Really folks is this the best we can do? “you can’t tell other people how to live their lives” actually we do in many ways especially where peoples’ fantastic beliefs endanger others. About as insightful as his understanding of architecture. Sorry for being a party-pooper.

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Brad Pitt may not be the most “insightful” non-religous person out there (then again, who among us has ever sat down with him and actually discussed it?) and frankly, I don’t care. He’s well known, well liked and well respected and his openness about the topic can only do the movement good.  I say kudos to him!

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I’m with DebG here. Brad Pitt is an actor. Does anyone really expect any real insights from him on the issue of religion? There probably isn’t anything he could say that hasn’t already been said a thousands times before. But that’s not the point. The point is, he is a highly respected and well-known guy in the media who has openly declared his support for rationalism and atheism. I bet there are plenty of others in his posiiton who would rather not say anything for fear of upsetting their christian fans. Good on him, I say. The atheistic position needs to be normalised in America, like it is in most parts of Western Europe. People like Brad Pitt are helping to do that.

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And while we’re at it, is there anything any of us can say that hasn’t already been said thousands of times before?  No.  But there are millions of people who have not heard it even once.  It is good to have someone of Brad Pitt’s media stature making the case in a dignified way without stridency and rancor.

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John, it’s that kind of elitism that drives people away from atheism.  In fact, I think people like Pitt make our platform much more palatable for mainstream America than people like, say, Richard Dawkins.

If you ever want your ideas to be mainstream, you must accept the fact that the vast majority of the population is intellectually mediocre.  And they must be accepted into your movement as well.

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Anyone who does not come off like an A-hole when expressing their secular view is a plus to the cause.  Some people out there still actually think that atheists are full of hate and live a wild life with on regards to morals.  Getting this point across wuthout continuing this falsehood only helps people out there who feel the same way but are afraid to say so out loud.

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We need those who can speak on our behalf who have no voice and who can understand logic and reason.
Until we speak up and stop the evil in this world created by religion we might as well give up.

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ReasonNotFaith said “The atheistic position needs to be normalised in America, like it is in most parts of Western Europe. People like Brad Pitt are helping to do that.”

My thoughts exactly. Brad Pitt’s casual approach to the whole subject is disarming and so people will listen. If one day, saying you’re an atheist would raise no eyebrows, I think we will have achieved quite a victory. I look forward to that day.

This man, along with his beautiful (and secular) partner have been the focus of scorn from fundies because of their “sinful” lifestyle of living together outside of marriage. I think they have faced this with dignity and rationality. Something all too rare most of the time.

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I live in the deep south, have all my life.  As wonderful as it is to know I have fellow thinkers out there, I also live up the road from folks who see god in a rainbow.  Hard to live generationally when it ain’t your generation.  But the Maher seg was cool, and noboby cooler than the Pitt.

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“John, it’s that kind of elitism that drives people away from atheism.” ... “If you ever want your ideas to be mainstream, you must accept the fact that the vast majority of the population is intellectually mediocre.” Apparently Justin, there is enough elitism to go around.. I don’t think we should be trying to figure out how to make atheism a packaged product, which is part of the problem we are dealing with now, I mean secular liberals resisting us most of all. Let us not go down that road again. We should be interested in what is true, attractive or not. The belief that if you jump off of a high-rise building it will be to your peril is not a belief that we try to make appealing. It is enough that it is true. Let’‘s stick to that and leave the pandering to the religious. I find Pitt’s argument(such as it is) totally unmoving and partly false. I don’t care that he’s really famous.

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”“John, it’s that kind of elitism that drives people away from atheism.” ... “If you ever want your ideas to be mainstream, you must accept the fact that the vast majority of the population is intellectually mediocre.” Apparently Justin, there is enough elitism to go around.. “

Very well stated. Elitism based in Intellectualism is not spiritual but of the ego.

Spiritual can have many different meanings to many different people.

