(March 2, 2013 at 10:33 pm)jstrodel Wrote:Quote:But, on the more pressing note, are you seriously suggesting that because people belong to a group they all share exactly the same beliefs, values and morals? Every single one of them? It's painfully obvious that isn't true. A crhistian can commit murder, showing they don't value human life which, by you theory, goes against the very order of the universe. I imagine that in your "studies" of atheists, there were approximately two participants, because that's the only way I can fathom your ideas would show to be true. Maybe if we "studied" atheists like you do we'd find them all the same, but if you were an atheist like most of us, or even someone remotely open-minded, you'd see that people are indivuals, even if they happen to share ONE belief with someone else.
strawmen. of course I said none of that. You think that you can disprove what is true for 60%-80% of a group by appealing to the 20%. Who cares about the 20%, in the 60%-80% you are going to see what the primary result of the belief system on people is.
go on a christian forum. see how different it is from here. "individual" means you want to hide your eyes from what effect your beliefs have on others.
My point was that there are groups for a reason, because they are already like-minded. BUT there are subgroups in every group, there are subgroups to each of those subgroups, and there are individuals who belong to multiple groups where sideline ideas (like those who favor Pink Floyd, as if that matters) do NOT overlap. Yes, basic theological ideas COULD influence other ideals, but atheism is such a huge umbrella term, technically a lack of theological beliefs, encompassing so many different people, from soccer moms to teenage punkers, that you can't say with confidence that even half of them share a general belief system besides simple atheism.
I don't know what difference I'd really see on a christian forum, are you suggesting they'd be more polite? Or less? Or more like-minded? I imagine those differences simply come from the lack of people holding other beliefs. I know I wouldn't want to go to one, I'd most likely be ridiculed, probed, and cyber-flogged for being the unbeliever.
I actually try not to hide my eyes from anything in human nature. I'm actually planning on majoring in social psychology, so I understand the power of group identities. But the fact remains that people hold their own beliefs, and an umbrella term like "atheist" is a way of reducing human individualism into a nice pretty simple package that is easy to understand and rationalize, rather than the true complexity of the human mind.
