Rant against anti-atheist agnostics.

[Outtahere]

I just want to be open to the possibility that we are all wrong about it all !!! is that too much to ask ?? its been the case before you know???

Excessive punctuation is a symptom of a weak, hysterical mind.

And turning the point of a conversation towards insulting ones intelligence for grammatical errors in such a relaxed, non-formal format, is a symptom of a short cut to thinking of something clever to say.

What animates the body ... until it doesn't?

The sun's energy.
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the Sun, Really, just shows how easy it is to preach at museum about what everybody else is wrong about, and put no thought into a real answer. The Sun, produces a chemical process that makes you like Peanuts, or be allergic to them ? The Sun's chemical process makes it hurt when your Dad dies ? ... or helps you decide whether "Happy Gilmore" was funny or stupid?

I mean if you really believe that, and that is your well thought out answer to what you believe, then that's fine, I'm good with it,

But I was asking an earnest question, you drew 1st blood on being an insulting smart ass

Doc

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what does an atheist believe animates the body .... until it doesn't ?

Atoms, sorry if that isn't glamorous enough for you, but that is the mundane reality.

" but that is the mundane reality."
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See ... spoken as a FACT , something you KNOW to be true, implying that you are privy to information that the rest of us are not , this is my whole issue.

Doc

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sure seems like those chemical process fight like hell to stay in that piece of dirt .... aware if they are trapped in a burning car ...
[...]

Yes. And your computer can be "aware" of and defend itself against a virus, even though it's all just 1s and 0s being coded in, transmitted by and decoded from electrical impulses. And our computers don't come even close to the complexity of our bodies and especially brains.

We evolved over billions of years from primitive, single-cell life-forms. Who knows where they came from and what made them "want" to survive, but since they did - that's a defining characteristic of all earthly life. Those early organisms and life-forms that were not aware of or "indifferent" to the end of their existence - stopped existing and are not here to testify about how they didn't care for their survival in certain circumstances (although we have plenty of data on what made more advanced organisms succeed, or not).

You are looking at this from the perspective of a lottery winner. Sure it seems unlikely, but if it happened - it happened, because here you are. Assuming design and/or designer/creator may be fun and games, but Occam's Razor makes short work of this proposition right now, because there's no evidence for it and evolution seems to explain everything pretty elegantly, while being a way simpler solution.

We know that it's possible (though very unlikely) to win the lottery, because of the mathematics. I don't have to win the lottery on demand, to prove that. Nor do I need to prove that one can - way more easily - lose at the lottery. But without some knowledge of math and probablities, someone who won at first try may find it difficult to imagine that countless others lost countless times. And someone who always lost may doubt the mere possibility of winning.

I don't agree on all points , but thank you for taking the time to answer seriously and with a due amount of forethought.

Doc

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Right, in my opinion, life is nothing special. Some stuff moves around more than other stuff, but it's all just physics and chemistry. We're built from the same stuff as non-life, just in different configurations.

The mystery to me is consciousness, it seems paradoxical and impossible to get round because it seems to separate "me" (consciousness) from "my body" (brain). But scientifically I see no basis for them to be separate. It's some sort of product of the way the brain works, is my best guess. "Where" it is, is the question... but the question probably doesn't even make sense.

Right, life is not special. Bacteria and cockroaches have been around alot longer and way outnumber our species. But somehow theists think by accepting that, that we cannot find value in the finite time we have, which is really bullshit. Atheists can and do value life. We simply skip the superstition to explain anything.

The difference between the atheist and the believer is we accept our modern knowledge and don't cling to old explanations that were never true in the first place. It was understandable that people made bad guesses when they didn't know any better, but we know better now.

I don't understand how asking the same questions man has always asked , automatically puts me at odds with you? I am in total agreement that no religion is real or has ever done anything but harm and slow the march of the human race to realizing its potential !

But , just because I know all the old info is bad , doesn't make me satisfied with giving up on looking for the RIGHT answers !

Why am I here? For how long? What am I? What animates this flesh until it doesn't? Where do my thoughts generate? why cant I just think what I want? What will I be when I cease to be? atheism doesn't mean we stop asking these questions, only that we believe we haven't arrived at the answer yet? right?

Doc