Religious or Athiest?

[baldrick]

Fun vote. What are your religious beliefs?

[The Mad Linguist]

For crikey bob's sake, at least spell it right.

[Lord Emsworth]

Atheist

[Lord Kenneth]

For one thing, you imply that atheists are not open-minded... a**hole.

[triadboy]

Originally posted by The Mad Linguist
For crikey bob's sake, at least spell it right.

Who the hell is Crikey Bob?

[bluestraveler]

Truth is we're all agnostics. Has anyone talked to a dead person lately? Whether you're an atheist or a believer takes an act of faith in the unprovable!

Bluestraveler

[LeFevre]

Originally posted by bluestraveler
Truth is we're all agnostics. Has anyone talked to dead person lately? Whether you're an atheist or a believer takes an act of faith in the unprovable!

Bluestraveler

My atheism is due to my agnosticism.

[bluestraveler]

Yes and I have"faith" that someday, I too will evolve to atheism!


Bluestraveler

[Ladewig]

Seems like a limited number of choices. Why can't polytheists vote? And why are you excluding the forum participants who believe in the Almighty Godess? And where should the Darwinists and believers in TLOP cast their votes?

[evildave]

I don't know, and I don't care... but you don't know, yet believe that you do.

Who is the fool?

I don't have an "open mind" as defined by the religiously afflicted. Their definition is "ready for religious garbage to be dumped into it".

I would no more submit to such a procedure than I'd willingly undergo trephination and have raw sewage poured into my brain.

Given the options in the survey, that's "atheism".

[The Mad Linguist]

Originally posted by triadboy


Who the hell is Crikey Bob?

crikey == euphemism for Christ
bob == euphemism for God

Thus the mild expletive, "Crikey bobs!"

[KelvinG]

Originally posted by bluestraveler
Truth is we're all agnostics. Has anyone talked to dead person lately? Whether you're an atheist or a believer takes an act of faith in the unprovable!

Bluestraveler

I've never felt the term atheist means that you are 100% sure there is no God. I consider myself an atheist, but I'm not so arrogant to say that I'm absolutely, positively convinced there is nod God.
However, I perceive agnosticism as sitting in the middle, with the possibility of going either way.
I'm certainly not that.

I believe, beyond a reasonable doubt, that there is no God. And that's good enough for me to call myself an atheist.

[bluestraveler]

point taken. i feel that belief in atheism is a process of(for lack of a better word) evolution.agnosticism, however, seems a sort of a crossroads so to speak, where many of us entertain thinking that has previously been denied us for whatever reasons.ie; societal mores, church, family etc...

thanks for responding!

[bluestraveler]

can someone suggest some important reading on the subject?

[Jet Grind]

Originally posted by bluestraveler
can someone suggest some important reading on the subject?

Well, just to clear one thing up. Agnosticism and atheism are not mutually exclusive, one can be an agnostic and still lack belief in god.

As for reccommended reading, if you're going to read any book I'd suggest Atheism: A Philosophical Justification by Michael Martin. It's by far the best justification for atheism, but it's not for beginners. If you're looking for something more simple, pick up Atheism: The Case Against God by George H. Smith.

As for the question, I voted for the "Atheist" option. Seeing as though theists often say "open-minded" when they really mean guillible, I'm not open-minded as they define it. I have the same attitude toward the supernatural that I have toward Santa Claus, Mother Goose, and the Tooth Fairy.

[evildave]

I don't know.

General study good, no matter what your goal is.

There is no single source of "canned knowledge" that will lead you to what you seek.

Simply do what comes so hard to many people.

Think.

Read various opinions on the subject with a critical eye. Think about how it is presented, and examine what motives are woven into the words. Be critical/skeptical of all written sources. Not paranoid. Just pay attention.

When you read to examine the motives, the style and the technique in use, you will occasionally get more from the source than the author intended. Though usually when people write about something straight forward, it's literally as they say.

Even if you decide you really wanted to be religious after all, at least you thought about it instead of blindly accepting what was dumped on you as "gospel".

Here are a whole lot of e-books.
http://www.infidels.org/library/index.shtml

Richard Dawkins is always a fun read.

Robert Ingersoll is, too.

