(November 12, 2010 at 7:56 pm)Cando Wrote: I know you're mostly atheists, however I wondered if there are any beliefs, other than in god, that may be common among you. In other words what do you believe in?

I believe religion is bullshit, evil and wastes peoples lives.

Yeah I went there!!!

Admirable that you're trying to find a, "common denominator" if it were, among atheists in general, unfortunately the question you posed, while polite is illegitimate because atheism tells you nothing about what a person actually believes, it is a rejection of theistic claims as insufficient or not demonstrated to be true.

I'm an atheist and I believe that Richard Beeching's report to rationalise and axe most of Britain's railway infrastructure was possibly one of mankind's most ill-conceived counterintuitive ideas ever to date. In the space of decades he and the bureaucracy that was the BTC undid hundreds of years of progress and engineering. Figuratively speaking, I believe the British Rail network can be likened to the arteries and veins of an animal - you cut those and subsequently starve parts of the body (Britain).

That does mean other atheists like me also think Beeching & co were complete twats for isolating communities and making us take the long way to work everyday via cramped buses? Not necessarily, many of us hold different positions on different topic matters.

I believe that organised religion is one of the biggest evils that the world has ever known.

Oh and I believe that because thats were the evidence leads.

I believe that celibacy is the most asinine thing ever devised by the Catholics.

(November 12, 2010 at 8:50 pm)annatar Wrote: I believe in.. pineapples maybe?...

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(November 12, 2010 at 8:46 pm)Cando Wrote: I'm not a sap.

Then why do you believe ?

Because I feel like it. And I'm not a sap. But I do know a few saps.

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(November 12, 2010 at 9:23 pm)Minimalist Wrote:

(November 12, 2010 at 8:46 pm)Cando Wrote: I'm not a sap.

If the shoe fits.....

If not, so much the better.

But there is no evidence for any of the gods created by man.

Including yours.

I'll throw my shoe at you in a minute.

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(November 12, 2010 at 10:20 pm)Shell B Wrote: There are no common beliefs among atheists. Some might believe in fairies, though I am sure most do not. If you want to find people with common beliefs, go to a church. Atheists have common knowledge of one thing only. Sorry to disappoint.

I should think there's a lot of arguing amongst atheists in that case. And a lot of snobbery. Not a very unified or effective group at all. No wonder you don't get anything done.

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(November 13, 2010 at 12:48 am)Skipper Wrote:

(November 12, 2010 at 7:56 pm)Cando Wrote: I know you're mostly atheists, however I wondered if there are any beliefs, other than in god, that may be common among you. In other words what do you believe in?

I believe religion is bullshit, evil and wastes peoples lives.

Yeah I went there!!!

It shows.

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(November 13, 2010 at 6:21 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: I believe that organised religion is one of the biggest evils that the world has ever known.

Oh and I believe that because thats were the evidence leads.

That's an idiotic view. Not that you're an idiot.

I don't so much believe but instead have weird ideas.

One of my favourites and just as unfalsifiable as any religion is that reincarnation is true and that when we die, not only can we come back as any sentient entity in the Cosmos but we also are not limited by time. So, for my next lifetime, I could quite easily come back as someone who lived in the 10th century just as easily as I could come back as someone in the 22nd century.

This then poses the possibility that every single conscious lifeform that has ever been and will ever be is in fact the same person constantly getting reincarnated until they have been everyone.

So, if we are all then the same person the only question is, have I been you yet or is that still to come?

(November 13, 2010 at 7:14 am)Cando Wrote: Because I feel like it. And I'm not a sap. But I do know a few saps.

You have no valid reason or justification for your beliefs then. How you feel about reality is irrelevant and irrational if you allow that to dictate what you claim to know or understand about the real world. What I feel has no bearing on what is actually demonstrably real.

Quote:I should think there's a lot of arguing amongst atheists in that case. And a lot of snobbery. Not a very unified or effective group at all. No wonder you don't get anything done.

Because we care about epistemology, truth, empiricism, what has proven to exist/manifest and so on, and reject what cannot stand up to moderate scrutiny, examination and investigation as utter nonsense, unlike you.

(November 13, 2010 at 7:29 am)Darwinian Wrote: One of my favourites and just as unfalsifiable as any religion is that reincarnation is true and that when we die, not only can we come back as any sentient entity in the Cosmos but we also are not limited by time. So, for my next lifetime, I could quite easily come back as someone who lived in the 10th century just as easily as I could come back as someone in the 22nd century.

This then poses the possibility that every single conscious lifeform that has ever been and will ever be is in fact the same person constantly getting reincarnated until they have been everyone.

So, if we are all then the same person the only question is, have I been you yet or is that still to come?

WE ARE OF THE SAME MIND! hock:

I've mused over this same concept.

(November 13, 2010 at 7:14 am)Cando Wrote: I should think there's a lot of arguing amongst atheists in that case. And a lot of snobbery. Not a very unified or effective group at all. No wonder you don't get anything done.

As opposed to theists? *glances over at Israel*

(November 13, 2010 at 7:14 am)Cando Wrote:

(November 13, 2010 at 6:21 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: I believe that organised religion is one of the biggest evils that the world has ever known.

Oh and I believe that because thats were the evidence leads.

That's an idiotic view. Not that you're an idiot.

I struggle to name one single man made concept or event that has caused more deaths and suffering than organised religion. Even when you do find some, such as WW2 (even though it's hard to completely rule out religion as playing a part) it's also hard to ignore the fact that such a supposedly peaceful concept, that it's followers constantly tell us it is, obviously isn't or it wouldn't have been the sole reason millions and millions of people have lost their lives over the course of human history.

(November 13, 2010 at 6:21 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: I believe that organised religion is one of the biggest evils that the world has ever known.

Oh and I believe that because thats were the evidence leads.


That's an idiotic view. Not that you're an idiot.

You have to discount an awful lot of history to come to the conclusion that religion is not at least a bit evil.

It polarises societies, causing rifts were there should be none. Look at Ireland and the whole of the middle east.

It has always been thus, from the aztecs ripping out beating hearts to the spanish inquisition and the islamic subjucation of women. The worlds religions no matter what the intentions of the founders, have all ended up being corrupted to a lesser or greater extent.

In england we have had both catholic and protestant pogroms, each side trying to out do each the in the persecution stakes. (read about the tudor and stewart eras).

I had replied to this earlier but I think my t'internet was playing up and it did not appear.