What is with all the threads attacking atheism/atheists lately?

Originally posted by The Djin
reply to post by Rustami

 

no voice in head is something else addressed in the scriptures, I am talking an audible voice like what Paul heard as in an invisible man that was obviously raised from the dead as they and many declare

If the voice in your head told you to kill me, would you do it ?

Yes or no

did the voice in your head ask that without considering any situations that that thought may come up in? maybe you should start a thread about it

if you're just attempting to go the crusade argument route, I suggest a little more in depth study starting with abortions (they exceed all wars in the last 2000 years from just 1920 by more than double) then maybe Bolshevik or Mao.. there are plenty more examples though

reply to post by awake_and_aware


Ayn Rand was a militant atheist. Unless that wasn't a spelling mistake and there is an Ayan Rand I've never heard of. Are you referring to Hitchens or the other guy in the video, because I think Hitchens is kind of a pompous ass.

reply to post by Gorman91


Religions all claim that their deity has interceded into the physical world. We should be able to test these claims of physical intercession.

reply to post by Gorman91


What dogma does atheism have? It is a single skeptical position. It is a rejection of the dogma of the world's religions: that god(s) exist(s).

Atheists can't prove themselves? Well we can prove theres no god. I think that means we can prove ourselves.

Nearly all religions are the same in certain areas, and all of them are just an astrological literary hybrid.

reply to post by EarthCitizen07


I never said there weren't more than 4 dimensions of spacetime. I said there wasn't enough evidence to support a particular view of exactly how many other dimensions there were and what their character is. I love science, I just know which parts of science are in the hypothesis phase. Hopefully experimentation and mathematics well help us figure that one out.

And how can you believe in a deity if you don't know what a deity is?

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by Annee

 

Unless it's insulting and offensive and rude to call the other guy insulting and offensive and rude..

Ah NO! I've been on forums for over 10 years -- starting with ICQ.

Many forums prior to joining ATS. Many experiences with "believers" - - even when they discuss beliefs not of their own.

I am very aware of who is most insulting - offensive - and rude. That's just a fact.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


Everyone is attacking everyone when it comes to religions not just christians attacking athiest. Im agnostic but personally I can give two #les what people say or thank on here about religions, thats called freedom of speech which has my vote, if you dont like it let it go in one ear and out the other. I have my opinion on religions as well as everyone else but the true fact behind it is this can go on forever until everyone learns to let go and stop calling everybody wrong, kinda like racism, that well go on forever until people start figuring out we all bleed red and race doesn't exist, man created race differences not god or whatever you believe in just like man created religions and gave it the names that exist today. we're all human beings and we all go the same place when we die regardless of what you believe or what race you are, nobody knows the truth or death wouldn't be so scary to everyone.

Originally posted by LazerTron
The point is...Christians are unable to even be honest in the debate, constantly misrepresenting the position of atheists. When you start the debate with a blatant lie, you immediately lose believability...and you have no evidence to back up your belief, so really it comes down to a liar arguing without facts.

That is my complaint.

The ignorance.

Re Student X

You wrote:

["One that I can't imagine atheists replicating, even with a housebroken approach, because it involves a belief-dependent anomaly - psychic ability. Even though belief-dependent phenomenon are real,"]

Nja, I'm more optimistic than that. I have, as is expected from all non-mainstream amateur-philosophers, ofcourse cooked up my own epistemology, which I actually believe will hold water for use in social sciences, and even have some small respectability in deductive logic (don't worry, I won't push it here). And if I can, somebody being somebody also can.

The experiment you described will be the kind, which eventually removes metaphysics from 'insane' to 'slightly eccentric'. (But already being the local village original though, this wouldn't make much change for me.)

And the beauty of it is, that there's not even much need for 'majic' to explain this experiment, it could very well be 'natural' ('natural' being a key-word for the filter-regulating mechanisms in the rationalist mind).

Originally posted by Annee

Originally posted by NewAgeMan
reply to post by Annee

 

Unless it's insulting and offensive and rude to call the other guy insulting and offensive and rude..

Ah NO! I've been on forums for over 10 years -- starting with ICQ.

Many forums prior to joining ATS. Many experiences with "believers" - - even when they discuss beliefs not of their own.

I am very aware of who is most insulting - offensive - and rude. That's just a fact.

edit on 2-2-2011 by Annee because: (no reason given)

as am I and of the kind you have never experienced I'm certian on many levels not just by many here

reply to post by kallisti36


Apologies - i was meant to put "zealots" rather than "religious zealots". I've made a habit of writing those two words together.

Originally posted by madnessinmysoul
reply to post by adjensen

 

My bad. I should have used a better example. All of this studying on how Kant and Hegel viewed the categorical imperative is making me forget my ancient Greek stuff.

No worries. One of the ironic things about the Greeks was that worship was the civic duty, but belief was not. So long as you showed up when you were supposed to and said the right things, they didn't care what you believed. A bit like the way things are today for some, I suppose.

How's Hegel going? I can't see you being a huge fan, but Elements of the Philosophy of Right isn't without its charms

Originally posted by Annee

Originally posted by LazerTron
The point is...Christians are unable to even be honest in the debate, constantly misrepresenting the position of atheists. When you start the debate with a blatant lie, you immediately lose believability...and you have no evidence to back up your belief, so really it comes down to a liar arguing without facts.

That is my complaint.

The ignorance.

Same here.

I guess we're at a stalemate of mutually percieved ignorance..

