Atheists, the new Catholics?

[microhive]

I think it's the latter. I don't think there's alot of close minded-ness on the "atheist-side". I'm gonna speak for myself here primarily but I think most Atheists are pretty open minded, however within their own set of "rules". These rules are mostly that there has to be physical evidence for something, before it is proven and they can accept it as truth and believe it. These rules are derived from logic, and as history has proven our race has gotten far with reasoning behind logic, while we have gotten nowhere with reasoning behind plain faith (ie every applicable science is/was in the end based on logic, not on faith).

If there were any proof within these "atheist rules" of the existance of a God (one that acts according to the bible/quran), an atheist would be the first to acknowledge God as factual and start believing/praying like mad. And rightly so because else he would end up in a slightly uncomfortable afterlife. In my oppinion this comes pretty close to the essentual meaning of being open minded.

I pretty much agree. As an atheist myself I consider myself fairly openminded within reasonable boundaries.

But because there is simply no evidence nor proof at all of any God I will not believe in such a fantasy figure.

However, I do like to argue a lot and especially debate. Debating is probably a core fundamental for any Atheist.

If any opportunity occurs that allows me to have an intelligent argument with an theist I would do it. But ofc, if there are uneducated users I will beat them to the punch in arguments because logic prevails almost in any situation.
PS: I could add that I respect theists who are able to argument for their belief.

EDIT: Sorry for my grammer, I'm in a hurry to finish my homework.

 

[Nargleblarg]

Hmmm I would consider myself athiest as I don't believe in any religion or god anymore but the thing is I really do not care what others believe and would certainly not jump in and scream out my beliefs because that would make me a total dick. But the strange thing is that part of being athiest is respecting others religons and being tolerant of everyone but I guess these people didn't get the memo.

 

[NotMemorable]

As for the converting of other people. Well you're absolutely right about that, it's a hypocrisy. Personally I'm one of such hypocrites that will go through some length to try and convince believers otherwise, while severly disliking if a religious person would do the same. However I feel that it's just in my case, there's so much right now being decided on religion.
You'll find religion back in laws, the court room, debates around controversial science, US dollar bills. Alot of wars fought also have their basis in religion, which I feel is essentially unlogic and makes no sense.

I'm all for religion as a personal choice, but as it is right now religion isn't personal. It's backed up by the state, invades our lives wether we want it or not and quite frankly it slows down our progression as the human race to an unbearable pace. I guess my hypocracy stems from a feeling of unjust in the world, by being religious you add to that unjustice and that makes me want to go Atheist-Jehova on your ass.

 

[GHMonkey]

I am very happy to see this thread stay as civilized as it is. maybe we can just keep the nice calm conversation going and we can once again discuss more controversial subjects.

 

[Cliff_m85]

I think it's the latter. I don't think there's alot of close minded-ness on the "atheist-side". I'm gonna speak for myself here primarily but I think most Atheists are pretty open minded, however within their own set of "rules". These rules are mostly that there has to be physical evidence for something, before it is proven and they can accept it as truth and believe it. These rules are derived from logic, and as history has proven our race has gotten far with reasoning behind logic, while we have gotten nowhere with reasoning behind plain faith (ie every applicable science is/was in the end based on logic, not on faith).

If there were any proof within these "atheist rules" of the existance of a God (one that acts according to the bible/quran), an atheist would be the first to acknowledge God as factual and start believing/praying like mad. And rightly so because else he would end up in a slightly uncomfortable afterlife. In my oppinion this comes pretty close to the essentual meaning of being open minded.

Almost completely agree. If there was undeniable proof of God existing, I probably still wouldn't worship him due to my own thoughts upon the subject that are bound to stir controversy so I'll just leave them to myself.

Now hold on, I'd like to delve deeper into this. You say that if there was undeniable proof that God existed, and the Bible/Other Holy Text was true, you still wouldn't believe and worship? I'm curious now, what possible logic could bring you to that conclusion?