Intelligent and intellect are two different modes of being in the world

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What some commenters are missing is the fact that regardless of religious, or faux/ pseudo religious, or no specific religious belief, in America you should be allowed to believe it without censure… as long as the actual practice doesn’t impact America politics and America’s well being as a whole. If your belief is such that all others are not correct and this would tempt you to cause chaos in the path of your own perceived self importance, or self-righteousness, then you should be held accountable or not allowed to partake in various aspects of American society where your personal, non factual or otherwise unproven opinions/ beliefs, cannot cause disruption for all those that disagree and want harmony. I work in a catholic healthcare industry, have for 20 years, I don’t tell people what to practice and I respectfully asked when the topic comes up (very rare) that they also respect mine. Amazingly I can interact with individuals of many religious beliefts without difficulty by simply having respect for them. We should have to do so in America as well. No one is telling anyone to stop believing what you want but we certainly don’t need Salem witchhunts ever again.

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“as long as the actual practice doesn’t impact America politics and America’s well being as a whole. “

But it does impact politics

Preachers get political and try and influence their   followers with their own beliefs

In az the preachers came out hard against gay marriage

This is what upsets those that don’t practice any religion

The bible is full of wisdom and ignorance and much of that ignorance is taught to our young minds.

But then Darwinism is taught as fact and we still have much to learn about the evolution of consciousness

I find most atheists I chat with on the Internet as rigid in their beliefs as the religious fundamentalists.

When we come to know that an open mind is an oxymoron then maybe we are on the right track.

The beginning of wisdom is to recognize our own bias. Almost impossible to do at this stage of the evolution of human consciousness. Those that think they don’t have a bias usually have the most bias this has been my observation. But then I am bias. J

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If anyone else is having trouble recognizing his own biases, not to worry.  I’m here for you.

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Religion is CRIMINAL Ponzi-like scheming used to subordinate, brainwash, indoctrinate and enslave innocent children and the naive among us! The worst form of “child abuse” is warping the mind!

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I think it’s great to see Brad Pitt speak out against religion. We do need as many people as possible to address the issue publically to incourage others to examine their own beliefs. I remember my own struggles with my beliefs starting at a pretty young age. There is a lot pressure to believe in God, whether or not it makes sense to you intellectually. It took me until the age of 18 to admit to anyone that I didn’t believe in God, although I knew for a many years that I didn’t because I was afraid of the reaction I would get. So I am sure it helps people, especially those who are conflicted, to know that there are others that don’t believe either.

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“Religion is CRIMINAL Ponzi-like scheming used to subordinate, brainwash, indoctrinate and enslave innocent children and the naive among us! The worst form of “child abuse” is warping the mind!”

Nothing bias about that statement. You proved my point far beyond anything I could write. This is often the kind of response I get from atheists.

Religion from my point is a mixed bag. If it was not needed it would not exist. People line up to give up their money to have someone tell them what is truth. Maybe it is easier to go through life that way.

I am glad Harris’s are going to study the mentality and consciousness of a Jesus or a Buddha. I hope they also study the mystics. I have several good books to recommend if they ask. Jesus had a profound message for the world but the world understood little of his message. I.e. Christianity pretty much died on the cross. There are exceptions of course.

As I stated earlier atheism can be as rigid as a fundamentalist religion and the interesting thing is most atheist don’t have a clue they are much like those that they ridicule. Just like the religious don’t have a clue they have many beliefs based in pure ignorant human dogma nothing like what their prophets taught.

Most Christians don’t bother to even research the history of their religion.

I heard a preacher once hold up his bible and say every word in this bible is the word of god and truth. So after the sermon I went up to him and asked him if he had a gun he said yes I said well get it out and this afternoon we can start doing god’s word and starting at the local malls as those people are working on the Sabbath and what does the old testament teach what should be done to those people working on the Sabbath? I got the angriest look from him and I think he wanted to start with me with his gun.

I am sure that was rude and crude and egotistical of me to confront him but that happened before much of my research was influential in my life. Do you think you could be nonbiased on a research team that has a project using their reasoning abilities to study whatever in religious beliefs such as a Jesus or a Buddha or an enlightened Hindu master?

The video I would recommend for anyone interested in doing research is the video the business of paradigms. After some email communications even the guy in the video has his own paradigms. He can see other’s paradigms but not his own. Go figure.

