Strong Atheists

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Comment by Sansdeity on December 15, 2011 at 11:27am

Posted a comment David. Hope it is to your satisfaction. Wasn't snarky or insulting, just factual.

Comment by David W on December 15, 2011 at 10:58am

I have a request. I have posted this in the following two groups: "Strong atheists" and "Winning Arguments." 

Will someone please consider commenting on an opinion letter in my local newspaper?. I would do it, but I can't state a response as eloquently as some of you. I'll be brave enough to do it someday.

Hopefully it will generate a conversation and bring out some local atheists. I know it will stir up the religious folks, but I'm betting that their responses will get some local atheists to post. I need to meet some local people like me. It's a college town, so I know they're out there. 

Article here

The Website allows for comments via Facebook and I don't expect anyone to register just to post.

Comment by Craigart14 on October 27, 2011 at 6:11pm

No, I guess they weren't.  I think, though, that I got a good reception; no one threw anything at me.

Comment by George on October 27, 2011 at 4:19pm

@Craigart14 - you filled in for a Christian - were they not planning on including an atheist at the event?

Comment by TNT666 on October 27, 2011 at 12:38pm

Humans are quite imperfect, aren't we :)

The beauty of being atheistic is I get to personally chose the value of every moment of my life, in its eco-socio-political implications, which can drive me pretty nuts sometimes. It's a good hobby, better than a lot of toxic hobbies out there :)

Comment by Craigart14 on October 27, 2011 at 8:20am

Hey, everybody.  I took part in a panel discussion at my university last night.  The topic was "Unity in Diversity," and the other panelists represented as much diversity as our little school could muster: a gay student, a lesbian, two Muslim women, a Baha'i professor, a Christian student, a Christian professor, and me.  I was filling in for an evangelical Christian who had backed out.

 

Guess what I learned?  None of these faiths, it seems, is anti-gay or exclusionary.  They all love everybody.  Who woulda thunk it?

 

One thing I noticed, though, was that while adhering to their faiths, they simply disregard the parts they don't like.  One of the Muslim girls wore a head covering, the other didn't; they both agreed that she was supposed to wear one, but she just said she didn't like them.  So I guess she follows the Koran except when it interferes with her fashion sense.  The lesbian student said she didn't care what anyone said, that she knew she was saved and she was going to heaven.  I pointed out that the apostle Paul said specifically that homosexuals could not enter the kingdom of heaven.  And so it went.

 

Why not just leave out the holy books altogether?

Comment by AtheistTech on September 5, 2011 at 5:37am

Where do we Atheists get organized so that we can voice our opinions when voting. We need to send a message to the religious right that we will no longer stand for their delusions. We need Atheists in Congress and as President in order for this country to be a leader in science and education. So, as Atheists, and hopefully, scientists, how do we get organized?

Comment by sk8eycat on August 3, 2011 at 6:46pm

@Craigart14  You wrote, "...and a lot of my understanding of the world comes from fiction."

 

Exactly!  I have heard so many people, including friends, who say things like, "Oh, I never read fiction," the same way one would say, "Oh, I would never wear sweats to a formal dinner."

 

When I have tried to explain that well-written fiction of any genre teaches more about human thoughts and feelings than all the psychology and philosophy texts in the world, they look at as if I'm crazy.  Or hopelessly declasse'

 

I did not have the opportunity to continue my formal education after high school (I had to earn a living), but I've never been able to live without my books.  I think I have learned more about people from reading mysteries, SF and fantasy fiction than my friends and acquaintances who believe that such fiction is beneath them.

 

A lot of Robert A. Heinlein's SF is hopelessly outdated as far as technological developments go, but his basic advice to young people, repeated in many different ways throuhout his novels is timeless: "Make up your own mind.  Before you make up your mind, think it through. Before you think it through, get the facts."  That's what I did when I was in my early 20s, still struggling to find the "right" religion...I discovered, on my own, that there were infinitesimally few facts to support any of them.  I stopped struggling, started living, and never looked back...except when I'm in the middle of a story where the protagonist is having similar problems.

 

Right now I'm re-reading Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Mists of Avalon, and I've reached a point where I want to slap just about everbody, from King Arthur on down, involved in the Christian/Goddess-Worship conflict.  It's a marvelous book, but some of the main characters waste their entire lives obsessing over whether or not they have committed sins, and believing their suffering is punishment for their behavior.  Nobody ever asks, "What is 'sin'?"

 

I sometimes wonder what the world would be like today if the people of the British Isles had tossed the priests out on their ears way back then.

Comment by Craigart14 on August 3, 2011 at 11:48am

There are lots of people who have faith but don't confuse faith with fact.  I'm an English professor, and a lot of my understanding of the world comes from fiction.  The difference is that I think critically about what I read and use it as a tool to teach thinking.  It doesn't really matter if Ahab really chased a white whale around the world for revenge, what the book says about evil, revenge, and obsession is still likely true.  The other difference is that secular literature generates thinking and discussion while touching our feelings.  We learn from it, but not blindly, and we don't force other people to bow down to our interpretations.  Too many people make the leap of faith only so they can look down on the rest of us--and maybe throw a few bombs.

Comment by Keith Sewell on June 5, 2011 at 12:51am

Of possible interest:

 

For the proposals of any of our theisms to inhabit the same mind as those of science can be seen to require a fundamental compartmentalization of that mind. The two systems offer logically exclusive explanations for the nature and behavior of reality. I do not understand our justification for continued maintenance of such compartmentalization. [How we can continue to say, with intellectual honesty, “I will embrace reason as my primary determinant for knowledge in this sphere, but not in this other one”. From where, or on what basis, have we been making that cut?]. If we must do it, if the best picture of reality that science and reason can now offer is still in some respects ultimately unsatisfying to human minds, then OK. But I can’t see this to be so. Instead, I think that the science/reason picture is now unsatisfying only to minds in which reason’s development has been sabotaged, through childhood incorporation of irrational proposals as the actual state of reality (i.e., as ‘truths’). Most simply, that we have been maintaining a vast negative feedback loop. My main essay, ‘Truth?’, is about making this loop visible, and then starting to wind it down.

 

http://www.poppersinversionapp.blogspot.com

 

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