Aardvark: The reason Atheism seems to be targeting Christians, whilst ignoring Muslims, Hindus, Snake Handlers and Pastafarians is that their parents were, for the most part, Christians of varying levels of faith. If teenagers didn't have that instinctive desire to rebel against their parents for the sake of, then Atheism would be for academics and philosophy students.
That and Christianity is one of the largest and therefore easist target religions. Especially in America and Western Europe.
Another reason could be that people in countries that are predominantly Muslim or Hindu can be beaten, tortured, raped and/or murdered for denying the higher power in question, either by their family, their government or both. There's something about a gunbarrel that can give you faith in anything crazy.
Ugh, am I the only atheist that only mentions my religion when people try to convert me with flyers at my door?
Seriously, do whatever you want, just leave me out of it unless I can have something without having to listen to you. If some monks from something showed up at my door offering me food if I embraced their god I'd kindly accept, take the food, and never think about them again.
Aardvark: Another reason could be that people in countries that are predominantly Muslim or Hindu can be beaten, tortured, raped and/or murdered for denying the higher power in question, either by their family, their government or both. There's something about a gunbarrel that can give you faith in anything crazy.
Ah. So they hold their beliefs dear enough to mock the people who hold their beliefs close, but not enough to stand up for them, as the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus, and the Buddhists have done.
Aardvark: The reason Atheism seems to be targeting Christians, whilst ignoring Muslims, Hindus, Snake Handlers and Pastafarians is that their parents were, for the most part, Christians of varying levels of faith. If teenagers didn't have that instinctive desire to rebel against their parents for the sake of, then Atheism would be for academics and philosophy students.
well that makes... perfect sense, everyone (besides my brother who is some Japanese religion) is a christian, my sister is in college for becoming a minister
CoverYourHead: Ugh, am I the only atheist that only mentions my religion when people try to convert me with flyers at my door?
Seriously, do whatever you want, just leave me out of it unless I can have something without having to listen to you. If some monks from something showed up at my door offering me food if I embraced their god I'd kindly accept, take the food, and never think about them again.
Indigo_Dingo: Ah. So they hold their beliefs dear enough to mock the people who hold their beliefs close, but not enough to stand up for them, as the Christians, the Jews, the Muslims, the Hindus, and the Buddhists have done.
Bingo. If the government of America instituted a mandatory beating of god-deniers policy, then Atheism would start to dry up. Or at least go underground.
Which would be funny, considering their Founding Fathers spent a good deal of time trying to ensure that such things didn't happen.
Beowulf DW: This is not a topic for discussion on religion, I just wanted to share with you guys an event that I thought was hilarious.
Recently, the college's resident atheist group hosted a free pizza party for anyone who would deny the Christian Trinity.
Some observations:
1) Any Buddhist, Muslim, Jew...ANYONE who is not a Christian could get that free pizza and not violate their own beliefs.
2) The event targeted Christians. If the guys who put this whole thing together had any balls, they would have included Muslims and Jews in this event.
3) If Atheism isn't a religion, why the hell are these guys trying to spread their beliefs?
4) It's ineffective. I could just as easily offer free pizza to atheists who will say that they believe in God, but that wouldn't mean they had a change of faith.
5) It's a great idea! We Christians should've tried offering free pizza instead of burnings at the stake. We could have conquered the world with food!
Atheism is not a religion because it involves logical thinking, not jsut accpeting fairytales, and is not dogmatic.
So you think it's illogical to believe that somewhere in this vast universe of ours that perhaps something set the chain of events in motion? Logic can be interpreted in may different ways. After all does science know what happens to your consciousness after death; any proof whatsoever? Atheism is still a belief whether you accept that or not.
Uhhh....its not like christians have to make a commitment to get said pizza, they could go "I deny the trinity, now gimme that pizza!" whilst still believing in the trinity. And if it was a real atheist meeting, then the requirement should have been to deny any and all gods.
Indigo_Dingo: Thats different - Atheism isn't a belief, its a lack of a belief. Its more akin to people with no culture or taste getting together to celebrate that.
That lack of a belief is still a belief though. Not a religious belief, but it is still one which is important/vilified enough in America for people to come together for.
