Who is atheist?

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Josephus? Wasn't he the guy who got trapped in a cave with his soldiers, surrounded by Romans? Makes for an <a href="mathworld.wolfram.com/JosephusProblem.html" target="_blank">interesting math scenario</a>.

Anyway. Personally, I'm not atheist, per se, I just have no need for religion in the traditional sense.

I'm not so much religious or anti-religious as I am anti-bullshit. I hate irrational, emotional crap, especially when it negatively influences something that would be better guided by rationality. Being religious and being rational aren't necessarily mutually exclusive, but I've found some religious people to be highly irrational. Still, I do not value my judgement over such matters to be any better than anyone else's.

I may think much of religion is complete BS, hate the social institutions of religion, disagree with everything a particular religion teaches/says, but faith is untouchable. If a person is genuine and convicted in their beliefs, I have complete respect for them for that -- if only that. I judge a person based on their actual merits.

The world around us is amazingly complex, chaotic, and changing constantly. The world is full of uncertainty. My approach is to try to figure out what I can through logic and rationality, keep an open mind, and then go from there.

If there were a god, say, in the normal sense of there being an anthrophomorphic, omniscient/omnipotent being that made the world, I would think that such a God would be somewhat like a great programmer. A good programmer or software engineer can design something that is elegant/clever, avoid arbitrary special cases/magic numbers, and keep things clean. I imagine such a God to be like that. Why, I imagine, would such an infinitely wonderful god, so to speak, choose, say, the Coke of organized religion over the Pepsi, over the RC-Cola of religions? (They seem to be a lot like brand-names)

The other thing is the urgency some religious people give to it. Fire and brimstone stuff. If religion is so immensely important, why the hell do people let some other guy tell them what to believe? It's far too important to not think about fully, contemplate, and question. And I trust -- and respect -- their capacity to do so, but it seems a lot of people don't bother to think.

I think the two problems in the world are people who think they're too dumb and people who think they're too smart. People who think they're too dumb think that they need someone else to tell them what to think. People who think they're too smart get the idea that they have some right to dictate what others should believe.

All of the things that religion embodies are not specific to any one religion, let alone religion itself. Humans have basic qualities, good and bad, that have always existed before man got the idea to look toward the heavens.

Hey, maybe Religion X really is better than Religion Y, but how the hell would you ever know if you didn't question both? I'm a guy who's thought all about it, and for the time being, decided that I don't believe in God, etc. If a rock falls, you think it's from God, I think it's from something else, and someone else has other beliefs, it doesn't change the fact that the rock falls, and if it bludgeons someone in the head, it doesn't matter why they thought the rock fell, I'd still try to help them.

Religion in the normal sense just seems very arbitrary and inconsequential to me. There is no conflict at all between my beliefs and that of someone devoutly religious when it comes to spiritual matters. They both serve the exact same function, as different as they may be. We both have something that drives us and a working definition of the undefinable. Whether we disagree on social issues, have different cultural things, are good people or not, and the factual reality of the world that all of us live in is all independent of that, and to be argued much! But that core of a person -- a soul, you might say -- is something sacred. All else is variable, uncertain, crazy, screwed up, and the best one can do is to deal with <i>that</i> part rationally, if nothing else.

Feh. There's only conjecture and speculation up until the point one drops dead, then perhaps all's revealed. At any rate, the dead ain't talking, as far as I know...

LOL

and let you stop taking the piss, cos you'd soon find out that fluffy is something i do not do, and musical elves are always up to no good

i don't wear animal masks, but then i don't need to - ask me about shapeshifting and casting a glamour, if you're that interested.

lots of people think they know what pagans do. apart from the fact that "pagan" covers a huge variety of paths, an awful lot of what people think pagans do comes from men who should get out more, and dodgy sensationalist newspapers. believe me, people, it's harder work and less thrilling than you might think. oh, and sacrifices are SOOOOOO five centuries ago, daaaaaaahhhrling.

as for rivalry... please feel free to battle it out, chaps. could be entertaining... (flirting thread would be a better place for it, though).

yay! you and me both, nuttdan

So you're anti-religious then?!

I think you should revise the poll to include agnostics, because an agnostic can't really vote in either category with accuracy.

That said, I am agnostic, but I often strongly suspect that there is not a god.

I often tell people that I am agnostic, but according to the proper definition that isn't really what I am. I believe there is a higher power. I don't believe there is necessarily a right or wrong way to live your life. I don't believe that any religious text is actually the word of the higher power or that religious texts are divinely inspired. I also don't believe that certain people are prophets/children of the higher power. I do believe in some form of an after life.

With all that said, what does it make me? Would that be Deism then?

The American government!

Yes i was taking the piss. I dont really think i know what pagans do these days but i was serious about my love for you. You bring a range of emotions in me that are hard to expain. Joy , hapiness, hate, sorrow horniness- the whole range. I cant explain how you make me feel (to do so would be like trying to explain nature itself) but i can tell you that my shape is shifting at the thought of you.

Well, there are many MANY people who would argue with you about THAT

Atheists in general DON'T claim there is no god.
All atheists lack belief in one, usually because there is not a shred of empirical evidence supporting the idea.

What do you mean by "how could there not be a god"?
How is that contrary to anything we know?

I am nothing, I have no identification & I find the search for one meaningless. I respect all the religions, philiosophies, and all else that is known. But I see it as a means of security for the ego. It gives the individual a physcological security. For the self to create the "I". Also we think we are getting somewhere through the role of identification. Im not saying communication is wrong as we are extremly intelligent beings, but actual seeing how words hold no value. We are afraid of the unknown. And to fill that fear we use these "intelligent" methods to get a satisfaction, or else we are afraid of being naked(not literally) or reflecting back on our conditioning. Trust me dude, I called myself everything in the book, from a Daoist, a Satanist, Athiest. Agnostic, ext... and it gets us humans nowhere. Please observe yourself and others without disagreeing or agreeing.

I knew you weren't an atheist before I even clicked on the thread.

If you were an atheist, your topic would have been: "Who is an atheist?"



Thank you.
Most people who claim that they are "Agnostic" are actually atheists, and don't realize it. People are either agnostic atheists, or agnostic theists.

I worship the sun because I believe it is the flatulence of the flying spaghetti monster that a drunk frat boy decided to ignite several billion years ago. Scientists would have us believe it's actually a firey concentration of mostly hydrogen gas, but the flying spaghetti monster's evil twin has deceived them. I was in great despair about all this until the flying spaghetti monster revealed himself to me personally. He told me America will be saved by the holy trinity and only Americans (and all foreigners ofcourse) of ideal body weight are doomed to spend eternity as broccoli florets. He even granted me a vision of the ineffable holy trinity and now I have great hope since millions of Americans already consume the holy trinity on a daily basis. The true church of the holy trinity can be found everywhere, but unbelievers refuse to see it. Behold the gathering of the saved at football games, NASCAR races and under golden arches everywhere!! ! May the blessings of the holy trinity manifest in your arteries!! !

THE ONE TRUE GOD:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlxmwvWekZA[/youtube]

Do you know how old the threat you unearthed is? 5 years old. I think the person who wrote that has left PPR for longer than I've been here. Sorry if I am being disruptive about this, it is just extreme necromancy.