother, because ultimately they reach the same conclusions, albeit from (only slightly) different paths. I wish we spent more time thinking about all the ways that we (atheists and religious people) actually agree on how the world should move forward, and less time antagonising one another.
Perhaps you find John’s point of view interesting too? :)
I find it really creepy when someone professes something they don’t believe is true. It’s dishonest, and ultimately props up all the negative religious people.
All christians support the bad ones, by giving it legitimacy.
This “who cares if it’s actually true or not” perspective is completely at odds with the religion itself, and does not deal honestly with it.