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(January 6, 2015 at 2:46 am)*steve* Wrote: Surely judging from the many thousands of comments in the forums there is more to atheism than just a definition.
There's more to atheists than just a definition, sure. However, atheism is merely not having a belief in gods or god claims. Not-theism.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
January 6, 2015 at 4:14 am (This post was last modified: January 6, 2015 at 4:14 am by Exian.)
(January 5, 2015 at 8:07 pm)*steve* Wrote: Hello, I'm new to the forum. Full disclosure: I'm currently a non-traditional theist. However, I have considered atheism a few times but it seems to be such a grim position. Let me explain.
As I understand atheism, these would be a few of its tenets:
There is no ultimate meaning. Therefore, all lives and events are ultimately meaningless.
There is no ultimate basis for value. Therefore any moral position is ultimately arbitrary and logically, equally defensible. This means that things like genocide, pedophilia, torture, etc. are equally defensible to any other moral position.
There is no ultimate intentionality associated with/in reality. Therefore, all events, actions, thoughts and behaviors are determined by chance and necessity. Thus, an individual's thoughts and actions are determined solely by prior causal events and chance.
At least for me, if I take these atheist positions to their logical conclusion this all seems psychologically pretty grim.
I'd be interested in comments why this is not necessarily the case.
I'm raising a 9 year old little girl. We do a lot of ping-pong (Christmas gift), Xbox, and homework. When the weather gets better, we'll start brushing the horses of their winter coat (don't ride them anymore, too old) and treasure hunting at the lake with our metal detectors to add to our treasure chest of crap. Hopefully, we'll find some cool stuff along the way to look at under the microscope I just got her. It's a binocular 1280 magnification with a smart phone hook up. She hasn't had one that strong so we're excited to start looking at stuff and drawing what we see in our pads. She goes to dance class every Tuesday and had a Christmas dance recital before the holidays. That was fun... and hilarious.
January 6, 2015 at 4:30 am (This post was last modified: January 6, 2015 at 4:34 am by Fidel_Castronaut.)
There are no tennents of atheism. It's the lack of belief in a god or gods.
Everything else listed is superfluous.
Welcome Steve
(January 6, 2015 at 2:46 am)*steve* Wrote:
(January 6, 2015 at 2:32 am)rexbeccarox Wrote: But you don't understand it at all if you don't understand it's simply a lack of belief in a deity/ deities.
Surely judging from the many thousands of comments in the forums there is more to atheism than just a definition.
There's more to atheists fo sure. We're a mix of people with an eclectic mix of ideas and experiences. We are not all the same, which is what's evidenced by this forum.
(January 5, 2015 at 10:15 pm)Cato Wrote: You are conflating existential nihilism and ethical nihilism. The "philosophical ideas" you are using as the basis for your theology require a basic upgrade.
How so?
Ethical nihilism does not necessarily follow from existential nihilism. This is the assumption you are making while holding on to your deontological ethics. Here, try virtue ethics: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-virtue/
You can then read up on consequentialism. I recommend doing a bit of research on a conversation that has taken place for over two millenia prior to making assumptions regarding an entire group of people bound by a single shared trait that has nothing to do with the subject at hand. Your assertions on the matter are not only baseless, but are invoked in such a way as to betray your preference for deontology. Attacking an unsupported extreme position, which only you have staked out for yourself to rail against, does not mean your alternative must be true. There are other options as demonstrated.
(January 6, 2015 at 2:32 am)rexbeccarox Wrote: But you don't understand it at all if you don't understand it's simply a lack of belief in a deity/ deities.
Surely judging from the many thousands of comments in the forums there is more to atheism than just a definition.
If you take any 3 atheists, there's a pretty good chance two of them are going to disagree on absolutely everything-- except that they lack a belief in God. The ones here disagree in the form of text entries in an online forum.
It's been truly said that atheists are a herd of cats for precisely that reason.
Also meow.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
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