Why Atheism is being promoted by TPTB

I find these threads really depressing so i'll post once and begone.

I utterly reject the notion that we need fear of damnation in a postulated afterlife to make us treat each other correctly.

The universe may be indifferent but people are not generally (apart from some aberrant types). We are social creatures, we evolved that way because we need to co-operate. In primitive times for basic survival and these days for grander reasons.

The morality attributed to God is the intellectual creation of people at one time, rules for social harmony as it was conceived at the time. Somebody human (probably many different people) thought it up and wrote it down. A wise man or prophet spread the word (or got the credit). Its rules to live by so that a stable society can exist and co-operate. These rules end up as laws and are enforced by society. As the society changes the needs for the rules change, some become less important maybe. This is observable in the drift in 'societies morals' and legal revisions to reflect that drift. This is sensible, healthy.

Unfortunately, once you've attributed something as the final word of the creator of all life, the universe and everything, its a bit hard to have a rethink. This is where the friction comes from.

IMHO the argument over the morality of consensual homosexuality shows this up rather well. In a small human society clinging on for dear life its pretty obvious why homosexuality would be taboo/immoral. Because girls/girls, boys/boys doesn't produce the next generation of hunters/gatherers/warriors. Too much of that going on and its extinction city. I would suggest that forgetting to breed the next generation and dying out is long passed being a realistic concern so the taboo/immorality no longer need apply. Yet because its assigned as directives of a deity (who's gone fishing and cant be consulted) religion cannot easily move.

Issues like this show the stress of a society drifting one way and a religion that cant follow.

The sad part is that most atheists and most christians actually probably agree on most moral questions. Human morality hasn't really changed that much because the needs of a successful human society haven't really changed that much.

It doesn't matter in most cases whether you follow the rules because you like humanity, or you fear god, the end result is the same. People aren't rejecting all christian moral principles any more than before, what people of my generation are increasingly doing is keeping most of them, rejecting those specifics which no longer seem reasonable and ignoring the divine carrot/stick thats sold along with it. The sky isn't falling because of a rise in atheism.

On the contrary, I conclude differently from the OP. Atheism isn't being promoted as part of some plot to make us all barbarians. What is happening is that we are being poked and prodded in the normal stress lines of our evolving western society. There is polarisation everywhere to an extent I cannot remember in my life. Atheist/Theist, Christian/Muslim and there is rampant demagoguery on all sides. We are being very successfully agitated and distracted. Many molehills are being made into mountains, you can see them here in microcosm on ATS.This is whats endangering us all. Why are we allowing it to happen? Deny ignorance?

Said my piece. Signing off.

“if a person doesn’t think that there is a God to be accountable to, then what’s the point of trying to modify your behavior to keep it within acceptable ranges?”.

Jeffry Dahmer

okay, well first off im atheist... and i can say that i have more morals then some Christians i know so.... your wrong all ur doing is placing a tag on atheists without even knowing if its true.

God told me to kill boys, says mother.

Jurors in the trial of 39-year-old Deanna Laney watched a gruelling video-tape made just days after the murders in which she told a prison psychologist, Phillip Resnick, that she felt she had no choice but to bludgeon her children.

"I felt like I obeyed God and I believe there will be good out of this," she explained in the interview, looking wide-eyed and sometimes smiling. "I feel like he will reveal his power and they will be raised up. They will become alive again."

Originally posted by Regenstorm


Atheism is a "all Clear"-Sign for taking no responsibility for "your" actions. It's a free ticket for egoism, narcissism, cheating, lying, violence, vulgarity and indecent behavior. Because according to atheists there is no life after death, it's just this one time that you are here. So "you" want to have as much fun as possible regardless of the consequences for the rest of the world/people. Right?

Wrong wrong and wrong again.

Atheism is quite the opposite.

A catholic can go out and murder, rape and pillage. As long as somebody hears their confession before they die they get their slate wiped clean.

Moral convictions are just as evident in a secular society as they are in a religious one.
The main difference is that in a secular society people aren't ostracized or publicly condemned for not following a prescribed prohibitive doctrine for behavior, and therefore suffer less at the hands of the pious few.

Atheism is taking responsibility into your own hands and living your life free from dogmatic, irrelevant, archaic repressive ideologies.

The more I look into this stuff the more I wonder, why would anybody even trust an atheist ?
They could flip out at any time. They should all be considered time bombs.

Originally posted by randyvs
The more I look into this stuff the more I wonder, why would anybody even trust an atheist ?
They could flip out at any time. They should all be considered time bombs.

Oh and believing in God is going to stop somebody from flipping out?

What about the jihadists, they blow themselves up for God don't they?