Beowulf DW: This is not a topic for discussion on religion, I just wanted to share with you guys an event that I thought was hilarious.
Recently, the college's resident atheist group hosted a free pizza party for anyone who would deny the Christian Trinity.
Some observations:
1) Any Buddhist, Muslim, Jew...ANYONE who is not a Christian could get that free pizza and not violate their own beliefs.
2) The event targeted Christians. If the guys who put this whole thing together had any balls, they would have included Muslims and Jews in this event.
3) If Atheism isn't a religion, why the hell are these guys trying to spread their beliefs?
4) It's ineffective. I could just as easily offer free pizza to atheists who will say that they believe in God, but that wouldn't mean they had a change of faith.
5) It's a great idea! We Christians should've tried offering free pizza instead of burnings at the stake. We could have conquered the world with food!
Atheism is not a religion because it involves logical thinking, not jsut accpeting fairytales, and is not dogmatic.
So you think it's illogical to believe that somewhere in this vast universe of ours that perhaps something set the chain of events in motion? Logic can be interpreted in may different ways. After all does science know what happens to your consciousness after death; any proof whatsoever? Atheism is still a belief whether you accept that or not.
Atheism is not a belief it is a lack of belief. And listen, as for consciousness, it is not real. Consciousness is not a physical thing. It's a series of electrical impulses that we experiecne. When we die, we cease to function, and so there is noe "consciouness". It's simnple really.
Atheism is not a belief it is a lack of belief. And listen, as for consciousness, it is not real. Consciousness is not a physical thing. It's a series of electrical impulses that we experiecne. When we die, we cease to function, and so there is noe "consciouness". It's simnple really.
A series of electrical impulses are physical. Everything that goes on in your brain chemistry is a result of pure physics.
Indigo_Dingo: Thats different - Atheism isn't a belief, its a lack of a belief. Its more akin to people with no culture or taste getting together to celebrate that.
That lack of a belief is still a belief though. Not a religious belief, but it is still one which is important/vilified enough in America for people to come together for.
Its still celebrating a lack of knowledge of something.
Ok thats hilarious. It shows alot of Atheists are simply former christians who are disenfranchised and feel better by people telling them that they are right by pointing ot our limited scientific knowledge. It also seems hilarious to me because, to be frank, if your an atheist you should not give a damn if other people are not. There should be no 'I feel this is the only logical conclusion' unless someone kind of harasses you about it like many Jehovah witnesses do People like this who end up as Atheistic zealots are just too funny.
TheDean: Atheism is not a belief it is a lack of belief. And listen, as for consciousness, it is not real. Consciousness is not a physical thing. It's a series of electrical impulses that we experiecne. When we die, we cease to function, and so there is noe "consciouness". It's simnple really.
So, it's the belief that there's nothing to believe in :p
Agnosticism is the lack of belief. They're the (in my opinion, smart) guys who say there's no way to prove or disprove the existence of God, and don't have an opinion on it.
Athiests believe (quite militantly, as of late) that there is no God. They have the same amount of evidence, and are therefore just as silly as believers are.
How can some of you say that there is no consciousness?
Here, let's do a little experiment to prove you have a stream of consciousness (caused by those little electrical impulses, one after another after another)
Have a thought. Any thought.
Did it take more than one word to come up with? Those electrical impulses do form a consciousness.
Beowulf DW: This is not a topic for discussion on religion, I just wanted to share with you guys an event that I thought was hilarious.
Recently, the college's resident atheist group hosted a free pizza party for anyone who would deny the Christian Trinity.
Some observations:
1) Any Buddhist, Muslim, Jew...ANYONE who is not a Christian could get that free pizza and not violate their own beliefs.
2) The event targeted Christians. If the guys who put this whole thing together had any balls, they would have included Muslims and Jews in this event.
3) If Atheism isn't a religion, why the hell are these guys trying to spread their beliefs?
4) It's ineffective. I could just as easily offer free pizza to atheists who will say that they believe in God, but that wouldn't mean they had a change of faith.
5) It's a great idea! We Christians should've tried offering free pizza instead of burnings at the stake. We could have conquered the world with food!