Andrew White's The Warfare Of Science With Theology (http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/andrew_white/Andrew_White.html) is a favorite of mine. A medium-sized read.

The Malleus Maleficarum (http://www.malleusmaleficarum.org/) is a fine source of scholarly religious thinking from the very peak of "Church In Government".

For various opinions on science and religion, a bunch more of these...
http://www.infidels.org/library/historical/sci.shtml

Naturally, from these links, there will tend to be a "gentle" slant towards the secular.

[bluestraveler]

Thanks, I appreciate it!

[The Mad Linguist]

Evil dave, you really are evil, aren't you?

The Malleus Maleficarum is a fine source of scholarly religious thinking from the very peak of "Church In Government".

(...don't get me wrong... I wholeheartedly agree... but I admire your deviousness!)

[triadboy]

Originally posted by The Mad Linguist


crikey == euphemism for Christ
bob == euphemism for God

Thus the mild expletive, "Crikey bobs!"

"I have decided to give my life to Crikey."

[Yahweh]

Atheist, although some get the impression that I worship cute wittle adorable kitties! I love kitties so much, they are so cute!... see what I mean...

[evildave]

(Ha! My cats are cuter!)

Anyway, you're welcome, bluestraveler. They're all entertaining reads. Even though the Malleus is creepy and psychotic, it's like a little window into people's minds. Get the low-down on how demons and succubi make people pregnant! Not to believe is heresy, after all. A nice little illustration of what sort of strange loops trusting "absolute authorities" can lead.

[Ladewig]

I like the cats. They look like they were carved from laminate material. Either that or they laid down on sheet glass and picked up Newton Rings.

[Yahweh]

Awwwwlllll!

Adorable kitties, evildave! :p

I'd post pictures of my kitties, but I recently stored a few 1000 pictures on a CD, and I cant find the CD at the moment. Your evil heart would melt if you saw my cat, Lucifer.

[evildave]

Actually, those are Chaos and Anarchy as kittens.

Here they are just now.

Sort of dim image quality. Hard to get cats to pose in good light.

Here, we have a shot just now of anarchy fetching a black/yellow/white ball, with Chaos looking on in general disapproval. It took several tries to get both cats in-frame, but Anarchy is nothing but obliging when he's fetching. Just about everything short of the wagging-'cause-I'm-happy tail.

Chaos doesn't like it when Anarchy fetches balls, and attacks him. Possibly for not being cat-like enough, but more likely because he's jealous of the attention.

When Anarchy brings a ball, I have to throw it within 10 seconds of picking it up, or he'll take it back with a deft swipe of his claw.

Chaos is the one with the fuse on the bomb. Anarchy is the one without.

They were pound kitties. One of them got his foot stuck reaching through the cage door at me, crying "Me! Me!" They had perfect little bullseyes on them. "Bummer of a birthmark, dude!" They were a lot younger than their size indicated. They looked half-grown, but were only six weeks old. They're now 18 pound kitties. Though Anarchy is little lighter than his brother by a couple pounds.

[calladus]

Originally posted by evildave
They're now 18 pound kitties. Though Anarchy is little lighter than his brother by a couple pounds.


18 pounds?! Must be a bummer when, instead of birds and lizards, your kittys bring back an occasional half dead white tailed deer!

[evildave]

My running average lifespan for outdoor cats has been about 11 months. Coyotes, cars, kids. Whatever it is, a lot of kitties disappeared before I decided to keep these guys in. They're going on two, which is one more than the others. Always right around labor day was when they tended to vanish.

These guys stay inside. Especially with that inviting bullseye pattern they have going on both sides.

I sort of miss the frogs, lizards, kangaroo rats, mice, rats, snakes, gophers, birds, squirrels, 'possums, and bats the other cats used to bring in... ALIVE.

It's hard to decide which is worse, live things avoiding capture and making themselves at home under the furniture, dead things in a million pieces, or pitiful half-alive/half-dead things in pain.

The one BIG lizard was sort of a help. He evaded the cat and caught bugs in the house for quite a while, until I finally caught him and expelled him. He'd nearly grown his tail back.

Then when the cat door was open, racoons and other cats would come late at night to visit. Occasionally a big dog face would stick through, too.

[urstardust]

Originally posted by baldrick
What are your religious beliefs?