Oh well what can ya do.

reply to post by kallisti36


Well, I'm not going to accept anecdotes about the population of theists or atheists on websites. The simple fact is that there doesn't seem to be any data on it. Now, if you'd like to do the research yourself, I'd be glad to help you quantify atheist activity.

And yes, the AmazingAtheist is not a nice person. He does have the occasional nugget of wisdom though (and it never seems to be on any of the topics relating to religion).

What about being a Christian before the 400's, when they were flayed alive in front of jeering crowds of people,

What about being an atheist a few hundred years later when they same group made Christianity the state religion?

I'm going to ignore the rest. This is about a specific interaction, between atheists and mostly Christians. You made the claim that atheists took the first shot. This is certainly not the case.

Everyone is persecuted. It's part of life.

Yes, I know that. Of course, to call a modern Christian persecuted is a bit laughable in 90+% of the world. And the places in the world where Christians are persecuted are the places where typically all other religious groups aside from the majority one are persecuted. If you're persecuted somewhere for being a Christian I doubt you'll get better treatment as an atheist, especially considering how some of those places deal with apostasy.

And I suppose Jesus and Paul did? Or was it men who weren't listening?

2 Corinthians 6:14

Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?

Now, unbelievers is a much bigger group than atheists...but it does include atheists.

The NT doesn't specifically say anything about atheists (hell, even the OT has little to say about them), but it does talk an awful lot about unbelievers.

The anti-theists probably ran out of steam. Wait it out and the Theists will get tired of wasting hours refuting atheists and there will be an opening for some good ol' Xtian bashing.

That's the problem though: how the hell do you refute atheism? Attacking "atheism" makes no sense. Now, relentlessly proving the validity of your claims: That makes a lot of sense and would refute atheism...well, technically you only have to go so far as at least one deity exists. You don't even have to prove the rest of your religion, just the existence of at least a single deity.

This is why I'm so confused. If people are so concerned about atheists, why aren't they just proving their own points?

A thread about "Christians attacking Atheists Beliefs" which is actually filled with posts from Atheists attacking Christians !!!!!!! < L O L

Things I have noticed in the last few years > >

Is it just me or is Atheism starting to attract all the dumb ones because it is trendy.
Real Atheists must cringe at some of the crap that is posted here by so called Atheists.

Atheists only attack Christians because they are a soft target.
You don't see them attacking the Muslims faith with as much zest, why is that ?.

Atheists will quote The God Delusion to avoid thinking of their own arguments, while mocking Christians for quoting the Bible in the same way.

Just like Christians, many exhibit very serious cases of a persecution complex, believing that Secret Societies are trying to eradicate them.

They constantly quote Nietzsche's "God Is Dead". Never mind that he was talking about slave morality rather than the actual entity. (It looked cool on that shirt at Hot Topic.)

They will Often dwell on religion more than theists, why is that ?.

Final note > >

Atheists are completely without morality and treat the rest of humanity like #, whilst accusing theists of the same thing. When called out on this, they will invariably justify their self-serving behavior by crying about religious persecution.

reply to post by awake_and_aware


No arguments here then, Ayn Rand certainly was a zealot.

reply to post by adjensen


Well, Greeks did have a bit of a fetish for civic stability...and who wouldn't with the environment they were in. They cared more about unity than anything else. Hell, just read The Republic, Plato definitely emphasizes state over individual.

..I'm reading it again soon, working on a Philosophy of Education assignment about his educational philosophy. I might even try to start a thread about some stuff he covers in the "Philosophy" forum...I put it in quotes because it's a great deal not philosophy.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


the 4th dimension and multiverse theory are metaphysical theories.

Although unfalsifiable, they are rationally formed using mathematics and logic, and rationalising current understandings of our reality.

There's a fundamental difference to this type of unfalsifiable hypothesis to that of a religious or Deistic one; one is rationally formed and the other is a blind guess - "faith". It's even an illogical assumption that concsioussness implies a deity.

What do you think?

Would you say you believe in the 4th dimension and/or multiverse theorem? Or rather put trust in the theory? Or perhaps you would define your stance as entertaining their possibilities?

reply to post by Student X


Already retracted. I made a mistake. Misrepresented an event and a historical figure (well, at least Plato's depiction of the figure). Socrates was unjustly put to death and it seemed to stem more from unrest than religious issues.

reply to post by madnessinmysoul


I'm an atheist so please take my reply in context.

Atheism has been under attack from the very start of time. Believers make up the majority and so atheists have been attacked and very often killed throughout history as we are considered abnormal. When an atheist speaks about their belief, or should i say lack of belief they ar demonised.

What you are seeing on ATs is a backlash of hatred where the religious are so very worried about the increasing lack of belief that they feel threateened and like any cornered beast they attack. You see most people are still believers, 80% at least have some form of faith and yet they see us as a danger. They see the stupidity of heir beliefs, the lack of evidence. They have been faced with logical debate and found themselves faltering, you are seeing the effect of people doubting their own belief. Until now they have not been challenged en masse, they have never been asked to seriously consider their viewpoints and it scares them.

I honestly believe that most people need religion to keep themeslves going, even more i find it scary they ask atheists how we know right from wrong without a god, doesn't that say a great deal about he believers mindset? They behave because they fear hell, they can't comprehend someone who is peaceful without a fear of hell because without that fear these religious people would not be peaceful, they would retreat into their base emotions.

Religion causes nothing but hatred and division. Any peace they claim is theres is usually down to them facing a common enemy, or bowing to the laws of a secular society.

Religion is truly the failure of humanity.