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Over the weekend, I have been a participant in the Online American Atheists 2021 National Convention. This event is usually held in person, during Easter weekend, but due to Covid risks, this year it is a virtual convention I have been fortunate to be a part of it.
Some people ask "Well, what do you do. talk about what you do not believe?"
Hardly
The convention focus on Actions of Atheists, forming support group, social groups, but mainly forming and performing acts of charity for the community. We talk about the need to keep religious influences out of schools and government to maintain the separation of church and state. We focus on humanism, and human efforts to solve humanities problems today. SO think of it as a group of people sharing ideas and success stories of how to HELP people and make the world a BETTER PLACE. Right now.
We do not help our fellow man because some sky daddy will reward us for doing so or punish us for not. We do not say "Oh you are hungry Someone should pray for you" We fix what we can hen we can, and those ongoing problems, well, we work on those too. Long term solutions.
And above all else, life is about our actions, not our beliefs. There are so many theists, self proclaimed "Believers" and I have met thousands upon thousands of them, who claim that being a good person is all about what one believes, not about what one does. I say that ones actions, not beliefs, not lip service to some religious dogma or participation in some religious ritual , but Actions determine what makes a man good or evil. There are a lot of religious people worldwide who do harm to others in the name of their deity, or religion, or worse even, socially apathetic about the problems of the world around them, and this is the best example of actions trumping beliefs.
How can a religion inspire me, or anyone, if the followers of it are people who hate the world?
So this Easter morning, as I await for the conference to begin, I ask again: Why a god? what advantage does holding a belief in a god offer? Some will say Morals, but I point out that the people with whom I have spent the weekend are of higher moral fiber than the vast majority of Christians I know. And ponder this: I am a better person, morally and socially, than when I was a Christian so long ago. Some may point to an afterlife, but I ask where is your evidence? You have None, Zero, but science has evidence that there is no afterlife, and logic would show that if there is, then the specifics cannot be measured or known.
Some may point to an advantage of having a personal deity, again, I point out what is the difference between an imaginary friend and an imaginary god? Again there is NO EVIDENCE for the existence of a god, there is more evidence that one DOES NOT Exist.
Not to discount the world of fiction. One of our meetups last night was a Star Trek panel discussion, which was quite interesting. And a well made horror movie is entertaining too. But in the end, Frankenstein's monster and Count Dracula are still works of fiction. SO is that devil guy in The Exorcist Stories in the Bible are fictional as well, fictional characters.
In the end, a Christian may say "Well this makes my life better" I can accept that. Atheism makes MY life better.
I simply say that it is far more healthy and far more successful for one to learn how to love oneself and to make decisions that are in one's best interest. Yes, we h=as humans have freedom. We can make choices. One of my oldest son's choices recently cost him $153 because he was in a hurry and chose not to obey the speed limit. Our choices have consequences. We must make choices that show a love for ourselves as well as a love for others. A person who truly loves oneself will not seek to harm others. It is a concept and construct that does not happen. And it exists in the real world of persons with self actualization. For others, they needs religious commandments and threats of punishment to conform to not murdering or stealing . But that is not true self actualization, or self love, that is fear and retribution, which from a psychological point of view, is not true enlightenment.
I echo what Penn Jilette said, in that he kills and rapes everyone he wants to, and that number is Zero I am not saying that sometimes people do not make me angry or irritate me, but I tend to find that by staying out of those situations, and realizing that a persons behavior may be resulting from a philosophy that is not healthy, from self hate, from lack of knowledge, from outside influences.... And I point out that putting one's life in the hands of an external source is not in one's best self interest and will lead to what we already see: Religions full of people who hate the world (S me tell me the Bible command this)
[/i] or perhaps in social apathy Jesus will take care of that when he returns or worse of all in the lifestyle of hypocrisy paying lip service or membership in a religious order then doing activities which are against the teachings and morals of that order
Which brings us back to the act of social order, social belonging, as we as humans are hard wired by evolution to want to be part of groups, t have relationships and work together for social order and advancement. Some join churches for that reason but at the American Atheists convention we are effectively doing the same thing. We are forming community and social groups not just to enjoy each other's company, but to work on ways to hep make our communities and towns a better place for everyone, on levels of helping humans and allowing humans to solve humanities problems. And THAT my friends is what this cat enjoys.
We thinks that it does not matter what though thinkst. The reader can read though that post and decide whether the post is valid or not, and the length of it doesn't matter.
I have seen too much one one line dismissal by the witless to take the saying 'brevity is the essence of wit' out of context.
At least your post will disabuse we goddless bastards of any idea of doing God just to defuse any accusations by the religious. They will say that 'we are only doing it to look good'. So we may as well ignore them and do what we want, and what we often seem to want is a better society for all of us, because we have to live in it.
Last edited by TRANSPONDER; 04-04-2021 at 10:24 AM..
We thinks that it does not matter what though thinkst. The reader can read though that post and decide whether the post is valid or not, and the length of it doesn't matter.
I have seen too much one one line dismissal by the witless to take the saying 'brevity is the essence of wit' out of context.
the meaning of the Shakespeare line, and of my post,
has nothing to do with length of post or quantity of words.
