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If you feel the need to shove your religion (whatever religion that might be) in others face, then your a militant person. If you go to peoples homes uninvited to shove it in their face, your militant. If you comandeer conversations and push your religious talk into the conversation, then your militant.
All it does to people like me, is makes me STAY AWAY.
You guys would be alot MORE of an influence if you just lived what you supposedly believe.
Same goes with any belief system, including atheism.
Same goes with any belief system, including atheism.
I completely agree. I don't discuss my beliefs with people in day to day life. I don't bring them up and when others talk about their beliefs I don't comment on what my beliefs are.
I feel no need to try and bring others to my way of thinking, I wouldn't ask someone to substitute my beliefs and judgement for their own. I would want people to question anything and everything, accept nothing on another person's word, investigate for yourself. If you believe in god, he gave you a brain, use it, don't let someone else turn your brain to mush.
This advice applies to everything in life, not just religion or the lack thereof.
If you begin to consider "however small that possibility may be" as a litmus test for the presence of faith then you must consider that you have faith regarding invisible unicorns, flying spaghetti monsters, etc. We certainly don't have proof that they exist but somewhere somehow they may exist.
Being a deist, I do acknowledge the possibilities. I don't think it takes faith to accept possibility, it takes faith to reject those possibilities with a certainty.
IMO Militant atheism is a practice of actively campaigning for atheism and forcing down other religions and any religious practices. That's opposed to the passive atheist who neither toots his own horn or puts down other religions unless in a debate.
In the online community this is what I see most often... it may not be representive of the entire community, but it's what is most visible. Just as many see the fundies as the most visible Christians.
On sites like reddit.com and digg.com there are many 'militant atheists' that take pride in upvoting stories where a Christian has done something wrong... or numerous cartoons that make fun of anyone with faith. They're just as frustrating to deal with as the fundies that try to shove their message down your throat.
Being a deist, I do acknowledge the possibilities. I don't think it takes faith to accept possibility, it takes faith to reject those possibilities with a certainty.
I think alot of things are posible, its posible aliens from outer space exist but since I haven't met one, I can't believe in it. Its posible that Santa exists but I haven't ever seen the evidence he does. I feel the same exact way about god, mohammed or whatever got you want to mention. I think the world, the universe is so much more complicated then the human mind can comprehend.
I have to disagree... agnosticism requires no faith. Atheism demands that you believe that there is no possibility of a god or higher power. That requires faith, by my definition of faith.
Don't confuse strong atheism with weak atheism.
Strong atheism is the positive belief that there are no deities. IE: "There are no gods."
Weak atheism is the lack of belief in deities. IE: "There isn't any credible evidence pointing to the existence of gods so I don't believe they exist."
There really isn't any faith involved in the latter, or at least any more than there is in the average person who doesn't believe in Santa, the tooth fairy, or Bigfoot.
I think alot of things are posible, its posible aliens from outer space exist but since I haven't met one, I can't believe in it. Its posible that Santa exists but I haven't ever seen the evidence he does. I feel the same exact way about god, mohammed or whatever got you want to mention. I think the world, the universe is so much more complicated then the human mind can comprehend.
I feel life outside of our plant is highly likely, given the number of stars and possible planets being in the right configuration for life... and we're learning every day about life on this planet that we assumed couldn't be possible (bacteria near vents in the ocean floor, bacteria living in acids, etc).
And I agree that the universe is more complicated than we can comprehend... which is exactly why I see no purpose in drawing a line in the sand and saying that it is impossible for the universe to have been created. It's far more logical, in my opinion, to say that it's impossible to know either way. This ties back in to my interpretation of the thread... isn't agnosticism much more logical than atheism?
I feel life outside of our plant is highly likely, given the number of stars and possible planets being in the right configuration for life... and we're learning every day about life on this planet that we assumed couldn't be possible (bacteria near vents in the ocean floor, bacteria living in acids, etc).
And I agree that the universe is more complicated than we can comprehend... which is exactly why I see no purpose in drawing a line in the sand and saying that it is impossible for the universe to have been created. It's far more logical, in my opinion, to say that it's impossible to know either way. This ties back in to my interpretation of the thread... isn't agnosticism much more logical than atheism?
AMNH - Life Forms (http://www.amnh.org/nationalcenter/expeditions/blacksmokers/life_forms.html - broken link)
Quote:
For example, the temperatures inside some tube worms, built directly on vent chimneys, have been measured at 40°C, and another kind of worm, the Pompeii worm, has been photographed leaving its tube and swimming near a temperature probe that recorded 110°C. These temperatures are wildly extreme by any standard for marine life. We don't know how the Pompeii worm can withstand such high heat.
Just for reference, that is about 230 degrees Fahrenheit.
That is above the boiling point.
Anyhow, to answer your question, most of us don't draw a line and say that there could be no creator. We say there is no evidence for a creator so why waste the time considering it as a viable explanation?
If some evidence did come to bear which suggested such a being, that would be something different. As is though, just because we don't know something doesn't mean that it makes sense to use explanations that aren't backed with evidence.
People used to have no idea how birds flew. They could have written it off as magic since it was unexplainable at that time, but that doesn't mean that magic was a viable explanation.
In the online community this is what I see most often... it may not be representive of the entire community, but it's what is most visible. Just as many see the fundies as the most visible Christians.
On sites like reddit.com and digg.com there are many 'militant atheists' that take pride in upvoting stories where a Christian has done something wrong... or numerous cartoons that make fun of anyone with faith. They're just as frustrating to deal with as the fundies that try to shove their message down your throat.
Well, that's because the internet is the only location in which we can vocally be a large portion of the population, putting forth things that are oh so common in the 'real world'. In particular any news piece that has anything to do with atheism either is 1) about the persecution of atheists or 2) looking down on the spread of atheism in europe.
It's amazing how much you don't notice it until your on the other side of the fence. I never noticed it till I became an atheist.
If our existence causes you discomfort, you have the option to not believe that we're here.
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Atheists? Do they really exist?
