Mark Zuckerberg just got saved!

[SLD]

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/facebook-ceo-says-he-s-no-longer-atheist-n702631

Well, not exactly. He says he's reverted to Judaism. Hallalujah! Praise Moses. Or Elijah. Or something.

SLD

 

[Kharakov]

I wonder if anyone noticed the bandwidth spike?

 

[Angry Floof]

No wonder Facebook is so slow today.

 

[Tom Sawyer]

nm

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/facebook-ceo-says-he-s-no-longer-atheist-n702631

Well, not exactly. He says he's reverted to Judaism. Hallalujah! Praise Moses. Or Elijah. Or something.

SLD

Where did he say he reverted to Judaism? In that article they quote him as having said he was raised jewish, his wife is budhist, and he considers religion important. Doesn't say what he actually believes as near as I can see.

 

[Keith&Co.]

and he considers religion important. Doesn't say what he actually believes as near as I can see.

Yes. Big difference between 'religion is important because humans need community' and 'religion is important to keep God from smiting us.'

 

[ronburgundy]

and he considers religion important. Doesn't say what he actually believes as near as I can see.

Yes. Big difference between 'religion is important because humans need community' and 'religion is important to keep God from smiting us.'

And different my view that religion is importantly dangerous to a healthy community and should be actively fought against because it inherently undermines reason, liberty, and moral and political progress.

Like most "moderate" religious endorsement Zuckerberg's is less dangerous than but still enabling of the dangerous impacts of religion.

 

[Sarpedon]

Meh, let the man do as he wants. We're supposed to be all about freedom. No skin off my teeth.

 

[OLDMAN]

Yes. Big difference between 'religion is important because humans need community' and 'religion is important to keep God from smiting us.'

And different my view that religion is importantly dangerous to a healthy community and should be actively fought against because it inherently undermines reason, liberty, and moral and political progress.

Like most "moderate" religious endorsement Zuckerberg's is less dangerous than but still enabling of the dangerous impacts of religion.

Religion is important because most people can.t handle the truth about dying.

 

[Keith&Co.]

Meh, let the man do as he wants. We're supposed to be all about freedom. No skin off my teeth.

I don't think I see anyone opposed to his freedom to choose.
I think we just want more specificity. If nothing else, to limit the rumors that'll be told.
Like the first time I heard about Anthony Flew was when a thumper on a forum bragged that my atheism hero had found Christ.

 

[DrZoidberg]

http://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/facebook-ceo-says-he-s-no-longer-atheist-n702631

Well, not exactly. He says he's reverted to Judaism. Hallalujah! Praise Moses. Or Elijah. Or something.

SLD

Isn't it more that being an atheist is going out of fashion? Atheism had a huge swing up with New Atheism, but there was bound to come a backlash at some point. I think I've seen a trend toward spiritualism and religiosity for a few years now. There's been quite a few clues. That doesn't mean that real numbers of atheists are shrinking. It just means that it's less cool now to wear the atheist badge.

Also, you can be an atheist Jew. Judaism doesn't focus on belief. It only focuses on ritual. There's plenty of proud badge wearing Jews who are just as proud atheists.

I think the problem is that atheism is empty. Atheism is a club where you go to if you don't want to belong to a club. But people want to belong to clubs. And fundamentally that's all really religion is. It's clubs to join.

I've talked about it for years now here. I think atheist religion is the new thing and it's going to explode. If it hasn't already.

 

[James Brown]

You know those Gideon Bibles that Christians put in hotel rooms with the hopes that people read them and find God?

I wonder if anyone ever found one of those Bibles, read the first two-thirds of it, then converted to Judaism.

That's just as good, right Gideons?

 

[Jolly_Penguin]

Isn't it more that being an atheist is going out of fashion? Atheism had a huge swing up with New Atheism, but there was bound to come a backlash at some point. I think I've seen a trend toward spiritualism and religiosity for a few years now. There's been quite a few clues. That doesn't mean that real numbers of atheists are shrinking. It just means that it's less cool now to wear the atheist badge.

I'd agree with this. I think we sort of popped a bit of the religious bubble, and being an atheist is no longer a cool rebel thing to be. The taboo and bad boy factor is no longer there. And now, I think a lot of people have left the big religions are moving into new age like stuff. Still something to be guarded against, but it isn't as organized or as powerful as it was.

