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What aspects of the atheist religion do you like/dislike?

What aspects of the atheist religion do I dislike?

My complete inability to find an atheistic church or place of worship.

Can anyone point me out to what I'm doing wrong?
 
^Looking for an atheist church for starters... ;)
 
Many Unitarian Universalist congregations have active atheists who are happy with their church. Part of this is that UU's don't really have any shared spiritual doctrine (just a set of principles guiding how they search).

ebola
 
It all breaks down to this, anyone claiming absolute certainty of anything is a fool. I don't care if you think you're absolutely certain because of a personal experience or scientific fact, there is always the possibility that you are hallucinating or just factually wrong. I live my life with high degrees of certainty, not absolute certainty.

Ninae don't you realize that your experience could be a product of your mind creating a fantasy? How did you know that this experience was other worldly?
 
Whether someone is right or wrong about something, they can still have absolute certainty in what they believe in... especially if their experience is compelling enough.
 
Atheists who discovered atheism through the Internet, or via atheist "leaders" I posted about are the worst. They want everyone to think as they do and think they’re so educated, but they’ve actually been indoctrinated pretty much the same way they claim others have been by religion or spirituality. It’s quite pathetic actually and gotten very old. I’m not ultra-religious, but I remove and ignore any atheists who go on stupid atheist rants/debates, confrontations/attacks on Facebook, and other sites. Believe what you want, but do so peacefully.

I also find it highly amusing when so-called 'Buddhists' from Western societies think that Buddhism is equal, or akin to Agnosticism or Atheism. When in reality it is not. I have friends from India who are all types of religions, and spiritualities, and these people also find it funny when people who are not really actually Buddhist or who do not know a lot about Buddhism think that this religion is basically Agnosticism, or Atheism.
 
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I find it hard to believe most instances where someone says we can all just believe what we like. It is a wonderful idea but if you refuse to hear anymore then that is simply being dismissive.
 
I'm sorry, I'm sure this has already been said but atheism is not a religion.
In fact that fact that someone would try and relate the word atheism to something... Just.
Nevermind.

I'm sure this has grown in to a really intelligent discussion.
(srsly)
 
^Semantics.

Pretty much anything can take on religious attributes.
Elvis fans border on religious, sometimes... Doesn't mean that Elvis is a religious figure for everyone, but he certainly can be.

I'm sure this has grown in to a really intelligent discussion.
(srsly)
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Maybe you should try reading the thread, rather than pissing on it.

ebola said:
I don't actually know anyone who was raised "atheist".
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I was raised atheist, in the sense that my parents were not open to religion (at all). I never asked them the question "What happens when we die?" but - even if I did and they said they didn't know (I, honestly, think they'd say nothing happens and you just die) - I'd still consider my upbringing to be atheist... Because, nobody knows - atheist, theist, agnostic. It's about belief, and my parents made it pretty clear that they didn't believe.
 
It's about belief, and my parents made it pretty clear that they didn't believe.
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Right, but the question is to whether they raised you to believe what they believe.

ebola
 
They weren't forceful with any of their beliefs, but that doesn't mean they didn't raise me.
I was raised atheist, as much as I was raised with any of their values...

I think what you're saying is that nobody is raised atheist in the same way that people are raised Christian?
People are certainly raised atheist, but - perhaps - not in a religious way.
 
I didn't mean to imply that I believe that no one is raised atheist (rather, I literally meant that I hadn't run into anyone properly and explicitly raised atheist).

People are certainly raised atheist, but - perhaps - not in a religious way.
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I was actually being a bit sloppy in my overall reasoning, but I can agree with this.

ebola
 
Oh, okay. Sorry.
I did assume you were implying that nobody is raised atheist.

:)

Never mind.
Carry on.
 
I no longer really identify as an atheist since I broadened my perspective on the definition of god. I don't believe in intelligent design, or that there is an omniscient god, and I think prescriptive religions make little sense. But, I am open to the idea that some kind of sentient being(s) may have inadvertently created the Universe, or life as we know it in some way.

I still find it funny that a lot of religious people seem so determined to put atheism into a specific box so they can criticize it as a religion. I don't understand why it is commonly accepted that someone who is Catholic or Muslim (or any other mainstream religion) is allowed to essentially pick and choose which aspects of the religion they believe more strongly, in many cases completely disregarding important parts of their faith, and still be classified as a follower of that religion. But apparently, atheists are only allowed this one interpretation, and any other interpretation is cheating somehow, or automatically makes one an agnostic.

