Ask an Atheist Anything

Some(one) deleted their profile again, but I'm sure will return again shortly.

At least it allows for some outside perspectives. Mikey, I agree and think that any idea or ideology has the same tendency for muddy waters. Just as Christianity can be perverted into a weapon, so can atheism, or capitalism, or feminism, or even science. It isn't the ideas themselves that are good or bad, but the way they are perceived and expressed in action or word.

Sadly the humanizing messages in each (acceptance, understanding, equality, knowledge, etc.) can get lost in all the finger pointing of whose idea is to blame for the evil in the world. As if any thoughts are capable of being moral.

Don't worry he will be reborn thrice when we need him most. He is the hero hey ai deserves not the one it needs right now.

nanox wrote: Some(one) deleted their profile again, but I'm sure will return again shortly.

At least it allows for some outside perspectives. Mikey, I agree and think that any idea or ideology has the same tendency for muddy waters. Just as Christianity can be perverted into a weapon, so can atheism, or capitalism, or feminism, or even science. It isn't the ideas themselves that are good or bad, but the way they are perceived and expressed in action or word.

Sadly the humanizing messages in each (acceptance, understanding, equality, knowledge, etc.) can get lost in all the finger pointing of whose idea is to blame for the evil in the world. As if any thoughts are capable of being moral.

Yup, even anthropomorphic religions have humanizing messages, and I don't necessary think it conflicts with science. The search for knowledge and understanding the natural world as we perceive it can definitely be inspired by the desire to understand God's creation. This paired with the humanizing message can make for an individual that seeks knowledge while also living a life of kindness and respect towards other people, and kindness and respect is all many people need to return the gesture. So in this regard, I do have a certain respect for some religious people.

Although I do think that a God that shares the emotional and logical qualities as mankind does also poses issues but that is just how view God.

I haven't read much on philosophy ideologies though. I'm actually a pretty bad reader and made a point the last few months to read more lol so I'm open to beginner suggestions on this topic

nicki wrote: Unrelated to the previous discussion but still on topic of religion I would like to ask for some input to my current situation..

How do you deal with someone that is super religious and very outspoken about it in real life? To the point where basically all their interactions with me would involve god and church.. Avoiding them is unfortunately not an option for me and all my hints were left unnoticed or ignored so far..
This person is someone close to me and I do not wish to offend them in any way..

Living in a place where almost everybody is religious, majority are Roman Catholics, and the remainder belonging to all other Christian denominations, and a very small minority sd Muslims, can be very hard.

I try to avoid any discussions about religion, and as any conversations especially with new friendships lead to beliefs, and "faith", and a particular version of "Faith" as a prerequisite to any social interaction, and honesty and sincerity is what I demand, thus I am also behooved to take on those qualities too, that when I confess my atheism I am met with these type of reactions:

Where do you get your morals from?
What stops you from raping and thieving?
Are you a satanist?
You are devoid of any morality!
etc.....

Friendships are prematurely severed, collaboration of any kind is derailed and you become an outcast, as I have been in so many circles even with my own family who had seen it fit to severe all ties they had with me, refusing to go to their church and refusing to mimic their incantations, due to the fact alone that I hold no belief of the supernatural and I do not outsource my sense of morality to a divine being. Now, would I have done the same to them? Is this situation unique in my current geographical location, and not shared by other places around the world? I am afraid not. Are all religious people like this? I am glad of the fact that not all.

This is why atheism and Religion cannot be held on the same level playing field, on same grounds. I could not even for once contemplate on denying someone the joys of friendship due to the fact he or she goes to a different church or exhibit the polar version of my beliefs or deny a woman the pleasures of romance because we do not share the same version of faith which there are thousands, it is almost impossible to get it right.

But how can I fault them or blame them for not treating me as a decent human being. When their ready-made philosophy handed down from the pulpits of their respective church demands that they at all cost, preserve and value their relationship with their God first, before they do with any fellow human beings. How can I begin to argue my case, when when they were still children, they had been taught that their church is the one true church and that all human beings are born in sin, wretched, created sick-demanded to be well, and they can only be cleansed by all of these impurities which their god had gifted them in the first place, or that the adam and eve made a terrible mistake in the garden of eden, and they are held accountable for the actions of their forefather/mother, if they profess compulsory love to a divine being at the very small price of rejecting their critical faculties? How can you fault someone who had been heavily indoctrinated, taught what to think, not how to think, and that any knowledge is too much knowledge, and that you would only know what is right and what is wrong if you are being taught or ordered to by someone else not human?

This is why education is the key, this is why it is very important for children to be educated to the tools of logic, and demanding facts and evidence before accepting a belief. This is why it is important to debunk religious myths, to care what is true and what is not true.

To claim that ideas, philosophy are irrelevant, and that people do not act on them or mold them, and that indoctrination is harmless and good ideas do not necessarily create a good moral perspective in an individual, and bad ideas do not pervert morality is naivety. Our society, is molded by the intellectuals and the philosopher's of the past.

This is the reason why ideas matter, philosophy matters and conversations in their spirit must be held anywhere, everywhere and everybody. The sleep of reason brings forth monsters. Once you depart from reason, or exempt something from reason, once you hold something above reason, that is an intellectual suicide, and a person who believes in absurdities can commit atrocities.

Now back to the question, how do I deal with them? Apparently I don't. Connections they have already severed long before any friendship can begin, and made it their business to leave me alone unless I convert to their church. And as for you, be honest, if that person sees it as offensive, then there is nothing you can do about it.

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welcome back

Rose Mary wrote: To Ultimate Contrarian: How and why did you become an atheist?

Because at a very young age of 10, I have examined the religious dogmas, and the arguments for the existence of a god and I found them to be all logically invalid. And the stupid question that comes,,, can you prove there isn't a god? is asinine, one is never called upon to prove a negative, it goes against the laws of logic. You do not really become an atheist, you just stop believing in bullshit. And there is no practical reason in believing something that isn't true.

Why do I care? Because, religion claims to answer the deepest questions of life, claim to answer scientific questions, and get all of those answers wrong. And religion is a man-forged manacle and its teaching are inherently immoral. It is a tool to enslave and stagnant young minds. Worse, it insults us to our deepest integrity, that we cannot be good without Big Brother, who can convict us for what we we think, even for thinking something, thought-crime, whose authority cannot be questioned and of which there are no appeals. It is tantamount to living in a dictatorship, but more intrusive, since it is waged on a psychological level.

Most people hold dearly to religion, since they need the religious moral code to tell them what is wrong and what is right. Believing in something wrong for practical reasons does more harm that good. People will find a rational morality they can live by if they drop those irrational taboo moralities that comes down from savage ages. And people mostly, condescendingly say, that humans are not strong enough to find their own personal ethics and they have to have something that is imposed upon them from outside. This thinking is not true when it comes to ethics, what is imposed to you from the outside is of no value.

Why do you keep remaking profile?

Whatusername wrote: Why do you keep remaking profile?

He's a phoenix

Whatusername wrote: Why do you keep remaking profile?

For the reason I need to break routine, and also when I have to work on something, it is best to severe all ties from the outside world until I accomplish what I need to do at the moment. So Hey-Ai for me is a sort of a reward system after I have concluded a project.

I have to say that's pretty stupid. I'm not calling you stupid of course, just that idea.