atheism

[killervomit2]

i am an atheist
i know it helps to have something to hold on to when times are tough,but all religion has done is cause wars, the crusades, the holocaust, the 30 years war,the list goes on and on
in addition, just think where society could be if we didnt have religious duties holding us down, we would have acess thousands of years of technology
just think about that

[Tuor]

Or certain people may have never found the inspiration needed to discover some of the most revolutionary theories, technologies, etc. I'm not saying religion is all good, but labeling it as entirely harmful is just ignorant.

[killervomit2]

Or certain people may have never found the inspiration needed to discover some of the most revolutionary theories, technologies, etc. I'm not saying religion is all good, but labeling it as entirely harmful is just ignorant.

i was not attempting to say its useless,but society as a whole would be better without it

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Religion isn't all bad. It helps people cower from their mortality.
Saying that we would be thousands of years ahead with technology is a bit much. We might be a decade ahead with medical technology, but that's just about all.

[gromda]

Common to all religions is a belief in a 'first principle', God, which provides the philosophical foundation of the belief system which is based on binary oppositions - God-Satan, good-evil, black-white, up-down, right-wrong, male-female, us-them, etc, etc. ad infintum. That is what is wrong with religion because it (they) say "I am right and you are wrong, (and you will be punished for it either by God or me, God's rightful representative on earth - divine right of kings and politicians). Unfortunately atheism, which unequivocably asserts that there is no God, buys into the binary opposition system. This might explain why revolutions which claim to free the people end up becoming just as dictatorial as their predecessors. Far better to admit no definitive knowledge and be an agnostic. That way everyone can just as right as each other. Amen.

[Tuor]

Common to all religions is a belief in a 'first principle', God, which provides the philosophical foundation of the belief system which is based on binary oppositions - God-Satan, good-evil, black-white, up-down, right-wrong, male-female, us-them, etc, etc. ad infintum. That is what is wrong with religion because it (they) say "I am right and you are wrong, (and you will be punished for it either by God or me, God's rightful representative on earth - divine right of kings and politicians). Unfortunately atheism, which unequivocably asserts that there is no God, buys into the binary opposition system. This might explain why revolutions which claim to free the people end up becoming just as dictatorial as their predecessors. Far better to admit no definitive knowledge and be an agnostic. That way everyone can just as right as each other. Amen.

Atheism and agnosticism aren't mutually exclusive. You can be both.

[Taiji]

Atheism and agnosticism aren't mutually exclusive. You can be both.

Theism and agnosticism aren't mutually exclusive either.

[gromda]

Atheism and agnosticism aren't mutually exclusive. You can be both.

no you can't, because atheism, like religion, argues for a defintive point of view based on a binary pairing - "there is a god" versus "there is not a god". agnosticism eschews that binary pairing and opts for an inclusive third stance which simply says "I don't know".

Rousseau said that all wars were caused by that man who first put up a fence and said "that is mine". Religion of what ever flavour then gets adopted as the moral argument in favour of the fence.

[Tuor]

no you can't, because atheism, like religion, argues for a defintive point of view based on a binary pairing - "there is a god" versus "there is not a god". agnosticism eschews that binary pairing and opts for an inclusive third stance which simply says "I don't know".

Rousseau said that all wars were caused by that man who first put up a fence and said "that is mine". Religion of what ever flavour then gets adopted as the moral argument in favour of the fence.

Please don't make me have this argument again. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implici...plicit_atheism

[MathiasOfAthens]

no you can't, because atheism, like religion, argues for a defintive point of view based on a binary pairing - "there is a god" versus "there is not a god". agnosticism eschews that binary pairing and opts for an inclusive third stance which simply says "I don't know".

Rousseau said that all wars were caused by that man who first put up a fence and said "that is mine". Religion of what ever flavour then gets adopted as the moral argument in favour of the fence.

Exactly...

" knowledge is power. "

Don Of Atheos,

Aye and in the hands of so few. Pricing knowledge though is quite another argument because it comes by people who mostly are feather-nested. Try explaining to the poorest of this world that it is for their advantage that we in the educated world throw money around like water while all they have to live on are our promises.

