Why are geeks often atheist?

An interesting trend on sites such as Digg, Slashdot and Shuzak suggests that atheism is the "religion" of choice among geeks. Why is atheism more popular among geeks when clearly the average person is religious? Well this article might have an explanation.

This article isn't very scientific, and makes many guesses. It's sure sparked a debate, if you can call it a debate on Digg, where over 800 comments have been left regarding the issue. Part of the article seems to be too pro geek, making atheism something that only elite smarty-pants geeks can grasp, and that only stupid people are theists. By reading the huge volume of comments, you can get a good sense that this is a powerful topic, with some people feeling strongly that there is no god, and others making the case that you'd better believe in god, just in case. Still others want to make the further leap, and say that well, if there is no harm in believing in a god, then you may as well believe in the Abrahamic god, oh, and follow the bible, and believe that jesus was the son of god, oh, and you best do as he says in the bible, or else you're going to hell. I do think that there are a number of geeks who are atheists, when they actually mean non religious. They just don't care for one reason or another. I did hear the term igtheist, they just ignore theism, or aptheism, where there is an apathy toward theism. There are a number who believe there may be a god, but follow a watch maker philosophy. God snapped its cosmically magic fingers, and poof, there was the beginning of the universe. Then, god doesn't intervene. But, who or what created god then? If things become more complex over time, with an omnipotent being capable of creation of the universe being the most complex, how can god be pre-creation? Could we be one of many iterations of the universe? Is there a cycle of expansion and contraction? Even if that were the case, is there any way currently to tell one way or the other? We can make guesses that the universe is expanding, but that is as far as we can go now. Even in the fiction if Star Trek, they don't even go past our own galaxy, much less venture other galaxies. It's too fast, even for fiction. And even our own galaxy is so fast, you can make a seven year series about getting chucked into one quadrant, and needing to hoof it all the way back home.



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