The title is a joke, not a joke in the sense that he’s a scientologist, I knew this, but a joke as a preface for the rest of this entry.
Often, I see or hear of people that are believers of religion X or Y. To be fair, I also see or hear of people that are atheist, there are big lists you can look up. I used to care, but I don’t anymore, and here’s why (well, I still sort of do on the atheist side, but I’ll explain that later)…
So, let’s take an example… When I was a kid, raised in Utah, not mormon, a girl I was interested in invited me to go see a band she liked. This was not done on the up and up, it wasn’t stated that it was at a church or involved church, it was just to meet the band. She knew I wasn’t mormon, and I knew she was. Well, it turns out that this was what is commonly called a “fireside” (quotes aren’t for emphasis, it’s because there was no fire involved). The band that was there was the Jets (anyone remember the Jets… anyone?).
The band didn’t play any music (which is good, as I was there because I was interested in the girl, not the band), but instead simply told parables of how their own faith has been strengthened through experiences. And, for those playing the home game, this comes to my point. The logical fallacy here is anecdotal.
This is the entire point of people telling you that Chuck Norris is a christian and believes in biblical creationism. They’ll point out that Donny and Marie (and the rest of the Osmonds, but we can forget about them, they aren’t famous) are mormons. Or, to a smaller scale, they’ll tell you that some person you know is of religion X or Y. As though that should cause any sway of personal belief.
But, we shouldn’t care! What does any of that have to do with any reason for becoming a believer? These people are just people. Famous, or well known, or just someone you know personally has no bearing on why you should be a believer.
In fact, many famous people act horribly, and are of some faith or another. Just look at Mel Gibson, if there ever was an anecdotal reason to not be a christian, it’s him.
As to the list of atheists, and why I still care a little about those lists, I care because it’s people we teach about, because they were contributors to society in some important way. People like Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, Sartre, Neil Degrasse-Tyson, Stephen Hawking, Alfred Nobel, and the list goes on…
Oh, I believe in Crom, tell your friends…