No prob. I know atheists and theist tend to disagree on a lot. You'll find though that atheists do disagree from time to time. These days atheism tends to be built around Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris, but for me personally, my heaviests influences were Carl Sagan and Bertrand Russell. While I enjoy a good discussion, the celebrity that these guys get is kind of funny. I've read their books, and these guys don't really say much that others haven't said for decades now. Everyone is suddenly interested in these crazies who blaspheme against their creator. :rollseyes: Well, for me, as an atheist, theism is less a blight, and more a juvenile notion that we haven't outgrown yet. I grew up Pentecostal, and believe me, questions are frowned upon even moreso than in lighter denominations. I just couldn't believe, couldn't overlook the glaring holes, couldn't accept the dogma. So I searched for something else. It wasn't until I began listening to Sagan that the universe began to make sense again, and it seemed so obvious. It wasn't complete, but I have more answers than questions now. I've never been into philosophy, so existentialism and purpose of life aren't real questions to me. If you were to ask me what the purpose of life is, my answer would always be securing the future of the next generation. Its simple to me. Life has no purpose, nor needs it because life is the purpose. People get so trapped in the why, they never learn the how, and the next generation is stunted for it. I look at religion as an archaic distraction. I believe our civilization should have outgrown it by now. 3000 years ago, when we knew nothing, believing in such things was acceptable, now it seems nostalgic and quaint.
"In our youth, we lacked the maturity, the decency to create gods better than ourselves so that we might have something to aspire to. Instead we are left with a host of deities who were violent, narcissistic, vengeful bullies who reflected our own values. Our gods could have been anything we could imagine, and all we were capable of manifesting were gods who shared the worst of our natures."-Me
"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men." – Francis Bacon
"Atheism leaves a man to sense, to philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation; all of which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, even if religion vanished; but religious superstition dismounts all these and erects an absolute monarchy in the minds of men." – Francis Bacon
