you dont really believe that it all started with adam and eve in a garden with a talking snake do you? you ARE stupid then. i used to believe all that stuff too, you know, the virgin birth, the man that lived in a whale, eve coming from a rib, but then something happened to me one day..... I GRADUATED 6th grade!! come onnnnnnnnnnnnnn people
since jesus was a fraud, i want to know your opinion about why your god is the right one compared to others. i mean we are all man, no matter our religous preference so why does just "thinking" your going to a heaven when you die actually mean its going to happen. has there been any signs that GOd does exist? ive never seen or even heard a personal miracle happen. i mean when muslims sacarfice themselves and they get their "40 virgins" thats ridicoulous. but i find that that is just as ridicoulous as going to heaven. when you die you die. thats it. game over. the idea of god IMO was just created so civilization wouldnt go nuts. going to heaven seems like a law to me. you have to abide by it or you get the ultimate consequence. idk, the bible has to many loopholes in it for me to take serious. i mean it changes the story over and over, i use to believe in god, but their are to many holes in the bible for me to take it serious. they shouldve gotten a better writer.
o and back to LOGIC. national geographic just ran a story about a international family tree, they took 300k samples of human DNA and all those 300k people originated from two black people from africa. but if logic doesnt makes sense to you, then just keeep your faith up.
Not true. Certain sects however, do provide this misconception, driving the wedge deeper and further polarizing the atheist/ theist debate. For example - Judaism is not a prosthetising religion, in that, if you ask them why they believe what they believe, they tell you... you disagree... they give you an "oh well". Now substitute a born-again Christian, and you'll get a "You'll be cast into blazing depths of Hell!"... Or an extremest Muslim and get a "Submit, or you will perish in Jihad!" As a Catholic, I have always been taught to show faith through works... Putting into practice what I believe, not preaching. The idea that I believe in God, certainly doesn't mean that He has revealed the secrets of the universe to me, let alone start telling people that He has. No matter what belief you are of... Everyone is a product of their own environment, with inherited beliefs... My God is supposed to be one of mercy... Who am I to judge someone else? I happened to [unfortunately] leave HBO on the other night after Hard Knocks was over, and Real Time came on. My question to you jiggaman, is, how is Bill Maher any different from "those trying to collect members" (the born again Christians)? He is certainly just as belligerently abbraisive and annoying... is he not? What are his motives for calling those who are religious idiots?
We are all atheist to some gods. Christians are atheists to Zeus, and to Buddah. I just take it one God further. Even if there is a god who created this Universe then i doubt that he cares about our planet that is so insignificant in the grand scheme of things. I'm not saying that there isn't a god but I highly doubt it and it hasn't given me any proof otherwise.
Okay. I'm atheist so I'll answer your questions. Actually, most atheists are not organized. Atheists are all types of random people who have no bond with each other beside the one attribute that they lack belief in Gods. Many don't label themselves, for various reasons, mostly because 'atheist' isn't a much of a label like say, "Buddhist". Right now, clearly not. A man of faith cannot prove Gods existence -period- by the way, nor can men of non-faith. The earth, in its entirety, is explainable without reference to -any- God. Our world looks exactly as if there was no God, and that religion is so obviously man made if you take a moment to study it. Read Sam Harris, Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennet. You don't get to say "God exists" and then tell ME to prove it isn't so. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. YOU need to prove he exists. Beliefs are our representations of reality. You, and all the other people who believe that "atheists[...] just want attention", see a specific version of what you perceive, but not what necessarily is, reality. The people who do not believe this, literally are much closer on the continuum to being in touch with reality. You my fellow human being, are offensively out of touch with reality. Ah yes. This sounds great, actually. Live and let live. Peace and love, perhaps? I'm in. Except there's just one problem. You see, religion, as a worldwide phenomenon, shapes, and has had unthinkable power over human life for centuries upon centuries. Live and let live is not going to work, you see, because there are 13 year old girls with third degree burns all over their bodies, and they cannot get the treatments we could have already implemented through stem cell research because of idiots who believe the creator of the universe wrote one of our books and gave it to the people he liked best on earth, who lived in the desert. We have kids being indoctrinated. We have kids being -sexually abused- by priests, and RELIGION GETS A PASS. They used to put your stomach over a pot with rats in them and heat the pot, forcing the rats the burrow inside your stomach, killing you slowly for being a heretic. This is what religion did, and 9-11, when I saw a fireball outside of my window and my whole apartment shook. What happens when New York evaporates because an engineer sets off a nuclear device here? Atrocity is -still- committed in the 21st century in the name of God. In the name of fucking mythology. No live and let live. Atleast in terms of tolerating stuff like the Vatican contributing to a human abuse in aids ridden sub-saharan Africa. And especially when they fuck with children, this pisses me off the most. Jesus Camp is a good documentary that shows how disgusting indoctrinating children is.
it was a bunch of seperate stories all put together. the bible is more like a collection of short (long) stories. but just because one religious book is off does not mean religion is wrong. i myself am agnostic because there is zero proof of a god figure. if anything i would choose buddhism because it is more like a way of life then a religion. its all about the inner you, not some magical guy from 2000 years ago.
