(February 8, 2013 at 6:07 pm)AtlasS Wrote: If you believe in god, you'll pick up a religion.
If you don't believe in god, you'll pick up a different ideology other than religion.
Then if you're just an atheist, your motivation would be either to go akimbo like Dahmer, or pick up an ideology to govern your life. How do you differentiate between what is right & what is wrong without laws & ideologies ?
Can you substantiate that? I have been an atheist for at least as long as I can remember, and I have never yet felt the urge to pull a Dahmer. Yes, I have a system of beliefs and standards by which I govern my life, which you mischaracterise as an ideology, but that is not atheism even though they may be consistent with it.
(February 8, 2013 at 6:07 pm)AtlasS Wrote:Quote:I notice you still didn't acknowledge whether Dahmer was a man of faith like you or you are an atheist like him by dint of you holding the exact same opinion.
What kind of question is that ? forcing me to two choices which are a production of your own mind, rather than the true possibilities ? that's more like an MCQ without the right answer.
It's an honest question arising from the point of view you yourself raised. If confronting it head-on makes you uncomfortable, perhaps it's an indication that you ought to reappraise your point of view, or at least your attitude towards it.
(February 8, 2013 at 6:07 pm)AtlasS Wrote: Add the possibility that Dahmer reached a conclusion based on logical thinking that he did, which I agree on, it doesn't mean I'm an atheist, it doesn't mean he's a man of faith.
Yet you agree with the belief he stated. There has to be a point of convergence between the two of you somewhere, if that's the case.
(February 8, 2013 at 6:07 pm)AtlasS Wrote: It doesn't mean I have the mentality of a serial killer, it also doesn't mean that he had the mentality of a muslim !
Just like agreeing with darwin on evolution, it doesn't mean I'm an atheist, it doesn't mean that darwin was a muslim.
Quite right. Not all atheists are serial killers just as not all theists are, let alone all muslims, and I wasn't saying that. You are most insistent that Dahmer's opinions of the lack of gods to inhibit our actions justifying extreme behaviour means that he was an atheist. My argument is that as atheistic positions go, this is the most overtly theistic. If I were to post Dahmer's comments as presented by you and then follow it up with you agreeing with them, then ask a third party to spot the atheist, do you honestly think they could do so?
(February 8, 2013 at 6:07 pm)AtlasS Wrote: So your turn now, to agree with you on a single thing, means that I must share your same faith ?
By itself, clearly not, as I've already explained (inasmuch as I have faith in this context anyway). However it would depend one the point of agreement. Were I to say "I don't believe in gods" and you agreed, it would generally be concluded that we are both atheists.
(February 8, 2013 at 6:00 pm)Annik Wrote: Stimbo, he needs to justify this hate for some reason. That's what this is about.
Good point. I think we'll have to start charging him for it. I hear therapists get paid by the hour for this stuff.
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.'
