You are once again mistaken, Sab. I did not dislike where I was and did not embrace atheism so much as surrender to it. I still miss my faith sometimes. It was a comfort to me. Alas, that it comforted me did not make it true. As to morals, what is your definition of morality? If morality is provided to you by your faith and your desire to please or otherwise not displease God, then your morality is artificial. If your morality is based on alieviating the suffering of people, helping people achieve happiness and doing good rather than harm to people, then why is it necessary to believe in God to be moral?
Nickolas
JoinedPosts by Nickolas
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384
Atheism 2.0
by Qcmbr inapologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.
in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.
without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.
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384
Atheism 2.0
by Qcmbr inapologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.
in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.
without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.
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Nickolas
Chairman Mao, Joseph Stalin and their ilk were atheists, yes Terry, but you are making the common mistake of equating their immorality, pathology and insanity to the realisation they reached that God does not exist. The mass starvation of millions of people, political purges, pogroms and genocides are not the hallmarks of a rational mind.
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384
Atheism 2.0
by Qcmbr inapologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.
in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.
without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.
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Nickolas
I suppose I might ask you, Terry, if you believe there is a reason the universe exists. If you believe it was created by God, then it follows that you believe He did so for a purpose. What is religion if not seeking to understand the meaning of life within the context of the universe?
No, Sab, it is the other way around. I am identifying myself as an atheist because of my intellectual honesty. I held onto faith and belief in God only by suspending disbelief. I perceive that people of faith, those who accept things which are by definition unobservable and for which there is and can be no evidence are not being honest with themselves. From my persepective, if you are truly honest with yourself you will be unable to not let go of the notion of a personal god.
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384
Atheism 2.0
by Qcmbr inapologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.
in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.
without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.
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Nickolas
Atheism is just a facet of a rational mind, Sab. I identify myself as "An Atheist" only in a context like this one, because in here it comes down to a pinpoint focus on this very small aspect of who I am. I reject faith in ancient books simply because they demand my acceptance of things that cannot be rationalised intelligently. Honesty, in order to be real, has to be manifested first within oneself.
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384
Atheism 2.0
by Qcmbr inapologies if this has been posted before or even discussed.. this ted talk gets at the heart of what atheism is missing and my wife an di discussed this for a long time last night.
in short religion provides a framework for meeting, for ritual, for art, education and sociality.
without this framework atheism can seem lonely harsh and certainly disorganised (the general idea that education and culture can replace the gap may well be true but without a formal structure the route to personal mental fulfillment is somewhat piecemeal and patchwork.
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Nickolas
Just passing through. Felt a need to comment on Terry's perspective. Most of the time I read his stuff and nod quietly, but let me cherry pick a couple of his statements to illustrate where he is mistaken.
Atheism has a superiority complex. In the worst packaging possible.
Any intellectually honest person will admit that he does not know why the universe exists. Atheists readily admit their ignorance on this point, while religious believers do not. What is most remarkable to me is how believers praise themselves for their humility, while condemning atheists for their intellectual arrogance. But could there be a worldview more arrogantly superior than that of a religious believer? He believes and lives his life according to a precept that the Creator of the universe takes an interest in him, approves of him and loves him, and will reward him with eternal paradise after his death, or even save him from death entirely. His beliefs are drawn from one of the many sacred texts the Creator of the universe has supposedly inspired (pity there are so many and so contradictory) and what is written in those texts represents absolute Truth. Furthermore, everyone who disagrees with him will be destroyed. The average believer has achieved a level of self important arrogance to which no atheist I have ever known has aspired.
Atheism isn't so much an argument as it is a fart in an elevator. "Here, smell my opinion."
