Ask a Catholic

[pocaracas]

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Oh... you want to learn about atheists... why didn't you say so!!

My lack of belief comes from the awareness that my brain can be fooled.... my brain, your brain everyone's brain can be fooled.
It also wants answers to questions it poses, or other people pose... when faced with the lack of information to form a reasonable answer, it will delve into speculation... from speculation comes mythology.... so, in my endeavor to be as intellectually honest with myself as possible, I choose the answer "I do not know" for the questions that, currently, go beyond what science has available... even for some of those that science provides an answer, I'll take care and use the caveat that the answer comes from science... that ten-eyed bug... we'll see if those answers pan out on the long run...

From the implicit trust people, as children, must have for their caregivers, comes indoctrination and the convincing of something for which there is no actual evidence and which, if not presented (preferably, repeatedly) at that young impressionable age, would be laughed at by the majority of the adults receiving that information for the first time.... like Santa claus.
Whether it's christianity, islam, hinduism, animism, or whatever myth... this is the religion's main generational transmission vessel.

Add in politics and the awareness of the power such beliefs have on the people's behavior, and you get a state endorsed (sometimes enforced) belief system with a whole set of rules that the people must obey, under penalty by the ultimate free baby-sitter, god.
In christianity, those rules have become essentially the moral rules some like to discuss ad nauseum (but it wasn't always so).... In islam, you have Sharia which goes into rules about exchanges and the corresponding punishments for failure to abide them.... And I'm covering more than half the world's population with these 2, so... that's enough and I'm going to bed. cya!

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I do. But there are other threads.

This is "Ask a Catholic", so let's stay focused. 

BTW - did you know that you and I are not actually discussing anything? I'm only proselytizing (having dropped all pretenses). 

Oh.... oh... you don't say!!
Proselytizing on an atheist forum?! Why you naughty boy! Is that how your ma raised you?
You deserve a spanking... I'm sure Losty will be getting around to that in a short while.

On other news, I'm an expert thread derailleur. I may derail it by making use of the OP... thus not derailing it at all... paradox!

If you wanted to learn about atheists, why didn't you start a thread where you specifically ask about atheism and how each individual has managed to peel away from the overhanging societal pressure of belief, instead of starting all these threads unrelated to your purpose?:
- Ask a catholic
- Why be good?
- The Historical Reliability of the New Testament
- Forget the Bible

Here's a suggestion for a thread title: Atheists, why don't you believe in the same thing I believe?!
And then the text would be something along the lines of:
"I can't help believing that god exists. It's just what makes sense to me. Life, the universe and everything just make perfect sense when you assume there an almighty hand behind it all and it has a plan.... and that plan is that we all believe in him. He even sent us a son to tell us how things are!
So how or why do you not see it the same way as I do?!"

You'd get a few replies with the number 42 in there, but oh well... that's to be expected.... it's what google tells us.

Why do you waste time with strawmans and misunderstandings, instead of just posing the question that's burning up inside?

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Concerning links and the 30/30 rule, if you read it well enough, you'll find that you can show us some links, provided you give us your own take on what's in the link, or give us a clear hint of what it is about the link that's so important. This applies equally to after the 30/30 rule no longer pertains to yourself, as failure to do so would fall under the spam rule and we wouldn't like that. Would you like it if I just put a link in your thread, with no other text telling you about the contents of the link... and then I'd be mad that you didn't read the contents of that link! Would that make sense?
Have I ever provided you with a link bereft of context?
The 30/30 rule is intended to spur discussion, by prohibiting the new member from posting a link to his own blog/site/facebook account/etc which would contain that member's views on the subject, pre-packaged and with no drive to remaining on this forum, nor discussing anything in here. Linking is allowed, if it supports your view... but it's not allowed if it's blatantly going into some other site where you wrote something... or where your group wrote something.
Links are supposed to be like references, or citations. You write some stuff and link to where that stuff is properly backed up... Like you could have done when you mentioned Tim O'Neill or that other EWTN article.

Once the 30/30 rule no longer applies to you, you may link to your own blog/site or whatever, but remember to keep some context and room for discussion.