From my perspective, one can very justifiably identify as an atheist from an empiricist perspective. If one believes there is no evidence for god then they could very rationally conclude that there is no god, that doesn't mean that they are not open to the possibility of the existence of god if the evidence was presented. There is a difference between outright denying the existence of something, and believing that there is currently no reason whatsoever to think that thing exists, but I believe both positions can accurately be described as atheism.

I see religion as the faithful belief in something which has not been proven, whereas atheism is the complete lack of faith in something which has not been proven. You can be critical of atheism all you like, but these positions are not the same thing at all.

I could very reasonably claim that there is no cure for AIDS on the basis that one is not currently known (that I am aware of). My claim that there is no cure for AIDS is not equivalent to my saying it is absolutely impossible that we will ever find a cure for AIDS, or that my position could not possibly be a false belief. It is reasonable to make a generalisation that what is not proven does not exist, however, this claim is not equivalent to saying that the only things which exist are those which we have already proven to exist. In this instance the language of disbelief serves a different function than the outright denial of something.

I understand why people get frustrated with militant atheists who get in peoples faces about it and/or mock them for their faith. These people do behave in a way similar to some religious people, because they take their belief beyond an acknowledgement for the lack of proof in something and turn it into an absolutely certain belief. However, I believe it is a mistake to think these are the only people who can identify as atheist.
 
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this:

"atheism isn't a religion - i don't have a religion. religion is believing in false stuff, everything i believe in is true"

in my religion, we talk about 'dharma' which goes like this:

Dharma has the Sanskrit root dhri, which means "that which upholds" or "that without which nothing can stand" or "that which maintains the stability and harmony of the universe." Dharma encompasses the natural, innate behavior of things, duty, law, ethics, virtue, etc. Every entity in the cosmos has its particular dharma ― from the electron, which has the dharma to move in a certain manner, to the clouds, galaxies, plants, insects, and of course, man. Man's understanding of the dharma of inanimate things is what we now call physics.
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i dislike having to do this semantic nonsense to ask someone about their belief system
 
tantric said:
"atheism isn't a religion - i don't have a religion. religion is believing in false stuff, everything i believe in is true"
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There are undoubtedly atheists who take the attitude you describe but I think it is pretty unfair and simplistic to attribute this view to all (or even a majority) of atheists. There is a difference between saying "I don't believe in anything that there isn't strong empirical evidence for" and "everything I believe is correct". A very big difference imho.

People who attribute identical reasoning to all atheists are being just as closed minded as they tend to accuse atheists of being.
 
drug_mentor said:
There are undoubtedly atheists who take the attitude you describe but I think it is pretty unfair and simplistic to attribute this view to all (or even a majority) of atheists. There is a difference between saying "I don't believe in anything that there isn't strong empirical evidence for" and "everything I believe is correct". A very big difference imho.

People who attribute identical reasoning to all atheists are being just as closed minded as they tend to accuse atheists of being.
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that's not what i meant at all. i'm an atheist, for that matter. i was saying that people who do the above are what i don't like about atheism - the fanatics/close minded set. i didn't mean it as a stereotype, my bad.
 
Sorry mate, I completely misunderstood you!

I agree that people who do what you describe are what gives atheists a bad name, unfortunately, it seems a lot of theists seem to think they are the only type of atheist. As we are both aware, that is not the case. :)
 
drug_mentor said:
Sorry mate, I completely misunderstood you!

I agree that people who do what you describe are what gives atheists a bad name, unfortunately, it seems a lot of theists seem to think they are the only type of atheist. As we are both aware, that is not the case. :)
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it's part of what i call antitheism - people who for emotional or personal reason just hate religion or god, and then find rationalization to support themselves. there are a lot of people on the far left like this, too - stalinists who just want to kill people, etc.

buddhism, at least theravada, admits the potential existence of powerful non-human beings and higher planes, but the buddha identified most of those beings as worship addicts and attention whores, who have nothing to offer seekers of nirvana. only humans have the right balance of suffering and intelligence to break free of the cycle. then mahayana came along and said that gods could become buddhists and aid buddhists along the path, out of pure good will, and gain karma to be reborn as humans. i see that as the path of Yahweh in the oldtestament - he died, was reborn as a human and became a bodhisattva on the cross. thus there are 'buddhist gods' - gods that follow buddhism, not gods that buddhist worship (though it is part of the folk religion)

me? no interest in the OneGod, i associate the bodhisattvas (beings who forgo enlightenments until all other beings are saved) with lilly' Coincidence Control Central and the bodhisattva vow with the agent contract. sui generis american buddhist, but still technically atheist
. mainstream atheists don't take well to that, and seem to completely lack a sense of humor ;-)
 
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