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RE: Has atheism made you different?
April 25, 2013 at 4:54 am
(This post was last modified: April 25, 2013 at 5:06 am by Dawud.)
Thanks maelstrom -
Atheism is then seen as a kind if default then?
Not just in analytical philosophy but when a human is born...
So this default position cannot affect any behaviour in anyone.
Or it can but its not the atheism but wot did it...
If someone changed back to being atheist their agnostic view on the world (I.e. a view on the world that neither accepts or denies the possibility of God) would have no effect in their behaviour.
If you can't have an agnostic view on the world then answer me this: what do -you- call a view on the world that neither accepts nor rejects the possibility of God existing? Then substitute the term "agnostic view on the world" with your preferred terminology
Right - Im going to stop using the term atheist as it is used in UK philosophy circles (as it has a broader meaning here that would be to confusing and unclear in philosophy) and Im going to start using the term agnostic for agnostics instead of atheists. So I must ask - an antitheist - does it have a pretty broad meaning or is it now being used to mean denial of existence of God? Or does it mean even if there is God I am against the idea of following the creator's guidance?
Or does it also mean agnostic? I.e. anti(before) theist like being in a state before believing in God.
How do you use these words here?
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RE: Has atheism made you different?
April 25, 2013 at 7:49 am
While I am not an Atheist, my dropping of the Abrahamic Religions and religion in general has really made me a better person.
1. I am allowed to be myself for a change. I am have more self-liberation (will explain next)
2. My mental states now helps me realize I can change the world for better.
3. I no longer stay up at night from the prospect that people I grown to love will be tormented not based on character or heart, but merely based on sworn loyalty with out a present master that is.
4. I am no longer haunted by the paradox of a loving God and a hating cold world.
5. Now I understand the struggle my parents went through in the ministry (yes father was a preacher) was because of corrupt businesses call organized religion. It was a because of some predestined hardship of the faithful servant.
6.With the idea that the world is in humanities hands I feel humanity can change. We are not bound by a single, and when you think about it entrapment act by God in the garden, which developed our "sin" nature.
7. Finally, I have become more compassionate, loving, and accepting of others. Also, my moral compass is now more clear than ever as I judge by content of character. Not by religious devolution, parroting, or how much you give to the church. *disclaimer* when I was religious I did have all these just they are amplified.
![[Image: grumpy-cat-and-jesus-meme-died-for-sins.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-_GaCN-f8ZFo%2FUNfmimTyf4I%2FAAAAAAAANmk%2FoakT_wL319U%2Fs1600%2Fgrumpy-cat-and-jesus-meme-died-for-sins.jpg)
I would be a televangelist....but I have too much of a soul.
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RE: Has atheism made you different?
April 25, 2013 at 4:30 pm
Atheism doesn't compel anyone to do anything. It isn't an physical object therefore cannot perform any action. Our actions are controlled by our brains, just like anything else. God or Islam or Christianity doesn't compel either. Priests, vicars and imams do.
For me, The biggest Biblical contradiction is this:
''Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me''
Exodus 20:4-5
I am a jealous god? Isn't that one of the seven deadly sins? Oh dear me. And even worse... He's not going to punish the person who dislikes him... but his Children, and his children's children? Without trail? Oh, so much mercy God... How merciful you really are.
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RE: Has atheism made you different?
April 25, 2013 at 4:32 pm
Good things came from leaving my religion but being an aatheist hasn't done anything for me.
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RE: Has atheism made you different?
April 25, 2013 at 4:50 pm
(April 25, 2013 at 4:30 pm)Beardio1 Wrote: Atheism doesn't compel anyone to do anything. It isn't an physical object therefore cannot perform any action. Our actions are controlled by our brains, just like anything else. God or Islam or Christianity doesn't compel either. Priests, vicars and imams do.
So happiness can't compel anyone - or the knowledge that you don't know enough for an exam... These cannot compel?
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RE: Has atheism made you different?
April 25, 2013 at 5:52 pm
(This post was last modified: April 25, 2013 at 5:53 pm by Dawud.)
Awareness of this absence of belief can motivate...
Surely you believe you have an absence of belief regarding God NonyMouse?
Or are you unsure and think you might believe?
You believe you are agnostic?
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RE: Has atheism made you different?
April 25, 2013 at 7:17 pm
(April 25, 2013 at 5:52 pm)Dawud Wrote: Awareness of this absence of belief can motivate...
Curiously, this idea is probably only applied with regards to belief in god. If you do not believe in space aliens, does your awareness of that lack of belief motivate you in any way? Unicorns? Martians? Talking earthworms? There are a great many things that you probably do not believe exists. What does this awareness motivate you to do?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