I doth protest because thine actions of some ancient farmers hath distorted the reality of our world, dear Horatio
And as on the Ides of March when the tyrant was slew so doth we slay the ignorance and illusion of the wolves in lambs clothing who come to lead the sheep to the slaughter
the meaning of the Shakespeare line, and of my post,
has nothing to do with length of post or quantity of words.
It has everything to do with it. The meaning of your post was that KK was too wordy, lengthy and prolix because he had to go to great lengths to push an argument that wouldn't work simply and succinctly.
If that wasn't what your post implied, just what did it imply?
Over the weekend, I have been a participant in the Online American Atheists 2021 National Convention. This event is usually held in person, during Easter weekend, but due to Covid risks, this year it is a virtual convention I have been fortunate to be a part of it.
Some people ask "Well, what do you do. talk about what you do not believe?"
Hardly
The convention focus on Actions of Atheists, forming support group, social groups, but mainly forming and performing acts of charity for the community. We talk about the need to keep religious influences out of schools and government to maintain the separation of church and state. We focus on humanism, and human efforts to solve humanities problems today. SO think of it as a group of people sharing ideas and success stories of how to HELP people and make the world a BETTER PLACE. Right now.
We do not help our fellow man because some sky daddy will reward us for doing so or punish us for not. We do not say "Oh you are hungry Someone should pray for you" We fix what we can hen we can, and those ongoing problems, well, we work on those too. Long term solutions.
And above all else, life is about our actions, not our beliefs. There are so many theists, self proclaimed "Believers" and I have met thousands upon thousands of them, who claim that being a good person is all about what one believes, not about what one does. I say that ones actions, not beliefs, not lip service to some religious dogma or participation in some religious ritual , but Actions determine what makes a man good or evil. There are a lot of religious people worldwide who do harm to others in the name of their deity, or religion, or worse even, socially apathetic about the problems of the world around them, and this is the best example of actions trumping beliefs.
How can a religion inspire me, or anyone, if the followers of it are people who hate the world?
So this Easter morning, as I await for the conference to begin, I ask again: Why a god? what advantage does holding a belief in a god offer? Some will say Morals, but I point out that the people with whom I have spent the weekend are of higher moral fiber than the vast majority of Christians I know. And ponder this: I am a better person, morally and socially, than when I was a Christian so long ago. Some may point to an afterlife, but I ask where is your evidence? You have None, Zero, but science has evidence that there is no afterlife, and logic would show that if there is, then the specifics cannot be measured or known.
Some may point to an advantage of having a personal deity, again, I point out what is the difference between an imaginary friend and an imaginary god? Again there is NO EVIDENCE for the existence of a god, there is more evidence that one DOES NOT Exist.
Not to discount the world of fiction. One of our meetups last night was a Star Trek panel discussion, which was quite interesting. And a well made horror movie is entertaining too. But in the end, Frankenstein's monster and Count Dracula are still works of fiction. SO is that devil guy in The Exorcist Stories in the Bible are fictional as well, fictional characters.
In the end, a Christian may say "Well this makes my life better" I can accept that. Atheism makes MY life better.
I simply say that it is far more healthy and far more successful for one to learn how to love oneself and to make decisions that are in one's best interest. Yes, we h=as humans have freedom. We can make choices. One of my oldest son's choices recently cost him $153 because he was in a hurry and chose not to obey the speed limit. Our choices have consequences. We must make choices that show a love for ourselves as well as a love for others. A person who truly loves oneself will not seek to harm others. It is a concept and construct that does not happen. And it exists in the real world of persons with self actualization. For others, they needs religious commandments and threats of punishment to conform to not murdering or stealing . But that is not true self actualization, or self love, that is fear and retribution, which from a psychological point of view, is not true enlightenment.
I echo what Penn Jilette said, in that he kills and rapes everyone he wants to, and that number is Zero I am not saying that sometimes people do not make me angry or irritate me, but I tend to find that by staying out of those situations, and realizing that a persons behavior may be resulting from a philosophy that is not healthy, from self hate, from lack of knowledge, from outside influences.... And I point out that putting one's life in the hands of an external source is not in one's best self interest and will lead to what we already see: Religions full of people who hate the world (S me tell me the Bible command this)
[/i] or perhaps in social apathy Jesus will take care of that when he returns or worse of all in the lifestyle of hypocrisy paying lip service or membership in a religious order then doing activities which are against the teachings and morals of that order
Which brings us back to the act of social order, social belonging, as we as humans are hard wired by evolution to want to be part of groups, t have relationships and work together for social order and advancement. Some join churches for that reason but at the American Atheists convention we are effectively doing the same thing. We are forming community and social groups not just to enjoy each other's company, but to work on ways to hep make our communities and towns a better place for everyone, on levels of helping humans and allowing humans to solve humanities problems. And THAT my friends is what this cat enjoys.
Methinks Jesus would recognize your agape and approve.
I Got Jesus Spirit of God abiding on my Spiritual space, and God is very much real .... If people don't believe in God than that is their choice ...... Just remember in the afterlife and your soul is missing, remember the lint papers if you can .......
I Got Jesus Spirit of God abiding on my Spiritual space, and God is very much real .... If people don't believe in God than that is their choice ...... Just remember in the afterlife and your soul is missing, remember the lint papers if you can .......
That is highly illogical, since memory comes from the neural functions of the brain, which ceases to function after death....
so there is no way to "remember" since there is no psycho-neural activity.
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