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I've never given much thought to religion, dont think about it,dont talk about it, dont practice it, dont go the any church.so obviously i dont really care about Muslims being called to prayer.
I've always thought myself to be an atheist and other people with a total lack of interest in religion also atheists, am i labeling myself with the wrong terminology?(atheist) as it seems i'm seeing many posts implying that atheists are something akin to an organized alternate religion of some kind when its been my observation that atheists couldnt care less about anything to do with religion, so why all the topics attributing actions by atheists to some relevance in the religious community when atheist just dont care and arent interested.. Is there some political connotation to this issue i've some how missed.?
I've never given much thought to religion, dont think about it,dont talk about it, dont practice it, dont go the any church.so obviously i dont really care about Muslims being called to prayer.
I've always thought myself to be an atheist and other people with a total lack of interest in religion also atheists, am i labeling myself with the wrong terminology?(atheist) as it seems i'm seeing many posts implying that atheists are something akin to an organized alternate religion of some kind when its been my observation that atheists couldnt care less about anything to do with religion, so why all the topics attributing actions by atheists to some relevance in the religious community when atheist just dont care and arent interested.. Is there some political connotation to this issue i've some how missed.?
I think the posts you are referring to are taking the position that an atheist has a "religion" of sorts because he/she takes the certain position that there is no God (as opposed to the agnostic who simply believes that we don't/can't know one way or the other). I can see that position and it does have a valid point.
Why do Atheists always feel the need to put people down for their faith?
I don't believe I do. I don't believe gods are real, and I'm not shy about that. When people argue that a belief in a fictional being entitles them to act above the law when it comes to, say, baking, I have no problem in saying it does no such thing. When people argue such a belief is a reason to force women to bear children against their will, I argue that a woman's freedom to control her life takes precedence. I don't believe I've actually put anyone down for being religious. If a religious person is offended when I say 'god is just a story', well, that's their problem; fact is, I didn't say anything about said religious person one way or the other.
And then there's all the religious people not on this board that I don't put down. If I spent all my time putting religious people down, I'd be at it all day. Family alone would take weeks because we're French Catholic.
Quote:
You are a symptom of the disease, you are not a cure.
And what evidence do you have that there is no creator?
As far as I can tell, everything is evidence of no creator. Gods have always been the cause of things we don't understand, from the seasons to the thunder to disease. As we learn more, gods get smaller and smaller and are responsible for less and less. To imagine a creator of the universe is just to make up an explanation for a physical process we don't understand. I'm not sure what I should look at as evidence of any god. What would it look like if there were no gods? Tell me what I'm supposed to take as evidence of the existence of any god, much less your particular deity of choice.
Quote:
None, you are showing faith in an unknown JUST LIKE I AM.
As far as I can tell, everything is evidence of no creator. Gods have always been the cause of things we don't understand, from the seasons to the thunder to disease. As we learn more, gods get smaller and smaller and are responsible for less and less. To imagine a creator of the universe is just to make up an explanation for a physical process we don't understand. I'm not sure what I should look at as evidence of any god. What would it look like if there were no gods? Tell me what I'm supposed to take as evidence of the existence of any god, much less your particular deity of choice.
Ha, no. I'm -not- showing faith in an unknown.
Actually, you are! Atheism is a religion of it's own. We cannot escape the fact that human are the ONLY spiritual beings on Earth. So whether you believe in a deity or not, the fact that you made that choice is proof positive that you are something different, something special. Every other mammal on this planet is 100% instinct driven. Humans are 100% free and driven by their spirit and their soul, gifts from God.
I can tell you have a sense of humor and I bet you are a kind person. You are probably one of God's favorites.
It's always amusing to me when Christians play the discrimination card while they're in the middle of discriminating against others. As someone whose spent a lot of time involved with various Atheist movements, has argued for a separation of church and state, and so on and so forth... Let me try to explain something:
1. Quite frankly, I don't care what you believe in as long as you're not trying to inject those beliefs onto others. I don't care if you believe that synchronized swimming in raw sewage is the only way to be cleansed. I really don't. But, when you come at me and tell me with this blatant arrogance that I really need to consider who I am as a person and what I've done in my life and what will become of me after I die - all in an attempt to get me to synchronize swim with you in raw sewage... Then we've got problems.
