[quote='Dolorian' pid='751169' dateline='1410722893']
1. How would you define atheism?
2. Do you act according to what you believe (there is no God) in or what you don't believe in (lack belief in God)?
3. Do you think it is inconsistent for someone who "lacks belief" in God to work against God's existence by attempting to show that God doesn't exist?
4. How sure are you that your atheism properly represents reality?
5. How sure are you that your atheism is correct?
6. How would you define what truth is?
7. Why do you believe your atheism is a justifiable position to hold?
8. Are you a materialist or a physicalist or what?
9. Do you affirm or deny that atheism is a worldview? Why or why not?
10. Not all atheists are antagonistic to Christianity but for those of you who are, why the antagonism?
11. If you were at one time a believer in the Christian God, what caused you to deny his existence?
12. Do you believe the world would be better off without religion?
13. Do you believe the world would be better off without Christianity?
14. Do you believe that faith in a God or gods is a mental disorder?
15. Must God be known through the scientific method?
16. If you answered yes to the previous question, then how do you avoid a category mistake by requiring material evidence for an immaterial God?
17. Do we have any purpose as human beings?
18. If we do have purpose, can you as an atheist please explain how that purpose is determined?
19. Where does morality come from?
20. Are there moral absolutes?
21. If there are moral absolutes, could you list a few of them?
22. Do you believe there is such a thing as evil? If so, what is it?
23. If you believe that the God of the Old Testament is morally bad, by what standard do you judge that he is bad?
24. What would it take for you to believe in God?
25. What would constitute sufficient evidence for God’s existence?
26. Must this evidence be rationally based, archaeological, testable in a lab, etc., or what?
27. Do you think that a society that is run by Christians or atheists would be safer? Why?
28. Do you believe in free will? (free will being the ability to make choices without coercion).
29. If you believe in free will, do you see any problem with defending the idea that the physical brain, which is limited and subject to the neuro-chemical laws of the brain, can still produce free will choices?
30. If you affirm evolution and that the universe will continue to expand forever, then do you think it is probable that given enough time, brains would evolve to the point of exceeding mere physical limitations and become free of the physical and temporal and thereby become "deity" and not be restricted by space and time? If not, why not?
31. If you answered the previous question in the affirmative, then aren't you saying that it is probable that some sort of God exists?
1. The "off" position on claims of a god or gods. It is a position, it is not a club or moral code. It says nothing about politics, economics, class or education. It simply means "off" on one claim.
2. I act on my evolutionary empathy, but also laws because humans need some sort of organization.
3. Stupid question. If someone said "The Yankees won the Superbowl" you would not be acting against a truth, you would be correcting an absurd claim.
4.Stephen Hakwkins "a god is not required". Evolution is the only place we find cognition. Thinking cannot occur without a material structure anymore than speeding can happen without a car.
5. I can't be sure that invisible pink unicorns don't exist, I simply do not waste my time thinking about such absurd claims. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts.
6.The truth is what can be universally tested and falsified.
7.Because invisible sky hero claims make no sense and no one has any evidence for any of them anyway.
8. Neither. I accept science. "Observable" is anything that affects material things, like you cannot see the center of a black whole, and you cannot see a higgs bolson particle but because we can see the objects they have an affect on, like dark matter, we know it exists.
9."Atheist" is a position as I said before. It is not a club or moral code or political party. It is merely "off" on one claim. We are just as diverse in political and economic views.
10. "Antagonism"? You mean like when people read the bible and antagonize gays and deny them equal rights? Or when Christians call atheists immoral or Satan worshipers? I think anyone would get mad if you said stupid shit like that especially without evidence.
11. My path from believing to atheist took almost a decade but the question that got me thinking was someone who asked me "what if Jesus was just a man."
12. Mute point because that is highly unlikely to happen. But I do think the world would be better off if religion were not protected like soccer fans beating the shit out of each other.
13.No such thing as a utopia so I am not going to try to use force to get people not to believe. But I will verbally fight all absurd claims and fight to keep government secular and prevent it from becoming a theocracy.
14. Dawkins has described it as the "moth mistaking the light bulb for moonlight". I agree. It is our species gap filling. We evolved to form groups but far to often a group will center it's belief on a falsehood. Group survival helps us create offspring and gain resources, but the Egyptians were successful for 3,000 years but that die not make Osirus, Isis or Horus real.
15. Victor Stenger "God The Failed Hypothesis" and his other book "The New Atheism" in which he does rightfully say that science DOES have something to say about god claims.
16.^^^^^^^^^see above. And center of a black whole, dark matter, Higgs Bolson particle.
