RE: Question For Fellow Atheists...
January 8, 2017 at 9:03 pm
(This post was last modified: January 8, 2017 at 9:35 pm by Whateverist.)
(January 8, 2017 at 8:39 pm)Autolite Wrote:Quote:If it turned out that god belief was merely a predictable outcome given a certain kind of upbringing and that it resulted in no serious impairment to their mental capacities, would you still be distressed by the existence of believers?
I just can't abide people who believe in and promote unsubstantiated, irrational nonsense of any type. It's a harmful detriment to society in general...
In your example it certainly is but not every xtian is into homeopathy, nor do they all withhold modern medicine from themselves or their children in any but a sliver of cases. And I'm sure there are plenty of atheists who shun modern medicine. The famous comedian Bill Maher is on record as not supporting vaccines. Merely holding a comforting, long instilled belief without evidence is not in and of itself damaging to themselves or society.
Meh, I think it is the sort of thing over which people can reasonably disagree for the sake of living together pro-socially. What concerns me more is the rabid urgency to convert the unwilling. I don't appreciate it when xtian missionaries attempt to inflict their beliefs on me. By the same token I think it is only decent to avoid intrusive attempts at shaming believers out of their beliefs.
[Going back to read the other posts now.]
(January 7, 2017 at 7:26 pm)Alex K Wrote: My impression is that few people where I live are a fervent believer in a personal God. It doesn't ever come up.
Sure would like to have what you're having, but it isn't worth sending those who disagree to death camps over.
(January 7, 2017 at 7:56 pm)Minimalist Wrote:Quote:However, I must still disagree that anyone is mentally screwed up (in any sense of the word) for being either atheist or theist, conservative or liberal, etc, simply bc you have a different opinion and cant fathom how they came to their conclussions.
We know how you came to your conclusions, C/L. That's the problem.
The very process of how any of us comes to a conclusion is so complex and poorly understood that calling her methods into question seems premature.
(January 8, 2017 at 6:33 am)Autolite Wrote:Quote:Afraid to tell us what you really believe? That you might be judged mentally ill?
I didn't think that it was a serious question. TBH, I've never looked into it enough to really form any sort of opinion on it. I will claim however that I am reasonably certain that there were no supernatural causes or factors. If anyone accuses me of being 'mentally ill' for such a claim then I think that I will just live with it...
And should everyone else respect your decision to "just live with it"? If so, are you willing to do the same when others decide to just live with the beliefs you think make them mentally ill?
What is true and how we treat each other are two different matters and shouldn't be linked. Gods and other supernatural stuff don't literally exist - I agree with you. But others won't. So what? They don't have to.
(January 8, 2017 at 7:03 am)Autolite Wrote: I wanted to find a forum were I can be truthful without necessarily being polite...
That will elicit a response as you may have noticed. This isn't the atheists-only tree house for belligerent adolescents. The place is billed and moderated to be a place where people of all beliefs and no belief can communicate. Open hostility is better kept in the R'lyeh sub-forum.
