What planted the seed?

[Norfolk And Chance]

Are crustaceans and planks of wood atheist? I'd say not.

Now you just being a fucking idiot. Do me a favor, read my signature so you understand why I am not going to waste my time arguing with an idiot.

Tut tut.

I thought you might say that rather than agree that crustaceans and planks of wood are atheists.

Why do you think it is idiocy to ask if crustaceans (I'll drop the planks of wood) are atheists?

You've simplified being an atheist down to "everything that isn't a theist". Cognitive function doesn't seem to matter to you when talking about non belief.

I say cognitive function, ie the ability to recognise a concept or proposal of god then disbelieve it, is necessary to qualify you as an atheist. That's my point.

So stop with the personal attacks otherwise it'll end up getting messy.

[Nine]

I searched the forums, and I couldn't find anything quite like this. What planted the seed of atheism in your mind, so to speak? Do you remember what started you down this path?

I was lucky to have parents that didn't press their christianity on me. I was pretty much an agnostic from as early as I remember.

Then education was the seed from agnostic to atheist. I mean really 20+ major world religions each with there own different sects within all thinking the others were wrong.. That by itself sends up red flags.

I kinda got all my friends to refer to me as God and named them after different characters from the bible. I take blasphemy to the next level

[houseofcantor]

The "creator of the universe." I had a vision/hallucination/psychotic break where I had this encounter with this thing I call the LC. After that there was a few new paradigms; that no way anyone gonna see something like the LC in the same light, that no way was the LC less than YHWH thus falsifying the YHWH concept, that existence limits god, and that who gives a fuck what I think.

Atheism FTW.

[Tempus]

Are crustaceans and planks of wood atheist? I'd say not.

Then you'd be correct. The "-ist" suffix always refers to people.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ist#Suffix

If there were no "theism" or "god" concepts there would be no word for atheism. But what atheism describes (a lack of belief) would still be applicable. Since we do live in a world where there's theists it's quicker to say "atheism is the default position" rather than saying "in a world where there's no theism a lack of belief in god is the default position".

[Phil]

Are crustaceans and planks of wood atheist? I'd say not.

Then you'd be correct. The "-ist" suffix always refers to people.
http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/-ist#Suffix

If there were no "theism" or "god" concepts there would be no word for atheism. But what atheism describes (a lack of belief) would still be applicable. Since we do live in a world where there's theists it's quicker to say "atheism is the default position" rather than saying "in a world where there's no theism a lack of belief in god is the default position".

In either case this is why I said he was being idiotic. He can go on deluding himself that a human concept is reasonable when applied to a non-human.

[Epimethean]

Religion never made sense to me, even when I was dealing with Sunday school and all the trappings of Catholicism. We go through so many actions in a day and many of them can be inauthentic, yet we may never question them. When I finally got around to first communion, I questioned it openly. It made zero sense to be eating crappy bread, drinking nasty wine and saying that it was jesus. I told my mother at that time that there would be more Catholics if jesus was a cheeseburger, and the ensuing sense of freedom that gave me percolated for a while until I finally asked to be given a hall pass from mass. No-one fought me on it, though my mother was clearly disappointed. Eventually, two other siblings had fallings out with the church and three of us are now atheists.

Reading Bertrand Russell helped cement many of my thoughts a bit later.

[Norfolk And Chance]

In either case this is why I said he was being idiotic. He can go on deluding himself that a human concept is reasonable when applied to a non-human.

I agree that a "human concept" is reasonable to apply to humans. We agree there. However you were trying to tell me that I was an atheist as soon as I was born - the thing is I had no concept of god at that point.

My entire point is this, and which is why I wanted you to answer the crustacean question - as far as we know crustaceans have no concept of god, yet most people would agree it is silly to call them atheists or non believers in god. I wanted to force you to say "crustaceans are not atheists" with reasoning behind it, that reasoning being that they more than likely have no concept of any god...like me when I was born. I think you knew this, which is why you spat your dummy out and started blubbing.

[The Grand Nudger]

Nothing needed to be planted within me at all............

[Nine]

Nothing needed to be planted within me at all............

Thats what they all say..

[The Grand Nudger]

He looks like he's about to take flight in that one. If a papery set of of wings just sprouted from the robes would anyone be surprised? To keep the fun imagery rolling, I think of this in exactly the opposite manner than the OP seems to. I see religious thought as a locust gorging itself on the exposed flora of our spiritual experiences.