It'd be idiotic for me not to believe in him if there was actual proof of his existance, but I wouldn't worship him. Belief = the thought that he exists, I would believe him to exist if evidence were presented that wasn't able to be debunked an had actual factual science to back it up. Worship = thanking him for his work, praising him. I don't think his work is worthy of praise in several areas. In areas big enough to show him as some kind of monster. But I'm getting close to that 'controversy' point.

 

[Godheads_Lament]

I think it's the latter. I don't think there's alot of close minded-ness on the "atheist-side". I'm gonna speak for myself here primarily but I think most Atheists are pretty open minded, however within their own set of "rules". These rules are mostly that there has to be physical evidence for something, before it is proven and they can accept it as truth and believe it. These rules are derived from logic, and as history has proven our race has gotten far with reasoning behind logic, while we have gotten nowhere with reasoning behind plain faith (ie every applicable science is/was in the end based on logic, not on faith).

If there were any proof within these "atheist rules" of the existance of a God (one that acts according to the bible/quran), an atheist would be the first to acknowledge God as factual and start believing/praying like mad. And rightly so because else he would end up in a slightly uncomfortable afterlife. In my oppinion this comes pretty close to the essentual meaning of being open minded.

I pretty much agree. As an atheist myself I consider myself fairly openminded within reasonable boundaries.

But because there is simply no evidence nor proof at all of any God I will not believe in such a fantasy figure.

However, I do like to argue a lot and especially debate. Debating is probably a core fundamental for any Atheist.

If any opportunity occurs that allows me to have an intelligent argument with an theist I would do it. But ofc, if there are uneducated users I will beat them to the punch in arguments because logic prevails almost in any situation.

EDIT: Sorry for my grammer, I'm in a hurry to finish my homework.

Indeed. I think that what you're saying could perhaps be summarised by "don't open your mind so much your brain falls out."

 

[Nargleblarg]

Hmmm I would consider myself athiest as I don't believe in any religion or god anymore but the thing is I really do not care what others believe and would certainly not jump in and scream out my beliefs because that would make me a total dick, unless they were really asking for it. But the strange thing is that part of being athiest is respecting others religons and being tolerant of everyone but I guess these people didn't get the memo.

 

[Nargleblarg]

just quoted myself sorry

 

[Zombie_Fish]

Way to generalize an entire group of people who have literally next to nothing in common.

There are dicks in every group.
Learn to deal with it or take the hasty exit out of life.

It's less the fact that they are dicks but more the fact that they complain and spew hatred at religious groups for being dicks as well. It's less what they do, more the fact that they're frowning upon what they're doing at the same time and just accepting it.

Lots of people are intolerant of the religions and beliefs of others, to the point where I've seen flaming, one user threatening to boycott the Off-Topic Forum for people not accepting his religious beliefs and have even seen [user]Baby Tea[/user] get annoyed at certain users on this site. Thankfully I have never truly beared the flames of this due to my own stance of Agnosticism, but I have to avoid brining up the fact that I do go to a religious meeting of sorts because of what could result from it. People have even argued with me and been intolerant of my beliefs when I try to argue with them to at least accept the possibility of religion being correct on these forums.

This is also definately notable on these forums, for the reasons listed above and more.

 

[grimsprice]

Oh look, another great example of people not thinking. Its simple people... What does the respectful atheist say to you? nothing. What does the radical anti-theist say to you? God is stupid and you're stupid for believing in him.

So lets run a probability scenario. You hear the fallowing people say the fallowing things:
-...
-...
-God is stupid and you're stupid for believing in him.
-...
-...
-...
-God is stupid and you're stupid for believing in him.
-...
-...
-...
Oh look, out of ten atheists, only two are militant. How often did you hear the other 8 people tell you God is stupid? Not once.
[HEADING=2]Stop making generalizations based on 20% of your experiences. Concentrate on the 80% of atheists that don't say a thing to you. Like me.[/HEADING]

 

[Godheads_Lament]

Hmmm I would consider myself athiest as I don't believe in any religion or god anymore but the thing is I really do not care what others believe and would certainly not jump in and scream out my beliefs because that would make me a total dick, unless they were really asking for it. But the strange thing is that part of being athiest is respecting others religons and being tolerant of everyone but I guess these people didn't get the memo.