Now if there is a God he/she is a dumb ass and lonely and or very limited to what he/she can do. On the other hand God is probably a just a EVIL entity that thinks this is real funny putting life on this planet, watching us grow (for a very long time) into a world of religious confusion and beliefs, only learning by mostly environment and time. Start a universe that is so infinitely large that one really knows how large it is and make it so we don’t really understand the universe and how it works, where we came from (Big Bang?) where were going, etc (yet?). It would be fun to watch us like ants fighting over food, land, and over religious beliefs watching us/life suffer with no real help (People suffering/dieing every day) WHY? And so far all we know is we live on a little planet we call earth, third rock from the sun, one of over a 100 billion of stars/suns in your galaxy The Milky Way in a universe with trillions of galaxy’s and maybe infinite universe’s. If there is a God where did he/she come from? And for gods’ sake why are you/it/******* hiding from us? :confused:

[Landis]

Originally posted by bluestraveler
Truth is we're all agnostics. Has anyone talked to a dead person lately? Whether you're an atheist or a believer takes an act of faith in the unprovable!

Bluestraveler

I'm an atheist. Atheist merely lack a belief in a God or Gods. It does not require faith to not believe in anything. Agnosticism is a convenient word used by people who are not yet willing to use "Atheism" due to the slander heaped upon atheist by the religious institutions over the last couple of thousand years.\

I do have an open mind. If a little purple fairy suddenly pops out on top of my computer and commands me to obey. Well, I probably will, even after the men in the white suits come to take me away.

[CWL]

We are all atheists, more or less. Personally I believe in one less god than the Christians.

[jj]

Ok, aside from the spelling you tell me what I am.

I don't believe in any "god" of any sort, nor spirits, nor supernatural occurances, but given decent, replicatable evidence I would change my mind.

So what am I?

[Lord Emsworth]

Originally posted by jj
I don't believe in any "god" of any sort, nor spirits, nor supernatural occurances, but given decent, replicatable evidence I would change my mind.

So what am I?

I'd count you as an Atheist.

For simplicity's sake anyway ...

[bluestraveler]

Thanks for your input. I guess if believing that the New Testament, Koran,Torah, Gita etc.., are all based on mythology,then I'm an Atheist. For me it's semantics. " Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong!"

[evildave]

Well, there's always "Deist":

I believe in God(s), but don't believe anything else about them.

[bluestraveler]

Originally posted by evildave
Well, there's always "Deist":

I believe in God(s), but don't believe anything else about them.

I'd agree. I believe in a first cause. Some form of energy that came billions of years before me. Of course I can't prove it and I really don't think it matters. As long as I don't fall into the trap of
believing in the ancient fairy tales that make up so many of todays religions,I should stay out of trouble!

[elliotfc]

Originally posted by bluestraveler


I'd agree. I believe in a first cause. Some form of energy that came billions of years before me. Of course I can't prove it and I really don't think it matters. As long as I don't fall into the trap of
believing in the ancient fairy tales that make up so many of todays religions,I should stay out of trouble!

And what kind of trouble would that be?

-Elliot

[Skeptical Greg]

Originally posted by elliotfc


And what kind of trouble would that be?

-Elliot

Like this, perhaps?

Autistic Boy's Death During Prayer Service Ruled Homicide (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,95668,00.html)

[elliotfc]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Diogenes


Like this, perhaps?

Autistic Boy's Death During Prayer Service Ruled Homicide (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,95668,00.html) [/QUOTE

Then this would depend on Bluestravelers relationship with his parents.

Of course kids are smothered by people in non-religious rituals as well.

-Elliot

[Dancing David]

You can be both and partake of the two at different times.

[DialecticMaterialist]

None of the above categories are mutually exclusive. Theists can be nonreligious, atheists can be religious, theist and the religious can both be "nonbelievers" in eachother's faiths (God or religion) yet consider themselves open -minded.

[Skeptical Greg]

Originally posted by elliotfc
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Diogenes


Like this, perhaps?

Autistic Boy's Death During Prayer Service Ruled Homicide (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,95668,00.html) [/QUOTE

Then this would depend on Bluestravelers relationship with his parents.

Of course kids are smothered by people in non-religious rituals as well.

-Elliot

Of course they are. But such an example, would not be addressing your question..