2. Christians have enjoyed special privileges in this country for a long time. Yes. We all know that for much of that time, most Americans were Christian too so all the special things you folks received as a result went largely unchecked. That doesn't make it right and it doesn't mean that a challenge to those special privileges should be thought of as some sort of "attack" on your religion. Call it whatever you like but Christians have exercised a form of nepotism in this country for centuries.
3. As a result of Christianity's embedment in society, a lot of the factors in repealing those special privileges seem like an attack on one's personal beliefs to suit the needs of someone in the minority class. It is this strange sense of Bentham-like utilitarianism that often makes me scratch my head. "We are the majority in this country and we have to sacrifice everything for the minority! The happiness of the many is far more important than the infringement of rights on the few!" Or so the argument goes in so many different variations and flavors. Of course, I often wonder if Christians can look at history and wonder how they'd have felt if they lived in ancient Rome and were slated to be fed to the lions in the Coliseum all for the enjoyment and spectacle of the Roman majority!
4. Threads like these are often mere justifications of one's own sense of persecution. The reason no one really cares about Muslim calls to prayer (I honestly haven't heard one in the States but I wouldn't be shocked if there were a few somewhere) is because they aren't using taxpayer money to make them. The Muslim call to prayer is not coming over the loudspeakers at school. The call to prayer is not being recited in the classrooms. Kids aren't being forced to cut out little strips of paper that say "Happy Ramadan" on them in early Fall. And textbooks aren't being asked to change to accommodate some silly belief that humans and dinosaurs lived in tranquil serendipity and mutual co-existence some 6000 years ago.
5. Atheists, most of the ones I've met anyway, aren't walking around town looking in dark crevasses and alleys for infringements of church and state separation. Religious people are really, really good at infringing upon those rights in the most reckless and obvious ways. What most of us really want is the freedom to say, "Yeah. I'm an Atheist" without someone we've just met acting like I told them I practice cannibalism on feral children. The reason people do that now? Because there's this part of society that has developed over centuries of Christian superiority which automatically reacts whenever someone different has been detected. We are seen as immediate threats by many and if we have to file a lawsuit against every school board in the country so our children aren't laughed at and intimidated by children in school for not praying then so be it.
6. Most of us are not scared of Muslim retaliation. Sure, we don't go meet with Ayman Al-Zawahiri for lunch in a cave in Afghanistan and tell him Allah's a flamer. That's just simple self-preservation. But, if I recall correctly, Christians all over Europe have successfully passed laws in various countries making blasphemy illegal. I believe Ireland was one of the first. That, of course, was all passed to protect the Catholic religion from coming up against too much scrutiny after their entire organization was pretty much found to be a pedophile ring, but it also prohibits the rights of Christians to criticize Islam - something Christians in this country are very, very fond of.
7. In the grand scheme of things, most Atheists I know don't draw many distinctions between the barbaric absurdities of the Christian religion and the Muslim religion. Truth be told, we think both of your religions tend to be on the ridiculous end of the spectrum with inane beliefs and are rooted in barbarism. Just because Christians aren't cutting off heads in the village square doesn't mean your religion is this wonderful scapegoat into rationale. I find it hard to digest whenever I hear a Christian lament on Islam in a sarcastic voice "Religion of peace, huh?" That one always baffles me considering the violent past of much of Christianity. Just because most of Christianity took a Xanax about fifty years ago doesn't mean it's any more a religion of peace. A serial killer whose taken a break from killing for a little while is still a serial killer. He doesn't get to come out of his shell twenty years later and call other murderers out for it without becoming a hypocrite. Christianity doesn't really have that right either.
8. There is a marked difference between church bells and calls to prayer emanating from a house of worship and my doorbell ringing with people calling on me to pray. The former has some sort of cultural depth, the latter screams insecure religious nuts.
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Is there some political connotation to this issue i've some how missed.?