The corollary is that theism is a pile of excrement on the elevator floor which everyone must by convention honour and respect, if not smell and eat. Atheism doesn't fly jet planes into buildings, doesn't seek to incarcerate people for what they do when they are naked or who commit any other victimless "crime" in the privacy of their own homes. Atheists don't blow themselves up in crowded bazaars, march en masse in the streets demanding the deaths of those who have insulted them or seek to fill the minds of children with nonsense. Nor do atheists assign greater importance to human blastocysts than the millions of people suffering from diseases that could be cured through medical advances based on stem cells. In short, atheism seeks not to impose on others restrictions and punishments for some imaginary crime which might otherwise cause offence to an imaginary God.
A rational rejection of faith in God, regardless of the particular flavour of that faith, does not entail a blind embrace of atheism as a dogma. As the late Christopher Hitchens expressed so pithily, what can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence and one need not accept anything on the basis of insufficient or absent evidence to find the notion of Mohammed and the Archangel Gabriel flying together to Jerusalem on a winged horse, or of the virgin birth of Jesus of Nazareth, or that God is preoccupied with women's clothing or any of hundreds of beliefs held dear by believers as anything but preposterous mythology. Regardless, as an atheist I am very happy to leave you and believers like you with the beliefs that you hold dear. All I ask in return is that you do not try to impose them on my life, knowing full well that that is something you cannot do.
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52
Does the Watchtower Society have the "Biggest Lie" ever published?
by Terry in.
the truth that leads to eternal life.
the truth that leads to eternal life was a bible study textbook published in 1968 and revised in 1981 (now out of print).. the 1990 edition of the guinness book of records included this book under its heading "highest printings".. according to the guinness book, by may 1987 it had reached 106,486,735 copies, in 116 languages.. .
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Nickolas
Religion is the lie, Terry. The lies of the Watchtower are for the most part hand-me-down falsehoods from the minds of ignorant and primitive men who lived thousands of years ago, just conveyed with a different spin and with modern efficacy. Billions of pages in print seem to magnify the lie but in terms of the number of people who are or have been affected by it the Society actually stands small. Consider in context all the people who have suffered through the ages because they believed the lies of Islam (or Christianity, or Judaism, or _________, fill in the blank). The Watchtower has some cathing up to do.
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12
The 2011 Global JW Survey - one final push!!
by cedars inas 2011 will be drawing to a close in less than four weeks from now, we thought it would be a good opportunity to have one final push for responses at the global online survey.. the survey, unless you were unaware, can be found at www.jwsurvey.org.
some of you might be interested in a brief review of how the survey is doing as things stand.
here are the results as of the end of november:.
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Nickolas
Done. Fascinating. Great idea.
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225
Do you hate God
by Star tiger ini beginning to think that this would be a good way of thinking, a totally righteous being would not let all the shit that is happenning to people prevail, this being cannot have the best interests of man as his first priority, it's all about ego and no matter how the human familty suffers, he hates pretty much everyone, as the tv show says, your fired, let's get a better god, one who at least gives everyone a chance!!.
i welcome comments from god apologists, to at least have an argument as to why they put they're faith in someone that does'nt give a shit about them!.
star tiger.
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Nickolas
No, just dropped in on a whim, Tammy, saw this thread and felt the need to comment. Off again.
Hugs back.
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225
Do you hate God
by Star tiger ini beginning to think that this would be a good way of thinking, a totally righteous being would not let all the shit that is happenning to people prevail, this being cannot have the best interests of man as his first priority, it's all about ego and no matter how the human familty suffers, he hates pretty much everyone, as the tv show says, your fired, let's get a better god, one who at least gives everyone a chance!!.
i welcome comments from god apologists, to at least have an argument as to why they put they're faith in someone that does'nt give a shit about them!.
star tiger.
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Nickolas
A simple question going on nine pages.
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79
Do you think Witnesses would drink the "Cool-Aid" if told to do so...like Jonestown?
by Witness 007 injonestown 1970's, jim jones brainwashed his 900 member cult into committing mass suicide by drinking cyanide cool-aid.
only three escaped.
{the smart ones} one man hid under a building....another escaped into the jungle while armed guards dragged another member to get injected by force.
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Nickolas
I post that Awake cover often enough myself. See NewChapter's comments. Different dynamic.