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Is Atheism good?

entropie

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The Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 was divided, one half awarded to Saul Perlmutter, the other half jointly to Brian P. Schmidt and Adam G. Riess "for the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe through observations of distant supernovae".

Ah ok thats intresting, so they have discovered an acceleration. That recent noble prize maybe let to some people saying recently that the universe was ever expanding and another big bang could never occur or in consequence has never occured. I find that a bit presumptious, since the distant events we observe happened way in the past and since supernovae explode circular, this no reason to assume for sure things dont move towards us as well.

So much speculation in that field recently, its like a gigantic puzzle :)
 

Mole

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Ah ok thats intresting, so they have discovered an acceleration. That recent noble prize maybe let to some people saying recently that the universe was ever expanding and another big bang could never occur or in consequence has never occured. I find that a bit presumptious, since the distant events we observe happened way in the past and since supernovae explode circular, this no reason to assume for sure things dont move towards us as well.

So much speculation in that field recently, its like a gigantic puzzle :)

We used to think gravity would slow the expansion of the universe, but instead of decelerating we find the expansion of the universe is accelerating.

Some say the accelerating expansion is due to dark energy. But all that means is that we don't know what is causing the expansion of the universe.

And the same applies to dark matter - we don't know what it is.

So if we add dark energy and dark matter, we have no idea of what ninety odd percent of the universe is.
 

StarsPer

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I have always found that the truth, and my awareness of it, are quite useful things. And being able to admit to my ignorance is a necessary part of that. Being able to change my views and myself is also really useful.
 

Chimerical

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I'm a bit of a purist. Things that are as is are things I like. e.g. Someone who's speech pattern is to the point, people at work who do their jobs without adding extra unnecessary actions while completing a task

A lot of times more =/= better. Like rum raisin ice cream. IMO run raisin ice cream is better without the raisins.

Thinking of an imaginary being that created the universe or somehow affects this world is silly to me. It's like when your over controlling retarded boss tells you to do extra actions that are highly unnecessary in order to perform a task. It's bullshit because you can do it more efficiently if you shave off the useless parts of their description.

If you prove it exist I'll be inclined to believe it.
Even better is if you disprove mine while proving your beliefs are real with incontestable evidence.

here's mine
http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...own-religion-telling-first-week-universe.html
 

BlueGray

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Too lazy to link anything since I'm using my touch, but there are studies out there that show people who are not religious or less religious than the average tend to have more freedom judging things objectively, have a higher reading and writing level, and an overall improvement to their intelligence. So all this is a nice trade for ETERNITY IN HELLLLLL!!!!

Backwards cause and effect?
 

Mole

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Child Rearing

So all this is a nice trade for ETERNITY IN HELLLLLL!!!!

Hell is a cruel doctrine.

It is a doctrine explicity designed to evoke fear in children.

And fear is evoked in children to make them obey, to get them to submit to authority.

And making children fearful and submissive is part of the authoritarian form of child rearing.

A more advanced form of child rearing is the helping mode of child rearing where the child is helped to meet their life goals.

The authoritarian form of child rearing creates fearful and submissive children and adults, while the helping form of child rearing creates empathic and creative children and adults.
 

Vilku

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I'm a bit of a purist. Things that are as is are things I like. e.g. Someone who's speech pattern is to the point, people at work who do their jobs without adding extra unnecessary actions while completing a task

A lot of times more =/= better. Like rum raisin ice cream. IMO run raisin ice cream is better without the raisins.

Thinking of an imaginary being that created the universe or somehow affects this world is silly to me. It's like when your over controlling retarded boss tells you to do extra actions that are highly unnecessary in order to perform a task. It's bullshit because you can do it more efficiently if you shave off the useless parts of their description.

If you prove it exist I'll be inclined to believe it.
Even better is if you disprove mine while proving your beliefs are real with incontestable evidence.

here's mine
http://www.typologycentral.com/foru...own-religion-telling-first-week-universe.html

actually, i can prove it: harry potter is as real as science. this statement is 100% concrete truth, trust my word. or else, you are a fool!
wait.. something went just. ah! yes, i mean god, not potter! potter is just jesus's little brother.
imagination is a real as science, since our subjective understanding of sciency is only an imagination of how we believe the world to be.
religions are primitive attempt of psychological development gone wrong. since truth is subjective, manipulating others into your views would only make them possibly hate life, instead of being sovereign thinkers.

christian: you know, there is a god!
atheist: concrete proof?
christian: uh.. i just know it!
atheist: therefore god is not. (note, atheist took christians definition of god as correct, he now believes to know what a god is, and thus he believes all "gods" are exactly how he believes, based from christians pov.)

