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

I'm sorry but atheism is not a religion. There is no organized beliefs of ideals. It is simply the lack of belief in a higher power or god. And trendiness? Really? I mean REALLY? Religion or the keck there of is not a trend. You either believe something or you don't. If your whole family is christain or Muslim or Jewish or astrozanarians for that matter and the trend of following those ideologies is on the rise and you say "Hey guys, this us cool I'm a .... Too" you are not. The reverse is true also, if you say your an atheist because it's trendy but u believe in god(s) or any form of higher power, guess what! Your not. It's not a like or dislike of different aspects because if you take parts of different religions and mesh them together, you just created a new religion........! And still atheism us not a religion, we have no place of anti-worship, we do not activly try to recruit anti-believers, and do not start crusades and wars and cause mass death and hysteria*.

*a few eaten babies here and there are not included in this remark.
 
Atheism really irritates me, because it's generally completely negative. Almost every self-proclaimed "atheist" I have ever heard or seen, has been focused entirely on shooting down, undermining, and ridiculing other belief systems. Which, IMO, is utterly pointless! You don't change people's beliefs by telling them how stupid they are.
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i dont think most atheists are in the business of changing peoples beliefs, more like laying out the bare facts and teaching people to have a more critical, skeptical thinking apprach.

the thing is, although atheists might try to debate with theists about the validity of their beliefs, at least atheist will never kill people for their beliefs or start any wars.
 
^that's the wrongest thing ever. Hitler/Stalin/Mao. QED. Lazy science indeed...

I hate nihilism. It disgusts me as intellectual cowardice. I hate snobbery for obvious reasons. A group that is based largely on nihilism and snobbery can go fuck themselves.
Well maybe nihilism isn't intellectual cowardice, but it is cowardice or laziness in some way.
It absolutely is a religion in the anthropological sense of the word. It's a belief about a higher power, anything spiritual is religion to some degree. It's just a matter of semantics
 
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^ Godwin's law. Congratulations, you just lost the thread. Hitler was also vegetarian and wore clothes, therefore we should only ever eat meat and be naked all the time.

Oh, and you should actually read Mein Kampf sometime if you want to make such claims with any accuracy. If you did, you'd see that he was professing that he was doing god's work. Whether he believed it or not, his adherents surely did.

Stalin and Mao were removing all forms of influence within their states that were not themselves. Mao had also built up a cult of personality around himself, and would not permit people to adore anything but him. I would guess that their motivation was less centred around "atheism is superior to religion" and more around "these people, over whom I have little to no control, have influence-- they should be removed".

Still a pointless argument though, since religion has killed far more people than a few 20th century despots.
 
Not a pointless argument atheists killed people. Therefore his estimate was off by tens of millions.
And the thread was dead mad long before I showed up. I just wanted to put a nail in it.

Actually you're right it IS a pointless argument, but it's not any more pointless than the rest of the arguments in this thread. It's certainly no more pointless than your post.
The thing is it's human nature that kills people, not religions. That's why it's equally pointless. People fight over territory, resources, and all sorts of things. Hitler is just as mad as the fundamentalists who blow themselves up, obviously, but he was somehow able to convince a whole nation of people to do his bidding. But fundamentalists getting conflated with other religious folk is just a willful glossing over of the divisions within ANY subset of people, thus a pointless argument.
 
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I'm an atheist. I used to think I was "better" or smarter than religious people. But I'm glaz I realized so young (I'm 19) that none of that all matters so I'm not going through life hating others for differences that hardly amount to anything. Why should I care what you believe in and why should you care what I believe in? I think what's important is what kind of a person you are and if you're doing good things. Let people live their lives the way that makes THEM happy, and don't try to change people's beliefs because you think you're making them happier people. Not everyone feels the same way about everything. Arguing about religion is just each side throwing petty insults at each other disguised as intelligent arguments. I especially hate it when atheists go around calling religious people stupid just because they don't share the same view because it makes me, an atheist, look just as ignorant as them *sigh*.

That being said, I almost feel like atheism isn't a choice for me. I don't think I could believe in ANY religion even if I wanted to, not just Christianity. I do like atheism because I'm not worrying about pleasing a god or deity, I just live for myself and loved ones. I also like the idea of there not being fate, anything could happen depending on what you do. Lastly I like believing there is no afterlife. I don't know why but the thought of eternal consciousness scares the hell out of me. I don't quite understand why you'd want to "live" forever in an afterlife.