The human mind is an interesting phenomenon. And of course consciousness is the hard problem for many. Hard problem indeed.

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Religion is criminal only in some countries.  Check the local laws.

If they let you.

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Brad was thoughtful and well spoken.  It is encouraging to see popular folks shine a good bit of reason on the subject of religion.
Thanks Bill and Brad!

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Great to see intelligent people standing up against mysticism and its buddy, socialism. It takes guts to tell the truth.

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Mysticism and socialism buddies?

Mystics see a oneness of mind, socialism thinks gov can run the nation better than private companies. Now that is buddies. Who knew?

Well at least America is doing well with unchecked capitalism and Reagan economics.

Borrowing trillions from the communists and social security and printing trillions to stay afloat and bailing out capitalism.

Economic ideologies stay intact in spite of the evidence.

The same goes for religious beliefs.

And other strong beliefs held by people that think their beliefs are thee truths.

Reasoning is no easy task. We tend to want people around us that think like us that way no one interferes with our research that tends to support our existing paradigms.

The human mind loves self-confirmatory findings it brings comfort to the mind that believes it knows reality and others don’t. In fact those others are called mediocre.

The ego is very self deceptive beyond most peoples imaginations.

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Thanks for taking a stand Brad. We are all better off for your courage.

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“Brad Pit is an actor. Does one really expect any insights from him…..”

What pompous claptrap! Because he’s an actor, or because he’s Brad Pitt? Are there any other professions you deem essentially infra dig? Then we can avoid wasting our time listening to them. It’s also a great way of isolating others by claiming ‘special knowledge’ and a ‘special privilege to speak’...oh! that sounds familiar. I didn’t realise insight came with exclusive qualifications, clearly i’m in the wrong profession.

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can i just ask: why does the audience save its biggest cheers and emotional tumescence for the subject of ‘pot’? They listen very nicely on gay marriage and freedom - but ‘pot’, and the whole place goes ‘mad’! Is it a craving for adolescent self-indulgence that is top of their priorities? H’m - strange.

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I don’t remember anything in the clip about pot, man.

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It seems to me that Mr. Pitt is nice counter-balance to Mr. Travolta, Mr. Cruise, et al.

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I respect Mr. Pitt for stating an “unpopular” position and placing himself at some risk. It seems from some previous comments that there is significant fundamentalism on both sides of the issues.

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Brad Pitt’s interview was awesome! Bill is right that Pitt can do no wrong in America’s eyes ... lol.

Christians like to think of themselves as being a “persecuted” group, but they certainly seem to be an overwhelming majority, ready at a moment’s notice to exert tremendous pressure on EVERYONE to convert to their ways. Because of this unrelenting pressure to conform, the public expression of the non-believer position is crucial. It encourages millions of doubters out there, letting them know they’re not crazy for questioning outdated religious views. These doubters need to be nudged to the sensibility they intuitively feel.

As Sam Harris has explained, with today’s powerful war technology humanity is in dire need of an honest examination of religion. The world benefits when high-profile non-believers speak out in a polite and composed manner. A charismatic example of sound reason such as Brad Pitt provided is totally positive and a much-needed contribution to the global conversation.

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It is so hard for me to be silent when intellects, without any experience or formation or humility or profundity, armed only with what their eyes have seen or what they have read or what they are vainly confident is true or what their superficial lives have led, go on television and create websites, giggle at blessedness and scoff at eternity, reason away women spreading their legs for money or ending life, applaud men who have money and fame rather than richness of character, shrug off the foolishness of this world, ignore the meaningfulness of reality…and on…and on.

Bill Maher, Sam Harris, and all others like them, are spewing out nothing new, nothing profound, nothing beneficial. Religions are human creations and can easily cause a lot of trouble in the world. Duh. No kidding. But to not see how religions are the only buffer between human evil and human survival is as dangerous as religious fanaticism. Intellectual fanaticism (secularism) is more rampant in the world than any religion. Again, duh.