mh, if i start calling my intuition a god, then it is materialistically real god.
just, not what you think ;)
btw, i believe in transformers. just last night, i felt them mating, for real! i also thought i watched a science doc today, but i only imagined it. in real, i listened it and thought i watched it. was surprised when i noticed i actually didnt watch it, but were eating instead. love Ne! ^_^
 

Chimerical

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actually, i can prove it: harry potter is as real as science. this statement is 100% concrete truth, trust my word. or else, you are a fool!
wait.. something went just. ah! yes, i mean god, not potter! potter is just jesus's little brother.
imagination is a real as science, since our subjective understanding of sciency is only an imagination of how we believe the world to be.
religions are primitive attempt of psychological development gone wrong. since truth is subjective, manipulating others into your views would only make them possibly hate life, instead of being sovereign thinkers.

christian: you know, there is a god!
atheist: concrete proof?
christian: uh.. i just know it!
atheist: therefore god is not. (note, atheist took christians definition of god as correct, he now believes to know what a god is, and thus he believes all "gods" are exactly how he believes, based from christians pov.)

mh, if i start calling my intuition a god, then it is materialistically real god.
just, not what you think ;)
btw, i believe in transformers. just last night, i felt them mating, for real! i also thought i watched a science doc today, but i only imagined it. in real, i listened it and thought i watched it. was surprised when i noticed i actually didnt watch it, but were eating instead. love Ne! ^_^
God is still not proven......
Then again I'm not even atheist to begin with. I'm techically agnostic
 

gmanyo

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I'm sure someone has already said this, but even though I think atheism probably leads to a less fulfilling life, that doesn't mean it's wrong. As a Christian, I obviously think that it's wrong, but not because it could theoretically lead to an unfulfilling life.

By the way, I don't want to get into a discussion right now about Christianity. Stay on topic or DIE.
 

Chimerical

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I'm sure someone has already said this, but even though I think atheism probably leads to a less fulfilling life, that doesn't mean it's wrong. As a Christian, I obviously think that it's wrong, but not because it could theoretically lead to an unfulfilling life.

By the way, I don't want to get into a discussion right now about Christianity. Stay on topic or DIE.

My life while I believed in God: Play lots of sports, listen to shitty music I didn't like, watch crappy movies, play the piano, go skateboarding.

My life after I stopped believing in God: Play lots of sports, Listen a lot of wonderful music I've never heard before and find something that really just makes my day and life much more fulfilling, Watch a wide range of inspiring movies with R ratings and movies that aren't rated, Learn about the movie rating system, play the piano, Lose my virginity and experience sex and explore my sexuality [it's a much deeper connection at times. Other times just something fun to pass the time with], skateboard, get drunk and meet awesome people at bars who's fulfilled many area's of my like.

Benefits from the bar include job offers, networking, finding out about the area, fun experiences, etc. etc..

Thinking deeper into myself and getting to know me instead of being what I think I'm supposed to be.


Dropping God was a very liberating thing. Life is so much better now.
Knowing that I'm looking out for my fellow man because I'm a nice person is much more fulfilling than thinking I'm only being nice to people so I don't get fried in hell.
 

entropie

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My life while I believed in God: Play lots of sports, listen to shitty music I didn't like, watch crappy movies, play the piano, go skateboarding.

My life after I stopped believing in God: Play lots of sports, Listen a lot of wonderful music I've never heard before and find something that really just makes my day and life much more fulfilling, Watch a wide range of inspiring movies with R ratings and movies that aren't rated, Learn about the movie rating system, play the piano, Lose my virginity and experience sex and explore my sexuality [it's a much deeper connection at times. Other times just something fun to pass the time with], skateboard, get drunk and meet awesome people at bars who's fulfilled many area's of my like.

Benefits from the bar include job offers, networking, finding out about the area, fun experiences, etc. etc..

Thinking deeper into myself and getting to know me instead of being what I think I'm supposed to be.


Dropping God was a very liberating thing. Life is so much better now.
Knowing that I'm looking out for my fellow man because I'm a nice person is much more fulfilling than thinking I'm only being nice to people so I don't get fried in hell.

The fact that your life was completly different from what it became when you stopped believing, is a sign that something is rotten in Denmark. Imo it should be no problem to believe in God while being a rocket scientist. On the contrary I just lately read a biography of a renominated scientist working at CERN, who is a strong believer in God. So in theory your belief and your life should be two things you can easily combine.

But if they arent and create problems like you described, then the interpretation of human-made religion is the problem.

Tho I am an agnostic, I can tell you, I believe in all sorts of things. I believe in the goodness of a cause, I believe in mutual benefitial teamwork, I'ld even like to believe that there is something like a higher cause my life is devoted for. But what I hate is religion made on Earth. Implemented and interpreted by dumb humans, who turn your belief into some sort of slavery for yourself. So in all my problems that I have with religion, the majority are banausic problems and not so much trancendental at all.
 

