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Author Topic: Atheists  (Read 408383 times)

Ampersand

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1320 on: September 08, 2009, 11:18:52 am »

...this neatly avoids the real question at hand, which is not whether Religion is good or not, but whether it is correct or not.

I think I'm seeing a pattern here. I'd say over half of this thread has been to discuss the effects of (a lack of) Religion. It's impossible to say whether or not it's correct. Is there an effect of God? Yes. He created humans. But atheists say that humans were created from evolution. But modern religionists say that God 'created' them by evolving them. But atheists say you don't need a God to evolve things.

Well, there, you can't really prove it either way. You can twist facts to support your view. Or.. you could personally attack people and their beliefs. That's the easy way.
The bible in near ancient times was a book of nice fictive stories written by someone who wanted power. The fact that during Europe’s dark ages the pope was more important as he was the hand of god than a king or queen proves my case beyond reasonable doubt and what better way to gain power then by slowly brainwashing the masses with stories about an almighty entity in a expensive looking building.

Now to get back on your quote. It is very nice of you to say that twisting facts or personally attacking some ones believe is the easy way, but to be very honest… Apart from the fact that so-called heathens during the dark ages were either forced to believe in the Christian God or be killed/banned/tortured/ [insert your own punishment] (also see the Spanish Inquisition as the best possible example). The humans on this world have never been kind to people who think differently then themselves:
1. See the mayor religions and their intolerable attitude towards each other in various time periods throughout history.
2. See the European nations who conquered the American continent in the name of God and at the same time nearly diminishing the native population by either disease or bullets.
3. See the US nearly finishing that job in the name of expansion to the west by dumping them in reservations as if the Native Americans were cattle to keep safe from the outside world.

Throughout history things have been done in the name of god that should not have been tolerated by the almighty god.
Even if he was to think that it was too far beneath him to answer every common prayer I cannot believe that if he existed he would have condoned that mass extermination of the Native Americans in his name. Not to mention the mass extermination of the Jews during WW2.

To end my other donated 2c (damn soon I will be broke)
In my personal opinion at the moment that someone cannot have a normal discussion about in this case his/her religion without feeling personally insulted about the arguments the other person places on the table that insulted person is way to committed to his belief and almost borderline fanatic. This is the same problem with Muslims today 1 stupid drawing in Denmark and the entire muslim population on this freaking planet is ready for war.

Although I at least try to respect people’s beliefs, but I still believe that some religions that exist today can as a whole be counted as a mayor root of evil in the world today.

All right I am ready for the flaming… [non-believer heatshield on!]

Once again, you're getting lost in irrelevancy. It doesn't matter if people who were religious did bad things. If there was a God, and he really did want them to do those things, then it was absolutely right for them to do it. The question is not whether or not it is bad, but whether or not it is true.

Now, addressing Muz directly, as he was responding to me.

No, Atheists do not say that humans were created from evolution. I am an atheist in the same way your TV remote is an atheist. Your TV remote certainly does not believe in god, or anything else for that matter.

If a person came up to me and told me that fairies exist, and they believe in them absolutely, I would laugh. I would not begin living my life under the assumption that fairies exist just because some person or people believe they do.

If a person came up to me and told me that the Tooth Fairy exists, and they believe in it absolutely, I would laugh. I would not begin living my life under the assumption that the Tooth Fairy exists because some person or persons believe that it does.

Likewise, if someone comes up to me and tells me that there is a God that created the universe, and they believe in it absolutely, I laugh. I do not begin living my life under the assumption that God exists just because some person or persons believe it does.

That is, until any one of the above people or persons provides me evidence that they are correct. If they can do that, I will not only believe it, but scream it from the damn mountaintops, because it would be the most important thing ever, ever.

But it is not my responsibility to disprove anything, I can't. There is a principle that says that the Non-falsifiability of a hypothesis makes it useless.

I'm not saying that I KNOW god does not exist, no one knows whether or not god exists, not even the most devout Christian. The question is about BELIEF. I don't. The evidence is not sufficient for me to believe, and I feel that it isn't sufficient for anyone to believe.
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Starver

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1321 on: September 08, 2009, 11:46:38 am »

I'm not saying that I KNOW god does not exist, no one knows whether or not god exists, not even the most devout Christian. The question is about BELIEF. I don't. The evidence is not sufficient for me to believe, and I feel that it isn't sufficient for anyone to believe.
And it takes a Hard Atheist to BELIEVE that He doesn't.

