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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 11:19 am
(April 14, 2017 at 9:48 am)Longhorn Wrote: Yo mama.
"Every luxury has a deep price. Every indulgence, a cosmic cost. Each fiber of pleasure you experience causes equivalent pain somewhere else. This is the first law of emodynamics [sic]. Joy can be neither created nor destroyed. The balance of happiness is constant.
Fact: Every time you eat a bite of cake, someone gets horsewhipped.
Facter: Every time two people kiss, an orphanage collapses.
Factest: Every time a baby is born, an innocent animal is severely mocked for its physical appearance. Don't be a pleasure hog. Your every smile is a dagger. Happiness is murder.
Vote "yes" on Proposition 1321. Think of some kids. Some kids."
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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 6:58 pm
(April 13, 2017 at 7:56 pm)mh.brewer Wrote: Science.
Changing to reason/rational.
Being told you're delusional does not necessarily mean you're mental.
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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 7:22 pm
In the future the Christian religion will be considered myth. Why should the concept of a single god be any more real than say Osiris, Zeus, Odin or any of the other "Gods". We reject the idea that those "Gods" ever existed so why should it be any different with the Christian God. If all those other "Gods" who made the earth and people (however they accomplished it) why should we consider the Christian Myth any different?
Why should the Christian (Jewish, Muslim) god have any more validity than all those others who have fallen by the wayside along the way.
Considering the above I cannot see why I should not be a rabid atheist. I know, I know, someone(s) going to hit the old "That doesn't prove there is no God.". But it seems to me to be a very good argument for the absence of the single god professed by the afore mentioned religions (or any gods for than matter).
Robert
Today is the best day of my life and tomorrow will be even better.
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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 7:27 pm
(April 14, 2017 at 9:54 am)emjay Wrote: (April 14, 2017 at 9:18 am)Brian37 Wrote: Muslim=I like what I was sold.
Jew=I like what I was sold.
Christian=I like what I was sold.
Buddhist=I like what I was sold.
Hindu=I like what I was sold.
Awesome, good for you, but do humanity a favor STOP pretending your club is the source of our species goodness. Nobody has any universal and neutral method to prove these clubs are anything more than human invented clubs.
Skeptics don't hate every religious individual, but do not expect us to blindly swallow your club because you open your mouth and utter something or type it and hit submit. GET IN LINE TAKE A NUMBER. You are NOT the center of the planet and neither is your religion.
I can't tell whether you're raging against me in all of this and it's making me paranoid. For the record, as I said, I'm not a Buddhist... but I do 'like what I was sold' to the extent that I agree with it but just as like what I was sold with any psychological theory or whatever that I agree with. Course I can get pissed if I think it's being misrepresented, but I think you'd be the same if you perceived someone misrepresenting ABBA (I'm afraid
I can't do that, cos they're cool ). Anyway, I don't think it's the source of humanity's goodness... indeed it goes very much against human nature... just a tool to reduce suffering by stepping back from shit... ie stepping back from 'attachment' to things or emotional states like anger. As you can see I'm not that good at it (at least right now), but that varies, and a better Buddhist simply would not care at all what other others thought about them... whether they were misrepresented etc... because that's what non-attachment leads to. So I'm not trying to sell it to you, just responding to a perceived attack... but at the same time, aware that that is attachment (to anger, pride etc) and therefore something I should let go for my own good... it's just harder sometimes than others, and I'm more self-aware/mindful sometimes than others.
(April 14, 2017 at 9:44 am)Little Rik Wrote: I do not follow religions.
I instead follow logic.
We do not know who wrote the Bible.
Certainly not the Christian that came much later.
I am not an expert in Bible so I can not say whether what is written in the Bible is all truth all rubbish or some is true and some is rubbish in any case I take what make sense as good and what doesn't as bad.
That sentence that say.........Man created in God's image.......make a lot of sense that is why I explained to you my point.
Thanks for your answer. I understand what you're saying.
"Venting" not "raging". I view ALL RELIGIONS the same as if my own mother kept repeating every day "The New England Patriots beat the Chicago Cubs in the Stanley Cup" I love my mother, I MISS MY MOTHER, but that does not mean I have to blindly value every thing she claimed to be true.
Yes, bad logic and naked assertions piss me off. NO, that does not mean I hate you personally. It just means on any given topic I am not buying that claim. My mom when I was growing up often got to the point where she spoke up and said, "STOP DOING THAT" or "STOP SAYING THAT IT IS NOT TRUE". When my mom was right she was right, but she was not right about everything. I view my species capability the same way. I don't have to like everything you say but merely saying "bullshit" isn't a call for your death or arrest. It is simply saying "you got it wrong".
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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 7:49 pm
(April 14, 2017 at 7:22 pm)Omnibus E Plrus Nhilist Wrote: In the future the Christian religion will be considered myth. Until Christ returns and the unbelievers are thrown in the Lake of Fire.
