The Atheism Thread - Part 5

[KevanG]

I think the answer is somewhere along the lines of 178,910,723.64382

YAY CALCULATORS!

I got 4.

 

[Lily Adler]

I think the answer is somewhere along the lines of 178,910,723.64382

YAY CALCULATORS!

So we should worship robots?

 

[KevanG]

No. Don't be silly.

Robots don't respect worship. We must revere them!

 

[Lily Adler]

Well we do molest their young, so I can see why they would want to kill us.

 

[Feenix]

This soulless heathen thread has been quiet. In the spirit of Christmas:

 

[Dispatch Ninja]

My mother-in-law was freaking out that we're celebrating birthdays/holidays with my daughters (my mother-in-law is a Jehovah's witness), her ranting to me sounded like the delusions of a crazy woman.

 

[regwec]

As an atheist, Christmas is one of my favourite times of year. I celebrate it like our pagan forebears did: with food, friends and family. Instead of sitting in a drafty church to allay any sense of guilt, I send money to charity. I feel this is less hypocritical and does more good.

 

[SpideyVille]

I had this thought earlier, but I know how a lot of people, whether they are devoutly religious or just casually religious, say that they have faith in God for this or for that to happen. But that's sort of what bothered me about my time in church because they made it seem like nothing could happen without God's doing. I know sometimes they would speak of grace and favor in the eyes of man, but what I grew to believe after that was that its important to also have faith in man and in yourself.

For example, I auditioned for a musical at my school and one of my co-workers said they'll pray for me and have faith in God and stuff. But to me, if God truly exists, I believe he only provides opportunities, not results and it is up to us to achieve those results based on the opportunities presented. Like I never liked those Christians who felt they deserved better privileges than others for what they believed, as opposed to what they do, meaning they expect God to give them something because they are "good", and not because they earned it.

I don't know, I just had that thought and felt like sharing.

 

[regwec]

It's an interesting point. I think it goes with monotheism generally- if you believe in a god who is omnipotent and omniscient, then you have to go whining to them about every little thing. Compare that to ancient Romans or Greeks, who would sacrifice to the relevant god if they wanted something to go well (let's say Ceres before planting crops, or Terminus before buying a holiday home), and just conclude that the gods weren't listening if it didn't.

I think the latter is preferable because it leads to a less needy, entitled attitude to the world.

Of course, better still is just to rely on yourself.

 

[Feenix]

I had this thought earlier, but I know how a lot of people, whether they are devoutly religious or just casually religious, say that they have faith in God for this or for that to happen. But that's sort of what bothered me about my time in church because they made it seem like nothing could happen without God's doing. I know sometimes they would speak of grace and favor in the eyes of man, but what I grew to believe after that was that its important to also have faith in man and in yourself.

For example, I auditioned for a musical at my school and one of my co-workers said they'll pray for me and have faith in God and stuff. But to me, if God truly exists, I believe he only provides opportunities, not results and it is up to us to achieve those results based on the opportunities presented. Like I never liked those Christians who felt they deserved better privileges than others for what they believed, as opposed to what they do, meaning they expect God to give them something because they are "good", and not because they earned it.

I don't know, I just had that thought and felt like sharing.

It's like when people say you didn't pray hard enough or you sinned too much and that's why you didn't get what you wanted or why something bad happened to you.

I find it very hard to believe that if there was an all-powerful, all-knowing god who created the entire universe, he would give a crap about the meaningless things we do in our lives. Like you said about the woman who prayed for you to get a part in the musical, why would god care? You would think he has more important prayers to answer. For every person that attributes their successes to god, that means he didn't answer someone else's prayers about saving their family from a tornado, or providing rain in a drought to feed a nation, or ensuring that a heart transplant goes well, etc etc.

Religion, to me, is the epitome of narcissism.

 

[Piper Maru]

Reasonably Certain
[YT]m15lVvspDXg[/YT]
I'm reasonably certain the Sun will rise tomorrow. I'm reasonably certain Scarlett Johansson is female. I'm reasonably certain the Bible and the Qur'an are just books.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I find the idea of a personal deity to be incredibly childish. But it is sort of ingrained in us. Intellectually though, it's one thing to say that there is some sort of force that set the universe into motion, but him actively keeping an eye on your every act?

