(April 14, 2011 at 1:47 am)padraic Wrote:
Quote:If atheism is simply a non-belief in God, then no one is an atheist.
Wrong.An atheist is only a person who does not believe in gods. There is no equivocation.
Quote:I may be the one who believes in God, but I am not the only one who believes.
Logical fallacy; ;argumentum ad populum aka argument by consensus. A proposition is not true simply because a lot of people believe it ,nor untrue because a lot of people disbelieve it.
Quote:Making inferences about reality is a necessary part of survival for humans.
Indeed. Science does it all the time. However,scientific inferences are based on evidence and are not absolute. Religious beliefs are not evidence based and are absolute.
Quote:To just call yourself an atheist without saying what you do believe in a debate is to have the discussion drowned in irrationality.
Wrong. My atheism refers only to non belief in gods. It is an effect of my personal philosophies,not a cause.I have neither the obligation nor need to discuss,justify or prove anything.
On what ideas do I base my life?Quite a few actually:Beginning with skepticism. I reject the so called neo Platonist thinking of people such as Augustine of Hippo,and insist that truth cannot be determined by reason alone. I demand evidence. I also accept egoism,materialism and moral relativism, to name a few.. I'm pro science,pro reason ,pro acceptance and anti ignorance, anti bigotry, and anti hatred.
Quote:Atheism is just a general term for belief systems not based upon God.
Wrong. atheism is not a belief system,period.
Quote:Most of you don't have a formulated idea on anything, you just hate.
What an ignorant and spiteful thing to say;you are not in any position to make such a judgment.. For a start ,you will be treated with far more tolerance here than an atheist on a Christian forum.
I do not hate,or even dislike you; we've never met. I have any quarrel with any of the believers I know,including my Catholic mother.Nor am against religious beliefs per se. HOWEVER, I consider organised religion parasitic and a boil on the arse of humanity.
A recovering Catholic for over 40 years, I admit to a visceral loathing of the Catholic church as an institution. I consider it deeply corrupt and rotten to the core.
It is doing me a disservice to say I JUST hate. Of course I DO hate a few things and a couple of people.But to say I 'just' hate would be like saying you are "just" a willfully ignorant fool suffering from severe cognitive dissonance".I'm sure there is a lot more to you.
I love you pad!!
"The Universe is run by the complex interweaving of three elements: energy, matter, and enlightened self-interest." G'Kar-B5
