Atheism->Deism->Theism (page 2)

Christ Alone

I posted this on another thread, but maybe it goes better on this one:

Just a thought, and this will negate alot of what I say and have said.

But I was thinking about stereotyping. I think this is a huge problem in our modern culture. We group people into types like "believer" or "atheist", "American" or "Foreigner", "Democrat" or "Republican". And then we put a definition that should fit to all people in this certain group. Occasionally I've tried to avoid that with saying things like "atheists TEND to think...". But that really isn't good enough.

Maybe much of our problem (and it's been referred to on this thread) is trying to pigeon hole all people of a certain group into a single definition.

Maybe that's why tolerance doesn't catch on very often. We assume that all people that belong to a certain group have the same characteristics of the label that we've assigned.

Believers are delusional because...

Atheists are mean and angry because...

Republican's don't see reality...

Yet, behind these stereotypes or labels are individual people that have feelings and are varied in their thoughts and beliefs.

And here is a fact that no one can argue with: Everyone in every group believes that they are right.

Maybe it's time to get rid of the labels and view each person as a single individual. Stereotyping has led to so many horrible atrocities. Stereotyping the Jews led to the persecution of the Nazis. Stereotyping of African Americans has led to the still current racism that is still going strong. Stereotyping has led to the belief that all those that believe in God are delusional. Stereotyping has led to the belief that all Atheists are angry, mean, and without solid morals.

I want to think about this further for myself. But maybe if we get rid of the stereotypes and start looking at people as individuals, this will lead to greater understanding, love, respect, and tolerance.

sabastious

Zid the thing about the earth's shape is that we have always had reason to believe it was round. We didn't need anything but a high mountain to be able to perceive this. Therefore the reason why the populace believed wrongly was because of misinformation and also deceit. There is no philisophical argument that the world is flat because the world is round, not because we can prove it, but because it's easy to agree on using our perceptions of reality. Not all ideas are this easy to agree upon, and even one as simple as this was widely contested because of EMOTIONAL attachment to the idea.

Especially when GODDESSES were clearly being worshipped tens and hundreds of thousands of years BEFORE your middle-eastern males' god came along.

As I have said many times, Zid, Godesses are young interpretations of God. God is not a Goddess but for a long time we agreed that he was one. Eventually our understanding evolved and progressed. The current result, from where I see it, is the Trinity doctrine which is ascertained by studying the Holy Bible. Now when we factor in modern agendas such as feminism, we see that result purposefully blurred. This is because of emotional attachment to inferior ideas about God. The same could be said for the people who still defend that the earth is flat.

-Sab

Christ Alone

The search for God is eternal, so when you stop searching for Him because you like some theistic framework, you have just jumped into a vicious cycle that has been going on for milenia, so it's important to know exacty what you are doing or else you won't have a chance to retain personal identity, which is the only thing we really have.

This might be my favorite thing that you've ever said, Sab. Well done!

Christ Alone

Science is fact.

Except when it changes as new discoveries are made. In every age scientists believed that they had the right knowledge of how the universe worked, until a new theory was developed or a new discovery came along that showed that the old was was accurate. Sounds like "facts" are relative to the time.

sabastious

CA, you are correct stereotyping can be a great evil in this world, but stereotyping and labeling are two very different things that are often confused. Basically you are stereotyping me by posting about stereotyping in this thread. You are saying that I label groups which brings destruction upon the world. You are stereotyping me as a "labeler" and then assigning a negative connotation to that label of "labeler." Which is the definition of prejudice.

-Sab

ziddina

"...As I have said many times, Zid, Godesses are young interpretations of God...." Sab, post #10014

Wishful thinking, Sab.

Your 'saying' this, does not make it so.

Goddesses who were worshipped over two hundred thousand years ago are OBVIOUSLY older than your 3,500-to-4,000-year-old Middle-Eastern tribal 'god.

Mr. Falcon

"You know what I haven't had in awhile? Big League Chew."

sabastious

Goddesses who were worshipped over two hundred thousand years ago are OBVIOUSLY older than your 3,500-to-4,000-year-old Middle-Eastern tribal 'god.

That's why I say it's a young interpretation because when the goddess framework ruled humanity was NOT AS OLD as we are now therefore our current understanding of God will be EVOLVED. To say that because the goddess frameworks are older than the Trinity that gives them more weight is simply folly.

-Sab

ziddina

"...That's why I say it's a young interpretation because when the goddess framework ruled humanity was NOT AS OLD as we are now ..." Sab, post #10016

Sooooooo...

In your special little universe, time runs BACKWARDS??????

Christ Alone

Basically you are stereotyping me by posting about stereotyping in this thread.

No, I think you got me wrong, Sab. I wasn't posting this about you at all! I was commenting on how you said that inside of these labels are individuals, and that we forget that sometimes. That's all I was saying. Actually I was agreeing with you.

And yeah, I sometimes use "stereotype" and "label" interchangably. Sometimes they CAN be synonyms. But you're right, they do have separate definitions in certain contexts as well.

I apologize that you thought I was labeling you as a stereotyper...

Atheism->Deism->Theism

Share this