Enjoy your prostitutes, your terminated unwanted pregnancies, your pornography, your money, your fame, your drugs, your careers, your pride, your perceived freedom. I will enjoy a future with no end, a trust in a blessed goodness, a clear conscience, a freedom that only the truth can give.

You think you have science and reason? Wrong. Reason can only arrive at the conclusion that the material world could never merge into a living thing. No collection of lesser things can create a greater thing. Lesser things must have added to them a very great thing to create a greater thing. Wrap your mind around that, if you can.

It WAS the touch of God that created life from the lifeless mass of this world at one point of Earth’s formation.

It WAS the touch of God that created the human intellect from the animal kingdom at one point of Evolution.

It WAS the touch of God that bore a child in a virgin at one point of human history.

God’s enjoyment is playing among us. God can do anything he wants, and what he wants is profound and beneficial to all. We who have experienced him closely suffer from your claims of intellectual superiority and human sophistication. You are inferior in every way, base, vile, dangerous to others, false. Your reasoning is laughable, your science in deadended.

There is no other life in the universe. Our blue-green planet is a marvelous achievement, not one of many. We are the chosen, not the ant hill.

Our Government needs to know these things and end useless suffering by ending useless human creations (like space travel in the search for life on Mars), and end starvation and poverty by ending their opposites, glutony and greed. The distribution of wealth is simply a correction of an age-old wrong, which both the wealthy and poor suffer from. To support it is to be profound, not anti-American. To support this is to know the freedom that only truth can give.

Your intellectual ramblings cover this truth, and many others, in filthy rags. Get over yourselves. Bill Maher and Sam Harris are puny men with puny ideas. Brad Pitt is puny in too many ways to mention.

Religion, socialism, fanaticism, Christianity—words to dismiss and deride. So what? You have nothing else. You never waited humbly for years for the truth to come to you, which is the only way for it to happen. You read and talk and read and talk some more. You never shut up. You never ask, only tell. You never seek, only find. You never knock, only open. No wonder you are lost. Shut up so you can listen. Dummies.

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Thank you Bill and Brad!

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Brother Mario

Your hostility towards those that don’t think like you or agree with your religious beliefs comes out loud and clear. This mentality has caused so much suffering in the world beyond anything you or I can imagine.

We know so little about the mysteries of life but our ego loves to convince others it knows truth. Often our truths were told to us as children and we bought them lock stock and barrel and even as adults we don’t question them.

This is exactly the self-righteous religion atheists despise the most. You must know little of history because to blame all wars and suffering on the atheist is not what history tells us. Our framers of our constitution knew exactly what destruction a country could have if religion has too much influence on government.

The last 8 years are living proof of that when the evangels took over the government.

Religion must be kept in check just as we have learned capitalism must be kept in check just as gov must be kept in check. Power corrupts and lots of power really corrupts.

Jefferson: “If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be.”

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“Bill Maher, Sam Harris, and all others like them, are spewing out nothing new, nothing profound, nothing beneficial.” as is Brother Mario.

Jeff Beresford: pot is a natural substance, banned through the us government in the 20s, much more useful than the cotton that usurped it (through the DuPont company), has medical, theraputic and entertainment uses, and your jails are overcrowded with people busted for smoking and selling it.

If it was legalised, the government would get money from taxes, the industries (textile, herbalist, baking, cigarette etc) would help build the economy, prisons would be less crowded by smokers and dealers, and a lot of folks would relax a bit more.

that’s why people cheered.

hello from australia

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Either tax churches or legalize and tax pot…give us something here folks.

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Brother Mario

Isn’t it interesting how the ‘truth’ that comes to a believer after years of humble waiting (as you put it) is virtually always the same ‘truth’ that is pressed upon him by his surroundings? People born into Christian families and communities hear the voice of the Christian god when they pray. People born into Muslim families and communities hear the voice of Allah when they pray. People born into Jewish families and communities hear the voice of Yahweh when they pray. People born into Mormon families and communities hear the voice of ... well, who really knows what voices Mormons hear?

My point is if one uses one’s reason, it’s clear that human beings mostly believe according to how they are influenced by their immediate environment. ‘Seeking’ has little to do with it, and ‘truth’ has nothing to do with it.