The most ridiculous display has to be praying before baseball games, or Tebowing. Like the all mighty creator of the universe actually cares about you, much less your football game. Even when I believed in a god I found that ridiculous, if not outright offensive, to the people who were praying for things of importance (like you know, parents who had children with terminal diseases).

Even if you believe in an omnipotent god, that doesn't mean that he is so bored that he cares about your silly game.

 

[Piper Maru]

^

The last time I mentioned that to someone, I was told that we were created for his "purposes" after all.

 

[regwec]

As an atheist who believes Jesus sounds like he was a decent bloke, I often wonder how much he and some self righteous modern Christians would hate each other.

 

[SpideyVille]

It's like when people say you didn't pray hard enough or you sinned too much and that's why you didn't get what you wanted or why something bad happened to you.

I find it very hard to believe that if there was an all-powerful, all-knowing god who created the entire universe, he would give a crap about the meaningless things we do in our lives. Like you said about the woman who prayed for you to get a part in the musical, why would god care? You would think he has more important prayers to answer. For every person that attributes their successes to god, that means he didn't answer someone else's prayers about saving their family from a tornado, or providing rain in a drought to feed a nation, or ensuring that a heart transplant goes well, etc etc.

Religion, to me, is the epitome of narcissism.

Exactly, like if anything I would have told her to pray that things work out for the best for me. But even then I realized while I was still in church that by doing that, you're basically asking to go through a lot of crap first so that you can enjoy something else later on, and even that is something that I do not want.

That's why I always liked the quote about how if you ask God for patience, he doesn't give you patience, but rather an opportunity to be patient because it goes to show how in the end, we as people really have the power. There are people like my mom ho will sit on the couch all day, or sit in a church all day and expect things to just go their way. But I've realized that you need to put some kind of effort in yourself because that's how the world really works.

 

[Warhammer]

Exactly, like if anything I would have told her to pray that things work out for the best for me. But even then I realized while I was still in church that by doing that, you're basically asking to go through a lot of crap first so that you can enjoy something else later on, and even that is something that I do not want.

That's why I always liked the quote about how if you ask God for patience, he doesn't give you patience, but rather an opportunity to be patient because it goes to show how in the end, we as people really have the power. There are people like my mom ho will sit on the couch all day, or sit in a church all day and expect things to just go their way. But I've realized that you need to put some kind of effort in yourself because that's how the world really works.

That is so true.

 

[Feenix]

Big win for science in Texas, they voted down the creationists' agenda and the publisher of the books, Pearson, has said that if the creationists interfere again, they won't publish textbooks for Texas anymore. Hurrah for reason!

 

[regwec]

Big win for science sanity in Texas, they voted down the creationists' agenda and the publisher of the books, Pearson, has said that if the creationists interfere again, they won't publish textbooks for Texas anymore. Hurrah for reason! humanity!

There you go.

 

[Feenix]

Good call.

 

[Piper Maru]

God: The Love Born of Terror
[YT]UcrJ2HFKogs[/YT]
Religion is a love born of terror. Like children, we WILL love what takes our fear away as if it WERE our parent. But a good parent never fills its child with shame or an inferiority complex.

 

[Feenix]

SentinelMind and Human Torch are really trying to make themselves as unpopular as possible on the forum. They must think they're martyrs or something. It's actually really frustrating to read just about bigoted and stupid some people are. It's amazing they get through their daily lives filled with so much judgement. Sounds exhausting.

 

[regwec]

Can't remember who either of them are, but my subconscious is beckoning to the word "moron" on both counts.

 

[Thundercrack85]

SentinelMind and Human Torch are really trying to make themselves as unpopular as possible on the forum. They must think they're martyrs or something. It's actually really frustrating to read just about bigoted and stupid some people are. It's amazing they get through their daily lives filled with so much judgement. Sounds exhausting.

You know, maybe it's my imagination but there seem to be more of them lately.

 

[Piper Maru]

I want to believe that those two are truly nice, down to earth people.

 

[Thundercrack85]

I want to believe that those two are truly nice, down to earth people.

I think you can give up on the latter.