So there we have it. Going to church on Sunday is the answer to personal responsibility and integerity

Do you really think the vast majority of Christians in America are as concerned with pleasing God out of genuine compassion as they are escaping damnation? Be honest.

Now I know that my Catholic elementary school doesn't represent all of Christianity, but I honestly remember the teachings of Hell being much more in-depth than the lectures on Heaven. But I didn't need that # to learn discipline. I learned self-discipline when I held my bladder full for three hours because I was terrified of asking my Nazi teacher to go to the bathroom.

reply to post by Regenstorm

Atheism is a "all Clear"-Sign for taking no responsibility for "your" actions. It's a free ticket for egoism, narcissism, cheating, lying, violence, vulgarity and indecent behavior. Because according to atheists there is no life after death, it's just this one time that you are here.

I do hope you're being sarcastic here or are attempting to speak from the POV of TPTB because this is all insulting baseless nonsense.

Is there a reason why being accountable for your actions to your fellow man is not enough? If someone commits a murder they go to jail, atheists and theists alike. What about animals? Many social species display rudimentary morality all without the need of anything supernatural to back up their behavior. The result of being narcissistic, violent and vulgar is that it will change what others think of you, how they interact with you and in the case of violence possibly get you arrested.

You seem to suggest that there is a large correlation between behaving morally and believing in an afterlife, yet what have we seen from the history of religion? What I've seen is that religion can be used to support positive behaviors or negative. Belief in gods can be used to support slavery, discrimination, even religious slaughters like the inquisitions. Yet it can also be used to motivate people to give to the needy or volunteer their time to help the less fortunate. We've got church leaders who molest kids and ones who help their communities. So it seems obvious that belief in God does not automatically lead one to better or more moral behavior.

What if some event caused that everyone could sense what someone else is feeling?

Only sociopaths and others with mental illnesses fail to feel empathy. Empathy, in my opinion, is the cornerstone of naturally occurring human morality and, as we are a social species that thrives in groups, it's easy to see how it evolved to be very beneficial to our species.

I have to fully disagree with the idea that those in power are supporting atheism. They will play to whomever they want and try to please as many different groups as possible. Atheists, speaking from experience, are very hard to please. Most of those I talk to on a regular basis are free thinkers or at least try to be and thus they hold very varied political and moral opinions.

millions on millions of people have died in the name of religion.

your precious religions have got alot to answer for!

Originally posted by seabhac-rua

Originally posted by randyvs
The more I look into this stuff the more I wonder, why would anybody even trust an atheist ?
They could flip out at any time. They should all be considered time bombs.

Oh and believing in God is going to stop somebody from flipping out?

What about the jihadists, they blow themselves up for God don't they?

I think that he is trolling. There is no way someone could be that ignorant.

reply to post by randyvs


I expect better of you Randy. If I didn't know any better I'd say you're trolling

Even without needing to reach back in the annals of ancient history when working on the Sabbath could get you stoned I could point out hundreds of examples of religious folks who at CLAIM their motivation came from religion. Now some are just crazy, there's going to be sociopaths and killers in ANY group of people. Are we going to find out what the political ideology of every killer is and blindly claim that Republicans and Democrats ALL shouldn't trusted? What if I find a few Christian killers and claim that ALL are time bombs? My guess is you wouldn't appreciate that kind of intolerant nonsense.

As a friend I advise you to deny ignorance and think before you post

it is a free world, I can worship cupckae for all I care, and you people shall say none about it!

reply to post by randyvs


"I'm heterosexual with issues...." -- Ted Haggard

I see your singular example of non-belief run amok, and raise it with an even funnier example of belief beyond reason or common sense.

reply to post by alienreality


Exactly. Until you find faith you have not opened your mind, right? How about until you have rejected the human based notions you have been indoctrinated with, you have not found faith? Hmmm...Then you will have opened your mind. Keep dreaming of your fantasy overlord.

CJ

reply to post by randyvs


Seriously? What? So, I'll give you the atheist 50 and raise you a religious 500 million? Huh?

CJ

Im a humanist, am i in the clear?

It's not atheism they are promoting, but its cousin, materialism. Materialism leads to atheism but atheism does not lead to materialism. I don't think atheism is their end goal.

I would like to know how an atheist explains matter. I do not mean its atoms electron quarks and whatever other mystical bits you may come up with like the higgs. I am talking about CREATION.

How did it come to be?
Explain creation and I will stop entertaining the thought of an after life. Face it atheists, all your hollering about science this and science that is bogus, science can only prove things to be false.

They aren't promoting atheism they are promoting state ism, the newest form of religion. faith that one world government is the solution not belief in the self.