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How telling the responses to my post. Not a word about the content, only sputterings about how belief is relative and how “we know so little about the mysteries of life.” Man, are people puny or what?

My post had answers to mysteries that I know a lot about. God is only mysterious to the superficial, the proud, the foolish. Indeed, the fool goes around and calls everything foolish. The intellectual fanatic goes around and calls everything “reason.” And on and on.

God is not a fool, nor a religion, nor simply a mind, nor simply a creative force, nor an invisible, mysterious being. He is a person that we are modeled from, that we have flowed from, that we live within, that we will fully return to. To dismiss him is to dismiss ourselves. It is to dismiss all that is wonderful about ourselves and welcome all that makes us puny and base. There is the crux of the World’s dilemma.

Human evils in the World can be traced to ignorance of God and our true relationship with him. All religions are guilty of some degree of ignorance. Fanatical factions within these religions are the most guilty. However, the guilty run rampant in the secular world, too. Human reason, without the experience of God that awaits it, is a messy collection of opinions and puny ideas.

Make no mistake, you Bill Mahers and Sam Harrises of the World, the adventure to find God is not a walk in the woods of superstition but a flight into the sky of blue. You have stuck your noses up at this adventure, and you have received your reward for doing so. You have chosen this World because in your selfish pride you only welcome into your life that which suits you.

Belief is absolute certitude, not a leap of faith. Belief can be arrived at through the reason as sure as expanding universe began at a single point. You can believe that this single point was no more in size than the head of a pin. This you can believe, but nothing more profound or more realistic (yes, realistic).

It WAS the touch of God that created the universe from the void.

Wake up, you stupid, lazy, stubborn, egotistical, foolish, false, puny intellectuals. Your speech is like spitting into the ocean. You add nothing that lasts beyond the air your words pass through.

Draw closer to the one person that matters the most—yourselves. Find yourselves and you will find the God you deride and disappoint so very much. See the universe with a contemplative mind and you wil see marvelous workings and profound answers.

We are the measure of nothing. Time itself is not in our power. We see everything after it is there. The speed of light dictates when we see things. In the same way, the material world dictates what we see. God is invisible to us because our essence is creature and all the baggage that comes with it. God’s essence is his existence. He is who is.

These things are not religious, they are clear thoughts of reality.

But I have to be honest. God has played among me quite dramatically, which he does to all who shut up and wait. Thirty years ago he gave me a “foretaste of heaven” one hour before I read about such a thing in the book My Other Self by Clarence Enzler. Read the chapter. I was painting a water tower at a naval base when I was granted this honor. I lost the memory of it immediately, and had the memory return when my hand touched the book on my way home from work. The next chapter I was about to read was A Foretaste of Heaven. God showed me that time was not an issue with him, the universe was a tiny speck to him, evil was a puny thing, he was in total control, even a lowly painter was special to him, any many other things.

You have, of course, dismissed this experience as a delusion or some other thing. I have, of course, thrown my pearls before swine. Many experiences followed. God was found again and again. He gave again and again. He opened again and again. I now know all the so called mysteries of life. You can know them also. But you don’t want to, do you? You are happy to roll in the mud of the World. It is said that a pig will seek out the mud, but a sheep will bleat until it frees itself. It is also said that his sheep hear his voice and follow him. Oink to you.

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I smell trolls.  Nasty ones too.

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here’s to hoping mario is a poe. sigh.

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Brother Mario,

Proverbs 27:2 Let another praise you, and not your own mouth; someone else, and not your own lips.
Ecclesiastes 5:2 Do not be quick with your mouth, do not be hasty in your heart to utter anything before God. God is in heaven and you are on earth, so let your words be few.

Romans 12:3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

COL 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

Might want to go study that bible a little more, Brother.

