Fact is, the most atheistic group you can find shows less than half don't believe in God and more than half believe in God or a higher power. So even with your "1000 smart people" argument, you fail... most of them believe in something greater than self.Fact is if you put 1000 smart people together, you'll find a lot of atheists. And if you put a bunch of stupid people together you will get a higher number of believers.
scientists in the United States are more likely to not believe in God when compared to nonscientists [source: The Pew Research Center]. Here are the numbers from one 2009 Pew Research Center survey:
- One-third of scientists said they believed in God, compared to 83 percent of the general public surveyed.
- Nearly one-fifth reported not believing in God but having faith in a higher power (general public came in at 12 percent).
- Roughly two-fifths said they didn't believe in a God or higher power (4 percent among the general public).
I think it was also a Pew study that examined the most atheist country on the planet, Sweden. They found 33% claimed to be atheist, 66% claimed some spiritual belief. What was really interesting was the follow-up question asked of the atheists... Less than half of that 33% were willing to go so far as to say they did not believe in any possibility of something greater than self. I guess the majority were "agnostic" atheists?
Scientists, not scientists, smart people, dumb people, atheist country or not... doesn't matter, a majority believe in something greater than self. Even in a group of ALL atheists!
A majority believe in the possibility of something greater than self, even in a group of all atheists. A bit of an important distinction. Otherwise, I agree, most believe in something religious or spiritual.
Does the fact that most people believe matter? Most people don't understand science or the brain. Even people who believe in spirituality only do so because they want to believe in more. They don't know anything they just want there to be so they've convinced themselves they believe in something they can't even prove to themselves. No proof necessary. They just hope or as they all it "have faith"
Does the fact that as far back as we can trace man has always believed matter? I say that's proof it was all just made up by a scared primitive men.
Are either of these things proof of a god? At least boss doesn't say I'll go to hell if I don't buy into it. I'll give his monkey ass that.