Is RF officially ramsacked by the secular movement?

[osgart]

@osgart as my Tibetan Buddhist roommate would say. Secularists can blame religion all they want for endangering the world, but only through the advent of the technological sciences did humans gain the ability to really destroy our world.

That's what scares me about it.

I would like to say that it doesn't have to be that way. I've met some very nice secular people.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

I don't think that at all. I know that many atheists have not examined their views, because they always have a ready made response from the four horsemen when a religious person approaches them. Some of them always respond with insults and 'woo woo' statements, and this is the mind of a mocker- not a thinker. I don't mean to imply all atheists are thoughtless. I have encountered many of them though that shrug off any other view with what I just said. Mockery and contempt. That is ignorance by one of it's most basic definitions. To outright dismiss what you don't understand, or don't want to try to understand.

Why are you assuming that mockery and contempt are knee-jerk reactions? Do you think that it's impossible for someone to properly consider your position but decide that it's lacking?

It is these atheists I think have not thought about their views much at all. What I am here describing. I think philosophical atheists like humanists do better, but those are becoming less and less over time. I understand why that is, but it would be taking the conversation another way. I understand why humanism is dying though.

It sounds as if you measure how correct an atheist is by how friendly they are to you. Is that a fair assessment?

Another question one might ask is what made atheists reject all religions, just because they concluded Christianity doesn't work for them? You can't tell me they made a reasoned and thought out decision if they simply jumped from Christianity to atheism. That's actually a simple-minded person, thinking their parents were supposed to be the authority on everything- and they let them down.

Atheists haven't necessarily rejected every religion; they just haven't accepted any.

(Any theistic religions, that is; some religions don't require a belief in gods)

... though the criticism you're levelling at atheism would be valid for many religions. There are plenty of exclusivist religions that claim to be "the one true path" and that every other religion is wrong. You might want to ask their adherents how they managed to reject religions they've never even heard of.

... but generally, atheists don't claim to have done this. They just say that they haven't been convinced of the existence of any gods.

 

[Buddha Dharma]

Do you think that it's impossible for someone to properly consider your position but decide that it's lacking?

No, of course not

It sounds as if you measure how correct an atheist is by how friendly they are to you. Is that a fair assessment?

I am sorry it seems like that. What I actually measure atheists by to a large degree is how philosphically sound their ethics theories are. I don't care if someone is atheist, I just wish some of them in the anti-theist camp in particular thought about it more.

To mention too, I think nihilism is very problematic for the human species. It's hard for me to look too favorably on the nihilistic atheists because coupled with consumerism, I think it would spell a recipe for disaster.

Consumerism at the level we do it is already destructive. Now imagine that coupled with a nihilistic premise that nothing has any real meaning, worth, or rights.

I mention humanism because it happens to be a philosophical form of atheism- the secular kind. I find the premises of the humanist worldview positive and promising. I fear for a world in which nihilistic atheism might triumph.

Atheists haven't necessarily rejected every religion; they just haven't accepted any.

Depending how educated they are, I think it could amount to the same thing. Go see the origin of gods post currently up for a good example.