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@Brother Mario:

“It WAS the touch of God that created life from the lifeless mass of this world at one point of Earth’s formation.”  [citation needed]

“It WAS the touch of God that created the human intellect from the animal kingdom at one point of Evolution.”  [citation needed]

“It WAS the touch of God that bore a child in a virgin at one point of human history.”  [citation needed]

”[God] is a person that we are modeled from, that we have flowed from, that we live within, that we will fully return to.”  [citation needed]

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Praise Jesus, Brother Mario!  Meanwhile, let the rest of us experience the TRUTH of spirituality that is intrinsic to all of us, and requires no name or personification so typical of us quite fallible thinkers, humans.

Your brush with oneness has only solidified your dedication to an elaborate, conglomerate story written by said humans. So close and yet, yourself, so lazy. Let go of the story, brother, and experience the ultimate oneness. Religion is an evil distraction from reality, our spiritual reality included.

It seems to me that many atheists are negligent in failing to address this issue, to leverage this useful argument. Our spiritual self exists as much as our pumping heart, whether we choose to fully engage it or not. But I have faith in my most contemplative fellow non-believers and our evolution.

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Citation needed? Truth is only found in a document, dude? Boy, are you a dope. Your trust in the words of others is how you live? Very profound. Go away.

Deb, you study. I’ll let the Spirit guide my words.

Read the Gospel of John. Jesus was one pissed off dude. Not a wuss, like many believe. Why? Because of the idiots (or as he called them: white-washed graves, brood of snakes, hypocrites, dead men) around him.

You want to cuddle up to the atheists and secular relativists? Go ahead. But don’t tell me to let Bill Maher off the hook with a wink for saying over and over that Jesus, the King of Kings, the actual savior of the human race, is a 2000 year old superstition.

This moron, and he is a moron, is a serious danger to all who hear him. Furthermore, his best friend is the one who tells him he is a moron and a danger and in some serious doo-doo.

Your attitude is nothing new or profound. The spirit is asleep in you.

Truth is not something that can be buried under words like “mystery” or “opinion” or “belief” or “superstition.” Yet that is what has happened in the world. Why? Because very few have discovered the truth on their own. And any little bits of truth they discover, they spit out like a bitter food.

Citations? Bible quotes?

Jesus read occasionally and wrote never. He knew the father and the father knew him. And he challenged all to live in this truth, yes, truth.

Here are some Bible quotes to live by:

Whosoever acknowledges me before men I will acknowledge before the angels of God

What people think is important, God holds in contempt.

My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.

All will hate you because of me.

Were I to say I do not know him, I would be no better than you—a liar. Yes, I know him well.

Anyone who comes to God must believe he exists, and that he rewards those who seek him.

The man who hates his life in this world preserves it to life eternal.

To love correction is to love knowledge, but to hate reproof is stupid.

To hate correction is to walk the sinner’s path.

The universe fights on behalf of the just.

And that is that.

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Wow! interesting comments and twists! I saw the Brad Pitt piece and I commend him having the gonads to speak up and out about atheism based on the geographic area where he grew up.

Having grown up not far from there, I am intimately familiar with the bible belt menality that he had to endure. Whether he is famous or not, there’s a reason why he thinks the way he does and there are many others that share his thoughts; they just don’t permit themselves to publicly convey them.

Bill made a comment about Christians coaxing people with sandwiches…..he’s right on. The approach that is taken starts with exactly that; coaxing young children with free food under the guise of “fellowship” and a free ride on the church bus. Little do most know that the driver of that bus is the biggest abuser of alcohol (and his wife) that you’ve ever seen, but he is sitting right up front on Sunday morning. More secretively, no one knows that the minister preaching to you is having an affair with one of the deacon’s wives and later commits suicide rather than face his congregation.

These things actually happened where I went to church. These are the acts that later turn youngsters as they begin to grow up and ask why? others commented on brainwashing; there is certain sense of that in communities like these as the fundementalists attempt to put “the fear of God” in you and they target the more influential youngsters.

I asked those questions and even went to a Catholic University even though I am not a Catholic or a believer. I voluntarily added philosophy and religion classes to my curriculum in attempt to apply reason and logic to religion. It was very helpful in my quest for critical thinking. It’s easy to argue points when emotions drive them. It’s harder to focus and apply reason and logic to those points. Yet, reason and logic will always trump emotion.