17. Depends, from the context of the age of the universe no, in 50 billion years from now there will be no record of life or the earth. But while I am alive my "purpose" is to be good, and love myself and my family and others and leave this planet better than I came into it.
18.^^^^^life is what you make it.
19.Morality comes from our evolution. Our species has always displayed the same range of human actions, both compassion and cruelty. You can see elephants mourn and chimps mourn and dogs mourn too.
20.No, you shouldn't lie to steal money from a co worker. But you might lie if an abusive spouse was after his wife and you were hiding her. Case by case and depends.
21. ^^^^repeat.
22."Evil" is when you inflict on someone else extreme emotional harm or physical harm when not done in self defense. Being offended does not count as "evil".
23.Where do you want me to start? See the OT god is the same god as the NT god, he's simply like the abusive spouse in the OT who promises not to hit you again "NT" but goes back to beating you in the end of the book.
The God character itself is not an elected leader. He was not voted into office. You cannot remove him from office. He does not need your consent even though if you grovel and he favors you he "might" let you live. Kim Jong Un is nice to party loyalists too, but you cannot question him or leave him.
24. Evidence, what kind of question is that?
25. Scientific evidence and peer reviewed evidence. But that still would not make him worth worshiping for the reasones stated in 23.
26. Yes.
27. I think global corporatism is hurting us, and is our worst enemy as a species. It does not help that people do not understand that all governments friend and foe invest in banks, fuel and weapons. Religion is a convenient distraction to get people to ignore class warfare is being waged globally on the middle class and poor.
28."free will" is a superstitious word. In science it is spoken in terms of chaos and order, and at the QM level it is not either or but an overlap depending on POV.
29.Your brain does not respond with free will, your brain reacts to stimuli your choices do not change that for the reasons stated in 28. Overlap not either or.
30. No, we will not outlive our bodies, PERIOD Once a structure is broken beyond repair it will not work, just like atoms decay. Some claim we might be able to copy our memories onto a computer, but that would be a simulation of us at that point, it would not be us. That also remains to be seen.
31. People stupidly want to insert a "who" in as a start. Does lightening need Thor to cause it? Does a hurricane need the ocean god Poseidon to cause it? So why would evolution or the universe need a "who" either? We are a outcome of process not a manufactured who.
Which makes more sense to you? A god, any god is real? Or humans make them up?
1. How would you define atheism?
2. Do you act according to what you believe (there is no God) in or what you don't believe in (lack belief in God)?
3. Do you think it is inconsistent for someone who "lacks belief" in God to work against God's existence by attempting to show that God doesn't exist?
4. How sure are you that your atheism properly represents reality?
5. How sure are you that your atheism is correct?
6. How would you define what truth is?
7. Why do you believe your atheism is a justifiable position to hold?
8. Are you a materialist or a physicalist or what?
9. Do you affirm or deny that atheism is a worldview? Why or why not?
10. Not all atheists are antagonistic to Christianity but for those of you who are, why the antagonism?
11. If you were at one time a believer in the Christian God, what caused you to deny his existence?
12. Do you believe the world would be better off without religion?
13. Do you believe the world would be better off without Christianity?
14. Do you believe that faith in a God or gods is a mental disorder?
15. Must God be known through the scientific method?
16. If you answered yes to the previous question, then how do you avoid a category mistake by requiring material evidence for an immaterial God?
17. Do we have any purpose as human beings?
18. If we do have purpose, can you as an atheist please explain how that purpose is determined?
19. Where does morality come from?
20. Are there moral absolutes?
21. If there are moral absolutes, could you list a few of them?
22. Do you believe there is such a thing as evil? If so, what is it?
23. If you believe that the God of the Old Testament is morally bad, by what standard do you judge that he is bad?
24. What would it take for you to believe in God?
25. What would constitute sufficient evidence for God’s existence?
26. Must this evidence be rationally based, archaeological, testable in a lab, etc., or what?
27. Do you think that a society that is run by Christians or atheists would be safer? Why?
28. Do you believe in free will? (free will being the ability to make choices without coercion).
29. If you believe in free will, do you see any problem with defending the idea that the physical brain, which is limited and subject to the neuro-chemical laws of the brain, can still produce free will choices?
30. If you affirm evolution and that the universe will continue to expand forever, then do you think it is probable that given enough time, brains would evolve to the point of exceeding mere physical limitations and become free of the physical and temporal and thereby become "deity" and not be restricted by space and time? If not, why not?
31. If you answered the previous question in the affirmative, then aren't you saying that it is probable that some sort of God exists?