I have lived on this little patch of ground we call a planet for 68 years, have witnessed promise after promise throughout all that time being lost in the appetite of science that in some cases has benefitted us and in many others has been a black hole of self gratification, the amounts incalculable, the Collider being the largest single devourer that we know of, I suppose apart from NASA and the space programme.

Are we any further forward as people, some 13 million Africans every year, die whilst waiting for the benefits? I mean why think of other worlds when this one needs so much attention. Let the Lord Jesus Christ attend to these and let us attend to what is desperate in this world. Lad, you can have all the knowledge in the world or the history of the world and yet still fail. Promises unfulfilled are just useless junk.

If you focus too much on one egg your lose it.

Why think of other worlds? Because eventually this one will die or will will become so overly populated we have little choice other than expand into space or kill each other to make room.

[Lord Rahl]

but all religion has done is cause wars, the crusades, the holocaust, the 30 years war,the list goes on and on

Feel free to express your opinions, but don't lie.

[Khassaki]

Its all about explaining the unknown. With the rise of science, religion has become irrelevant and is being marginalised. Only the most uneducated or unthinking still take religion seriously.

[Lord Rahl]

Only the most uneducated or unthinking still take religion seriously.

Really? That's what you came up with? Seriously?

[Khassaki]

Really? That's what you came up with? Seriously?

Over here in Australia we have an Atheist female PM with a live-in partner who might be getting married while in office.

Just because the US is awash semi educated religious nutbags that take gods seriously doesn't mean the rest of the world does

[Lord Rahl]

Over here in Australia we have an Atheist female PM with a live-in partner who might be getting married while in office.

Just because the US is awash semi educated religious nutbags that take gods seriously doesn't mean the rest of the world does

How educated and objective of you. What's all this talk of the religious not being well-educated and then some self-proclaimed atheists here show a severe lack of education on religion?

If y'all are so blind in your dislike of religion to deem every single religious person as "nutbags" or the "most uneducated or unthinking" or who bring about "wars, the crusades, the holocaust, the 30 years war,the list goes on and on" or then obviously you aren't using the education you have got to think reasonably. Insulting an incredibly numerous and diverse demographic that literally includes billions of the Earth's population isn't smart and doesn't make you right. It's stupid.

For the record, I'm not religious and thankfully I'm not block-headed like some of you.

[Veliky Kaiser Theos]

Over here in Australia we have an Atheist female PM with a live-in partner who might be getting married while in office.

Just because the US is awash semi educated religious nutbags that take gods seriously doesn't mean the rest of the world does

She's actually agnostic.

Two things that all atheists should know:

• You do not have to be an atheist to be intelligent.
• Religion does not cause all wars.

[Ancient Aliens]

Over here in Australia we have an Atheist female PM with a live-in partner who might be getting married while in office.

Just because the US is awash semi educated religious nutbags that take gods seriously doesn't mean the rest of the world does

It's interesting to see an atheist taking a holier-than-thou attitude. In actuality the United States has about 25 million atheists and Australia has a little under 5 million atheists, so don't get sanctimonious on us 'idiotic' Americans. The irony.

Also, don't get pontifical about your nondeism. Persecuting others and being dogmatic about your beliefs is just as bad as the Christians w-ho do the same to atheists. Take it from a fellow atheist.

[gromda]

Over here in Australia we have an Atheist female PM with a live-in partner who might be getting married while in office.

Having a fat-arsed crimson-crested galah for prime minister who stole her job by lying and back-stabbing the elected leader is nothing to be proud of.

[Eofor]

i know it helps to have something to hold on to when times are tough,but all religion has done is cause wars, the crusades, the holocaust, the 30 years war,the list goes on and on

If various douchebags throughout history didn't think an old man in the sky told them to go kill thousands of people, they would have found some other reason to do so.
And for the record, I'm an atheist myself.

[CamilleBonparte]

So many things wrong here. All I'm going to say is two words: Learn history.