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RE: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 2:23 pm
(April 22, 2013 at 2:20 pm)Dawud Wrote: (April 22, 2013 at 12:23 pm)Maelstrom Wrote: I suppose I view Buddhism, overall, as more of a philosophy than a religion due to the fact that most sects do not believe in a deity.
So what is the difference between a religion and a philosophy?
(April 22, 2013 at 1:26 pm)Fidel_Castronaut Wrote: Atheism = lack of belief in a god or gods (some people debate this, not me, as it defines me perfectly).
Everything else is mutually exclusive to this. You can be a secularist, a conservative, a murderer, a misanthrope, even a spiritualist, and an atheist.
However, none of them is relevant to atheism (or, rather, none of them are precondition or a condition of atheism and being an atheist).
So you can be spiritual and atheist - everyone agreed?
I would say yes, but spiritualism doesn't mean religious, just in case anyone was thinking that.
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RE: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 2:24 pm
Ok...
So what is religion then?
Kudos given by (1): Dawud
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RE: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 2:26 pm
(April 22, 2013 at 8:46 am)Dawud Wrote: So would a world in which everyone was atheist have more, less or the same amount of war?
Logically you would think less war, because it would be all the war we have in the world today minus the wars based totally on religion, I guess it depends on your definition of war really, if it's just wars between nations it might not even make a difference, but obviously there are religious groups out there who hate each other and are at war with each other you might say.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.
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RE: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 2:50 pm
(April 22, 2013 at 2:24 pm)Dawud Wrote: Ok...
So what is religion then?
Haven't we already been here?
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
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RE: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 2:58 pm
(This post was last modified: April 22, 2013 at 2:58 pm by Anomalocaris.)
(April 22, 2013 at 12:31 pm)downbeatplumb Wrote: My gut reaction would be to say fewer wars.
BUT.
The same arseholes who would start religious wars would still be around and they would still be arseholes.
So who knows?
Yes, but the size of the fraud they can prepetrate to convince others to help them do more damage would now be more limited. The 72 virgins in the quick would actually be quite pitious in most cases and would not quite as easy to enjoy for many as if they were only figments of turbocharged imagination. They would be more hampered, from time to time, by the need to actually serve up real tangible validating earthly rewards.
(April 22, 2013 at 2:24 pm)Dawud Wrote: Ok...
So what is religion then?
The thing that makes you look stupid here.
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Re: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 3:00 pm
It seems the spiritual argument is confusing things. What I know of people who have claim spirituality is mostly about not taking sides as to which religion is right, but overall, they believe in god and all that monbo jombo stuff of ghosts and goblins. Because after all, spirituality is part of the whole god thing. So I don't understand why people are claiming both spirituality and atheism. They are just deists.
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RE: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 3:06 pm
Spirituality boils down to this:
Wish thinking is better than intellectual rigor.
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RE: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 3:18 pm
(This post was last modified: April 22, 2013 at 3:20 pm by Fidel_Castronaut.)
(April 22, 2013 at 3:00 pm)frz Wrote: It seems the spiritual argument is confusing things. What I know of people who have claim spirituality is mostly about not taking sides as to which religion is right, but overall, they believe in god and all that monbo jombo stuff of ghosts and goblins. Because after all, spirituality is part of the whole god thing. So I don't understand why people are claiming both spirituality and atheism. They are just deists.
It's because atheism doesn't make any claims on spirituality, just on the lack of belief in a god or gods.
you can be "spiritual" and not believe in any gods (for example, mumbo jumbo about ghosts or whatever). Spiritual is not synonymous with deities.
I know some people who are de facto atheists, but who also believe in the powers of Chinese medicine, mainly the spiritual aspect of it. No gods included. Is is stupid? Probably, yes, but nobody is claiming that atheists can't be stupid, nor that they can't believe in a whole myriad of things.
If one wanted to exclude spirituality (I'm not a spiritualist), one could quantify by saying "I'm a materialist, and an atheist", as they don't inform each other all.
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RE: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 3:36 pm
(April 22, 2013 at 2:24 pm)Dawud Wrote: Ok...
So what is religion then? Religion
wikipedia Wrote:Religion is an organized collection of belief systems, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Spiritualitywikipedia Wrote:The term spirituality lacks a definitive definition, although social scientists have defined spirituality as the search for "the sacred," where "the sacred" is broadly defined as that which is set apart from the ordinary and worthy of veneration. I basically agree with the above definitions. Yeah, I think it is possible for an atheist to be religious and spiritual (and to believe in other supernatural things, for that matter), they just rarely are. (Except for those who belong to an atheistic religion).
John Adams Wrote:The Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.
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RE: Atheism - less war?
April 22, 2013 at 3:38 pm
(April 22, 2013 at 9:00 am)Zen Badger Wrote: Probably the same, people will just find a new reason to hate others.
Probably be fewer atrocities, though. Humanity is helped when one or both sides don't think that god allfuckingmighty is on their side.
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