I classify myself as a soft atheist (a "not a god-believer", as opposed to a "not-a-god believer"), generally agnostic (you couldn't really know, see Clarke's 3rd Law and Niven's corollary, with respect to the validity of theophanies or other apparent revelations) and utlimately apatheist (having pretended to believe isn't going to fool a deity if/when you get to the pearly-gates equivalent checkpoint, He/She/It is probably going to treat me as I am, regardless, and could even penalise me for attempting to swing a Pascal's Wager on them).  Normally I end up in threads like this (when I let myself get drawn in) trying to explain why circular arguments for the authority of the Bible (or Torah or Qu'ran/Koran/whatever or Tripitaka or various Vedas or ...) really doesn't cut the mustard.

The other day, however, I found myself in a RL discussion with a hard atheist (he probably read some Dawkins recently and taking it as... ahem... gospel) and thus approaching the argument about how we wouldn't ever be able to prove or disprove God's (Yahweh's, Allah's, etcs') existence from the other side.  Quite a novel experience.  To be honest, it wasn't a challenging conversation, though.


But, as a related aside, I'm eyebrow-raising at the current advertising for The Alpha Course, here in the UK.  A multi-choice question of "Does God Exist?  [] Yes [] No [] Probably".  I expect bias, of course, and it obeys the "law of threes" (so fitting "probably not" into there would ruin the tempo of the piece) and no variant of "who can know?" would fit the needs of the advertiser's clients.
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RAM

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1322 on: September 08, 2009, 12:18:03 pm »

Maybe, perhaps, could do, possibly, moot point, P.T.O. loop, unknown, debatable, uncertain... I am half-asleep and came up with these easily, a professional advertiser would do that for a living. There IS bias and it IS deliberate, there is doubt in everything in this world, except advertising...

It is similar to hard and soft Atheism, one implies mercilessness and the other implied the ability to change...

It is exceedingly difficult to provide a proof of Theism or Atheism, thought it is possible to debate the implications of one or the other and assess the extent to which those implications are borne out in those things that we can measure. It does however become somewhat easier to provide a compelling argument against Theism as it becomes more specified. It is possible to provide compelling evidence against all permutations of the term god, it is easy to dismiss any given religion as being insignificant...

Our world is diverse, if it has a purpose then diversity is consistent with that purpose. Through works of fiction entities within our world add to diversity. Therefore it is probable that entities within the world have exceeded the abilities of any entity that might have created it. It seems doubtful that such an act of creation could produce something more capable than the creating entity...
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Leafsnail

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1323 on: September 08, 2009, 01:08:11 pm »

I identify as "atheist" on the grounds that, well, the bible is no more likely to be literally true than any other work of fiction (and at least most other works of fiction are internally consistent).  Or, indeed, any possible work of fiction.  Or any possible idea which "fits the evidence" (and if you're allowed to keep bolting bits onto your theory to explain away evidence against it, that's almost any idea).
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Zironic

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1324 on: September 08, 2009, 01:41:52 pm »

An ambition is still a belief, you don't know if it's really possible, or if it will be what you want, but you still aspire towards it, thus, a belief.
You don't understand, My ambition is not a belief. I don't actively focus on it. It's more like a power goal. Pass College? Ok, I guess I have to do something. Now that I think of it, my ambition is just what society tells me to do.
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G-Flex

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1325 on: September 08, 2009, 08:01:52 pm »

well, not pure, but far more so than the US.
O_o
 what do you mean, I don' understand how the US isn't a pure democracy.
wait are you dissing the fact it gives people constitutional rights?
No, I think you've fallen for the conspiracy theory that all representatives are corrupted by the power, that's only a small faction of the senators and house reps, that tends to include both parties evenly.

It would help if you knew what "democracy" actually means. Democracy is majority rule. It's people voting on things. In the US, most things AREN'T voted on by the populace.
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Ampersand

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1326 on: September 08, 2009, 09:00:01 pm »

The United States is a Democratic Republic, if you want to get technical. Representatives are elected by the people to vote on issues, which is different from a pure, or direct democracy, in which people would vote on issues by ballot directly.
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Andir

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1327 on: September 08, 2009, 10:12:20 pm »

The United States is a Democratic Republic, if you want to get technical. Representatives are elected by the people to vote on issues, which is different from a pure, or direct democracy, in which people would vote on issues by ballot directly.
We are a Federal Constitutional Republic... The only thing that represents Democracy in our government is at the State level when we vote for Representatives.  The President isn't even directly voted in by the citizens, but through the Electoral College and the States.  This was done ON PURPOSE to eliminate the influence of big organizations (like the church) and keep them from changing the laws to suit their agenda...

