Insulting

Atheists are pretentious. We are. No question about that. We look at believer with that smirk on our face. We listen to them as we roll our eyes in our mind. we just cannot believe how these people can be so credulous and naive. We then enter in that oscillation that goes from "I won't even bother, if he wants to be an idiot, let it be. I just want out of this conversation." to "Let's try if we can put some sense into that person mind. With a bit of skill I might instill some logic into this sick mind." In any case, we cannot stand them and find it utterly insulting that anybody should be so delusionnal.

Now, what I have just said above is equally true of the believer. He too is pretentious, he too hesitate between trying to touch the atheist with his spiritual wisdom, he too find the atheist position to be utterly insulting.

That the believer feel this way is understandable. He has no logical claim for his belief. He cannot bring someone to believe with his rational mind but must win over with charisma, nothing else. Why should the atheist mimic the believer?

I am now in the mode of listening. I want to know why people believe in nonsense. My purpose is to find how we can move from a credulous society to a rational one. To achieve that, one must understand how science and rational fails to wipe out superstitions and this we can only learn through believers experience. But to listen, we must respect or put in another way be patient.

My intuition on the topic is that some people don't have the patience too be rationalist. They need easy answer to strengthened their feeling. Subtle Darwinian and Freudian consideration about love is way to complex and time consuming for their taste or mind. God hypothesis fulfil in a much simpler and faster way any question torturing their mind. And it seems to work, for they believe in it. Could we replace God hypothesis with a rational counterpart that would also be simple?