Atheism is not a religion because it involves logical thinking, not jsut accpeting fairytales, and is not dogmatic.
So you think it's illogical to believe that somewhere in this vast universe of ours that perhaps something set the chain of events in motion? Logic can be interpreted in may different ways. After all does science know what happens to your consciousness after death; any proof whatsoever? Atheism is still a belief whether you accept that or not.
Atheism is not a belief it is a lack of belief. And listen, as for consciousness, it is not real. Consciousness is not a physical thing. It's a series of electrical impulses that we experiecne. When we die, we cease to function, and so there is noe "consciouness". It's simnple really.
Atheism is still a belief, just lack of belief in God and more of a belief in Science. And I'd hate to say that there are some questions that Science could never answer. Death and consciousness being two very big questions.
There's going to be no end to this debate, you can't convince me otherwise and I won't convince you otherwise, but I am tired of being called illogical, ignorant or foolish when your claims aren't any more substantiated than mine. You THINK the body ceases to function and that nothing remains. However you, like I, do not KNOW. You can't tell me for certain that there's no consciousness until you die. So let me know what happens after that... oh wait...
Indigo_Dingo: Thats different - Atheism isn't a belief, its a lack of a belief. Its more akin to people with no culture or taste getting together to celebrate that.
That lack of a belief is still a belief though. Not a religious belief, but it is still one which is important/vilified enough in America for people to come together for.
Its still celebrating a lack of knowledge of something.
More than likely their event was just a spoof of similar evangelical events added with some loaded terms just to anger people and get a rise. I believe you are missing the irony.
Evangelicals are the kings of proselytizing their faith via the bait and switch of youth culture and/or pizza.
PatientGrasshopper: This does sound like Atheist evangelistic. Which makes it pretty much a religion now.
Religions typically aren't defined by what you don't believe. If they were than christians would be atheists for not believing in everybody else's gods.
PatientGrasshopper: This does sound like Atheist evangelistic. Which makes it pretty much a religion now.
Religions typically aren't defined by what you don't believe. If they were than christians would be atheists for not believing in everybody else's gods.
But they do believe in something, they believe in the concept of a universe that is totally absent of ALL potential detiys, ever. This includes known or unknown. They feel that if human science cannot observe it right now or conceive of it right now it must not be real. Granted not all of them feel this way but then not all Christians think evolution is bunk. Its an outlook on reality dealing in absolutes, and thus a religion.
This is a blatant rip off of the Rational Response's blasphemy challenge. I can't stand people like this. Trying to turn atheism into some sort of organized anti-religion. Atheism should be like Anarchism.
PatientGrasshopper: This does sound like Atheist evangelistic. Which makes it pretty much a religion now.
Religions typically aren't defined by what you don't believe. If they were than christians would be atheists for not believing in everybody else's gods.
But they do believe in something, they believe in the concept of a universe that is totally absent of ALL potential detiys, ever. This includes known or unknown. They feel that if human science cannot observe it right now or conceive of it right now it must not be real. Granted not all of them feel this way but then not all Christians think evolution is bunk. Its an outlook on reality dealing in absolutes, and thus a religion.
You are taking a word and associating generalities with it. Atheism is defined by a non-belief in god, not a belief in science. If i thought that trees ruled the universe and that there was no god, I would still be an atheist. Oh, and a non-belief is not a belief at all. Do you get it? It's not that I firmly believe that there is no god.. its that I just don't have a belief in regards to a God and I have no reason to believe that there is one.
Atheism - 1archaic : ungodliness , wickedness 2 a: a disbelief in the existence of deity b: the doctrine that there is no deity
Agnosticism is the lack of belief. They're the (in my opinion, smart) guys who say there's no way to prove or disprove the existence of God, and don't have an opinion on it.
Athiests believe (quite militantly, as of late) that there is no God. They have the same amount of evidence, and are therefore just as silly as believers are.
How can some of you say that there is no consciousness?
Here, let's do a little experiment to prove you have a stream of consciousness (caused by those little electrical impulses, one after another after another)
Have a thought. Any thought.
Did it take more than one word to come up with? Those electrical impulses do form a consciousness.
That and Christianity is one of the largest and therefore easist target religions. Especially in America and Western Europe.