atheist paradox

[Berzerker]

atheism and theism have something in common, both are susceptible to an unsettling certitude

[onejayhawk]

No. It's not a religion. You're not quite grasping what atheism is. I think you are probably religious and have jumped to your own clouded conclusions. By the way, atheists aren't making the inference that a god exists. A religion is centered on a DIETY, not a lack of. Therefore this is why your argument has completely collapsed.



Prove it. You seem to be repeeating something you saw on a particular news station (or rather an entertainment station known as Fox "News". There are no seminaries. You made that up. You don't have the slightest bit of proof for any of these statements, except mere fear mongering. Professors proselytizing their classes is a favorite? Prove it. Or are you too busy watching Sean Hannity flapping his gums? Next thing I'll see is you declaring that the LGBT community is a religious group (and I'm willing to bet you would).

You're intellectually dishonest, just like kidiot.

You try to elevate yourself but you fall flat on your face and not in a good way.

Did your tantrum make you feel better?

Worship of many things are generally acknowledged as religions, eg money, status, power. That love of money is idolatry is one of the teachings of Jesus and most major religions are in agreement. So, the idea that a deity is the center of a religion is refuted. The actual center of a religion is faith. It can be faith in a deity, faith in money, faith in a person, or faith in a concept. One such concept is that proposition that there is no deity.

Remember, it is not sufficient to doubt or dispute the existence of a deity. Agnostics do that all the time. Atheism requires the leap of faith to the assertion that there is no deity.

J

[Giancarlo]

Did your tantrum make you feel better?

Worship of many things are generally acknowledged as religions, eg money, status, power. That love of money is idolatry is one of the teachings of Jesus and most major religions are in agreement. So, the idea that a deity is the center of a religion is refuted. The actual center of a religion is faith. It can be faith in a deity, faith in money, faith in a person, or faith in a concept. One such concept is that proposition that there is no deity.

I'm atheist and do not subscribe to religion, praytell. Nothing you stated has refuted any of my ideas. You seem to be stuck in some delusion. You have a distorted view that has warped any of your reasoning. Your entire premise is false.

The center of religion is god or gods. You are making up definitions. You are as clueless as kidiot. You make a lot of bald assertions about atheism, probably influenced by your own prejudices and bias.

[onejayhawk]

I'm atheist and do not subscribe to religion, praytell. Nothing you stated has refuted any of my ideas. You seem to be stuck in some delusion. You have a distorted view that has warped any of your reasoning. Your entire premise is false.

The center of religion is god or gods. You are making up definitions. You are as clueless as kidiot. You make a lot of bald assertions about atheism, probably influenced by your own prejudices and bias.

I can see that further discussion is pointless.

If you must call someone inappropriate names, please keep it to present company. I would at least have the chance to earn it.

J

[Giancarlo]

I can see that further discussion is pointless.

If you must call someone inappropriate names, please keep it to present company. I would at least have the chance to earn it.

J

Thanks for proving you are nothing more than kidiot 2.0. You basically confirmed your biases and you made statements that were nothing more than bald assertions.

Your statements on atheism are outlandish, ridiculous and outright false.

And who are you anyways? Never seen you before. I wonder whose double login you are.

[Broken_Erika]

Thanks for proving you are nothing more than kidiot 2.0. You basically confirmed your biases and you made statements that were nothing more than bald assertions.

Your statements on atheism are outlandish, ridiculous and outright false.

And who are you anyways? Never seen you before. I wonder whose double login you are.

He's a CFC regular....

[Aeson]

I thought CFCs were banned decades ago?

[Aeson]

I'm starting The Fundamentalist Church of Agnosticism solely for tax exempt status... please send your donations!

[ZEE]

I wonder how many minds have been changed and beliefs have been questioned as a result of this thread. I sure am glad I read some of these inspiring comments!

[spambot]

I'll stick with the dictionary definition of "religion", lol

[ricketyclik]

I'll stick with the dictionary definition of "religion", lol

Amen to that.

[Lorizael]

I wonder how many minds have been changed and beliefs have been questioned as a result of this thread. I sure am glad I read some of these inspiring comments!

for once i ****ing agree with you, aahz.

[Lorizael]

The center of religion is god or gods.

I don't agree with onejayhawk's take that "faith" is sufficient criterion for religion, but I don't know that gods are either. The easiest counterexample would be something like Buddhism, or possibly some examples of animism.

...

wrt to faith being central, I think you quickly run into problems. For example, there's this idea that faith is belief without evidence, but that doesn't really hold up if you look at medieval scholasticism. There's a great deal of literature about evidence for or proof of the existence of god. Faith without or in spite of evidence is probably a more recent phenomenon related to the Enlightenment and Scientific Revolution.

If faith is instead mostly synonymous with belief, then Bayes and Hume are gonna kick your ass. I believe the Sun will rise tomorrow, but I do not worship Ra. Sure, my belief is based on the fact that the sun has always risen, but that's straight up demolished-by-Hume-problem-of-induction stuff. The modern formulation of belief is something like confidence in adjusted priors... but then every piece of knowledge we have (knowledge being at least JTB, after all) is a belief and then everything is a religion. Oops.

[Kidlicious]

I'm starting The Fundamentalist Church of Agnosticism solely for tax exempt status... please send your donations!

You know pretty much everything about him when you see his avatar.

[pchang]

That Aeson is a handsome and friendly man who takes sensible precautions against too much sun?

[Broken_Erika]

Russell Crowe!

[Jon Miller]

. Sure, my belief is based on the fact that the sun has always risen, but that's straight up demolished-by-Hume-problem-of-induction stuff. The modern formulation of belief is something like confidence in adjusted priors... but then every piece of knowledge we have (knowledge being at least JTB, after all) is a belief and then everything is a religion. Oops.

I think that religions also have some sort of 'priest' function and 'provide structure to life' function, which is why it was interesting to see the development of 'priests' for the simulation as reality POV (which has arisen from classical atheistism despite being fundamentally theistic).

JM
(In the Civ context, the priests component is what separates religion from mysticism.)

[Lorizael]

I think there's a component of ritual and ceremony (as required by whatever transcendent thing grants a religion its authority) that is absent from simulation hypothesis true believers.