Audie
Veteran Member
As often as he trots out that ridiculous chimera,
it is more than a little clear that is exactly what is intended.
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Theists: Atheism is a Religion?
- Thread starter JChnsc19
- Start date
As often as he trots out that ridiculous chimera,
it is more than a little clear that is exactly what is intended.
Rubbish, complete nonsense.
Not collecting stamps cannot be equated to some special form of stamp collecting.
Audie
Veteran Member
How this could possibly be confusing will stand as one of
the great mysteries of the internet.
PureX
Veteran Member
It is the belief that science is the only reasonable pathway to truth, and that it can and will answer all relevant questions.
Subduction Zone
Veteran Member
When a person holds a weak position a favorite defense is to accuse others of having the same.
Ignosticism isn't agnosticism ─ agnosticism too would imply that I knew what a real god was and that I was merely in doubt as to its existence in reality. So, for example, I'd know what to look for if our subject were the unicorn and I suspected real ones were out there. It doesn't work for God because God as something with objective existence has no coherent definition, no description of what real thing to look for.
Of course some people indeed have blind faith in science, but I know of no basis on which you could say it was a general characteristic of atheists.
Why then did you prefer it to materialism / physicalism, when as I'm sure you're aware 'scientism' is a put-down word implying unreasoned faith in science?
dfnj
Well-Known Member
Atheism is belief system with its own dogma. But atheism is not a religion. The purpose of religion is to provide concrete answers to the four great existential questions:
1. Who am I?
2. Why am I here?
3. What does it all mean?
4. What is going to happen to me when I die?
These are unaswerable questions. Since most people are very uncomfortable with not-knowing, religion is invented to give concrete answers to these questions.
Many people are nihilists. And to many people, on the cosmic timescale, everything in our lives is ultimately meaningless. However, it is also meaningless that it is meaningless. So since it is meaningless that it is meaningless we might as well CHOOSE meaningful. That is the way I experience it.
Audie
Veteran Member
We know what the freakin' word means and we know of your obsession
with it.
See if you can learn about one more tune.
Audie
Veteran Member
Id say that faith in anything you can name is generally blind,
or very weakly informed. We all have degrees of
"faith" in science, and everything else affecting us,
as none have the vast range of knowledge to do
otherwise.
lukethethird
unknown member
Agreed, it is ridiculous, but it keeps coming up by those that haven't figured out what atheism means.
lukethethird
unknown member
Everyone knows that science has not got an answer for everything, so why the national emergency on your part when scientism is not a thing? Spellcheck doesn't even recognize it as a word.
JChnsc19
Member
What is the dogma of atheism?
Considering the faith I daily practice that bits of metal and paper, and electrons pushing on-off switches, are money, you remind me I really must brush up on my economics.
If only Bertrand Russell had written an essay Why I am Not an Accountant.
lukethethird
unknown member
Well, you understand what atheism means, I was commenting for those that don't.
lukethethird
unknown member
The non existence of the one and only god, Achamán
Truly Enlightened
Well-Known Member
If you are Korean, and someone told you that Chinese, Japanese, and Koreans are all the same, that is, Oriental, it just might bother you. If being mislabeled doesn't bother you, then there must be a reason why.
Since I am also speaking for myself, these are my thoughts. If I belonged to a club called, "I believe in God", then all the members of that club would also "believe in God". The club would establish its own tenets, rituals, holy symbols, language, a hierarchy of power, and a system of repetitive behavior, designed specifically to worship, revere, and maintain that "belief in God". I am told that there are over 4000 other clubs that also "believe in God", but that my "belief in God" is the true belief.
I am later told that club "Atheism" is the only club that not only disbelieves in our God, but in all the other clubs' Gods as well. This lumps us all in the same pile of silliness, from their perspective. They claim that their position is based only on the lack of evidence, and not on faith or a consensus of belief. They don't even have a system of worship, a religious hierarchy, any divine symbols, books or doctrines, no religious titles or positions, and not even a place to gather and worship their Atheism. But worst, they give us a rational explanation as to why they don't "believe in God". Since we can't produce any scientific/objective evidence to justify our beliefs, we must try and discredit their science, or demonize their Atheism by characterizing it as another religion. Attacking science failed because we would need to understand the science first. And demonizing Atheism as a religion also failed, because it is blatantly fallacious. I. E., "Theists belong to a religion that believe in the existence of a God(s). Atheist do not believe in the existence of a God(s). Therefore, Atheism is the religion that does not believe in any God". How many logical fallacies were committed here?
So the moral of the story is, as long as your belief in God is based on faith alone, then evidence is irrelevant. Your belief is just subjective. But if your belief in God is a knowledge claim of certainty, then your belief is objective and here facts do matter.
Truly Enlightened
Well-Known Member
1. You are the sum total of the expression of billions of symbiotic micro-organisms, expressing themselves according to the fundamental laws of Nature.
2. You are here because of a series of astronomical events occurring. Your only purpose here is to survive long enough to pass on your genes.
3. It all means absolutely nothing. Does the birth, life and death of an earthworm have some metaphysical meaning to them?
4. When you die, it means that entropy and oxidation wins. If I explained the exact details, you would be grossed out. Lets just say, thank God you are already dead.
