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I sort of wonder how atheists process someone like him believing in God. Is he being irrational? Is he just foolish in this one area of his life? Is it hurting

I sort of wonder how atheists process someone like him believing in God. Is he being irrational? Is he just foolish in this one area of his life? Is it hurting his life (as many atheists claim religion is)? And if any of those are true do you feel like you have the intellectual authority or capacity to say anything to him about his own life?

IgorPartola 16y ago
I personally do not really care. Faith is a personal matter. As long as we are not discussing it directly, why should it factor into a political conversation? Einstein was deeply religious, down to refusing to accept quantum theory because "god does not play with dice", but he also had things to say. Would it have made his discoveries more wonderful if he was an atheist? I believe that question is devoid of meaning.
- jswinghammer 16y ago
  Well many atheists claim that being an atheist is a qualification for being a serious scientist. Sam Harris wrote a pretty poorly thought out piece in the NYT about how a person who is otherwise qualified was not a good candidate because of their faith.
  - ohyes 16y ago
    As someone who has education in science, but never 'got religion' as a child, I see atheism as the null hypothesis. One way of formulating it would be: "There is(are) no all-powerful supernatural entity(ies) which has(ve) influence over my daily life." No one has given me sufficient evidence that would go against this and contradict the null hypothesis, so I continue to not believe in God(s). That said, I don't think that believing things that are not scientifically proven/provable disqualifies one from performing scientific research. I'm know I have plenty of opinions/beliefs/biases that I couldn't back up for the life of me. It is part of being human and having been raised in a given environment. But it is important to be aware of your own biases in any endeavor.
    - Someone 16y ago
      Your logic would apply equally well with theism as the null hypothesis ("There is(are) an all-powerful supernatural entity(ies) which has(ve) influence over my daily life, but (s)(t)he(y) have been playing a game called science for the past few centuries") I think agnosticism would be the better choice for a null hypothesis.
- jeberle 16y ago
  False. Einstein was an agnostic. The quote is roughly accurate, but the god is an abstraction, the maker of physical constants & such. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein%27s_religious_views http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein%27s_religious_v...
bkudria 16y ago
Being a theist of course does not preclude you from being a good person. However, spreading theism, being a role model, teaching it to children who may not grow up to be college professors but merely ordinary people, is an idea under some amount of debate.
ugh 16y ago
He is being irrational. Happens to all people, really, including atheists. Regarding you last sentence, I don’t think religion is the most interesting subject to bring up when you have the chance to talk to Donald Knuth.
- tptacek 16y ago
  But Iraq is? :)
  - ugh 16y ago
    Certainly not. It’s interesting to see what, well, intellectuals think about all kinds of topics (still not sure whether that makes it HN material) and I very much believe that Donald Knuth can say more intelligent things about religion and politics than the average person but it is well outside his (and my) area of expertise.
Helianthus16 16y ago
>I sort of wonder how atheists process someone like him believing in God. Cognitive dissonance. I kid, I kid: but I see too many atheists happy to deride a viewpoint with that pop-psychology term as a means of writing it off. Qualifying a behavior as inherently rational or irrational runs the risk of functioning rather like a dogma.
billmcneale 16y ago
I'm fine with people believing in some sort of entity, I do have a problem if they actually adhere to an organized religion. You can't definitely prove there is no god, but you can certainly show how dumb the concept of organized religion is, especially the books they rely on.
- kenjackson 16y ago
  but you can certainly show how dumb the concept of organized religion is Really? It seems to me that the concept of organized religion seems very useful even if there is no god. It actually might be most useful if there is no god.
  - billmcneale 16y ago
    I said it was dumb, not useless. I understand the need that people feel to be part of communities, that's perfectly normal. It doesn't mean you need to adhere to a book that was written by goat herders a few thousands of years ago.
thisrod 16y ago
To what extent does Knuth believe in God? For all I know, he might be a Christian atheist. Such people do exist, at the extreme Spongian end of the church.

IgorPartola 16y ago

I personally do not really care. Faith is a personal matter. As long as we are not discussing it directly, why should it factor into a political conversation? Einstein was deeply religious, down to refusing to accept quantum theory because "god does not play with dice", but he also had things to say. Would it have made his discoveries more wonderful if he was an atheist? I believe that question is devoid of meaning.

jswinghammer 16y ago
Well many atheists claim that being an atheist is a qualification for being a serious scientist. Sam Harris wrote a pretty poorly thought out piece in the NYT about how a person who is otherwise qualified was not a good candidate because of their faith.
- ohyes 16y ago
  As someone who has education in science, but never 'got religion' as a child, I see atheism as the null hypothesis. One way of formulating it would be: "There is(are) no all-powerful supernatural entity(ies) which has(ve) influence over my daily life." No one has given me sufficient evidence that would go against this and contradict the null hypothesis, so I continue to not believe in God(s). That said, I don't think that believing things that are not scientifically proven/provable disqualifies one from performing scientific research. I'm know I have plenty of opinions/beliefs/biases that I couldn't back up for the life of me. It is part of being human and having been raised in a given environment. But it is important to be aware of your own biases in any endeavor.
  - Someone 16y ago
    Your logic would apply equally well with theism as the null hypothesis ("There is(are) an all-powerful supernatural entity(ies) which has(ve) influence over my daily life, but (s)(t)he(y) have been playing a game called science for the past few centuries") I think agnosticism would be the better choice for a null hypothesis.
jeberle 16y ago
False. Einstein was an agnostic. The quote is roughly accurate, but the god is an abstraction, the maker of physical constants & such. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein%27s_religious_views http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein%27s_religious_v...

bkudria 16y ago

Being a theist of course does not preclude you from being a good person. However, spreading theism, being a role model, teaching it to children who may not grow up to be college professors but merely ordinary people, is an idea under some amount of debate.

ugh 16y ago

He is being irrational. Happens to all people, really, including atheists. Regarding you last sentence, I don’t think religion is the most interesting subject to bring up when you have the chance to talk to Donald Knuth.

tptacek 16y ago
But Iraq is? :)
- ugh 16y ago
  Certainly not. It’s interesting to see what, well, intellectuals think about all kinds of topics (still not sure whether that makes it HN material) and I very much believe that Donald Knuth can say more intelligent things about religion and politics than the average person but it is well outside his (and my) area of expertise.

Helianthus16 16y ago

>I sort of wonder how atheists process someone like him believing in God. Cognitive dissonance. I kid, I kid: but I see too many atheists happy to deride a viewpoint with that pop-psychology term as a means of writing it off. Qualifying a behavior as inherently rational or irrational runs the risk of functioning rather like a dogma.

billmcneale 16y ago

I'm fine with people believing in some sort of entity, I do have a problem if they actually adhere to an organized religion. You can't definitely prove there is no god, but you can certainly show how dumb the concept of organized religion is, especially the books they rely on.

kenjackson 16y ago
but you can certainly show how dumb the concept of organized religion is Really? It seems to me that the concept of organized religion seems very useful even if there is no god. It actually might be most useful if there is no god.
- billmcneale 16y ago
  I said it was dumb, not useless. I understand the need that people feel to be part of communities, that's perfectly normal. It doesn't mean you need to adhere to a book that was written by goat herders a few thousands of years ago.

thisrod 16y ago

To what extent does Knuth believe in God? For all I know, he might be a Christian atheist. Such people do exist, at the extreme Spongian end of the church.