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Politics : Sharks in the Septic Tank -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (11138)	4/12/2001 8:37:38 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 82486

That depends largely on how you define curiosity. I think lots of atheists and agnostics are curious about faith-based systems like Christianity, Communism, etc. as social phenomena. We tend to have no curiosity all about whether to adopt them as personal philosophies. If they require us to believe without questioning, there is no reason to look further. I am very interested, for example, in religion as a social phenomenon, in the mechanisms by which belief develops and in the manners by which it expresses itself. I am curious about the psychological and emotional needs that drive humans to adopt belief systems that require them to set aside their questioning faculties. The notion that any given religious dogma might be true, though, or that I ought to accept one of them, seems utterly risible, and beyond any serious consideration. To belong to any of those clubs one must cease to question, and have faith. I don't.

To: Neocon who wrote (11138)	4/13/2001 1:13:59 AM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 82486

Wow- we haven't met the same agnostics/atheists All the ones I have met have been very curious- some have a freak show mentality about the religious, but they are still very curious.