Not true! It seems that many like to shove their belief system down everyone else's throats as if it is based on facts, which makes it very much like most other religions on the planet. They also wage political campaigns in the United States to have religion(primarily Christianity) erased from our schools, our public places, and our highways. They may not be killing people, but in some ways, they seem as oppressive as the Muslims. Here is a question. When educated countries get rid of god and religion, where will people gather to socialize and build their philosophy and value system (Whether that philosophy be to honor thy father and mother, or wage jihad on the unbelievers)? Europe is mostly godless already, by all statistics so I guess they could be looked to as an example, but then again, their culture is dying based on their birth rate so perhaps not a very good example.
Faith to religion belief adroit cheeseburger. Shining happy baseball leads for lemonade miracles. God belief creates summary hair loss. Atheism cause relief for gravity existence. Everlasting fortunate drive universe pursuit. Compliance overturn beautiful persuasion for miraculous glee.
I concur with this criticism of Atheism as many people currently practice it. We have taken an accidental wrong turn from a secular state into a situation where Atheism is effectively the state religion. This is not good for America and it is not good for Atheism. Religions must be allowed to compete in an open marketplace of ideas. Let evolution decide which is the best! This is another weakness of Atheism, and one which I believe can and should be corrected. For thousands of years churches have performed important social functions. For example, there's no better place to meet girls. Atheists, lacking churches, do not benefit from the supportive social structure provided by a church community. My proposed solution is to create an Atheist church. These churches would perform the social functions of traditional churches (building communities, helping people to learn ethics, providing guidance and support in times of trouble), without the negatives associated with traditional religion. Or perhaps it is an excellent example for that very same reason? Europe is in a particularly bad situation, not because they have lost faith in God, but because they have lost faith in themselves. Christian guilt has gone completely out of control. Western civilization is now eating itself alive. This must be stopped if we are to avoid a descent into another dark age of humanity.
I never thought of it that way, but it is true. Removal of the word "god" from the currency, and all the rest of the atheist agenda would actually play out to be the government taking a side in the religious competition, by siding with the Atheists. I guess they could say they are also siding with the agnostics, because they don't trust in God(In God We Trust), but it would be interesting to see polling data to see where agnostics weigh in on this issue. So True! This is exactly the point I'm getting at. As the atheist in this thread pointed out, atheists don't gather. The only truly common uniting factor they have is what they are against (God and Religion), so it isn't going to happen. Our culture comes from Christian values and the philosophy of people like Hume and Locke, and there seems to be a constant effort underway to eradicate it or change it. America is unique amongst modernized nations to still have such a large percentage of self identified Christians(religious) and perhaps that is a good thing. I still haven't heard the alternative that doesn't end in the death of our culture as we know it today.
This is a great thread; some of the questions were kind of misguided, in particular on the first page - but nice; not surprised Will was the one to start this
Christians dominate in terms of sheer numbers, and that's important for voting in some elections. It obviously didn't make a difference in the last election. Atheists, on the other hand, dominate in academia, entertainment, and real government. Almost all politicians claim to be Christians, but I'd bet that many are barely more Christian than I am. It's strange how powerful we Atheists are, being such a small minority. We have to be careful, lest we end up like the Tutsi's. I believe that part of it is because we are, on average, smarter and less self-deluded. Atheism forces you to step up emotionally. Of course, that's also why Atheism isn't very popular. Emotional growth tends to be difficult and unpleasant. It makes you a better and stronger person, but... only in the long term. The strange dominance isn't necessarily good for Atheism. Religious ideas, like all ideas, are perfected by competition. As an Atheist, I'm not seeing a lot of fresh competitive ideas from our current religions. Maybe the Scientologists are an exception, but I'm not sure they are a good exception. An Atheist church would very likely have "sermons" in the form of educational seminars on the fantastic teachings of men like Locke, Hume, Jefferson, Smith, and Mill. I don't think that the Christian churches spend enough time educating their members in such important civic topics -- and I doubt Locke gets mentioned a lot in the average American Mosque. We Atheists share a common culture with our fellow Americans. An Atheist church could go a long way towards educating young Atheists in the value of that culture.
you Atheist are talking about theories not facts! anyway I don't know how much those theories are right and dislike to dispute about them but curious to know more about Atheist itself. - why you call your self Atheist? means why you have ism/ist? - you don't believe God mentioned in Religion or think no any God or intelligence source involved on Creating Human? - what's your opinion about soul or sprite and what you think about life after dead?
