Mark Zuckerberg says he’s no longer atheist,believes religion is very important | Hacker News Reader

Mark Zuckerberg says he’s no longer atheist,believes religion is very important

washingtonpost.com

34 pointsrock5730 comments

Zuckerberg: Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah

Commenter: Aren't you an atheist?

What a non-sequitur. I tell someone "have a good trip" even though I'm not going on the trip. I tell someone "Good luck with that promotion" even though it isn't my paycheck. Why would it be surprising that an atheist wished someone Merry Christmas or Happy Hanukkah?

Because a large number of atheists believe that even acknowledging a religion is a slippery slope into accepting its ideas as having validity.

Even describing oneself as agnostic is enough to drag people over from /r/atheism on Reddit into insisting that such a thing is impossible and you must either be religious or atheist and if somebody should insist that no, they're quite open-minded but see no hard evidence for either World view, they will be shouted down and called a liar.

Some parts of modern atheism is so toxic, it hardly a surprise that so many people wish to reject it. This is a perfect example of the kind of interaction that makes some people think atheists are just inconsiderate dickheads lacking basic manners or empathy.

Oh please. Either you're exaggerating, or you've been going to /r/atheism looking to start fights.

In regards to 'agnostic', what the word literally means is that you aren't certain. There are agnostic theists and agnostic atheists. If someone asks if you believe in God and you say you're agnostic, you're not answering the question completely. That's all people are saying, don't let it get to you.

There you go. You're doing it. Stop it.

I used to hang around in /r/agnostic and left because of the constant trolling from people insisting this argument you're making is valid. It isn't. It is perfectly possible to say "I have no evidence to support either world view, but plenty of others do, and I would like to see more of that before coming to a decision on my own".

Do I believe in the flying spaghetti monster? No. Why? Because I know exactly how it was conceived and why. Do I believe in the miracles the Catholic church claim for their saints and figureheads such as Jesus? Literally no fucking clue because I don't have primary source evidence. Could be true, could be bullshit. I'm not going to come down one way or the other without more evidence.

Your argument that I _must_ feel one way or the other, and I'm lying if I don't, is not just lacking empathy, patronising and rude, it's philosophical nonsense.

Seems like Zuck is trying to get ready for that political future....

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/08/mark-zuck...

Believing that "religion is very important" is not the same as not being an atheist.

I think that believing in Santa Claus, for instance, is a good (if not important) thing, at a certain age, but that does not make me a believer.

True, but when asked directly if he was atheist, he answered "No."

Many people conflate being an atheist with being against religion.

Many of them athiests themselves.

He did reply to "aren't you an atheist?" with "no". But he also didn't commit to a specific religion in a most weaselly way (also, "Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah"?).

What's the problem, Zuck? Afraid to tell us the truth? Perhaps your beliefs are a private matter?

He could, of course, say that nobody is forced to share their beliefs on Facebook. (My own "religion" is currently blank, for instance.)

Still I get the impression that Facebook does so much tracking of users via embedded wotsits that they know your religion / politics / sexuality et cetera...

Yeah, but an agnostic would still answer no to that question.

Please read the article before replying. The full quote by Zuckerburg is:

> "No. I was raised Jewish and then I went through a period where I questioned things, but now I believe religion is very important."

Seems like a very calculating answer from a very calculating person. I don't intend that as a compliment.

Are religious people more inclined to be heavy facebook users?

From an informal and limited survey of people I know, I'd believe this to likely be true.

In which case religion is very important. To facebook.

My personal experience says no to that claim. Atheists / agnostics are just as likely to be active on there. I would say that I think more women than men use facebook in my experience and I recall more women than men claim a religion.

Who cares?

I find Zuckerberg to be interesting, only because he started out so young (similiar in age to myself) and seems to be navigating a very political world and crafting a public image accordingly, so his choices to me are curious as he attempts to "brand himself" in today's climate. To me he seems to be setting himself to be a politician (or influential figure of some type).

My thoughts exactly. This latest screams "I plan to run for office."

It could be well-crafted, or it could just be part of Zuckerberg growing up. A lot of big changes happen between one's 20s and 30s, and having children, in particular, tends to change one's outlook dramatically.

Literally everyone starts out young.

Ordinarily such things shouldn't concern us. One's religion, privately practiced, is a private matter. Mark Zuckerberg is a special case because he is intentionally driving us towards a "post-privacy" world. So when he's cagey about some aspect of his private life, we should be merciless. He does not get to be The Man Who Kept Privacy For Himself.

I'm not being obtuse but I'm not sure how he's driving us towards a "post-privacy" world. If he was doing that wouldn't the default Facebook privacy settings be 'Public' and WhatsApp messages not be encrypted?

This article (the top google result for 'zuckerberg privacy') is a pretty good summary as of 6 years ago, complete with worrying Zuckerberg quotes: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2010/jan/11/facebook-...

tl;dr He defends the constant slackening of privacy control defaults by purporting to believe that it's the natural social evolution and therefore Facebook's manifest destiny.

He can try to drive that, he can attempt to lie about himself to seem human but he can't force anyone to use facebook for any extra minute that they don't want to. A trust / consent relationship only works if you have an account and use it. Otherwise he's got nothing and he knows it. Facebook can be another myspace. We've got linkedin, meetup, telephones, texting, insta-whatever and as soon as user engagement dips, advertisers make adjustments, shareholders start asking questions, finding out why and making demands for changes.

I guess, that's fine for Facebook, but here on HN we get to decide what's appropriate. A story about someone's personal belief in God changing from one thing to another doesn't belong here IMHO.

Thank you. I had come here just to say this.

Who cares if Zuckerberg believes in God or not?

Seriously.

He's looking ahead to his run for president in 20 years ;)

Family has a way of making you want to make order out of chaos, to tie yourself to humanity of the past, to create and carry on traditions that were part of the formation in you. And you can understand this inside and from the outside and see it as a good thing. You see the benefits of religion and realize the futility of arguing the inconsistencies of any given holy book. Because real life will present you with even more of them on a weekly basis.

"..but now I believe religion is very important." as in keeping society structured.

Closet Atheism, trying to keep religion around because the social alternative is a hard vacuum.

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