AAI Convention – A Theory Of Disbelief
Dan and I are just returning from the 2009 AAI conference in Los Angeles. It was truly awesome and I highly recommend that if you ever have the opportunity to attend one of their events, you do! Over 700 fellow atheists were in attendance. It was announced that next year the conference will be held in Montreal.
I am currently on a plane flying at 35,000 feet using wifi, listening to the Beatles on my ipod, while remotely connecting to my home desktop pc to transfer the image you see above to my laptop so that I can post this article. Yes creationists, science sure is an inconvenience. As I write this using so many different sciences at once, I am even more amazed by the ability of creationists to obstruct the upward scientific evolution of mankind. Which brings me to my point. I think I may have figured out why so many creationists happen to be global warming deniers, anti stem cell research advocates, etc.
The conference was nothing but one brilliant speech after another. I sat there finding it impossible to believe that any creation minded person could possibly walk out with their beliefs still intact. I watched and heard some of the most brilliant minds of our time explain evolution, biology, earth science, astro physics, genetics & embryonic cell research. How could anyone watch all of the same presentations and still have an ounce of doubt about our place in the universe? Then it hit me. My theory is something I call, the unification of belligerent thought theory. I have noticed that a significant (certainly higher than any probability model’s results) number of creationists also deny global warming for example. Why is this? There is no religious connection so to speak. So why?
I believe that some people just can’t deal with…being wrong (Ray Comfort & Ken Ham, I’m talking to you). I know this is a revolutionary concept. It is just impossible for me to believe that anyone could have sat through the lecture that Lawrence Krauss presented about the origins of our universe and walked away saying, ” …that doesn’t make any sense. That’s not what the bible says”. Religion requires commitment to a defensive posture. Under the light of any intelligent scrutiny, religion’s mythical and contradictory nature becomes a glittering jewel of nonsense. I believe that belligerent thought is a style of thinking not limited to a particular topic. Generally people who are unwilling to accept being wrong about one belief are incapable of admitting the same for another. This means the road ahead for atheists to promote science and critical thinking skills may be longer than hoped. Have no fear though, a long road just means we need to travel faster to get to our destination of rationality.