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Saves me money, get to sleep in on Sundays, no self inflicted guilt, I don't find myself talking to imaginary deities, I don't have any irrational expectations, I am not disappointed when my wishes (prayers) aren't fulfilled, nor do I have any expectation to expect them to. I don't live in dread of the wrath of some vindictive and sadistic deity if I happen to say or do the wrong thing.
The enlightenment being an Atheist is far better than the closed minded and reason numbing fear of some irrational deity.
Snaefell: When I saw "Holy Catholic Church", I concluded that you were referring to the Roman Catholic Church. I had no idea that the Anglican/Episcopal Church referred to itself in that manner too! Yes, I knew Henry VIII's reason for breaking away...My apologies if I offended, and my fault being in too big a hurry.
This has been a hard week in our home, and when I saw this thread again today I recognized one of the good things about being an atheist is the fast action which comes from the Atheist trait of accepting responsibility. I see it as a driving force in the Atheist personality. The speed which we responded to a life and death issue was directly related to that training. Not looking for outside help, or some supernatural aid, just grabbing the problem and acting. It gave us the need time till trained people could help.
Now a week later reflecting back, I see our ability to take responsibility for events regardless of who caused them as one of the best traits of all the Atheist I know.
I concur with the definition of the word Agnostic, as given by ‘Leaving Florida by route 5’ All Atheists usually know the definition as it is the same as the word Atheist. The word theist with the letter ‘a’ or ‘A’ in front of it, means they do not believe in anything about Theism, Thus in English, the same is true for the word Gnostic. Place the letter ‘a’ or ‘A’ in front of it, and it means the same; Non belief. Gnostic, (was/is) the Greek name for a group of people called Gnostics who claimed to have superior religious knowledge. Therefore, Agnostic, means no belief in anything outside of normal material phenomena. It is avowed that Thomas Henry Huxley, in 1890, approached the folk who added words to the English language and asked that the word Agnostic be added. It was accepted. This means in a literal sense that it applies solely to a None Belief of what Gnostic’s believe and spout about. This also means that folk who do not know the history of the word, should know what the word means, before stating that their doubts are what make them Agnostics.
Agnostics do not seem to be treated as seemingly inferior as Atheists, which is brought about by the fact, that the bigoted Christian Monks, who were mainly responsible for the growth of the Oxford Dictionary at Oxford University in England, thought that the word Atheist was an insult to their God. To counteract this thought, in a book they wrote and shipped to newspaper editors and similar, it was decreed that the word Atheist should be spelled with the lower case letter ‘a.’ Therefore, it implied that one could not start a paragraph with a word which belittled and denigrated their God. It is not known nor has it been explained by those simpleton monks, how the spelling of a word could belittle, denigrate, or make a perfect thing such as an imaginary god, feel inferior, in any manner.
When I was using Microsoft Word, on my first computer in about 1989, or 1990, the program simply would not let me spell the word ‘Christian’ as ‘christian’. I found a way around this obstacle, I wrote the letter n, then moved backward and wrote the letter a, and continued until I had the word christian. As I wrote the forgoing, this moment, the check speller, wrote the word in red, and suggested christna. All you folk named Christna, should complain to Microsoft. After a few months I addressed a letter to Bill Gates personally, and mentioned that I did not know that Microsoft was a religious organization. I mentioned that I should be able to have a computer which would allow so called swear words and religious words, in lower case as well as uppercase. I didn’t get a response and didn’t expect a response. However, about six months later, it became history. This does not mean I can write anything in upper or lower case on my computer; the religious nitwits, who designed the spell checker, are as bigoted as the Oxford Monks and question my spelling attributes. So much for modernism and Computer Company personal. Cheers. Snaefell.
Last edited by Snaefell; 05-15-2010 at 07:38 PM..
Reason: Tried to increase font size. I failed. The arrows Failed?
This has been a hard week in our home, and when I saw this thread again today I recognized one of the good things about being an atheist is the fast action which comes from the Atheist trait of accepting responsibility. I see it as a driving force in the Atheist personality. The speed which we responded to a life and death issue was directly related to that training. Not looking for outside help, or some supernatural aid, just grabbing the problem and acting. It gave us the need time till trained people could help.
Now a week later reflecting back, I see our ability to take responsibility for events regardless of who caused them as one of the best traits of all the Atheist I know.
Back to the basic fact that two hands working accomplishes more than a thousand clasped in prayer, which is nothing more than wishing.
Hi Catman:
Thanks for your response regarding the Church of England and naming etc. I was born and grew up in the British Isles, until aged 21, when alone I left for Canada and the States. I think I've been an Atheist since I was born. I never did like Sunday school so I played hooky from those places with my brothers and sisters. I accepted your response without any thoughts about mistreatment etc. I admire your civility in case my thoughts had been different. I will be 80 years old in a few weeks, and I have lived in four different countries. Under the skin I think we are basically the same, Human animals. I believe we all are modified by our milieus, which some of us can change, or move elsewhere. I have accepted that belief. I am like everyone else, a modifed Human. Perhaps there are others who accept this. We aren't any better or worse, we are only different. Perhaps this belief will be accepted by others. Perhaps not. Unfortunately, there are many born into milieus from which there is not any escaping. That's where sadness ekes in. We are part of existence, and to add mythology as real, to me is a form of madness.
With Cheers and all it means to you, Snafell.
Snaefell: Great post! I agree with everything you stated. I'm about to turn 64 myself. It is indeed sad to observe people who unthinkingly accept whatever their culture tells them. Of course, in some parts of the world it is very difficult and dangerous to do so. Being an atheist in Texas places me in a quite small minority, but I've never been threatened. I converted to Catholicism when I was 19, because I got the idea that it was the 'real thing', but after three years I lapsed. I've beem god-free ever since!
great posts, Sneafell and Catman, you know when I was a kid and asking questions, confused about what was real and what wasn't, every adult was religious, or pretended to be ..so it was very scary to be surrounded by religion and see no apparent way out of it. I can understand how some are trapped for life, in some countries it's just almost impossible to get away..If you have no books or internet or TV to show you that there are people out there who think the same way you do; it's risky to come out and go against the flow; it's very scary to be an outcast.
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Agnostic?