Munchies

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athiesm is just a blockade to thought. It's another doctrinized beleif. It's another label of thought. Just another box to catagorize someone. There is only one truth and that is any possibility is possible and you wouldn't know otherwise because you are running on a finite perspective. There is no use rejecting something, because I'm sure the bible holds many subjective truths, even if the publisher is not god.
 

Vilku

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God is still not proven......
Then again I'm not even atheist to begin with. I'm techically agnostic

as am i, god is subjectively proven to be true and thus concretely exists, as imagination is part of reality. (and especially if subjects imaginary vision is more developed than sensual, thus imagination seems subjectively more real than sensual reality.)
although, i rather believi in something not as depressive as god, when there are real humans everywhere who are just as immoral as christians god.
humans, inherently animal and denying the truth causes many of them grandiose idiocy delusions.

objectively, there arent that many universal truths we can all agree upon.
and when it comes to imagination, i rather turn towards pop culture for inspiration.

I'm sure someone has already said this, but even though I think atheism probably leads to a less fulfilling life, that doesn't mean it's wrong. As a Christian, I obviously think that it's wrong, but not because it could theoretically lead to an unfulfilling life.

By the way, I don't want to get into a discussion right now about Christianity. Stay on topic or DIE.

it depends, atheists are able to find belief from the lack of gods as you find from their existence. i dont see how its any different, both give the sensation of belief, thus causing you a self generated sense of purpose.

although i agree, atheists have harder time finding this belief satisfactory due their initial state of disbelief of reality itself. but those who do find it, are clearly not that different from theists.

both share the same coin, just different sides, and both believe their side to be the correct one.
i myself have discovered this sense of belief from imagination too, but not as of end nor origin, but as of mere purpose. just believing in the presence of myself is hard enough, but with imagination i can create anything i ever wish. (as long as my brains receive sufficient nutrition.)

I'ld even like to believe that there is something like a higher cause my life is devoted for.

puff, god made you in his image. he says your his super significant pet. after all, he made you just for the sake of being a super blah blaa..

puff: you appear, you have no idea why. you create your own sense of significancy.

which is better? i take b.
whats the difference really? imagine reality as an infinite randomness. everything simply is real at some point of this infinity, how is any single thing in this endless infinity more significant than another? well, they arent, really, since every possibility has happened already and will happen again.

but i do find self created purpose more significant than simply being part of a show for some "higher" being to enjoy.

athiesm is just a blockade to thought. It's another doctrinized beleif. It's another label of thought. Just another box to catagorize someone. There is only one truth and that is any possibility is possible and you wouldn't know otherwise because you are running on a finite perspective. There is no use rejecting something, because I'm sure the bible holds many subjective truths, even if the publisher is not god.

funny, i could diagnose the writer of bible to have a narcissitic peronality order, more specificly, the "fanatic narcissistic" branch, here a wiki article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanaticism

ive had some form of npd myself so eh, could say i know my kind. (only minor, as my only belief was that i can be whatever i want to be, or more specificly, that i am whatever i want to be.)
 

ewomack

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Some of the "new atheists" are definitely not "good" in that they manifest behaviors that they accuse "the religious" of having, namely narrowness of thought and intolerance. They have become just another religion. But atheism itself, like any philosophy of life, can produce "good people." An atheist group in my area tries to organize community time by highway cleaning, volunteering in food shelves, spending time with the elderly, helping people out, etc. They even participate in community parades holding up signs that read "hug an atheist." Many take them up on it. But of course it all depends on one's definition of "good." Any religion or life philosophy can produce "good" people. But people in general seem to contain mixed doses of "good" and "bad" in them regardless of their beliefs. Most of us are boringly neutral, somewhere on the continuum between saint and devil.
 

entropie

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^after reading the post above, I had an idea:

is most of the free community social work you do in America motivated by churches ? Could there be a connection that maybe in my country religion is not such a big thing like in the States because our social work and welfare system is organized by the government ?
 

RaptorWizard

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"Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance." Sir Isaac Newton
 
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FigerPuppet

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"Atheism is so senseless. When I look at the solar system, I see the earth at the right distance from the sun to receive the proper amounts of heat and light. This did not happen by chance." Sir Isaac Newton

Newton SUCKS.
 

danithepsychonaut

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I imagine the only reason you're okay with believing what you belief cause you've been conditioned to. Someone who may have grown atheist would find it bizarre to believe in some being in the sky with a beard. The idea of a great flood, all of human race came from a single man and woman on Earth would be preposterous from a logical point of view.

There is a little more to it than a dude in the sky with a beard, I assure you. People seem to always associate gods (or aliens, as I call them) with Christianity. There are other ideologies out there, you know. You can still believe in god while making up and following your own belief system..
 
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