A close friend who is no longer with us but was the department chair of Philosophy and Religion at an Ivy League university was asked the question, do you believe there is a God? He answered quite abruptly by saying “No, I do not believe there is a God.”

Carl Sagan was quoted as saying “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, what could more extraordinary than God?”

We can agrue these points forever but emotional people will never convince a reasonable and logical person and a reasonable and logic person will never turn one dimensional thinking into three dimensions; they will only frustrate themselves to death attempting to do so.

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Actually I would like to moderate my view just a bit. Searching for something else I accidentally came upon this nonsense. I’m happy to stand shoulder to shoulder with anyone who draws fire like this.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StZjdp9STho

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Reason & Logic? My degree in Philosophy never took me away from a certitude in the existence of God. Almost every Catholic priest has such a degree, and a few more besides. You obviously never studied metaphysics, which is pure reason put to the most profound tests. This study ends with many proofs of God’s existence.

You think yourself a greater thinker than Socrates (who heard a divine voice inside himself) or Plato (who arrived at pure forms) or Aristotle (who arrived at 5 proofs for a supreme being).

These men were unreligious profound thinkers.

It’s time to take Reason & Logic 102. And then up to 702. Then write. You sound stupid.

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“You think yourself a greater thinker than Socrates (who heard a divine voice inside himself) or Plato (who arrived at pure forms) or Aristotle (who arrived at 5 proofs for a supreme being).”

Brother Mario builds this facile, simplistic strawman and then starts plucking it, all by himself.  Look Ma, no hands!

Brother, Charles Darwin wasn’t a contemporary of Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle (unfortunately), and his seminal work Origin of Species wasn’t published until 1859.  Rest assured however that if Evolution by Natural Selection had been proposed in ancient Greece, certainly one (if not all three) of these men would have been deeply immersed in it, reveling in its beauty and power to reveal Truth.  The world would now be a much better place, in fact.

The great thinkers of history must be evaluated in their respective proper contexts, Brother Mario.  Although your name reveals where you spend most of your time, intelligent people understand that truth is unfolded incrementally by Science, and isn’t the result of some deluded video game competition between intellectuals of different ages.

We have DNA now.  We don’t need Aristotle to misguide us anymore.

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I think we should stop giving our Brother the power he so desperately craves. He loves this or at least his ego does. Having such anger, being judgemental and holding on to hostility. Somehow I just don’t see these temperaments present at the end of the path to enlightnment or “finding God”.  Finding the truth is a path that might not even have a end and maybe we’re not supposed to know what it is. But, what I do know is that we search for it in one common place, our consciousness. Yes I realize someone has already said that “Truth can only be found in document” but it had to come from someone’s experiences to be documented. The problem with taking truth from words is they are can be subjective, especially when paired with other words. Consciousness is subjective too. The exact same situation might happen to different people at the same time and each person will experience it differently. Who’s to say who’s “right”? The problem with religion is people make is about everything that it’s not. At the core of every religion, and even non-religion, is an attempt to describe a certain “state of being”, quite possibly a raised sense of consciousness, to the masses. Who wouldn’t want to tell people about a phenomenal sense of being. To feel light, to feel love, to feel happy. That’s the truth.

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Kudos to “Correction Sir “and “So Simple”.....you obviously got it…...reasonable objectivety trumping emotion….........thanks!

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I definitely thinks it’s cool that someone like BP has come out of the Atheist closet, but better still would be for someone who isn’t as established as him to come out and still be able to have a successful career, not just in acting but politics as well.

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Bunnyv: Unfortunately I don’t think there are any congressional districts that would tolerate an openly atheist candidate. Maybe in 10 or 20 or 50 years there will be.

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The fact of the matter is, we cannot be elitist against people like Brad just because he’s a celeb.  He’s using that status to paint a goo picture for those who would never otherwise see it.  It’s sad, but we need to face the fact that most teenage and early twenty somethings aren’t flocking to the library to read Dawkins or Harris, they’re flocking to the theaters to see Brad Pitt.  Therefore, he’s doing us a service, and we should be grateful to him instead of elitist against him.

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