Quote:
Originally Posted by Julian658
However, other Atheists write creeds, have websites, TV shows, and are very militant about going to court if they see a nativity downtown.
|
As I have said repeatedly, there are many who will take an issue and use it as a platform to advance their own personal agendas, usually for their own personal profit.
Some people are drawn to the limelight like the moth to a flame.
Atheism is neither a religion nor a cult.
I have to believe that you have no experience with cults, and that you don't really know what a cult is, and so you have engaged in what we shall call...
Mircea's Law (aka Mircea's Rule of Cult Analogies or Mircea's Law of Cult Analogies) which states that on-line discussions of atheism ultimately end up with christians declaring atheism to be a religion or cult.
Atheists don't have churches, don't condemn others to Hell because they failed or fail to regularly attend church, don't demand that people tithe (often their life-savings), don't insist that people stand in front of strangers and confess their sins, don't have Sunday school, don't threaten, goad or guilt people into taking or not taking an action based on what a god might think, or how their after-life is jeopardized and so on and so on...
...which is exactly what christian religions do.
Cults are about indoctrinating, inculcating and brainwashing.
Not a cult...
Mircea
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
Many of the priests I've known are almost certainly as educated as you.
|
But that isn't true at all.
There isn't one single priest in the entire Roman Catholic Church as knowledgeable as I am,
in the knowledge that truly matters.
They only know part of the story. They've never read the hundreds of older texts, which predate the existence of Abrahm,
and on which all of the pre-history contained in Genesis is based.
As an analogy, someone writes a book on a series of events, and in doing so, draws on and synthesizes older historical works documenting the same series of events.
Why would you not want to read those older sources?
Know and understand that I do not ridicule and condemn x-tians for not having read those older sources on which the biblical stories in Genesis are drawn, rather I ridicule and condemn them
because they refuse to read and study them.
And they refuse, because they are filled with fear, and fear is ignorance.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
Theism at least gives the hope of some day not being ignorant, atheism inherently denies that's even possible.
|
You've got that backwards. Theism is predicated on ignorance and blind faith, while atheism is predicated on truth.
I know about blind faith.
I remember reading through Wikileaks and seeing how Obama illegally over-threw the Honduran government in July 2009. It was 20 years earlier, to the day, that I was tromping through the Honduran jungle with my battalion escorting some suits around, going village to village and terrorizing villagers into voting for the US-backed puppet-dictator.
And why?
To protect you? Me? My family? America?
No.
For money.
Because some 60-odd very wealthy families in the US who have had that wealth for decades and decades think they are special and that they should enjoy special privileges, and even have a right to amass more money and wealth by any means possible.
So I was betrayed by the US Government and misused as an instrument of war and power by some very wealthy families and all because I blindly put my trust and faith in the US Government.
Not any more.
I cannot undo what we did to those poor villagers, who were just people trying to make do the best they could, but I can do all that I am able to ensure it doesn't happen again and that people understand how and why things are the way they are.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
By definition as an atheist you will always and forever be ignorant of most things.
|
On the contrary, I am more knowledgeable and more informed, precisely because I abandoned the shackles of religion and its superstitious beliefs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
So most things in the Universe you will always be ignorant of no matter how well-read you become.
|
Well, now you're grasping at straws. You cannot, of course, provide any evidence to support such a bizarre claim.
I can see better, because my mind is not trapped by some parochial vision.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
It's quite probable the big questions, like reconciling Quantum Mechanics with Relativity or the Unsolved Problems of Mathematics, will forever be out of your reach.
|
I have no interest in that.
What happened before the Big Bang, assuming there ever was a Big Bang, has no bearing on me. It will not alter my lot in life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
And fear is a natural emotion necessary to avoid certain threats.
|
Which is why christians hide in their make-believe world cocoon.
Which frightens you more, the thought of no god, or the thought of no after-life?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
As an atheist you believe in a Universe where much is hostile to life....
|
If you know how to avoid the damage of cosmic radiation, I'm all ears.
I guess it's a good thing we have a yellow star instead of a white or blue star.
And it is quite obvious your god couldn't figure out a way to make you impervious to cosmic radiation either.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
... children cease to exist without ever knowing happiness, the environment is degrading, religious people threaten to force rules on you you feel are wrong, etc. If you're never frightened maybe you're just not paying attention.
|
Oh, no, I'm very afraid of people like you.
You catholics kept my family ancestors in slavery for nearly 600 years working on papal estates.
You will never do that again. Ever.
And it isn't the fear of slavery, it's fear for the many innocent people who would die preventing people like you from abusing others.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Thomas R.
As for accepting reality I'm skeptical you completely know reality any better than I.
|
To bad you're afraid to point that high-powered skepticism at your own faith.
Ever enlightened....
Mircea
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