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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 8:12 pm
(April 14, 2017 at 7:49 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: (April 14, 2017 at 7:22 pm)Omnibus E Plrus Nhilist Wrote: In the future the Christian religion will be considered myth. Until Christ returns and the unbelievers are thrown in the Lake of Fire.
The sun will run out of hydrogen first, swell up, and roast the earth. I'm not terribly concerned with a second coming of a non-being. BTW don't
Robert
Today is the best day of my life and tomorrow will be even better.
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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 8:45 pm
(April 14, 2017 at 7:27 pm)Brian37 Wrote: (April 14, 2017 at 9:54 am)emjay Wrote: I can't tell whether you're raging against me in all of this and it's making me paranoid. For the record, as I said, I'm not a Buddhist... but I do 'like what I was sold' to the extent that I agree with it but just as like what I was sold with any psychological theory or whatever that I agree with. Course I can get pissed if I think it's being misrepresented, but I think you'd be the same if you perceived someone misrepresenting ABBA (I'm afraid
I can't do that, cos they're cool ). Anyway, I don't think it's the source of humanity's goodness... indeed it goes very much against human nature... just a tool to reduce suffering by stepping back from shit... ie stepping back from 'attachment' to things or emotional states like anger. As you can see I'm not that good at it (at least right now), but that varies, and a better Buddhist simply would not care at all what other others thought about them... whether they were misrepresented etc... because that's what non-attachment leads to. So I'm not trying to sell it to you, just responding to a perceived attack... but at the same time, aware that that is attachment (to anger, pride etc) and therefore something I should let go for my own good... it's just harder sometimes than others, and I'm more self-aware/mindful sometimes than others.
Thanks for your answer. I understand what you're saying.
"Venting" not "raging". I view ALL RELIGIONS the same as if my own mother kept repeating every day "The New England Patriots beat the Chicago Cubs in the Stanley Cup" I love my mother, I MISS MY MOTHER, but that does not mean I have to blindly value every thing she claimed to be true.
Yes, bad logic and naked assertions piss me off. NO, that does not mean I hate you personally. It just means on any given topic I am not buying that claim. My mom when I was growing up often got to the point where she spoke up and said, "STOP DOING THAT" or "STOP SAYING THAT IT IS NOT TRUE". When my mom was right she was right, but she was not right about everything. I view my species capability the same way. I don't have to like everything you say but merely saying "bullshit" isn't a call for your death or arrest. It is simply saying "you got it wrong".
Sometimes it's hard to tell online and it definitely seems like you've been on the Red Bull for a few days
Anyway, I see that we're at an impasse so I'll drop the subject, except to say that if you ever want to know where I was coming from, I'd recommend reading the book 'What The Buddha Taught' by Walpola Sri Rahula, ISBN 9781851681426. That's my favourite book on Buddhism and the most influential for me.
The Buddha's writings are like legal documents, with every term clearly defined, and much repetition to get the points across... I'd swear he had OCD But that sort of writing appeals to me because I like to know exactly where I stand in anything, with nothing left vague or to chance... it's not like reading the Bible at all but rather reading a philosophical/psychological theory, and one with no appeal to faith, only logic and observation. So if you wish to dismiss my 'claim' on the grounds that it's bullshit or that the logic doesn't convince you, fair enough, that's your prerogative and I won't argue with that but just be clear that all I am claiming is that some (and I would personally say most... barring the reincarnation stuff which is only a small part of it) of the Buddha's alleged writings (in this book) make sound logical and psychological sense, for use as tools in this life for happier living. That's all I'm claiming. And for me it is manifestly true, without any appeal to the mystical, because it does help me deal better psychologically with things. But as Neo is fond of saying... YMMV... and clearly it does. So there we are... I'll drop the subject now.
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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 10:18 pm
(April 14, 2017 at 7:49 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: (April 14, 2017 at 7:22 pm)Omnibus E Plrus Nhilist Wrote: In the future the Christian religion will be considered myth. Until Christ returns and the unbelievers are thrown in the Lake of Fire.
He's not coming back. He was nailed to a cross, not a boomerang.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 10:23 pm
(April 14, 2017 at 10:18 pm)Cyberman Wrote: (April 14, 2017 at 7:49 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: Until Christ returns and the unbelievers are thrown in the Lake of Fire.
He's not coming back. He was nailed to a cross, not a boomerang.
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RE: What is your favourite positive argument for atheism/unbelief?
April 14, 2017 at 11:17 pm
(April 14, 2017 at 7:49 pm)Neo-Scholastic Wrote: (April 14, 2017 at 7:22 pm)Omnibus E Plrus Nhilist Wrote: In the future the Christian religion will be considered myth. Until Christ returns and the unbelievers are thrown in the Lake of Fire.
Gonna be awkward when you find out it's Cheesus the only son of FSM and your in the great boiling.
I'll pray for you.
"For the only way to eternal glory is a life lived in service of our Lord, FSM; Verily it is FSM who is the perfect being the name higher than all names, king of all kings and will bestow upon us all, one day, The great reclaiming" -The Prophet Boiardi-
Conservative trigger warning.
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