Do you have the right to be an atheist?

[Brian37]

I don't care how they choose to define what they call their god. It has no bearing on me whatsoever.

If someone truly believed Mickey Mouse was a god, that also would not have any barring on me, but in mass, if a bunch of people did to a political level, that would have an impact on me. It is not a fictional being I worry about, it is the fans of such claimed fictional beings, and what they do to defend their naked assertions.

[robvalue]

Something has been bugging me...

Religious preachers generally claim to have a being of unlimited power already on their team.

So what do they need more and more crappy humans on their team for? To "do god's work"? That seems a bit suspicious.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

I consider History of religion,Bible etc as a hindrance or information noise to the underlying logic behind it.
Just saying....

[ignoramus]

Pool! Are you going to start making sense or do I go get my salad dressing?
The above sentence actually resembled English! (as a second language)

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

Pool!  Are you going to start making sense or do I go get my salad dressing?
The above sentence actually resembled English! (as a second language)

Hi ignoramus.

Do you know why i have no respect for you?
It's because just like there are smart people among theists and dumb people among theists there are also smart people among atheists and dumb people among atheists.

You're like one of my close friends.
He is an atheist because the majority of the smart people in my small town do not believe in god and do not attend church(The teenagers,that is,all the old people do attend church or believe in god.Of the old people,usually men,some that doesn't believe in a god and doesn't attend church - usually they do it for the wrong reasons.They do it either because they are too lazy to attend church or something like that - to them they are atheists but they aren't truly atheists.).

He doesn't really have an opinion of his own in this aspect but follows the opinion of the people he considers to be smart.
If all the smart people(majority of his company)were theists then he'd be a theist too.(I remember because when we were really young we used to regularly attend church i was a STRONG theist,but through time i came to think that all of the magic i believed in was bullshit - that it was stories to scare children into being good taken to a whole another level of stupidity by religion.And one day he asked me why i didn't attend church regularly anymore,i said something insulting about religion and god and he was like "woah woah dude watch who you're messing with - god can forgive his sons only so much.." -not exactly that but something along those lines- slowly but inevitably more of my friends stopped believing in god and we had this group of wierd kids that didn't attend church,soon he joined the club too - not because he believed in what we believed in but because he didn't want to be the odd one of our group.)

Not that it is wrong to do so,but what i look for in a person are original ideas - because i believe that original ideas are unique and it takes a significantly higher amount of smart to come up with original ideas rather than only ideas.
I was never a fan of following the herd - i hated people that did that.Some people choose to follow a herd and through time forgets that the reason for them choosing to be a part of the herd was because they didn't want to be the loner - not because they believed in what this herd believed in.
The friend i've mentioned,i love him like my brother,but in terms of generating original ideas - i have no respect for him.
It's not that i don't like you - i do like you as a person because you are doing what is morally correct and have a part in helping society diminish their false believings.

But your only contribution as far as this thread is concerned was agreeing with what other smart people were saying and generally making fun of me.
1. Calling me stupid,senseless,pfool(which is childish).
2. Saying you've given up on me.
3. Saying that you no longer want any part in the discussion because of how thick i am.
4. Saying that you are leaving.
5. Repeating from Step 1.

Do you know why you were keep repeating from step 1?It's because even though you say that i'm stupid and that you're leaving the thread other people still stay,they don't leave just because you are leaving - i have more respect for them in this aspect than i have for you.
So instead of staying away you feel a need to follow the herd and then come back here again.

Get it?
I like you as a person,i just don't respect you.
Like how i like a baby kitten because its cute and cuddly but have no respect for it.

I do feel bad about saying this to you because even though you said that i was stupid or thick intentionally wanting to hurt my feelings(My feelings aren't hurt when i am called stupid.I was called stupid so many times by more stupid people because i stood alone and refused to join a herd because i didn't believe in what they stood for.Not that i'm saying that all the others that tried to reason with me here are stupid,just that i'm used to being called stupid.)i am actually concerned about hurting your feelings because i don't hate you.I hope you take it in the same spirit as i took it.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

I just want to point something out.

