Atheists and Agnostics don't believe in God but want spread their nothing word

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: BlueMule

wait. I thought we were talking about Jerry Dewitt.
You are talking about the son of the Gnarlys?

Oh, DeWitt's parents weren't part of the congregation that turned their backs on him?

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Double post

originally posted by: Prezbo369

originally posted by: NoCorruptionAllowed
a reply to: Prezbo369
Letting people know that they are not alone is not about this thread though. This one is about those who don't have a belief, right?

Did you read the OP? he was asking why there were atheists in an airport talking in public about their lack of belief in gods.

One of the reasons as to why they were doing that, was to let other atheists that they are not alone and that other people also lack a belief in gods.

American Atheists definitely has a campaign going to reach out to non-believers who feel they are alone or need support.

Why shouldn't they?

Their convention this year is in Memphis, TN. They have put up billboards in TN, including billboards in Arabic.

news.atheists.org...

a reply to: infolurker

Nevertheless, some of the brightest minds in the English-speaking world right now argue that religion is the problem.

Period. And they are right.

What we call the “New Atheism” is a bit different than its predecessor. It’s more aggressive, and it has more power.

More aggressive?
Wait....were you talking about the "New Apostolic Reformation"? AKA "Seven Mountain Dominionists"?

Wow.
Read the news much?


?

The leaders of the sect are well placed in the academic world, and they have a strong determination to mold government policy. And you wouldn’t like the government if the New Atheists molded its policy. Richard Dawkins has asserted that teaching your religion to your child is a form of child abuse and should be criminalized.

Depending on the method and your religion, it is.

Are your kids vaccinated? Do they believe they will burn in hell because they suck and are hopeless losers who don't deserve the air they breath? Do they know what other religions 'think'?

IF NOT - they are abused, and yes - it should be criminalized. IN MY OPINION.

Wow. The far bigger and more monstrous possibility is that the Evangelicals will get control of government.
If that happens, I will pray that my children don't have their own children....I would so hate to know that my grandchildren are growing up in a tyrannical, superstitious, bronze-age environment.

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: grainofsand
Well, I was attempting to illustrate the fact that we are all technically and truly 'agnostic'. We Don't Know.

I think you illustrated that perfectly well and I agree with you.
As my signature indicates, it is only the "I know" brigade I have any problem with. I personally respect and defend the right for anyone to hold any belief, just don't express it as fact to me unless you have something to back it up.

...oh and I didn't watch the vid, I can imagine there were a few militant "I know types" in it who I would argue with lol.

I can only say that I see more anger judgement from theists against atheists and other spiritualities than there is from atheists against theists or other spiritualities. Certainly in my real world outside of ATS.
It is real though, and I have actually lied in courts of law, swearing the Christian oath instead of the non-religious affirmation just in case the judge or magistrates were angry anti-atheist believers such as we see on ATS, and it influenced their judgement. If the percentage of rabid Christians in judges was the same as members on ATS that would be a scary world.

a reply to: Annee

American Atheists definitely has a campaign going to reach out to non-believers who feel they are alone or need support.

While I was watching the CNN stream they presented, I pulled up their contact info.
I'm seriously thinking of linking in.

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Depending on the method and your religion, it is.

Are your kids vaccinated? Do they believe they will burn in hell because they suck and are hopeless losers who don't deserve the air they breath? Do they know what other religions 'think'?

IF NOT - they are abused, and yes - it should be criminalized. IN MY OPINION.

And this is why some atheists are downright scary. I've even seen some of them suggest that believers should be culled from the earth. It's amazing that someone who espouses such intolerance can't see the irony behind their own beliefs when they are supposedly rejecting intolerance itself.

Sorry, but your opinions are downright totalitarian, contrary to the notions of free societies, and sick. By your own definitions, we should be able to label atheists who bring their children up atheist as child abusers simply because their beliefs might be different from someone elses. Very slippery slope you are treading on.

a reply to: grainofsand

It is pitiful to constantly see theists attempting to twist the atheist label into "one who believes there are no gods".

Why? Theists invented and used the term to slander innocents for thousands of years. What is pitiful is believing one is an atheist, which when compared to other theist ideas, is simply another ecclesiastical myth.

originally posted by: DeadSeraph

originally posted by: Annee

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs

originally posted by: RP2SticksOfDynamite

originally posted by: CharlieSpeirs

originally posted by: RP2SticksOfDynamite

originally posted by: andy06shake
a reply to: maxzen2004

I challenge anyone to claim that they dont place there faith or offer up a little prayer to some form of deity before departing on any associated plane journey, even if its only to the machine god that is the aircraft. Especially so these days.

