Quote:They'll come here every now and then whether you need them or not. But some of you may think that I'm one of them, too, so perhaps I shouldn't be mocking him either.

Rayaan: Religious>? Certainly. Closed minded? Compared with most religious we get here,open minded and reasonable. Arsehole? Not that I've noticed. In fact I like the persona you show here and could easily be friends in real life. (assuming you have any kafir friends)

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I think what's- his-name ( an embarrassment even for a Catholic) was a cowgull-- Flew over and dropped a big sludgy turd containing no solids at all.

(April 14, 2011 at 12:24 am)bliss Wrote: If atheism is simply a non-belief in God, then no one is an atheist. I don't mean that "everyone believes in God, they just don't know it." I mean that atheism is an attribute of an ideology, but it isn't an identity in itself.

I've had several conversations with atheists that goes something like this:

"God doesn't exist. He's a fantasy just like the tooth fairy or santa claus."
"Well, what do you believe, if you don't believe in God?"
"It's not about what I believe, the burden of proof is on you. You are the one who believes."

I may be the one who believes in God, but I am not the only one who believes. All people believe. Making inferences about reality is a necessary part of survival for humans. Atheism is just a general term for belief systems not based upon God.

IMO, if you can't admit that you have your own beliefs, you are a coward. You are afraid to have your beliefs questioned, put under the same skepticism that you use against those that believe in God. Marx was a communist. Bertrand Russel was a rationalist. The Dalai Lama is a Buddhist. All these men are atheists, but they all have a specific system of ideology that is debatable in reasonable terms. To just call yourself an atheist without saying what you do believe in a debate is to have the discussion drowned in irrationality.

This is mostly what I've seen so far on this forum. Most of you don't have a formulated idea on anything, you just hate. It's the same kind of prejudice that many religious people function under. If that's what truly disgusts you about religion, perhaps you could realize that you don't need a religion to be a bigot. You also don't have to be a bigot to be religious.

So, atheism doesn't exist because it's not a fully-developed ideology. Um, even if it exists as a subset of an ideology, it still exists. And, oh, look, your last paragraph seems to note that people on this forum don't seem to have any notion of a formulated ideology apart from being atheists (I can certainly see this with some of us, like Minimalist), but I have to ask: how does that observation square at all with the point you were trying to tell?

(April 14, 2011 at 7:23 pm)Cinjin Cain Wrote:

(April 14, 2011 at 5:43 pm)fr0d0 Wrote: A psychologist might see a lot of people acting out here.

Defending one's own belief system is now considered 'acting out' ??? Good one.

Demonstrating what you've been accused of doesn't seem a very good defence to me. But there you go.

A coward is somebody who never questions what they are told, and never seeks the truth for themselve. A coward accepts things the way they are and never goes against them. A coward is somebody who is afraid and wishes for somebody else to save them. A coward is somebody who refuses to look at logic and reason. A coward is somebody who denies the facts and sticks to blind faith.

(April 15, 2011 at 4:53 am)JohnDG Wrote: A coward is somebody who never questions what he is told, and never seeks the truth for himself. A coward accepts things the way they are and never goes against them. A coward is somebody who is afraid and wishes for somebody else to save them. A coward is somebody who refuses to look at logic and reason. A coward is somebody who denies the facts and sticks to blind faith.

Best description I've heard to date for a "religious person" of any flavour....

(April 14, 2011 at 8:30 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: I have beliefs. I believe that coffee was the best 'accidental' horticultural discovery, beer waste is a sin (especially Guinness), and that one day Gerard Butler is going to pause his busy schedule and bring that incredibly attractive Scottish accent of his to my door and tell me he's all mine for the next two nights.

I thought gerard butler was Irish so i looked it up, he IS from scotland.
You learn new things all the time here dont you.

He is most definitely Scottish, and that adorable piece of Gaelic meat could do nothing better than showing up on my porch in nothing but a kilt.

(April 15, 2011 at 10:30 am)thesummerqueen Wrote: He is most definitely Scottish, and that adorable piece of Gaelic meat could do nothing better than showing up on my porch in nothing but a kilt.

Are kilts sexy then?

They look scratchy to me.

(April 15, 2011 at 10:43 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: Are kilts sexy then?

They look scratchy to me.

Good grief yes.

(April 15, 2011 at 10:43 am)downbeatplumb Wrote: Are kilts sexy then?

They look scratchy to me.

Don't know about the sexy part, but a good kilt is not scratchy at all.