Be Better at Critical Thinking for Atheists 1

#criticalthinkingskills #criticalthinkingskills #skepticism

This is a segment of my talk about how to be better atheists by improving our critical thinking skills at The Brights Society Atheist Conference 2022 in Pune, Maharashtra.

Questions, suggestions or just want to get in touch? Find me on Instagram and Twitter @berationable and on Facebook @BeRationable.

For the audio version, search for The Rationable Podcast wherever you listen to podcasts.

[MrFossilabgfyth]

Critical thinking should be taught in schools. Online I've encountered many atheists who say that people like me who are religious can't be critical thinkers because of various reasons "supernatural belief, faith-based thinking, no evidence, etc." These people make me go down a spiral of anxiety and worry.

[gurnoorsingh]

True, evidence is all that counts. I had been practising shiv mantra japa for 4 years continuosly, until my last 17th birthday. I called out to shiva many times, in the worst times to atleast show me 1 spiritual experience that people always claim they had. I asked many times, not felt a single thing in 4 years. Its been a year since i became an atheist, started reading scriptures and understanding that it was all mythological shit without any proof. Now that i think about it, the childhood indoctrination was all i had to make me join my identity with religion. Sad to say i was a dumb tanatani but happy to find the truth now. Now i am a hardcore rationalist and have recently been completely immersed in science. I concluded the reason why god could not exist for me was very simple. It was because the idea of god is unnecesary for physical reality. Human had a starting point as common ancestory with apes and mammals. Mammals came to top of the food chain after dinosaur extinction event, in turn allowing apes to evolve and eventually humans. If you look at how the universe evolved, how life evolved on earth and dna structures a few picometers long gave rise to cells, cells to multicellular structures and then to even complex organisms( FOR WHICH WE HAVE MORE PROOF THAN GOD'S IDEO OF CREATION) you can clearly rule out possibility of a creator god. Unlike what sanatan and abrahamic religions say, human race could not have started with only 2 humans, in santan case them being manu and ananti. 2 people, 1 male and 1 female can never start a full race of humans because of in-breeding changes on genetics. We know today for a fact that in-breeding leads to either disfigured or deceased offsprings. So a male and female alone could never start human race by sexual reproduction. To be safe, taking genetics mutation and evolution into consideration, we need atleast 3 couples (3 healthy males and 3 healthy females) to start a race of species. And Since the basis of every religion has a male and female from whom the whole human race supposedly started, Like adam eve in christianity and judaism and islam, ananti and manu being in hinduism is wrong in itself, the logical correctness of the whole religion is questioned.Since the dawn of humanity, we humans, unknown of our surroundings, afraid of what lurks in the jungles, always believed in a protective figure who will help us and every community made their own gods. Surprisingly 4600 religions arose and not 1 god can be seen doing miracles today, unlike they supposedly did back then. The 33 koti devi devtas of hinduism are nowhere to be found. Their vimaanas, their belongings, nothing showing they were gods are ever found. When the quantum state, the smallest particles of matter are themselves physically existent, it is illogical to believe a formless invisible god exists. And for just that simple logic and absence of evidence for now, god could not exist.
At the last, i thank you, pranav and vimoh since because of you guys, i am able to reform my life and career towards a brighter, more fruitful future. Please continue your work guys, even if 1 of us atheists can show the truth to just 2 or 3 blind/radical theists( no problem with people minding their own prayers in their homes or worship places), surely we can make heaven on earth itself in a few centuries😅

[tempestive]

Nice. Love Pranav, unfortunately too much of his content has been on my watch later list for a while. But I did see you mentioned on his channel and subbed to check later :)

I really like Anthony Magnabosco's animation "How to Change Minds" with Rebecca Fox where they equate our "selves" with jenga towers of beliefs, and how they limit the rooms we can go in and how we dance - and mention the importance of thinking of WHY those blocks are there making up that tower in the first place.


Good stuff. I'll be keeping an eye out.

[Krucezam]

So if a person learn and mimimizes cognitive biases, does it mean he or she applying critical thinking? I still have no idea what critical thinking and how different or same is it to analytical thinking?