As for dislikes, I think people who have some sort of faith take comfort in feeling there is a being that is always there for them and cares for them. I also feel religious people share some sort of special connection with each other because they share and understand that faith. I've read atheists are the least trusted group of people in America I believe it was. Even less trusted than Muslims or gays. That isn't fair to me as they don't even know me (just as it isn't fair to any group to be stereotyped). I have better morals than most anyone I know because my parents raised me well. I doubt anyone would suspect me being an atheist, but once they found out it could completely change their opinion of me for the worse. Its like being in the atheist closet.

Overall though I wouldn't change my views on religion/atheism. I'm happy with myself.
 
I don't like most people's theism because of how it makes them act "in fear of god" at every turn, or acting out of "fear of going to hell." That's such a dishonest way to live life, and I think it's such a shame that such metaphors have been totally misrepresented in culture.
 
most atheists i've met have a disregard for spirituality that i personally find offensive. don't get me wrong, mohammed was an arab and jesus was a jew and hitler was a whitey and buddha was a fat bastard. AND they all hated witchcraft. but belief is all that you really have, and no matter what it is, people should respect it. no matter how utterly stupid they might find it. now matter how put-a-gun-to-my-head-rather-than-continue-this-conversation they might feel it is. i think i got that from H.P. Lovecraft. This is a 'from-memory' quote but: Whose to say that the reality you experience within your dreams is any less valuable than the reality you experience when you are awake." Most atheists i've met disregard these questions out of hand, because they're starting to sound a little too magical. again, don't get me wrong... but hey, to end my answer, i'm a pantheist... it's possibly easier if you just wiki that XD
 
sorry if this is a lame tangeant from topic question, but sidenote: does anyone else think the world would be infinitely better AND more religious if all children were raised without religion, but encouraged to discover their own beliefs? sorry if that's like a "do you want me to stab you in the face" kind of question
 
echo off said:
sorry if this is a lame tangeant from topic question, but sidenote: does anyone else think the world would be infinitely better AND more religious if all children were raised without religion, but encouraged to discover their own beliefs? sorry if that's like a "do you want me to stab you in the face" kind of question
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At the very least it would be interesting to see what happened. Not sure if it would be better or worse overall. I think it would be better that way for kids of parents who believe their god wants them to hurt/kill people in the god's name. But I suppose even then, who's to say they wouldn't teach their kids to hate anyway.
 
I know a few self described atheists. It really just seems that they don't give a shit and would rather live in life than an array of endless, pointless thought streams. Good on them, I say!
 
Atheism is not a religion. The word itself implies its meaning. Atheism is the lack of a theism, hence, A-theism. Calling a lack of belief on a god a religion is simply wrong.

You're also confusing atheism with science. Now there is of course opinion and no one can truly KNOW that they're right in the strictest sense of the word, but science is based on observation of our surroundings and drawing conclusions from those observations. Once there are no contradictory observations we call these conclusions facts.

Religion is not based on observations of the surrounding world but rather is learnt from books written by people. There is no reason to believe anything written in a religious text, not because I think it's wrong, or I "believe" that there is no god, but rather there is no evidence to suggest that it is correct. Just like you can believe that eating cereal on a tuesday will cause cancer. Sure believe it, don't eat cereal on tuesdays, no ones stopping you. But unless you can prove that it does don't preach to me and certainly don't use that belief to influence your logic and reasoning when it comes to morality.

I'm a liberal I don't mind religion as long as its kept to ones self, but as soon as it starts influencing other peoples rights to abortion, homosexuality, euthanasia and others then I have a problem with it. You can argue against those things but if you bring up god, don't except reasonable to have the pateince to listen to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9uIMR8yCPg
 
Portillo said:
Buddhists dont believe in God either, why is it a religion?
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It's not. It's wrongly classified as a religion. Richard Dawkins even mentions it in The God delusion and argues that it's a way of life. I like buddishm, the monks who set themselves on fire in vietnam inspired me to look into it. That's true empathy and compassion and anything that gives you that much self control must have something to it and should be respected. As soon as other religions produce people who are equally awesome (in the literal sense of the word) then I will perhaps be more willing to listen. Instead it produces lunatics who murderer each other, whether it be muslim suicide bombers or the christians like Scott Roeder. Some might argue that although perhaps wrong it is equally impressive, but its no, it shows anger. Anyone can be spiteful enough to cut of their nose, that doesn't require religion, anything can stir that up, religion, politics, jealousy. But to truly sacrifice yourself as those monks did is something different entirely.
 
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areas where bhuddism evolved did see their fair share of superstition, magical thinking, etc. many areas still do. so bhuddism isn't only a philosophy for everyone. for some, it's as big as a religion in their existential reality, even if it's usually nontheist.

so the question of whether bhuddism is a religion ignores how differently different people come across and use bhuddism. sometimes it can be a religion, sometimes it isn't.
 
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