Atheism liberated me from pointless thinking,and made my life enjoyable.

[Faith No More]

I agree that there is much beauty in the world and we can all enjoy that, but I think you have your rose-colored glasses on. It's much easier for someone that has freedom and is clothed and fed to see the world as a beautiful place. How about those who are living under oppression, living in the streets, scratching around for their next meal? I'm sure that they don't think that the world is a wonderful place. How about those suffering from chronic conditions and diseases or those rotting in prisons because of their political or religious beliefs? We need to step out of our beautiful worlds and lend a hand a hand to those whose worlds are not pretty, and help feed and clothe them. Maybe we could also help them by handing out the lyrics to John Lennon singing "Imagine" or, better yet, we can tell them about the truth of the gospel and they can have hope for eternity.

So, your solution to starvation, poverty and oppressive governments is to have people read a book that makes the fantastical claim that everything will magically be fine once they finally die, mostly likely due to the problems you're trying to solve in the first place?

Do you also try to save a drowning man by throwing him a bucket of water?

[Lek]

I agree that there is much beauty in the world and we can all enjoy that, but I think you have your rose-colored glasses on. It's much easier for someone that has freedom and is clothed and fed to see the world as a beautiful place. How about those who are living under oppression, living in the streets, scratching around for their next meal? I'm sure that they don't think that the world is a wonderful place. How about those suffering from chronic conditions and diseases or those rotting in prisons because of their political or religious beliefs? We need to step out of our beautiful worlds and lend a hand a hand to those whose worlds are not pretty, and help feed and clothe them. Maybe we could also help them by handing out the lyrics to John Lennon singing "Imagine" or, better yet, we can tell them about the truth of the gospel and they can have hope for eternity.

So, your solution to starvation, poverty and oppressive governments is to have people read a book that makes the fantastical claim that everything will magically be fine once they finally die, mostly likely due to the problems you're trying to solve in the first place?

Do you also try to save a drowning man by throwing him a bucket of water?

You didn't read my post very well.

[Esquilax]

Even if you're just trying to give the downtrodden hope, I don't think giving them a book full of threats is the way to do it.

[FatAndFaithless]

Even if you're just trying to give the downtrodden hope, I don't think giving them a book full of threats is the way to do it.

Especially when the money it took to print that book could be another meal.

[Jenny A]

I agree that there is much beauty in the world and we can all enjoy that, but I think you have your rose-colored glasses on. It's much easier for someone that has freedom and is clothed and fed to see the world as a beautiful place. How about those who are living under oppression, living in the streets, scratching around for their next meal? I'm sure that they don't think that the world is a wonderful place. How about those suffering from chronic conditions and diseases or those rotting in prisons because of their political or religious beliefs?

Congratulations, you just raised one of the principal reasons for not believing in god. That is the problem of evil suffered through no fault of the victim.

We need to step out of our beautiful worlds and lend a hand a hand to those whose worlds are not pretty, and help feed and clothe them.

Yes indeed and many secular agencies and foundations do, and they do it without religious obligation.

Maybe we could also help them by handing out the lyrics to John Lennon singing "Imagine" or, better yet, we can tell them about the truth of the gospel and they can have hope for eternity.

I doubt either of those things would be of much use, particularly the later.

[Lek]

Congratulations, you just raised one of the principal reasons for not believing in god. That is]e problem of evil suffered through no fault of the victim.

Even if the person is not at fault, that's still not a good reason not believe in God.

Yes indeed and many secular agencies and foundations do, and they do it without religious obligation.

I was referring more to individuals.

I doubt either of those things would be of much use, particularly the later.

I'd say particularly the former.

[Jenny A]

Sure evil in the world is a reason not to believe in a just, benevolent or loving god. It has no bearing on whether an uninterested god does.

Agencies are composed of people.

[MountainsWinAgain]

Even if you're just trying to give the downtrodden hope, I don't think giving them a book full of threats is the way to do it.

Especially when the money it took to print that book could be another meal.

Or if they would stop building so many churches they could actually feed people with that money or give them at least a home to stay. Because nothing says fuck you to the poor like an white dude wearing an golden hat giving out books to the poor instead of food.

[TreeSapNest]

All that is, was and ever will be: The cosmos. Either the cosmos has always been and exists for no reason at all or it hasn't always been, but instead suddenly began where once was nothing. Either way our world is and always will be a mystery, its intigue infallible. That we have been always will be.

What is is the only truth. You need not search for it.

[Mudhammam]

It is not closely tied, it IS emotion itself. It is a woo word and gap answer from ignorance. It is our natural evolutionary "sense of awe". I have that too. I get it when I think of my mom, or my cat or the awesome power of nature.

"Spirituality" is a bullshit word rooted in mythology and superstition. I have absolutely no value for that word.

After reading Sam Harris' Waking Up, I would have to disagree that spiritually is simply a sense of awe, though it's definitely a sense. I think spiritually involves losing the illusion of self (the freedom from which is the basis of ALL spirituality and religion) and experiencing consciousness alone; it perhaps to some degree rings true of consciousness what Aristotle declared of mind when he wrote, "In a certain sense the mind is all that exists."