Do You want my thoughts on this? really puffy? Being a born and raised baptist christian from birth via my portuguese grandmother who speeks broken english, has no idea what serotonin molecules are, let alone molecules in general as well as many other things people of our generation use to their benefit daily. She reads the bible literaly, interperting every word as the word of god, but there is one problem i see in her world where truth is fiction and everything else was a lie to disprove this truth(The only way her idea makes sense is in bizaro world, where everything logical was only there as a fascade to trick you into beliving in evil, and ive thought that before Freekin rediculous if you ask me!!!!) Is that the bible was a book, writen by men, started of as word spread down from generation to generation to generation to generation Etc. and finnaly writen by the writers of their time who were men Side note, who has played the game telephone as a child? say a sentance spread it around the room, by the time it gets around ins not the same sentance or even meaning. did you know genesis has two tales of creation and noahs ark? Im just saying things were exagerated. Its a bill maher quote that religion was okay when we were stupid and i totally agree, Without science or any logical intelligence to figure things out we fabricated the most elaborate idiotic way to explain things, Lightning and thunder, God was angry, and BTW, the english interpretation of the bible is proboably only 50-75% accurate to the original hebrew and greek meanings, As far as the New testament, Jesus was the tim leary of his day, speaking anti establishment views and denouncing orthodoxy, its just a same twelve men and some others completely destroyed that immage by creating orthodoxy behind his movement, The Bible was not meant to be interpretated Literaly, In the begining they were the metephorical ways the elders told their sories and explained things without any complex understanding. I am an Atheistic Agnostic, What i belive is there is a certain presence undefineable, Infinite that we can not perceive as humans I know all matter is reused, everything recycled, and there is a constant state of equalibrium thrughout the physical world, i belive the spiritual world functions similarly and all souls are recycled , But who knows, and im such a pragmatist that i could go on forever, Point being, i was taught to belive jesus christ was our lord and savior and died for our sins and the only way to escape a horrible death was to give yourself to him completely and when i died i would go to a place where the streets were paved in gold and no one ever died, but realized when i was seven years old that i really didnt want anything to do with it, stoped going to church at nine went to a catholic school for highschool, which was more linent asfar as beliefs went. and here i am, i see organized religion as the route of all evil, consider in the middle ages if you didnt pay your tithes you were going to hell Yea makes sense, im a peasant and you want 30 % of my hard earned money or i will burn for eternity?
Another point I just wanted to make: In an age of logic and science, it's obvious that we as the general population have been manipulated. The real thing to ponder would be: If some great spirit mortalized on earth and was a little TOO PERFECT, would we not as humans, try and use this super dude's works on earth to our own personal benefit? Many would try. This is why we live in such a messed up world. Search for God if you are compelled to find him. If you do search, you will find him most likely. I did. I am not a devout religious, but my faith is perfect and I am happy if death were to leave me with nothing but void because I have lived with no regrets. A strong atheist or agnostic has every right to his/her views as does a strong catholic. If the world is to have any hope at all, we really have no other option but to accept this fact and move on, atheist and christian alike. This thread is actually getting pretty good. Let's see how much we can discuss, debate or argue WITHOUT attacking another person directly with insults. Argue your point and your logic, give examples when possible and fight the good fight, be it atheist or christian.
Very cool you said this. Something that dawkins pointed out in his book is that it is usually taboo to even discuss or debate religion; but not taboo to explain how much lube you had to use to ass fuck your wife the night before. The only qualms I have with religion(the main 3) at all is that it gives a man the authority of god through his word, that was written by men in a time before science. Now that we have science and it's disproving much of this ancient text, the religious reject this truth to appease a higher authority, herein lies the most danger, to reject knowledge is to reject reason. There will be a boiling point for this shoving match between science and script. I see it coming by roughly 2020 - 2030, which is when nano-scale computing will be fully realized and possibly allow us enough computing power to actually ask the "is there a god" question as a mathematical equation(maybe not). Even without the computing, the other nanotech available at that time may allow us to answer this question. Now, the big reason why I'm atheist and treat science like my religion, is because if science ever did answer the big question as "yes", scientists everywhere would convert to whichever god was the real one because being proven wrong in science is a good thing, it means progress; on the other hand, if we were to prove there is no god, hell on earth would be brought forth by the religious, perhaps not even by extremists, just the average religious follower who feels their entire life and identity is threatened by this answer. This is why religion is dangerous and should be debated and eventually should be purged from our culture in the name of progress for our entire species.
yeah, I remember a SF short story where they build a computer to tell them answers but all they get are numbers
i wasn't aware that all atheists were preachy..? in my experience athiests are the last people to start spouting bullshit about religion. usually only even bringing up religion when some religious person brings up their "faith" first.
Are you asking why label myself as an "atheist?" You talk about atheism being an 'organized' group, which implies you believe it is a world view. ATHEISM IS NOT A WORLD VIEW. ATHEISM IS NOT A WORLD VIEW. ATHEISM IS NOT A WORLD VIEW. There's a difference between soft/hard atheism. Being a soft atheist is like saying: "There is no way to prove God's existence, and yet there is no way whatsoever to disprove God. Therefore, I am going to use rational thinking and logical reasoning with cold, hard, evidence and choose on the side of atheism." Being a hard atheist is like saying: "There is no God. I know there is no God." No. I cannot prove to you god does or doesn't exist. You can't either. Instead of accepting a mainstream religion, I choose to pick the side of science, logic, and reason. As of yet, I cannot see any undeniable evidence of God's existence. You mean like how the Christians did during the Dark Ages? http://www.molecularstation.com/molecular-biology-images/data/500/DarkAges.gif Or, are you referring to the Muslims, where it is accepted to beat your wife? http://www.goodreads.com/story/show/31023.Wife_Beating_in_Islam Even though I knew the OP was joking, it's still what many argue, so I used him as a medium to get my point across.
This. Yes, there are atheists who are just as dogmatic as the religious folk. Truth of the matter is NO ONE can PROVE whether or not God exists. I CHOOSE to be an atheist, because I see no evidence for there being a God. Can there be a God, and there just not be any evidence? Yeah. Not likely, but it's possible. Am I going to be so audacious as to claim that I know for 100% fact there is no God. Not a chance... And I think people who do so are foolish, tbh. The way I see it is... I'll find out when I die... Same as everyone else... So why waste my time worrying about something that no one can prove, either way?