You sound charming and I don't even want to marry you. I'm going to treat this as your introduction but also try to answer your questions.
Don't know but I assume that what we don't know is the result of the paucity of evidence and the difficulty of finding out, but nothing to do with magic. I believe everything is natural but that isn't reductionist. I'm open to finding out all sorts of things, but once discovered they become natural.
The same as any other but it is my favorite species and the one I have the greatest empathy for. [Now why would that be?]
Can't improve on what K said.
It's the way a highly cooperative species possessed of symbolic language describes the actions which impinge on that cooperation and the feelings, emotions and thoughts they inspire.
As has been said, cycle of life and death. Nature. All evidence points to mortality, and a good deal it is too.
I want them to be all that they can be. There is no reason to sacrifice their intellect by trying to justify the bible as a reference book. There are wonderful Christian people in the public eye and here on this site. I'd like to think that it is possible to for them to be every bit as rational, bright and insightful as anyone else. And it is also true that being an atheist does not require genius or safeguard one from being a dolt.
Only dimwits proselytize so they tend not to be convincing. To be fully worthy of my respect they must be as prepared to treat me as a peer as I'm ready to treat them. If they feel they must straighten out my faulty beliefs they fail that test.
You sound delightful. I hope you will stick around and join in discussions and chat. Good people come in every stripe.
(May 24, 2013 at 2:02 pm)bb7403 Wrote: How did the human race/world originate?
Don't know but I assume that what we don't know is the result of the paucity of evidence and the difficulty of finding out, but nothing to do with magic. I believe everything is natural but that isn't reductionist. I'm open to finding out all sorts of things, but once discovered they become natural.
(May 24, 2013 at 2:02 pm)bb7403 Wrote: What, if any, intrinsic value do we have as a species (in other words, is there something special about human beings that makes us different from other species?)?
The same as any other but it is my favorite species and the one I have the greatest empathy for. [Now why would that be?]
(May 24, 2013 at 2:02 pm)bb7403 Wrote: What meaning, if any, does life have?
Can't improve on what K said.
(May 24, 2013 at 2:02 pm)bb7403 Wrote: Where, if anywhere, does the idea of right and wrong come from?
It's the way a highly cooperative species possessed of symbolic language describes the actions which impinge on that cooperation and the feelings, emotions and thoughts they inspire.
(May 24, 2013 at 2:02 pm)bb7403 Wrote: What happens to people when they die? Do they just cease to exist, or does something else happen (maybe an electric discharge that gets recycled somehow)?
As has been said, cycle of life and death. Nature. All evidence points to mortality, and a good deal it is too.
(May 24, 2013 at 2:02 pm)bb7403 Wrote: Also, I was wondering a little how atheists feel about Christians (I know the party line I get from the churches in the Bible Belt where we live, but I wanted to talk to atheists themselves to see what they think).
I want them to be all that they can be. There is no reason to sacrifice their intellect by trying to justify the bible as a reference book. There are wonderful Christian people in the public eye and here on this site. I'd like to think that it is possible to for them to be every bit as rational, bright and insightful as anyone else. And it is also true that being an atheist does not require genius or safeguard one from being a dolt.
(May 24, 2013 at 2:02 pm)bb7403 Wrote: Finally, I'm sure a lot of you have been approached by Christians to join their faith. What was your experience with that, and was anyone convincing?
Only dimwits proselytize so they tend not to be convincing. To be fully worthy of my respect they must be as prepared to treat me as a peer as I'm ready to treat them. If they feel they must straighten out my faulty beliefs they fail that test.
(May 24, 2013 at 2:02 pm)bb7403 Wrote: These really are just curiosity questions. I've always been a theist, bit I have a lot of respect for atheists and have enjoyed talking with the (very) few I've met.
You sound delightful. I hope you will stick around and join in discussions and chat. Good people come in every stripe.