Nope. Don't do that! Pointless!
Atheists tend not to fear death as believers do! maybe because they know that the end is the end!

How do "they know" such a thing!?!


How can you claim such as the above and say it's not a belief system?



Hypo...
Crisy...

Because they not blind minded (stupid)!

When you don't believe in any religion and death is the end thus nothing then there is nothing to believe in thus no belief system exists, only nothing!!!

So their belief is that nothing awaits...


How is your argument designed to convince people it's not a belief system!?!


Who's "stupid"!?!

Atheist means one thing and one thing only: LACK OF BELIEF IN A GOD/DEITY.

That's it. That is the only meaning of atheist.

There is nothing that says an atheist can't have a belief ---- as long as that belief does not include a God.

Each individual atheist has their own philosophy. There is no single thought "dogma".

I've always found this explanation to be a cop out. I think atheists like to cling to this definition because they feel it gives them the high ground in these arguments.

Fact is what it is.

Then there is opinion/belief . . . . . . .take it away . . . .

originally posted by: Annee

Why shouldn't they?

They should. But so should Jedi. And Buddhists. And chaos magicians. And Hindu. Hey free yoga classes for abused Christians who need support would do a lot of good.

Our society seems to be caught in a false dichotomy.

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a reply to: Annee

So you are content to ignore the meat of my post? Ok. What's the point in even replying?

originally posted by: BuzzyWigs
a reply to: Annee

American Atheists definitely has a campaign going to reach out to non-believers who feel they are alone or need support.

While I was watching the CNN stream they presented, I pulled up their contact info.
I'm seriously thinking of linking in.

You get factual info when you listen to legitimate Atheists.

Otherwise it seems you get mostly religious based opinion.

originally posted by: DeadSeraph
a reply to: Annee

So you are content to ignore the meat of my post? Ok. What's the point in even replying?

I presented fact.

You gave your belief/opinion.

What is there to discuss?

a reply to: BuzzyWigs

Thank God Freedom of Religion trumps your Totalitarian Atheism. (At least for now).

See, the difference is I believe you as a parent have the right to teach your children their heritage, religion, family history, patriotism, and values, etc.

You believe that the STATE should decide what the serfs / slaves should or can be taught, what is right and wrong, what values are worth teaching and which you think are not up to YOUR beliefs, if YOU don't like it, it is child abuse and you wish to use the POWER of the State to enforce YOUR vision of the world.

I would so hate to know that my grandchildren are growing up in a tyrannical, suppressive, Totalitarian regime where the State rules all, including your children's thoughts.

a reply to: DeadSeraph

Sorry, but your opinions are downright totalitarian, contrary to the notions of free societies, and sick.

No. They are not. They promote the well-being of future generations. Did you know that the US is one of two countries that refused to sign the UN Children's Bill of Rights? The other was Somalia.

Did you know that?

By your own definitions, we should be able to label atheists who bring their children up atheist as child abusers simply because their beliefs might be different from someone elses.

Not at all. You miss the entire point.

We should investigate parents who abuse their children by intimidation, brutality, or withholding of medical care, and remove their children from them.

Very slippery slope you are treading on.

Yep, it is. But I'm wearing my Vibrams. Adults who are pregnant (includes male and female parents) should have to take a 'parenting test' - just like they have to take a driver's test. They should at the very least be given mandatory training (even if it's only an hour's worth of info) and a book or folder (presuming they can read, and if not, then they need a case manager to help them absorb the info).......
before their child is released into their custody.

Getting pregnant is free.

Raising a child is the most important thing a person can do. They need to be trained. Educated. Sorry if you don't like it, but.....


not really. The fact is that I don't really care if you like it. It needs to happen.

a reply to: Annee

Well, case closed I guess! Not much point in having a conversation with someone who labels their own opinions as facts, is there?

atheist
/ˈeɪθɪˌɪst/
noun
1.
a person who does not believe in God or gods

Notice that key word? "believe"? The entire definition of belief is centered around ones opinions, inclinations, etc. Atheists hold a belief that there is no God, because the concept of God cannot be falsified. You won't know until you die, therefore you hold a belief, no matter how much you want to twist the definition.

a reply to: DeadSeraph

I suppose it's all in how you choose to look at it. It's all just semantics though as you said. The difference is that we don't usually use that same thought process in other areas. Like someone who doesn't believe in Santa Claus we don't say they have a belief that there is no Santa. Or someone who doesn't believe in the Tooth Fairy we don't say they believe there is no tooth fairy. We simply say they don't believe in the tooth fairy.