There's no such thing as a Democratic Republic.  That's kind of like saying you bought a Ford Chevrolet.  It's a popular misconception pushed by the majorities in our country that we are a Democracy because that gives them power.  (Mob rule)  It's also behind the push to eliminate the electoral college...

I'm hurt a little each time someone claims we are a Democratic Government because it shows how little they actually know about the framework of our country.  Sadly though, it's becoming more and more commonplace.
« Last Edit: September 08, 2009, 10:13:56 pm by Andir »
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"Having faith" that the bridge will not fall, implies that the bridge itself isn't that trustworthy. It's not that different from "I pray that the bridge will hold my weight."

Andir

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1328 on: September 08, 2009, 10:33:23 pm »

Err, I would edit it, but I already did once and I don't want to confuse it anymore...

I worded it slightly wrong.  You can't have a Democratic Republic because a Republic is a form of Democratic Government, but it's not a Direct Democracy (which is what I have a problem with.)  My analogy would be better worded as "you don't buy an Automobile Chevrolet."

But it's technically incorrect to call it a Democratic Republic... it would be more proper to call it a Republic Democracy, or more properly a Constitutional Federal Republic Democracy (even though Democracy is not mentioned in any of the founding documents except for the ultimate distaste for Direct Democratic processes.)
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"Having faith" that the bridge will not fall, implies that the bridge itself isn't that trustworthy. It's not that different from "I pray that the bridge will hold my weight."

Jackrabbit

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1329 on: September 09, 2009, 02:18:54 am »

I doubt many people go from Atheist to Christian. Religion never worries me too much, whereas for most Atheists (or at least, those I've encountered) they're very vocal in their belief and seem to focus on it a fair bit. If you're like the Atheists I've met, you really believe in your ideals, very strongly and probably won't change them. From what I've seen.
A lot of my extended family are devout and vocal catholic Christians, and I could copy replace atheist with Christian your quote.

It's all rather... I've forgotten the word.

The point is, both sides could claim this, certainly, though I have many Christian friends who are extremely laid back about the religion, just as there are many people who simply 'don't believe' who aren't that bothered over all.

PERSPECTIVE! That's the word. Perspective.

Also, I've highlighted the bit that makes no sense grammatically. I had trouble working it out. Please, proof read your posts. Most of us don't mind misspellings or similar but that was confusing.
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Idiom

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1330 on: September 09, 2009, 04:06:06 am »

Quote
Lost in irrelevancy
That's this thread described.

...and the story my life.  :D

Read Cracked lately? There's a summer camp for atheists just like for other beliefs apparently. Supposedly it's a camp to encourage free thought, but personally, I think it'll just turn out batches of "hard" atheists.
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Jackrabbit

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1331 on: September 09, 2009, 04:08:50 am »

Frankly, the idea of bible camp creeps me out.
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Idiom

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1332 on: September 09, 2009, 04:13:19 am »

Quote
Frankly, the idea of bible camp creeps me out.
Then imagine an anti-bible camp. The colours are different but it still leaves the same bad aftertaste.
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Jackrabbit

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1333 on: September 09, 2009, 04:14:07 am »

Indeed.

The same bible camp, only it's for atheists! With hymns! Experience such classics as:
"Glory in the highest to natural selection!"
"Nobody cares who killed Jesus, shut up."
"God damn - aw crap, can't say that, doesn't make sense."
« Last Edit: September 09, 2009, 04:16:10 am by Jackrabbit »
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Zironic

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Re: Atheists
« Reply #1334 on: September 09, 2009, 06:16:26 am »

Indeed.

The same bible camp, only it's for atheists! With hymns! Experience such classics as:
"Glory in the highest to natural selection!"
"Nobody cares who killed Jesus, shut up."
"God damn - aw crap, can't say that, doesn't make sense."
Wrong, We watch porn all day and masturbate while having orgies. We then murder and rape the local country sides while screaming satan, tax raises, and OBAMA.
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