Being tolerant is one thing, and I would define it as not forcing someone to stop believing in one particular thing (or force them to believe what you believe). The only condition would be insofar as it demonstratably doesn't impact others, either directly or indirectly. We must never be tolerant of human rights abuses (Saudi Arabia, I'm looking at you), forced marriage, violence etc. in the name of religion.

Nevertheless, while remaining tolerant in terms of not forcing viewpoints on others, I remain against religion as a concept because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the universe.

 

[NotMemorable]

If any opportunity occurs that allows me to have an intelligent argument with an theist I would do it. But ofc, if there are uneducated users I will beat them to the punch in arguments because logic prevails almost in any situation.

I'm sorry to say this but such discussion would probably disappoint you. All arguments going for Atheism are based on logic and rightly so because as I've said before, logic makes our world go round. Logic is the only thing we should base our descisions on, morals may not stem from logic but when you look at it they're entirely logic. However, the theist has a belief system that relies on faith instead, often that belief system has been hammered in from birth. Your logical arguments will often make little impact on a theist because their belief system has nothing to do with logic. I hope this made some sense XD.

 

[grimsprice]

See, the problem here is every Atheist I've met gives me this same argument, but when I pull up some proof that shows at the very least the Bible was historically accurate, if nothing else, their response can be summed up in the phrase "The Bible is fucking retarded, and you're retarded for falling for all their lies! Noob."

LOLWUT.

PM me with that evidence please. I'd rather do the exchange there rather than in a thread which could potentially devolve into flames, but I would love to see your evidence for the historical accuracy of the Bible.

Yeah, why don't you hit me up with that 'proof' as well, i've researched this subject for a couple years now and i'd love it if i just totally missed something major.

 

[bodyklok]

Speaking as an Atheist, yes, there are a lot of Atheists who're assholes.

I challenge you to find any large group of people that don't have some assholes in them.

In all honesty though, I can sometimes understand why they jump on these things-they're pretty important, after all.
As for me, I can't say I care that much about others beliefs, I'm what you'd call a 'weak' Atheist anyway.

 

[RooftopAssassin]

The reason people try to convert other people is only because 80% of the world is smug useless assholes (Yes I realize my own hypocrisy in that statement). The athiests would try to convert people to anything they beleived whether they were brought up athiest, catholic, hindu, or satanist. The only way to make the world a place of equality and harmony would be genocide against 80% of the world, but despite my best efforts most people are against that, so just live with the condesending athiest hipster at the Starbucks and I'll deal with the biblethumping catholic with a molotov outisde the abortion clinic. Just form a secret society of the other 20% of fellow tolerable people and we can start enlightening the other 80% of the world, or murder them. But im rambling now.

EDIT: I misspelled too many things to count. Sorry.

I really hope your kidding, if not... Well, Jesus where do I begin?

When people "convert" others, usually it's unintentional. On the few occasions where there are people preaching devout statements against the followers of religions other than theirs, the people usually taking part in said act are usually what we call "Religious Extremists". These "Religious Extremists" are not to be taken seriously and usually want to start small, "just kidding, why did you guys actually drink the poison kool-aid?", cults that branch off of the main religion they where claiming to represent in the first place.

P.S.- Hindus actually have no conversion process, to them its a do or don't follow our religion kind of thing.

 

[NotMemorable]

Everyone should find a religious/atheist counterpart and just have PMed arguments. That way we don't ALL have to facepalm when someone makes a stupid, sweeping generalisation.

I can understand that too much of these threads can be tiring but obviously there's still demand for them. I think the people who aren't sick and tired of discussing this subject yet should be allowed their discussion, no?

