Antitheists and hypocrisy (SORRY FOR MAKING A RELIGION THREAD)

[sirdanrhodes]

You are just stereotyping, I don't give a flying shit what you believe in, it's not my concern.

 

[Nickolai77]

Well the general rule for my various friendship circles is to not force your beliefs on others.. however not all athiests follow this rule, and likewise a lot of Christians do not.

Just respect each others beliefs, unless they are harming others. By all means discuss these different beliefs, if you can not defend your own belief then it's not worth holding.

Atheism is the belief that there is no God. It isn't a lack of belief, it is an asserted belief of a lack of deity.

If you want to talk about lack of belief, you want to be talking about agnosticism.

Look for yourself:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/atheist

hmm... by that definition i may be an agnostic. The problem is that God is a meta-physical entity and so we have no way of "checking" if it exists or not. We can not "check" god to exist, but nor can we "check" God to not exist. For instance i can go and check that the wall paper in the room next door is not purple. Now, if i was locked in a windowless sound proof cell, I would have no means of "checking" that the wallpaper in the next room is not purple, or if there is a room next door at all. That logic i suppose leads me to agnosticism.

However, common sense kicks in and asks- if there is no evidence, and indeed no way of "checking" that something as unusual as God exists, why not just say that God does not exist? It is like going back a few hundred years and claiming that a pink Chinese dragon hides in the clouds of Jupiter- we can not go to Jupiter and "check" this- but a pink Chinese Dragon on Jupiter? Sounds ridiculous, so people will not believe it despite that we can not check this dragon does not exist.. leading me to Atheism.

hmm.. im still not quite sure what i am now XD Thank you for making me question my own beliefs though.

 

[AndyFromMonday]

Has an atheist I don't exactly "bash" religion, but I do take time to point out what's BS. If that's your idea of "hating religion" then you have some issues with understanding what really "hating religion" means.

Yes, I do consider religion to be a bad thing to this world, mainly because most religious people go against theories that have been proven with evidence. Yes, I do consider in some countries atheists are discriminated against(If you live in the USA or Romania and are an atheist you know what I mean) and yes, I do consider that some religious people are bigoted idiots.

 

[bladeofdarkness]

one sided, but true
tell an atheist he is wrong about being an atheist - he's not really likely to be offended by it

I've told quite a few atheists they were wrong. I've been yelled at, called names, and had physical violence threatened.

Atheism isn't any different from theism. It's still emotional, it's still going to hurt when someone disagrees.

its fundamentally different from theism in its concept
atheism isnt a belief in anything
its mearly the absence of belief in something particular

Atheism is the belief that there is no God. It isn't a lack of belief, it is an asserted belief of a lack of deity.

If you want to talk about lack of belief, you want to be talking about agnosticism.

Look for yourself:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/atheist

either way, a lack of belief in god is not a belief
and it would be stupid to be offended by it
its like someone being offended by someone telling him that Manchester united is the best team in the world
when you dont watch football

 

[Captain Blackout]

Do not be sorry for making a religion thread. Just do not do it in the first place. Especially as the hypocrisy of atheists has been brought up a few times in the last couple weeks alone. Not to mention this has practically zero discussion value.

It's this kind of small-mindedness that will keep humanity from reaching it's true potential. The OP has a valid point, and if we ever open our minds we will see that the atheist/theist divide is illusory.

 

[AngloDoom]

Meh, I'm an antithiest in a way. I don't try to convert someone to my beliefs, however, but if someone tries to talk me into religion, I try to give my views on things. I don't try to belittle people for believing in God, gods, or any kind of divine force. It's just how some people are.

I know that I am so opposed to religion that no-one could ever convince me otherwise, and so I accept that other people are going to believe in religion and that most of them won't suddenly believe in what I believe to be right just by me going up and trying to pick their life apart.

It's like that majority of internet arguments; you won't win, and to even contribute to the continuation of one instantly makes you look like an ass.

P.S. Religious thread? On the Escapist? Really?

 

[Seanchaidh]

Do not be sorry for making a religion thread. Just do not do it in the first place. Especially as the hypocrisy of atheists has been brought up a few times in the last couple weeks alone. Not to mention this has practically zero discussion value.

It's this kind of small-mindedness that will keep humanity from reaching it's true potential. The OP has a valid point, and if we ever open our minds we will see that the atheist/theist divide is illusory.

It really isn't. Atheism is simply far more plausible.

 

[Spacelord]

Stop grouping Atheists and anti-theists together.

Well they both call themselves Atheists so that's what leads me to this conclusion >.>

Then you're as judgmental and misinformed as the 'atheists' that claim every christian is an obnoxious jehova's witness threatening everyone with hell and damnation for denying Jesus Christ as their personal savior.

 

[Zac_Dai]

Become educated enough and it becomes rather hard to remain religious.

So you don't convert people to not believing in a deity. Instead what people who don't believe in deities do is try remove the veil of ignorance and hope that people come to the same realization themselves about religion.

There isn't a 'right' and a 'wrong' in religion like in many other situations. If I find more peace in believing in a god and heaven than believing in nothing and nothingness let me be. It just makes me a happier person overall AND it gives me a reason to stay moral!

