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Is Atheism good?

Beargryllz

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I don't dispute it. But religion is like a big trick. I bet babies aren't religious, in the classical sense of the word. Babies probably are reverent though. But in a certain way they're also irreverent, they're heretical. Maybe that's where heresy comes from, baby-like rebellion. God is like the great Father. God is like Hitler or Stalin, probably Stalin, cause you never see him. He works behind the secret curtain, sending his minions out to do everything.

Most human gods are absolutely disgusting, deplorable creatures unworthy of reverence by anyone
 

FunnyDigestion

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Most human gods are absolutely disgusting, deplorable creatures unworthy of reverence by anyone

But what's an example of a human god? Also, what's an example of a human God, you have to capitalize it, it's God, even if it's disgusting you have to honor the reality by the capital G.
 

Beargryllz

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But what's an example of a human god? Also, what's an example of a human God, you have to capitalize it, it's God, even if it's disgusting you have to honor the reality by the capital G.

False

God is a proper noun referring a single entity

I am referring to a number of gods greater than or equal to 2, so I cannot use this proper noun
 

FunnyDigestion

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God is a proper noun referring a single entity

I am referring to a number of gods greater than or equal to 2, so I cannot use this proper noun

Grammar doesn't apply in the God-world, plus, how come? Can't there be multiple Gods with the capital... why not capitalize everything, live life in caps-lock. Give it a try, maybe I'll take my own advice on that actually.

TRUE!!!!!

EDIT: also, you could say, greater than 1... a number of Gods greater than one. Unless u're a believer in the imaginary Gods, square root of two type gods, pi gods.. etc.
 

Beargryllz

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Grammar doesn't apply in the God-world, plus, how come? Can't there be multiple Gods with the capital... why not capitalize everything, live life in caps-lock. Give it a try, maybe I'll take my own advice on that actually.

TRUE!!!!!

EDIT: also, you could say, greater than 1... a number of Gods greater than one. Unless u're a believer in the imaginary Gods, square root of two type gods, pi gods.. etc.

I believe that most gods are imaginary, so I am still right
 

FunnyDigestion

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I believe that most gods are imaginary, so I am still right

I knew you were right when I started, & gods are entirely imaginary... I was just clowning around with all that. Yes, gods are imaginary, but they can still bring amusement into one's life, if considered in their proper distinction. The first thing to remember about gods is that they're a lot like people.
 

Rasofy

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You talk as if God was the one guiding the christian armies or the aztecs directly. You forget that there were people preaching not God Himself. It wasn't God that told the French and British to slauther the Muslims it was the pope and others that used God's name to manipulate and corrupt people in order to fulfill their agenda. The same thing goes for the Aztecs, Indians, Arabs and many other.
So don't blame God for what people did in His name, guided by corrupt and greedy men.
I didn't say God told anything, and that's exactly the point. How could people know what was the right thing to do?
Anyways, I won't be able to convince you of anything, so I guess I should just let you have your opinion.
 

dala

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I would just like to point out that I, and many atheists, don't 'believe there is no god.' This position is (almost) as indefensible as the belief that there is a god. I have no beliefs, positive or otherwise, in any deity. I simply see no credible evidence supporting the idea of a god, and in the absence of evidence I tend to stick with the null hypothesis, and live under the assumption (for the sake of simplicity) that there is no god just as I assume that other things for which there is no evidence do not exist. Should new evidence be presented, I would adjust my thinking to match.

As for how it makes me feel or helps with my life, it does not. One has nothing to do with the other, kind of like your lack of belief in Thor does not affect these matters.
 

FunnyDigestion

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I would just like to point out that I, and many atheists, don't 'believe there is no god.' This position is (almost) as indefensible as the belief that there is a god. I have no beliefs, positive or otherwise, in any deity. I simply see no credible evidence supporting the idea of a god, and in the absence of evidence I tend to stick with the null hypothesis, and live under the assumption (for the sake of simplicity) that there is no god just as I assume that other things for which there is no evidence do not exist. Should new evidence be presented, I would adjust my thinking to match.

As for how it makes me feel or helps with my life, it does not. One has nothing to do with the other, kind of like your lack of belief in Thor does not affect these matters.

Yeah, it's peculiar to me that people would think non-believing-in-God has some type of special effect in a person's life... it's not like we're lapsed believers / heretics, we just never saw the point in it, so there's nothing lost... I like the God literature though, the Revelations chapter is particularly awesome. I come as a thief indeed.
 

Lark

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Yeah you're right. That indirectly revealed my assumption of what an atheist would think as well. Probably someone that believes in logic and coolheaded reasoning wouldn't misinterpret a question so he could frame a rant. But still! I tried :D

Logic and reason arent exclusive to either atheism or theism, although the style of debate that moves so quickly to dispute doesnt get an airing so much. Cheers for posting, I did read the entire post BTW.
 

FunnyDigestion

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Logic and reason arent exclusive to either atheism or theism, although the style of debate that moves so quickly to dispute doesnt get an airing so much. Cheers for posting, I did read the entire post BTW.

"the style of debate that moves so quickly to dispute doesn't get an airing", what does that mean? I've never heard anyone type anything like that before.
 

Kraska

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Hang on a minute, its not like those cultures which practiced human sacrifice where long lived relative to the others, if God is doing anything he's supporting those that dont practice ritual sacrifice, its those societies which have become ascendent.