1. The "off" position on claims of a god or gods. It is a position, it is not a club or moral code. It says nothing about politics, economics, class or education. It simply means "off" on one claim.
2. I act on my evolutionary empathy, but also laws because humans need some sort of organization.
3. Stupid question. If someone said "The Yankees won the Superbowl" you would not be acting against a truth, you would be correcting an absurd claim.
4.Stephen Hakwkins "a god is not required". Evolution is the only place we find cognition. Thinking cannot occur without a material structure anymore than speeding can happen without a car.
5. I can't be sure that invisible pink unicorns don't exist, I simply do not waste my time thinking about such absurd claims. If ifs and buts were candy and nuts.
6.The truth is what can be universally tested and falsified.
7.Because invisible sky hero claims make no sense and no one has any evidence for any of them anyway.
8. Neither. I accept science. "Observable" is anything that affects material things, like you cannot see the center of a black whole, and you cannot see a higgs bolson particle but because we can see the objects they have an affect on, like dark matter, we know it exists.
9."Atheist" is a position as I said before. It is not a club or moral code or political party. It is merely "off" on one claim. We are just as diverse in political and economic views.
10. "Antagonism"? You mean like when people read the bible and antagonize gays and deny them equal rights? Or when Christians call atheists immoral or Satan worshipers? I think anyone would get mad if you said stupid shit like that especially without evidence.
11. My path from believing to atheist took almost a decade but the question that got me thinking was someone who asked me "what if Jesus was just a man."
12. Mute point because that is highly unlikely to happen. But I do think the world would be better off if religion were not protected like soccer fans beating the shit out of each other.
13.No such thing as a utopia so I am not going to try to use force to get people not to believe. But I will verbally fight all absurd claims and fight to keep government secular and prevent it from becoming a theocracy.
14. Dawkins has described it as the "moth mistaking the light bulb for moonlight". I agree. It is our species gap filling. We evolved to form groups but far to often a group will center it's belief on a falsehood. Group survival helps us create offspring and gain resources, but the Egyptians were successful for 3,000 years but that die not make Osirus, Isis or Horus real.
15. Victor Stenger "God The Failed Hypothesis" and his other book "The New Atheism" in which he does rightfully say that science DOES have something to say about god claims.
16.^^^^^^^^^see above. And center of a black whole, dark matter, Higgs Bolson particle.
17. Depends, from the context of the age of the universe no, in 50 billion years from now there will be no record of life or the earth. But while I am alive my "purpose" is to be good, and love myself and my family and others and leave this planet better than I came into it.
18.^^^^^life is what you make it.
19.Morality comes from our evolution. Our species has always displayed the same range of human actions, both compassion and cruelty. You can see elephants mourn and chimps mourn and dogs mourn too.
20.No, you shouldn't lie to steal money from a co worker. But you might lie if an abusive spouse was after his wife and you were hiding her. Case by case and depends.
21. ^^^^repeat.
22."Evil" is when you inflict on someone else extreme emotional harm or physical harm when not done in self defense. Being offended does not count as "evil".
23.Where do you want me to start? See the OT god is the same god as the NT god, he's simply like the abusive spouse in the OT who promises not to hit you again "NT" but goes back to beating you in the end of the book.
The God character itself is not an elected leader. He was not voted into office. You cannot remove him from office. He does not need your consent even though if you grovel and he favors you he "might" let you live. Kim Jong Un is nice to party loyalists too, but you cannot question him or leave him.
24. Evidence, what kind of question is that?
25. Scientific evidence and peer reviewed evidence. But that still would not make him worth worshiping for the reasones stated in 23.
26. Yes.
27. I think global corporatism is hurting us, and is our worst enemy as a species. It does not help that people do not understand that all governments friend and foe invest in banks, fuel and weapons. Religion is a convenient distraction to get people to ignore class warfare is being waged globally on the middle class and poor.
28."free will" is a superstitious word. In science it is spoken in terms of chaos and order, and at the QM level it is not either or but an overlap depending on POV.
29.Your brain does not respond with free will, your brain reacts to stimuli your choices do not change that for the reasons stated in 28. Overlap not either or.
30. No, we will not outlive our bodies, PERIOD Once a structure is broken beyond repair it will not work, just like atoms decay. Some claim we might be able to copy our memories onto a computer, but that would be a simulation of us at that point, it would not be us. That also remains to be seen.
31. People stupidly want to insert a "who" in as a start. Does lightening need Thor to cause it? Does a hurricane need the ocean god Poseidon to cause it? So why would evolution or the universe need a "who" either? We are a outcome of process not a manufactured who.
Which makes more sense to you? A god, any god is real? Or humans make them up?
