‘We Make Our Own Heaven’
This is so sad! I can’t figure out if the reporting is just inadequate, since the reporter continuously interviews the eight-year-old, or the atheists of Palo Alto are simply confused.
An eight year old, Jane, in this case, can be taught to believe in anything. Just because her parents taught her to say things like “I like free thinking” doesn’t mean anything, well, because she is *eight* years old. She may also believe in Santa, but that doesn’t make Santa real.
Shedding religious baggage is an invitation for atheists to use the time they normally would be spending in a church, mosque, or synagogue to do something really productive for themselves or the community they live in. Simply replacing that baggage with atheist dogma, and surrounding yourself with like-minded “free-thinkers” who “believe in science” is a mistake that makes atheism look and feel like a replacement to religion, which it definitely is not.
Rational Russian -- Withering Lies 