I dont know that it was the Pope which ordered or sanctioned the first crusades, I think there was Spanish involvement originally and they created the terminology of infidel because of a lack of fidelity to the Christian gospel version of Jesus, and they were far from defenceless, the ottomon empire was probably the super power of the day and strictly speaking most of the crusades were defeated, if an injustice was done to anyone by the crusades it was the christian nations because their best people were committed elsewhere allowing corruption and scandal at home, like the stories related in Robin Hood tales or their like.

Those are small potatos those sorts of arguments against God or theism, it would be as easy to link atheism with communism, fascism, nazism or capitalism and be done with it, the body count and crimes are far worse than anything in theist history.

I really don't understand what are you trying to say with this post. Perhaps my English skills are failing me.
But I can tell you one thing. Communism being an atheist sistem is pure myth. And I live in a former communist country.
 

Lark

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I really don't understand what are you trying to say with this post. Perhaps my English skills are failing me.
But I can tell you one thing. Communism being an atheist sistem is pure myth. And I live in a former communist country.

Communism is probably compatible with religion and with atheism, since its a political ideology, although in the totalitarian varieties the state has tried to impose communism as an exclusive way of thinking, atheism has been part of that historically.
 

FunnyDigestion

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I'm just that good ;)

I'll admit you're good, but you didn't answer my question. I need answers from people like you, otherwise I'll just go thru life ignorantly with my own limited awarenesses, shit is wack.
 

redacted

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I'm afraid that I cannot agree with you when you say that something is good if it benefits someone, because that thing might very well hurt somebody else. So while it is good for someone it can be very damaging for someone else. A good thing is something that benefits everybody not just some group.

I figured it was implied that I meant net benefit instead of absolute benefit. The benefit minus the harm is the total goodness (we also have to include marginal utility, for example, giving a sandwich to a starving person is better than giving a sandwich to a fat person).

I guess it's still up for question whether or not a little good to a lot of people is "better" than a lot of good to a single person... but I'll leave that up to individuals to decide.

I belive people need faith more than ever today, because we don't live in world where people are empathetic and compassonate. We live in a world where people exploit people. For example the West has a easy life at the expense of those poor countries we have exploited and invaded for centuries.

I'm gonna have to disagree with your hidden premise here -- that faith makes people more (net) empathetic and compassionate. In fact, having a strict sense of external morals seems far less consistent with empathy than a dynamic system such as the one I described in my last post. If you believe in something because of faith, you are by definition less connected to visible evidence -- someone disagreeing isn't a suggestion to question your views, since your views are not predicated on environmental change (like hearing someone say something).

So people need faith and hope in a better after life in order to not go crazy and destroy everybody that oppresed them for century. I mean if there is not Heaven nor God why should they suffer here? It wouldn't matter if they start killing and robbing at all. There would be nobody to condemn them. And the social law can't do anything about this. Because they could take their revenge and then commit suicide. It wouldn't matter at all if there would be nothing afterwards.

So you're saying without faith people are sociopaths? I strongly disagree. Atheism and hedonism are entirely different things.

I have a suspicion that people that think not having religion would lead to moral weakness are actually confusing the issue of LOSING your faith and the crisis that would ensue with the actual belief system people without faith have formed over time. I agree that the moment of world-shattering realization would probably be pretty traumatic and would have long term emotional consequences. But that doesn't really have anything to do with whether or not good morals are harder or easier to reach without God. Like I said before, I think they're easier to reach, since you don't have the confounding factor (Hitchens referred to it as a moral dictatorship) of not being able to question your core beliefs without "sinning". Now, there are many pick-and-choose religious people that basically build their moral systems the same way I have, and I have no problem with them. But then, what's the point of God in their systems? They just choose when to follow the word and when not to -- when to take it literally and when not to, etc. I do that too, I just focus on all external influences instead of giving extra weight to the bible, which is clearly just a book.
 

Lark

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I'll admit you're good, but you didn't answer my question. I need answers from people like you, otherwise I'll just go thru life ignorantly with my own limited awarenesses, shit is wack.

I meant that when discussion looks like its rapidly degenerating to a slanging match people turn off.
 

redacted

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I would just like to point out that I, and many atheists, don't 'believe there is no god.' This position is (almost) as indefensible as the belief that there is a god.

I believe "there is no God". I don't think I have to prove it to believe it.

It's like the "flying-spaghetti-monster" argument (which annoys me since I made the same argument earlier and now I can't take credit...although that's what I'm doing now :)). Would you really say you have no belief about an invisible flying-spaghetti-monster? Sure, you can't prove it doesn't exist, but like... it just... doesn't exist. That's how I feel about God. Reserving belief is too PC for me.
 

Kraska

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Believing in something just because the alternative feels bad/scary/difficult is exactly what you just cautioned Evan against. Also, I'm sure many battered wives and scads of other unfortunates out there labor under the same handicap: fear.

There are many other arguments in favor of a deity that give one pause, this is not one of them.

Faith has nothing to do with fear nor does God.
Sure you will offen hear in the churches that you must be afraid of God's wrath but that's just crap.
God is love and compasion.
 

redacted

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Faith has nothing to do with fear nor does God.
Sure you will offen hear in the churches that you must be afraid of God's wrath but that's just crap.
God is love and compasion.

If God, in your personal narrative, is literally "love and compassion", then you're setting up a tautology. "How can atheism be "good" if it is defined as the lack of God?" really means "how can atheism be "good" if it is defined as the lack of love and compassion?". The answer is, it can't. If you defined God that way, atheists are assholes. And I'm not an atheist.
 
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