As opposed to any other religion you can name? Excellent. Atheism is a belief system; a person who believes in that system is an Atheist. As a person who believes in Atheism, I call myself an Atheist. I do not believe there is a God. I believe humans were created through the process of punctuated evolution. Atheists are generally mechanists. We believe that the "soul" is part of the body and that when the body dies the soul dies with it. This is one of the beliefs which makes it difficult to convert people from other religions to Atheism. Other religions offer their adherents eternal life. We Atheists can only offer the best possible existence in this life.
Atheist: We believe that the "soul" is part of the body and that when the body dies the soul dies with it. Columbus crossed the void and found the land beyond - so also the soul may traverse the universe for those that reach for its existence - with the correct persuasion.....as defined. Just dying is fine as well but "just maybe" the quality of life also coincides with its goals and one will not exist without the other. .
He asked about "Islam", not "Muslims". Small difference. newbie191, atheists don't "hate". Hate is something which is inherent to religious schools of thought, not with atheism. Hate = Theism. Love = Atheism. On the other hand, atheists has a strong disrespect to dogma, and the stupid people who follow it. The dozens of different stupid dogmas today (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, scientology) are all more or less of the same "intellectual" level. Islam is different because that apart of the stupidity that comes along with rest, there are additional layers: zero tolerance to criticism met with violence, political ideology, cruelty, to name a few. [video=youtube;y4mWiqkGy-Y]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4mWiqkGy-Y[/video]
I have two questions. First, when did you decide you were an Athiest? Did something happen in your life to make you decide there is no God, or did you just call bulls**t when you first heard the story? As for my second question, what do you believe happens when you die?
May I answer? (fundamental atheist here) I did not decide to be an atheist. I was simply never indoctrinated to believe in the existence of god, and luckily acquired enough knowledge before reaching adulthood to understand that the arguments for the existence of god range because sophisticated logical fallacies to pathetic jokes. There was never such a decision involved. The inexistence of god is the default. If anybody wants to convince me otherwise, some evidence will help. of course. What reason there is to accept the creationist story which is better than.. say... accepting little red riding hood? When I die, the only thing that happens is that I died.
Well I'll miss ya buddy lol. So let me ask another question. I've seen the Athiests/Religious people arguing wherever you can post about it on the internet. Have you ever convinced somebody to stop believing in the God they worshipped?
I would assert an end to the freedom of religion is on the agenda of many of these so-called "highly educated" Atheists. Given the enormous overlap between the self proclaimed Christians and the self proclaimed NRA members, it would most definitely end in violence. The trick is to first take away all their guns, another big item on the liberal agenda. Once their guns have been taken away, we can abuse them any way we want. Scientology is definitely an evolution in religious teachings. It is also yet another poster child of what happens when a group of people get to set up rules for the adherents of a given philosophy. I'd say the Catholic church is a better example of evolved religious teachings than Scientology, and that is saying a lot given the group of people I'm referring to. I don't think so. IMO, you are an outlier when it comes to Atheist dogma. I doubt very much whether the bulk of atheists, especially those in Academia, truly value the philosophical beliefs of people such as the ones you listed (Especially Smith). It is what I was getting at when I said the single common thread amongst most Atheists is the rejection of God and Religion. It is for this reason I mentioned that Christian values are part of our culture, and not just the philosophy of people like Locke. I don't recall Locke digging in deep on the issues of Morality and Social justice, just as Muslims generally aren't big on the rights of minorities or individuals. We may not be a "Christian nation" as the Christian right would assert (and the hard left would scare you with), but Christian values are definitely part of our culture. The question would remain, would an Atheist church teach tolerance of other religions? I suspect not. I also suspect that, like most other organized religions, it would quickly devolve into a racket.
That's not atheism. That's the belief in the "overlords who created us", the Annunaki. Call it "astronautism". Here is young Obama wearing their symbol around his neck: Either those things looked very freaky or it took man a few thousand years to learn how to draw curves.
Yes I have. I also have a youtube channel in Hebrew where I debunk jewish creationist crap. Similar to Thunderf00t's "Why do people laugh at creationists?" brilliant series. http://www.youtube.com/user/Thunderf00t#p/c/AC3481305829426D/0/BS5vid4GkEY 32 brilliant videos. Watch them!
Nothing. You, as a person physically and "spiritually" cease to exist. There will no longer be a "you". It is a hard concept for many people to understand, because there is no way to imagine nothingness.
I never said that I'm an atheist :x anyway the second picture you posted of the symbols appearing in different cultures and places around the world is very interesting, never saw it before.
There sure isn't. No wonder people want to believe in heaven and hell. Its tough to think that there really is an end to you.