Thanks for creating a forum with real debate!

[Cinjin]

You were doing so well up to the last sentence! An atheist with principles is like off is a TV channel.

You slay me Frode! That was funny.


I mean, not quite as funny as saying that Christians are ethical, but still, pretty damn funny. Props to you sir.

[Lion IRC]

I appreciate what you guys are doing on this forum, how you have real debate and let Christians voice their views. It shows that you are committed to our common goal of understanding the world. I have been on other atheist boards where I was banned just for presenting a Christian perspective, also, IRC channels. Thanks for being true to atheist principles.

I dont think these are atheistTM principles.

I think they are rational and enlightened principles.

And THAT is a credit to the Admin and Mods here.

[FallentoReason]

Atheists can't be grouped together. Tell me what these people have in common (apart from a lack of belief in god obviously):

Atheist Buddhist
Atheist who believes in paranormal events (ghosts etc)
Atheist whose philosophical world view is solipsism
Atheist Taoist
Atheist who supports communism
Atheist who supports democracy

I would distinguish between the atheists who are Buddhist and Taoist from the western atheists.

That is true that there are differences between atheists that believe in paranormal events and that culture.

In my mind, the vast majority of atheists that I meet in America (I realize, not the center of the world or exhaustive of the atheist movement) fall into the category of people that put great stock in enlightenment epistemological notions (this would include liberal and left wing atheists). I would see the atheist movement as being composed, probably 80% by people that follow some sort of enlightenment influenced understanding of evidence, proof, epistemology and the nature of science.

All I was doing was highlighting that this statement is highly ignorant:

Atheism is certainly not mere absence of belief, atheism is a specific cultural, philosophical movement that has its own values and advocacy that surround its epistemological stances, which are far from being self evident.

Is it reasonable to assume that an Atheist Chinese Taoist & an Atheist Swedish Solipsist both fit into the same "specific cultural [and] philosophical movement" purely because they share the one thing in common; a lack of belief in god(s)?

[Cyberman]

What are atheist 'principles'? (How come I never get the memos on these things?) My own atheism is only the logical extension of my agnosticism. I don't embrace, endorse or much care about theism one way or the other, including its negation.

Open inquiry, opposition to censorship and epistemological coercion, respect for rational, impartial inquiry as a primary means of mediating understanding of the world. I would "Enlightenment values" which seem to me to be ubiquitous among the more intellectually mature atheists.

Those are primarily principles of scepticism (or skepticism if you really must] and critical thinking, of which atheism is merely a specialised subset dealing with one issue only. Beyond that there are no universal points by which to categorise atheists.

[KichigaiNeko]

I appreciate what you guys are doing on this forum, how you have real debate and let Christians voice their views. It shows that you are committed to our common goal of understanding the world. I have been on other atheist boards where I was banned just for presenting a Christian perspective, also, IRC channels. Thanks for being true to atheist principles.

What are atheist 'principles'? (How come I never get the memos on these things?) My own atheism is only the logical extension of my agnosticism. I don't embrace, endorse or much care about theism one way or the other, including its negation.

Don't feel bad whateverist, I didn't get any notifications either! who is this studel?

---

Thing is strudel, if you insist in boxing people into categories you are going to miss out on just what makes these people tick and go on to demonstrate your total lack of intellect, compassion and humanity.


*carry on

[Rhizomorph13]

I'm atheist because I hate God and enjoy the taste of baby.

[Mister Agenda]

In my mind, the vast majority of atheists that I meet in America (I realize, not the center of the world or exhaustive of the atheist movement) fall into the category of people that put great stock in enlightenment epistemological notions (this would include liberal and left wing atheists). I would see the atheist movement as being composed, probably 80% by people that follow some sort of enlightenment influenced understanding of evidence, proof, epistemology and the nature of science.

Glad to have you with us, jstrodel, you often bring up interesting points, and an atheist board without theists can get pretty dull.

It's a fair cop that most American atheists you run into on the internet are Enlightenment types/rational skeptics. There's a secular movement, and a skepticism movement, and an atheist's civil rights movement...I wouldn't call those 'the atheism movement', not least because many theists are on our side on those issues, but I think I DO know what you mean when you say it, and it's not just theists who think of it that way.

[Gilgamesh]

AF.com never again.

[jstrodel]

Is it reasonable to assume that an Atheist Chinese Taoist & an Atheist Swedish Solipsist both fit into the same "specific cultural [and] philosophical movement" purely because they share the one thing in common; a lack of belief in god(s)?

I do not think that Chinese Taoists are really atheists. I am not an expert in Taoism but I have heard that the Chinese believed in many Gods. Eastern religions tend to be pantheistic also.

Atheism in America I see as a distinct movement that is trying to latch on to all these other systems of faith and traditional belief which are really opposed to the sort of scientism and faith in modernity above traditional beliefs that is nearly always linked to Western understandings of atheism. I am not an expert in eastern religions, but I think it is a bit of a stretch to link them with atheism.

[Jackalope]

It's apparent that you're not an expert in eastern religion - there are branches of both Buddhism and Taoism that are atheistic. Your ignorance of them does not strengthen your argument.