So why would anyone try and label Atheists as believing there is no God??? The only reason to switch it around is to try and force Atheism into the same category as other Believers. Nobody from the Atheist camp does this either. Only those from the believers side tries to do this as a way to weaken the Atheists argument.

a reply to: TheSubversiveOne
I consider it pitiful that the modern generally accepted term for one who does not believe in gods is still being dressed up as 'something bad' by people who hold beliefs so strong, even the word is poison to them, enough to make all non-believers something bad.

Always amusing when I ask a rabid anti-atheist what they think about other religions though lol

originally posted by: infolurker

See, the difference is I believe you as a parent have the right to teach your children their heritage, religion, family history, patriotism, and values, etc.

What if parents don't even understand their own religious heritage? What if they aren't qualified to teach anyone anything about religion?

"Son, this religion of ours is the only true one. Atheism and other so-called religions are false deceptions of the devil."

I would have a problem with parents who teach that kind of thing to their kids. It simply doesn't stand up to scholarship. Which people don't seem to be keeping up with.

"No one, as far as I know, has yet tried to compose into a single picture the new perspectives that have been opened in the fields of comparative symbolism, religion, mythology, and philosophy by the scholarship of recent years. The richly rewarded archaeological researches of the past few decades; astonishing clarifications, simplifications, and coordinations achieved by intensive studies in the spheres of philology, ethnology, philosophy, art history, folklore, and religion; fresh insights in psychological research; and the many priceless contributions to our science by the scholars, monks, and literary men of Asia, have combined to suggest a new image of the fundamental unity of the spiritual history of mankind.

Without straining beyond the treasuries of evidence already on hand in these widely scattered departments of our subject, therefore, but simply gathering from them the membra disjuncta of a unitary mythological science, I attempt in the following pages the first sketch of a natural history of the gods and heroes, such as in its final form should include in its purview all divine beings--not regarding any as sacrosanct or beyond its scientific domain. For, as in the visible world of the vegetable and animal kingdoms, so also in the visionary world of the gods: there has been a history, an evolution, a series of mutations, governed by laws; and to show forth such laws is the proper aim of science." -Joseph Campbell

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a reply to: BuzzyWigs

No. They are not. They promote the well-being of future generations.

Just not the future generations of people who happen to have different beliefs.

Did you know that the US is one of two countries that refused to sign the UN Children's Bill of Rights? The other was Somalia.

Did you know that?

And what exactly does that have to do with your totalitarian statements?

We should investigate parents who abuse their children by intimidation, brutality, or withholding of medical care, and remove their children from them.

Of course we should. However, your willingness to label Christian families as perpetrating such abuses is absurd. You act as if all christians are guilty of child abuse because a few kooks refuse to have their kids vaccinated. Guess what... There are atheists that do the same thing. Yet you would sign into law a system of persecution for religious families that conveniently ignores that fact, and do it with a smile on your face.

Yep, it is. But I'm wearing my Vibrams. Adults who are pregnant (includes male and female parents) should have to take a 'parenting test' - just like they have to take a driver's test. They should at the very least be given mandatory training (even if it's only an hour's worth of info) and a book or folder (presuming they can read, and if not, then they need a case manager to help them absorb the info).......
before their child is released into their custody.

It is not the states job to parent anyone, nor should it be. If you would like to live in a dictatorship you should consider moving to one. Parents most certainly should be educated, and that is why many governments offer parenting courses or materials to new parents. But your suggestion that the state should hold a newborn child until it deems the parents to be "fit" is quite frightening. What if the state uses such a powerful privilege to coerce or persecute a certain group of people? Would you be ok if the government did it to you, but the conditions were that you had to be a Christian or a Muslim? If not, why suggest it for groups that you disagree with? You have double standards that are based on your own inability to think rationally and solely centered on your personal vendetta against religion. You seem to be incapable of asking yourself if you would be happy to live under such a system if the shoe were on the other foot.

I'm not sure where you live, but where I live freedom of religion is a protected right.

Raising a child is the most important thing a person can do. They need to be trained. Educated. Sorry if you don't like it, but.....


not really. The fact is that I don't really care if you like it. It needs to happen.

Well I'm glad people like you aren't in power (yet). Because it's not up to you, is it?

Yes, parents should be educated, but most of a person's parenting skills are formed by how they were raised. There is only so much the state can do, and holding children hostage is one of the most asinine suggestions I've ever heard (but leave it to an antitheist to come up with something so ridiculous in the name of fostering "tolerance")