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per·se·cu·tion com·plex
noun
an irrational and obsessive feeling or fear that one is the object of collective hostility or ill-treatment on the part of others.
If you are not a theist of some sort why would you take a dig at atheists theoretically refusing to believe an alien species who showed up acknowledging the existence of God ?
I think gramps is out of sorts today. Probably ran out of his favorite chewin' tabaccy. Nothing makes him more crotchety than that.
I have to say though that while I felt a perceived "gotcha" question coming on, I didn't take it as a dig.
You made the remark that atheists would try to spin "it" if the little green men also worshiped "god". I simply asked why you wouldn't pray about it?
He pulled this exact tactic with me a day or two ago. He's in his periodic "try and knock them off center by pretending they are crazy" mode. It'll pass. You have to give him props for creative deflection at least. It is actually a nice change compared to the usual boo-hoo-poor-persecuted-me shtick that we normally get from other theists.
Atheism is a religious belief in the sense that it's an answer to a religious question. A belief is what you think or believe to be true.
Rejecting a religious belief is the exact opposite of believing that particular assertion. Inherently. If you can't conceive of (dis)believing anything about metaphysics without it being a religion, that is your failure of imagination.
As an atheist I don't have religious beliefs. You as a theist have them. I don't accept them. Theistic ideation is based on the failed epistemology called "religious faith" which is believing a thing despite it not being evidentially or logical true. I give credence to a different epistemology -- generally, naturalism and the scientific method supported by empirical evidence and/or logical argument. I am happy to believe in ice cream, sunshine, freshly-mown grass, digital computers, death and taxes because I share the same experience of those things with other human beings and they can be measured and quantified and verified to a sufficient extent. I do not believe in invisible all powerful beings who bestow morality and absolute eternal punishment and reward because these are asserted without any empirical evidence. I do not engage in ritualistic practices (such as worship) and groupthink to reinforce such beliefs.
per·se·cu·tion com·plex
noun
an irrational and obsessive feeling or fear that one is the object of collective hostility or ill-treatment on the part of others.
The day I see something intelligent and substantive come with your name attached at the top I might just pass out from shock .
Atheism may not be a religious belief but it is a belief.
Either God exists or he doesn't so the a priori probability is 50/50.
Therefore the complete lack of any belief regarding God's existence would be 50/50.
If you don't believe that it is 50-50 then you clearly have formed a belief.
As I said ....sorry , I didn't pass out . You don't even seem to know the Bible verse you quote. It's raise, not raze .
Last edited by wallflash; 04-04-2016 at 03:29 PM..
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