 

[NotMemorable]

snip

Now hold on, I'd like to delve deeper into this. You say that if there was undeniable proof that God existed, and the Bible/Other Holy Text was true, you still wouldn't believe and worship? I'm curious now, what possible logic could bring you to that conclusion?

That's the opposite from what I've been trying to get across. If there were undeniable proof, or questionable proof for that matter, the Atheist (at least I) would be the first to look into the matter. Because we obviously don't want to burn in hell for the next umm... eternity.

I find it ironic that even if religion was proven, the first thing urging me to sign up is not wanting to burn in hell. Isn't religion peace loving?

 

[hobo_welf]

This thread has attracted the attention of some irritating high post members of the escapist community, but I'm going to throw down here anyway.

Oftentimes I believe the same thing you do, this is somewhat common on just about every forum I've ever been to, and they've forced me to come to this conclusion.

Religion isn't cool anymore. Maybe it wasn't ever cool. But either way, if you're an atheist, at least on the internet, you're now the majority, and if you're religious, you're now the minority.

Which unfortunately, means that I now root for the religious folk, simply because they're the underdog and rooting for the underdog has always been a pasttime of mine.

As for my own beliefs on the issue of "Is god fake? Is god real?" I'm not much for Catholicism's ability to condemn someone to eternal punishment based on where they put their dick, or where they shop or what music they listen to. I've never been a fan of the Muslim's tendency to blow themselves up (a horrible generalization), their sexism (even though a part of me likes that aspect a lot). And the Buddhists are too much like druids for me, not really giving a crap about anything except true neutrality.

However atheists take the cake in the irritation field. This is a difficult thing to say, because unlike most other faiths, the lack of a faith seems to make you cry out even louder when people say things contradictory to your own belief. You can't say "I like god" ANYWHERE on the internet (albeit a bible thumping site, but none of you have ever been there, have you?) without getting flamed almost instantaneously. I don't mean to be a dick, but this seems to have originated on 4chan.

Okay, so finally, I don't believe in a god in a traditional sense, but I believe in something, I'm not sure why, but I do. I can say that atheism, in it's general mindset, is incredibly useful to the human condition in that we've garnered a ton of scientific advances through saying "Science is my god!" but I will also argue that the faith that something will be there when you die is absolutely essential, moreso than scientific advances to our continued existence. Because frankly, all you atheists are just too damn scared to die.

 

[Kubanator]

That's the opposite from what I've been trying to get across. If there were undeniable proof, or questionable proof for that matter, the Atheist (at least I) would be the first to look into the matter. Because we obviously don't want to burn in hell for the next umm... eternity.

I find it ironic that even if religion was proven, the first thing urging me to sign up is not wanting to burn in hell. Isn't religion peace loving?

Without motivation, a rational person would be completely greedy. Justifiable.

As for religion, it's irrational. Irrationality to me is the same thing as stupidity, thus I conclude that at least a portion of a religious person mind is stupid.

However atheists take the cake in the irritation field. This is a difficult thing to say, because unlike most other faiths, the lack of a faith seems to make you cry out even louder when people say things contradictory to your own belief. You can't say "I like god" ANYWHERE on the internet (albeit a bible thumping site, but none of you have ever been there, have you?) without getting flamed almost instantaneously. I don't mean to be a dick, but this seems to have originated on 4chan.

It's rational to fill ones own ego. It's irrational to create an omnipotent being to explain the universe because that's what you want.

Okay, so finally, I don't believe in a god in a traditional sense, but I believe in something, I'm not sure why, but I do. I can say that atheism, in it's general mindset, is incredibly useful to the human condition in that we've garnered a ton of scientific advances through saying "Science is my god!" but I will also argue that the faith that something will be there when you die is absolutely essential, moreso than scientific advances to our continued existence. Because frankly, all you atheists are just too damn scared to die.

If atheists were afraid of death, they would do anything to prevent it from being the end, and hence would be religious.

 

[KP Shadow]

good point, Hobo_Welf. Hm, Lemme try this out

I like God