Unpopular Opinion

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Religious and superstitious beliefs should not be respected. (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

416 comments fedilink hide all child comments

We're in the 21st century, and the vast majority of us still believe in an utterly and obviously fictional creator deity. Plenty of people, even in developed countries with decent educational systems, still believe in ghosts or magic (e.g. voodoo). And I--an atheist and a skeptic--am told I need to respect these patently false beliefs as cultural traditions.

Fuck that. They're bad cultural traditions, undeserving of respect. Child-proofing society for these intellectually stunted people doesn't help them; it is in fact a disservice to them to pretend it's okay to go through life believing these things. We should demand that people contend with reality on a factual basis by the time they reach adulthood (even earlier, if I'm being completely honest). We shouldn't be coddling people who profess beliefs that are demonstrably false, simply because their feelings might get hurt.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

One can't prove Evolution, despite it being the most complete explanation for the observations. Thus it is a Theory despite being accepted as the explanation by the vast majority of Scientists who study it.

This is not what "scientific theory" means, and I'm so fucking tired of this argument being tossed around

Edit: People in this thread are either uneducated or being dense on purpose. The word "theory" when it comes to science has a specific meaning. Read a book. Hell, type the words "scientific theory" on Google, if you're too lazy for the former.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

From Wikipedia:

Scientific theories are broader in scope, and give overarching explanations of how nature works and why it exhibits certain characteristics. Theories are supported by evidence from many different sources, and may contain one or several laws.

Evolution as a Theory explains why and how species have tranformed over millenia. This Theory is absolutely supported by various sources and works on our current understanding of the laws of physics.

What's great about a theory is that it has the potential to be disproven if a new source of evidence is provided. We may never obtain evidence saying it doesn't exist, and we likely never will with how we currently understand the world and its properties. But the fact is that it is a theory.

For all we know we are in a simulation and we're slowly learning how our universe is coded. Or maybe we do have a sentient God or God-like figure who has meticulously guided our evolution though the ages. Maybe one day several hundred years in the future we'll be able to propose a new Theory using evidence found by using equations that we simply can't imagine in our current state.

In short, person you responded to is generally right. If you're going to argue against it, please provide something to work with.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes it is. It means that it is not proven. That is the very definition of theory. Once it is proven it is no longer a theory. Acceptance of it means nothing much like how tired you are of People pointing out you've not a leg to stand upon.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

That is not what the word theory means in a scientific context, your eduction is so severley lacking it is painful.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory