08 Mar 2012, 9:41 pm
09 Mar 2012, 1:06 am
10 Mar 2012, 4:21 am
13 Mar 2012, 10:49 am
13 Mar 2012, 10:52 am
CrazyCatLord wrote:
Declension wrote:
CrazyCatLord wrote:
Just like most people naturally believe in Bigfoot and UFOs 
I don't think that the cases are really comparable. Bigfoot and UFOs are extremely contingent things, with specific properties. Bigfoot in covered in hair, and UFOs can fly. It would be very surprising if two cultures independently came up with the idea of Bigfoot.
God isn't like that, at least not on a broad definition of "God". God is said to have very universal, natural properties, and is the sort of thing that any culture might come up with independently. I agree that some features of specific Gods are just as silly as Bigfoot. But there is a real core there which comes straight out of the universal human experience.
Many cultures have independently come up with polytheistic pantheons full of specialized gods. A god of lightning, a fertility goddess, a god of war and so on. This recurring polytheistic theme was actually a lot more common than monotheism.
Monotheism is very rare outside of the three Abrahamic religions, which can all be traced back to one single belief system (Yahwehism / Judaism). And Judaism didn't start out as a monotheistic belief either btw. Before the Yahwehists outlawed the worship of other gods, the Israelites used to worship Asherah and Baal alongside Yahweh. There is archaeological evidence that Asherah used to be regarded as Yahweh's wife (link). So if anything, your argument is in favor of polytheism.
But there are also plenty of spiritual belief systems that don't involve deities at all (such as totemism, animism and shamanism). This shows that while multiple cultures can independently invent gods in order to explain natural phenomena, usually more than one god, not all humans have a tendency to believe in deities. Some believe in things like ancestral spirits, reincarnation or totem animals instead.
We can only draw one conclusion from human spiritual beliefs, namely that human cultures who have a poor understanding of natural phenomena tend to attribute agency to the natural world.
you have to admit however that it is fun to see that they reworked the other two into being, the father the son and the holy ghost... but it could just be me drawing connections where there are none too.
15 Mar 2012, 8:09 am
16 Mar 2012, 2:36 am
aspi-rant wrote:
utter nonsensical crap.
mind boggling brainwashed religious propaganda.
nothing new. move on.
now i am dysfunctional because i never believed in any of the thousands upon thousands man made gods???
mind boggling brainwashed religious propaganda.
nothing new. move on.
now i am dysfunctional because i never believed in any of the thousands upon thousands man made gods???
Correct.
16 Mar 2012, 2:42 am
16 Mar 2012, 3:37 pm
TallyMan wrote:
TheHouseholdCat wrote:
Richard Dawkins once said we would believe in Ancient Greek Gods if our parents did. And that's just it. It IS a cultural thing.
I hope you aren't blaspheming against Zeus.
It is indeed a cultural thing. Kids born to Muslim parents generally become Muslims and kids born to Christian parents generally become Christians. Religion is like an endemic virus passing on its meme to each succeeding generation. Knowledge is the only cure, however a lot of these religions are quite adaptive and as a self defence mechanism they have evolved the ability to shut their eyes and close their ears to knowledge that is contrary to their dogma.
I would never blasheme against Zeus.
webcam wrote:
As an Atheist, I have to say this is a pretty long argument that is completely ignorant to the feelings and reasons for atheism. It is also very harmful to atheists trying to find themselves outside of religion.
The pain and suffering atheists endure comes from the existence of religion. Just about everyone grows up in one kind of a religion or another and they generally get left out of life because religions prefer to be the dominant social thinking and their power is quite overwhelming.
In my case, I've had PTSD since I was about 6 and because I believed that there really was a god I prayed to him continually regarding the cause of my PTSD and because I was taught there was a heaven, I thought no matter how painful this life was I would just live through it and personal immortality in heaven would be there in perfection. I accepted what was and became apathetic and hopeless in 20 some years of depression only to find out that my beliefs in religion were causing my brain to develop in such a way that now prevents it from producing the neurochemistry to be happy and understand the world. Not only that, but from the body of source which I have read, the effects of the PTSD that I suffer may carry on through epigenetics and harm my children who it seems will never be safe from religion and will certainly not be spared the edifices of it in our culture. This happens as information is transmitted by parents to their children for the purpose of having them develop to their environment. If my contribution says I have suffered many adversities in my life, nature will configure my kids to reflect that adversity. I'm still going to produce offspring, no reason to allow cruelty to turn into genocide. I hope religions will donate money to the study of this and take the blame for it openly and without distortion, saying "We are fake and we have caused harm to a countless number of people and countless more."
