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Atheism at the fundamental level

It seems that many, if not the majority of the users on this website define their atheism only through an anti-christian lens. I don't understand the focus on that perticular religion. Atheists should look at every religion or at no religion at all in order to be self consistent, and consistent with what they decry.

It simply is because, by definition, each religion is absolutely right and focusing on one gives it too much credibility. It is also because there are so many more ideas with which to come up. Sure, maybe everybody here knows how to explain whay the christian god doesn't exist, but can they say the same of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva? What about Anubis, Thor or Amaterasu?

I guess my point is that you have to ignore all of them or treat all of them equally. Atheism is much more fundamental than anti-christianism.

Any thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on August 2, 2008 at 7:21am

"maybe everybody here knows how to explain whay the christian god doesn't exist, but can they say the same of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva? What about Anubis, Thor or Amaterasu?"

The reasons are exactly the same: lack of evidence, and understanding of our historical cultural tendency for making this kind of stuff up.

The focus on Christianity is perfectly understandable. It is the dominant religion in the culture of many of this sites users.

Thor-worshippers, or followers of the Greek pantheon, are not a particularly strong and worrying political force, are they?

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Permalink Reply by LeaT on August 2, 2008 at 4:02pm

Most of those people (pagans) take their religious views more on a philosophical level anyway, just like I do.

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Permalink Reply by Terry Osburn-Sharff on August 2, 2008 at 4:36pm

I think people just tend to speak against the term of religion they are most familiar with. In God is not Great Christopher Hitchens suggests we should identify ourselves as Protestant Atheists, or Catholic Atheists, etc. I happen to have an educational background in comparative religion and don't find Vishnu anymore relevant than Zeus or Yahweh, but not everyone has that kind of background. One might suppose, however, that the three monotheistic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam have had the most impact on society as a whole.

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Permalink Reply by PhillyChief on August 3, 2008 at 12:23am

It's a stupid argument by Harris. If we all started calling ourselves Glargs, then religious people would then hate the name Glarg. The name doesn't matter, and we should own the word the way other minorities have come to own their pejorative names.

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Permalink Reply by Tedster on August 3, 2008 at 1:05am

Yeah, I think your right. People often don't become atheist, because atheist tend to be invisible, the cultural support of atheism is not there for people to to feel safe to think that it is a safe philosophy to have, while others who are atheist may not feel safe to talk about it so they contribute little to the cultural support.

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Permalink Reply by Mark on August 6, 2008 at 7:05am

I agree with Harris. If you fight fire with fire everyone burns.

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Permalink Reply by Mark on August 6, 2008 at 7:03am

You've misunderstood Harris' argument. He's not suggesting we just change the name, he's suggesting we promote the foundation of atheism which theists believe is their foundation as well.

It's a way to get theists to really start to shift their beliefs and values in a more atheistic direction, without them realising it.

But if atheists don't even get the idea then I don't see it working with theists...

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Permalink Reply by PhillyChief on August 3, 2008 at 12:27am

I will fight the Jains if they want to push some crazy belief in schools too, but so far it's just christians who do that here. In fact, they're pretty much the only religion who does shit here, so they get the attention. Simple as that.

NEXT

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Permalink Reply by Sarutobi on August 3, 2008 at 11:15am

It's fundamentalists that get to you, I understand It is not necessary to be an atheist to be agains them. Atheism is much more fundamental than that, it should not be a reaction to something else, it should be the default state of things, no matter what religions surround you.

Shall I understand that you are an atheist only because of these fundamentalists?

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Permalink Reply by Фелч Гроган on August 3, 2008 at 8:49am

"atheism only through an anti-christian lens"

If this is the way it appears, it is because we live in a Western culture and its whats in our face from the moment we are born. Though kudos to Islam - they have made up remarkable ground in a very short time to earn more than equal time in my revulsion.

Personally, assuming there is some all-powerful being that is capable of creating this complexity we call the universe, then I think it is self-evident that it would shudder in absolute disgust at all the clowns that worship it and the straw houses they erect and label "true faith". That goes for Buddhists too - there are few things more nauseating than assuming crippled children did something horrible to deserve it in another life. That and their unflappable smugness.

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Permalink Reply by Sarutobi on August 3, 2008 at 11:24am

."That goes for Buddhists too - there are few things more nauseating than assuming crippled children did something horrible to deserve it in another life." It's about the sasme as christians who simply claim it to be God's will.

I guess religion just is not strong enough where I live to feel so strongly about it all. Being an atheist is mostly an intellectual thing and nobody gives a shit around here.

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Permalink Reply by Buffy on August 3, 2008 at 6:05pm

I live in the US. The majority of people here are Christians. They proselytize constantly and try to use their religion to restrict my rights as a lesbian and an atheist. They're also trying to get their religion taught in the schools ("Intelligent Design") and their prayers said aloud in the schools, as well as their religious nonsense infused into every level of the government. Other religions are not doing that. Accordingly that's why I fight against Christianity.