I really don't mind people having a personal belief, I just don't like religious organizations.

Non-believer or not, you don't need to have a faith to be a good person, I consider myself highly ethical but I don't need a god or anyone else to validate that.

Infact I actually like Jesus and his lets be cool and try to love everyone approach to stuff.

 

[Snowalker]

I used to be an atheist but I'm agnostic now. Even I find myself trying to convince people that agnosticism is the only way to go.
It's hard to resist I guess, we all want to be right.

Yeah, I'm like you, I'm religious, but I try not to convince people, but the subject comes up, its hard not to want people to argee with you.

 

[Seanchaidh]

Never really understood atheist missionaries, myself. If they're right and they convert someone, it doesn't change anything as they'll still die and be thrust into that void anyway. The same is not true for the theist, however, who believes they are helping someone be saved from eternal consequences(sounded nicer than Hell).

Whatever floats your boat, I guess.

If an atheist believes that religion is harmful, and that more people not believing would make future generations quicker to jettison the superstitious garbage, then they can easily believe that they are helping to brighten the future of the entire world.

 

[Captain Blackout]

Do not be sorry for making a religion thread. Just do not do it in the first place. Especially as the hypocrisy of atheists has been brought up a few times in the last couple weeks alone. Not to mention this has practically zero discussion value.

It's this kind of small-mindedness that will keep humanity from reaching it's true potential. The OP has a valid point, and if we ever open our minds we will see that the atheist/theist divide is illusory.

It really isn't. Atheism is simply far more plausible.

To you. What every atheist fails to realize is that Occam's razor cuts both ways. The assumption is that a strictly natural universe is the simplest explanation. I find that myopic at best and utterly self-deluding at worst. What is the underpinning of a strictly natural universe? Why not conserve complexity and simply have nothing, a void of even dimension? I find both spiritual and non-spiritual answers equally plausible when I leave all of my own biases behind.

Furthermore, if the universe is strictly natural, then everything has it's foundation in physicality and the physicalists are right. If that's so, then physics and science is path to understanding. The language of physics is mathematics. If physicalism is correct, than everything should ultimately be describable mathematically. Qualia is provably NOT expressible mathematically. That puts a real damper in the physicalists theories. Either one must claim qualia don't exist (good luck, we ALL experience them) or abandon physicalism. If you abandon physicalism then atheism loses a major support as a default belief.

 

[headshotcatcher]

Stop grouping Atheists and anti-theists together.

Well they both call themselves Atheists so that's what leads me to this conclusion >.>

Then you're as judgmental and misinformed as the 'atheists' that claim every christian is an obnoxious jehova's witness threatening everyone with hell and damnation for denying Jesus Christ as their personal savior.

Why is everyone flaming me about that, I said SOME atheists (or antitheists before you go all retarded about that aswell) do it

I really don't mind people having a personal belief, I just don't like religious organizations.

Non-believer or not, you don't need to have a faith to be a good person, I consider myself highly ethical but I don't need a god or anyone else to validate that.

Infact I actually like Jesus and his lets be cool and try to love everyone approach to stuff.

I don't 'actively' believe in a god, eventhough I do admire the stories about jesus and they are good for if you read and take the stories at heart you will be a better person. Ofcourse you don't need to be religious to do or have that but the bible and stuff kinda forces it onto you.

 

[CrashBang]

Atheists are the new "internet cool".

That's actually an interesting point lol. But what it actually is is that many people are now opening their eyes to the ridiculousness of religion and the internet is the only place where they can safely express their atheist views because atheism is so frowned upon out in the real world

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

-snip-

Wow, you're really defending yourself. I salute you.

 

[Skeleon]

Qualia is provably NOT expressible mathematically.

[small]I may have misunderstood the point here, but why not?

If qualia is the objective term for subjective impressions of things in the world (at least that's how I understood it, with examples such as "redness"), then we can express the subjective impressions through irregularities and differences between the individuals perceiving things.

Example: A fully red-green blind person would not perceive redness the way I do (I have a red-green weakness) and a person with fully functioning receptors would perceive red different from me as well.
These differences can be expressed through genetic abnormalities as well as the chemical/biological differences in our respective receptors. And those things (especially genetics and chemistry) are pretty mathematical if you ask me.
There are actual physical, comprehensible reasons behind qualia.

Of course, I'll never experience another person's viewpoint first hand but I can understand and express the differences we experience when perceiving the same quale.[/small]

EDIT: Oooh, I see I misunderstood indeed.
It's not about the differences between us, it's about trying to describe a quale that's the difficulty. Well, I agree with that, no question about it.
Though I still fail to see how it is relevant.
There are limits to our perceptions but there are ways to make them understandable to us, still. We can't see atoms yet we create models that illustrate the concept. Qualia seem to be similar. We will never be able to describe them fittingly because our perceptions are too limited to fully do so. But that does not mean that we cannot create a model to illustrate them.

 

[headshotcatcher]

-snip-

Wow, you're really defending yourself. I salute you.

If people disregard my posts I will not bother regarding to theirs