- - - Updated - - -

You know those Gideon Bibles that Christians put in hotel rooms with the hopes that people read them and find God?

I wonder if anyone ever found one of those Bibles, read the first two-thirds of it, then converted to Judaism.

That's just as good, right Gideons?

I used to have a habit of writing in these bibles, leaving little disclaimers and highlighting funny passages. I don't really do that anymore. Kind of got bored of it.

 

[Keith&Co.]

I think the problem is that atheism is empty. Atheism is a club where you go to if you don't want to belong to a club.

But for a long time, atheism was also like Satanism and getting your face pierced. Something you can take up expressly to scandalize your parents. Something you do to see people recoil in horror.

Much like a school friend I had who was an avowed communist right up to the day the Berlin Wall came down. Then it wasn't so scary any more, and his Dad would talk to him. He's probably Muslim these days.

 

[DBT]

Maybe it's just a cultural thing? Being a part of a greater community et cetera, without holding a conviction in the reality of its god?

 

[T.G.G. Moogly]

Maybe it's just a cultural thing? Being a part of a greater community et cetera, without holding a conviction in the reality of its god?

Like most people who practice religion.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Maybe it's just a cultural thing? Being a part of a greater community et cetera, without holding a conviction in the reality of its god?

Of course not. Jesus. His Facebook page isn't his personal Facebook page. It's 100% branding. He did it because his PR-department told him he should. He might have held out for a bit, but Facebook's dominance is anything but secure at the moment. Right now isn't a good time for Mark Zuckerberg to be making personal statements that doesn't have his company's welfare as the main goal.

 

[Treedbear]

Maybe it's just a cultural thing? Being a part of a greater community et cetera, without holding a conviction in the reality of its god?

Of course not. Jesus. His Facebook page isn't his personal Facebook page. It's 100% branding. He did it because his PR-department told him he should. He might have held out for a bit, but Facebook's dominance is anything but secure at the moment. Right now isn't a good time for Mark Zuckerberg to be making personal statements that doesn't have his company's welfare as the main goal.

Politics is said to be warfare by other means. It seems religion has become politics by other means. I think the rise of strong-man, authoritarian governments is likely to lead us to give up more and more privacy to the government. Announcing one's Jewishness may be a defense against what might then potentially be portrayed as antisemiticism toward a part of the "liberal, Jewish media". Actually religion has played a historical role as a counter-weight to tyrants since the middle ages. So it can be seen as having an adaptive purpose beyond conquest. But I think Silicon Valley has a lot to worry about under the coming administration.

 

[DrZoidberg]

Of course not. Jesus. His Facebook page isn't his personal Facebook page. It's 100% branding. He did it because his PR-department told him he should. He might have held out for a bit, but Facebook's dominance is anything but secure at the moment. Right now isn't a good time for Mark Zuckerberg to be making personal statements that doesn't have his company's welfare as the main goal.

Politics is said to be warfare by other means. It seems religion has become politics by other means. I think the rise of strong-man, authoritarian governments is likely to lead us to give up more and more privacy to the government. Announcing one's Jewishness may be a defense against what might then potentially be portrayed as antisemiticism toward a part of the "liberal, Jewish media". Actually religion has played a historical role as a counter-weight to tyrants since the middle ages. So it can be seen as having an adaptive purpose beyond conquest. But I think Silicon Valley has a lot to worry about under the coming administration.

Well, Silicon Valley always has a lot to worry about, and it's nothing to do with politics. It's all predicting the coming trends in computing. Here's a prediction that I know will be true, everybody today will be wrong about the dominant new electronic thing ten years from now. That's been the case so far since the 1950'ies. That's what they're all worrying about. Or we. This is what I work with.

 

[Treedbear]

... Here's a prediction that I know will be true, everybody today will be wrong about the dominant new electronic thing ten years from now. That's been the case so far since the 1950'ies. That's what they're all worrying about. Or we. This is what I work with.

That's another matter. Of course the paradigm is that you never need to worry about that which you prepare for. All I have to say is beware of the coming singularity.

The technological singularity (also, simply, the singularity) is the hypothesis that the invention of artificial superintelligence will abruptly trigger runaway technological growth, resulting in unfathomable changes to human civilization.