Was Being Deeply Religious/Theistic Irrational?

[Danneskjold]

First off, ignore any implications in the title that something becomes more or less rational at any given time. It doesn't change from rational to irrational over time as we learn more for the same reason something doesn't change from true to untrue over time as we learn more. I think we can all gather the intention of the title though.

Religion has often been described as old science, people didn't know much about the world they lived in and they didn't know how things worked. Because of this it probably seemedd like the only logical explanation is for someone to believe in some sort of diety to explain the world. If it wasnt' irrational to believe in a God or gods then at what point would it become irrational?

[Dragonfly]

If it wasnt' irrational to believe in a God or gods then at what point would it become irrational?

When you should know better.

[PalePower]

I don't think the idea could everbe described as "rational." It doesn't take advanced technology to deduce that a consciousness can just, pop, appear, with no cause, and create an entire universe. That's just common logic.

It may seem like a logical idea at first - that the order of this world could only come into existence through intelligent design - but upon further inspection, using just your mind, it really does amount to nothing. Probably one of the reasons atheism is gaining popularity nowadays is because we're in a cultural environment that encourages independent thinking and reason, not conformity and obedience.

To historically support that, weren't many of the ancient Greek philosophers accused of atheism or something? And I know several of the founding fathers, Jefferson specifically, were atheists. Both lived in thought-happy environments - pro-philosophy and the Enlightenment.

~Elizabeth