If you really want to help kids grow up right... give up religion and just teach everyone to approach things logically and without fairy tales... Religion is far too dangerous... just think about how long it's been used in the above stated fashion. It seems every decade there is something new religion has to re-interpret for the next few decades cause people were getting hurt and there are still so many problems in the world... why have it? Its failing epically for some of us.
I imagine that the book of Atheism would be very short. We also shouldn't build a life sentence into people. It's pretty cruel to do esp. considering we are in the very early stages of immortality.
I wonder to this day whether I'll make it to a happy immortality... Even compensating for the hormone deficiency I still have to live with the fact that religion will continue to harm people in this way and we will never truly be free.
Keep telling lies about what an atheist is, and eventually people will believe it... indeed even atheists believe it from time to time.
The pain and suffering atheists endure comes from the existence of religion. Just about everyone grows up in one kind of a religion or another and they generally get left out of life because religions prefer to be the dominant social thinking and their power is quite overwhelming.
In my case, I've had PTSD since I was about 6 and because I believed that there really was a god I prayed to him continually regarding the cause of my PTSD and because I was taught there was a heaven, I thought no matter how painful this life was I would just live through it and personal immortality in heaven would be there in perfection. I accepted what was and became apathetic and hopeless in 20 some years of depression only to find out that my beliefs in religion were causing my brain to develop in such a way that now prevents it from producing the neurochemistry to be happy and understand the world. Not only that, but from the body of source which I have read, the effects of the PTSD that I suffer may carry on through epigenetics and harm my children who it seems will never be safe from religion and will certainly not be spared the edifices of it in our culture. This happens as information is transmitted by parents to their children for the purpose of having them develop to their environment. If my contribution says I have suffered many adversities in my life, nature will configure my kids to reflect that adversity. I'm still going to produce offspring, no reason to allow cruelty to turn into genocide. I hope religions will donate money to the study of this and take the blame for it openly and without distortion, saying "We are fake and we have caused harm to a countless number of people and countless more."
If you really want to help kids grow up right... give up religion and just teach everyone to approach things logically and without fairy tales... Religion is far too dangerous... just think about how long it's been used in the above stated fashion. It seems every decade there is something new religion has to re-interpret for the next few decades cause people were getting hurt and there are still so many problems in the world... why have it? Its failing epically for some of us.
I imagine that the book of Atheism would be very short. We also shouldn't build a life sentence into people. It's pretty cruel to do esp. considering we are in the very early stages of immortality.
I wonder to this day whether I'll make it to a happy immortality... Even compensating for the hormone deficiency I still have to live with the fact that religion will continue to harm people in this way and we will never truly be free.
Keep telling lies about what an atheist is, and eventually people will believe it... indeed even atheists believe it from time to time.
What bothers me most about religion is that it's supposedly providing us with moral values that we could only get from religion. This is just not true.
I think religion is very dangerous, too. I never felt that going to Church made me a better person. Frankly, I didn't need to go to church because I could not relate to most of the things that were said during services.
I think that the book of Atheism would be longer than any other scripture because approaching the world in a rational way means that you'd have to look at it from different angles.
16 Mar 2012, 3:42 pm
16 Mar 2012, 3:44 pm
16 Mar 2012, 4:51 pm
Vigilans wrote:
I think "not" having a "Book of Atheism" is a much more poignant statement
Who needs a book to live by when you have a grasp of reality?
16 Mar 2012, 4:55 pm
abacacus wrote:
Vigilans wrote:
I think "not" having a "Book of Atheism" is a much more poignant statement
Who needs a book to live by when you have a grasp of reality?
Exactly lol
16 Mar 2012, 6:09 pm
femme
Pileated woodpecker
Joined: 29 Oct 2011
Age: 35
Gender: Female
Posts: 198
Location: chicago illinois
16 Mar 2012, 6:28 pm
This is one big fallacy in my opinon and just makes me sratch my head how can some one be angry at what they do not belive in 
18 Mar 2012, 9:11 am
