Atheism, in its strictest sense, means believing that there is no God. Like everything else, there are lots of so-called atheists that have varying degrees of belief in a God. Most do not give a hoot about it, since they either believe that God doesn't care or that He is not worth worshiping. However, these are not true atheists, any more than a person that regularly eats fish is a true vegetarian (fish is a type of meat).
Atheism is NOT a Faith...
by zeroday* 16 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
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zoiks
sticking our heads in the sand either by declaring our disbelief in anything
I'm not sure that a lack of belief in a claim, due to insufficient evidence, can be called sticking one's head in the sand. The burden of proof lies with those who claim that god or gods exist, and then go further and claim to know exactly who those gods are, what they are thinking, and what I should believe, or else.
If one examines these claims and finds insufficient evidence to believe them, is he being intellectually dishonest? Is he "sticking his head in the sand"?
Quote the Bible, quote the Koran, quote the book of Mormon, quote a scientist who believes in god, quote my cousin Vinny. All claims need evidence to back them up, regardless of the source. As an atheist and a human being I reserve the right to examine the claims and the evidence. I am not opposed to the possibility of the existence of any god. I will not dogmatically stick to a stance because it is what I 'want' to believe. But so far the evidence that I have examined has not led me to belief in god. It's not faith. It's not a stance.
It's living with eyes wide open.
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mindmelda
I agree that religion CAN lead to intellectual dead ends, but that as a blanket statement makes no more sense than any other blanket statement about human nature you can make, which is none.
Humans are too diverse to catagorize with all or nothing statements. For me, studying religion comparatively whetted my intellectual curiousity, thanks all the same. I found out that some of it (okay, about half of it, lol) is ca-ca, but I found that out for myself, which is the best way to find out anything.
I would never disallow Comparative Religious studies at the level of higher education as that's what leads to all that lovely questioning in so many cases.
Since I'm not an atheist, I wouldn't dare define their whatever it is for them, philosophy is the safest word, I suppose, but there's no such thing psychologically speaking as a person without beliefs, because that's part of the human psyche. It's what you believe IN that is in question, and some people just can't get behind anything metaphysical or supernatural to explain the world around them, unless they're pushing it over a symbolic cliff, of course.
As far as I can tell as an outsider, that's all atheism is. Nothing too scary. I'm not scared by anything anymore except serial killers, fried foods, chimps that rip off your face, Anne Coulter's Adam's Apple and Whoopi Goldberg's mysterious lack of eyebrows.
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freydo
QUOTE: zeroday*
Post 49 of 52
Since 3/20/2010"Atheism is not a Faith, it is not a religion, it is not a belief system...What do Atheist and Believers have in common...NOTHING. So why do Atheist seem it necessary to argue, fight and debate believers. What is to be gained, a new nonBeliever.."
Well put - they're like jw's - their agenda is to destroy other people's beliefs - at least jw's have a belief system - with good news only for them. Both are dead ends-Dark light vs No light - the rest of us have dim light
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zoiks
they're like jw's - their agenda is to destroy other people's beliefs
Freydo, I strongly disagree with the generalization that both you and zeroday* have made. Of course there are some "militant" atheists, just as there are some "militant" theists.
But in my experience, atheists generally do not go out of their way to pick a fight with theists. However, sometimes atheists and even moderate religious folks feel the need to speak up - the example that HintofLime gave would be one of those times. When others' religious beliefs interfere with the education of my children, for example, I feel the need to speak up.
It is not a matter of wanting to destroy someone else's faith. As a former JW, I am no longer in that dirty business. But I have every right to assert myself and my beliefs- when education, knowledge, and progress for our society begin to give way to religious fundamentalism.
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thetrueone
An example of faith = The JWS have incited thousands to commit suicide even children, by not taking a blood transfusion when this
medical procedure could have possibly have saved their lives. Faith kills and is deadly in this instance.
JWS read and make senseless interpretations derived from stories told by primitive ancient men who told embellished
stories about their great and omniscient god. Faith is stupidly redundant in this case.
One thing atheism cant provide though is power and wealth, so depending where a person places their personal integrity
faith should be perceived as an asset to an individual.
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zeroday*
Hey Freydo I actually have over 2000 posts on this board since 2005 my original account "zeroday" was frozen out for over a year and I had to create a new one to get back on the forum...