I’m having problems with the term atheist. The definition “Someone who denies the existence of God” is pretty much straight forward but what if I happen to be a member of some religion/belief that doesn’t rely on some divine being who started the whole thing? Am I also an atheist simply because I don’t come from a Christian culture/society?
If I follow the Shinto religion which has no belief in a “God” that brings the universe into being and live in the United States of America am I an atheist? Or can only one born into and brought up in a Christian dominated culture/society be an atheist?
I do not deny the existence of religion(s). They serve the basic function of supposing where we come from and where we are going after we die. Everything else is superfluous. If we are going somewhere after we die (and we know the body remains here on earth) then there must be something else involved otherwise we would be going nowhere. That something is called the soul (defined as “The immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life”).
I believe in no such possibility. There is no soul. We are self aware, yes, but the duality of body and soul, material and immaterial within a person, NO. Dying is like sleeping, the lack of consciousness, but dying is permanent.
Someone who is not a member of any religious denomination, sect, faith, order or religion and believes that “religions” are immaterial cannot be labeled with any religious designation (defined as “Identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others”) i. e., in this case theists, godly etc.
I fall into the “religions are immaterial” group, that religions do not adequately or accurately describe existence of any sort. My beliefs are based on empirical evidence; the scientific method, therefore I am not (as I have indicated in the past) an atheist. I cannot be against God if there never has been and is not now such an entity. That would be like saying I am against unicorns or mermaids neither of which exist.
I’m not sure what I’m doing on any quasi-religious forum but I have to admit there are some very funny exchanges that I find interesting. All the posts while though thought provoking, funny or just plain incomprehensible are nothing more than semantic drivel that I find amusing but usually not worth following or commenting on.
The more I think about this whole subject the more religion becomes myth. Christianity is and will be seen in the future as a myth no different in substance than Greek, Roman, Norse or any other belief system. While I am of the empirical religion, (and it is), and I am quite aware of what I just said. I still take it with a grain of salt since it, too, is unable to explain everything in and about the universe. While science (empiricism) cannot explain everything it is more accurate than any other belief system.
Robert
If I follow the Shinto religion which has no belief in a “God” that brings the universe into being and live in the United States of America am I an atheist? Or can only one born into and brought up in a Christian dominated culture/society be an atheist?
I do not deny the existence of religion(s). They serve the basic function of supposing where we come from and where we are going after we die. Everything else is superfluous. If we are going somewhere after we die (and we know the body remains here on earth) then there must be something else involved otherwise we would be going nowhere. That something is called the soul (defined as “The immaterial part of a person; the actuating cause of an individual life”).
I believe in no such possibility. There is no soul. We are self aware, yes, but the duality of body and soul, material and immaterial within a person, NO. Dying is like sleeping, the lack of consciousness, but dying is permanent.
Someone who is not a member of any religious denomination, sect, faith, order or religion and believes that “religions” are immaterial cannot be labeled with any religious designation (defined as “Identifying word or words by which someone or something is called and classified or distinguished from others”) i. e., in this case theists, godly etc.
I fall into the “religions are immaterial” group, that religions do not adequately or accurately describe existence of any sort. My beliefs are based on empirical evidence; the scientific method, therefore I am not (as I have indicated in the past) an atheist. I cannot be against God if there never has been and is not now such an entity. That would be like saying I am against unicorns or mermaids neither of which exist.
I’m not sure what I’m doing on any quasi-religious forum but I have to admit there are some very funny exchanges that I find interesting. All the posts while though thought provoking, funny or just plain incomprehensible are nothing more than semantic drivel that I find amusing but usually not worth following or commenting on.
The more I think about this whole subject the more religion becomes myth. Christianity is and will be seen in the future as a myth no different in substance than Greek, Roman, Norse or any other belief system. While I am of the empirical religion, (and it is), and I am quite aware of what I just said. I still take it with a grain of salt since it, too, is unable to explain everything in and about the universe. While science (empiricism) cannot explain everything it is more accurate than any other belief system.
Robert