Many people here think that the default position of every human being is as an atheist.
Some have argued that - 
If a baby has no information about the concept of a god then she automatically doesn't believe in a god.

The problem with this argument is that you yourself have forgotten the definition of atheism - Which is an ism that basically rejects the claim made by theism.
Atheism is not a ism that believes in the non-existence of a god.

If the concept of a god is not known to a person.
Then it means that they are unaware of theism.
If you say that this person is an atheist by default.
Then you are making the assumption than this person is aware of the concept of a god & theism and rejects this claim.
Which contradicts your first statement.

That is,a person can be an atheist only after this person is aware of the concept of theism.

[Holden Caulfield]

So pool what you have completely accepted is that you have no understanding is the definition of atheism.

Babies don't believe in unicorns, fairies, gods or anything not real.  That's all atheism is saying.  Of course atheism wouldn't exist without theism.  We would all LOVE to live in that world.

You seem to have this hard time with atheism as a concept.  Except it's not a concept.  It's just not accepting other concepts.  If there was a unicorn reality sect I'd be a anti-unicorn.  Or a fairy concept I'd be anti-fairy.

Your just wanting to be smarter than both sides but your not.  You are not above us, you just trying to be hip by denying both sides.  Have fun with that, except atheists aren't taking sides like you make them out to be.  They just don't care to believe in any god put forward by any society to date.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

I think we both know that i'm not smarter than everyone here.
Ask me what (x+y)^2 is and you will see me going "ummmm...uh huh. oh..i um..5?"
I'm probably the most idiotic person here,many would agree - i know,you don't have to rub salt on my wound. ; _ ;

But if a person with an average IQ came up with E=mc^2 then would this equation be discredited because the person was of average IQ?
Similary if Eienstein came forth and said that if you drop a stone on earth it will go up will it make him any more correct because of his awesome intelligence?

I was just saying that if a person was brought up without being fed the information of a God then it wouldn't make that person an atheist by default.My reasoning is in my previous post.
Thank you for your time.

[Longhorn]

I just want to point something out.

Many people here think that the default position of every human being is as an atheist.
Some have argued that - 
If a baby has no information about the concept of a god then she automatically doesn't believe in a god.

The problem with this argument is that you yourself have forgotten the definition of atheism - Which is an ism that basically rejects the claim made by theism.
Atheism is not a ism that believes in the non-existence of a god.

If the concept of a god is not known to a person.
Then it means that they are unaware of theism.
If you say that this person is an atheist by default.
Then you are making the assumption than this person is aware of the concept of a god & theism and rejects this claim.
Which contradicts your first statement.

That is,a person can be an atheist only after this person is aware of the concept of theism.

Atheism = don't believe in god
Don't know about god = don't believe in god = atheist

Like I said, atheism is the default position. It's the term, the name, the word atheism that exists because of theism. Even if there was no theism, we'd all be atheists, we just wouldn't have a word for it, like we don't have words for people who don't believe in Santa.

[ErGingerbreadMandude]

I just want to point something out.

Many people here think that the default position of every human being is as an atheist.
Some have argued that - 
If a baby has no information about the concept of a god then she automatically doesn't believe in a god.

The problem with this argument is that you yourself have forgotten the definition of atheism - Which is an ism that basically rejects the claim made by theism.
Atheism is not a ism that believes in the non-existence of a god.

If the concept of a god is not known to a person.
Then it means that they are unaware of theism.
If you say that this person is an atheist by default.
Then you are making the assumption than this person is aware of the concept of a god & theism and rejects this claim.
Which contradicts your first statement.

That is,a person can be an atheist only after this person is aware of the concept of theism.

Atheism = don't believe in god
Don't know about god = don't believe in god = atheist

Like I said, atheism is the default position. It's the term, the name, the word atheism that exists because of theism. Even if there was no theism, we'd all be atheists, we just wouldn't have a word for it, like we don't have words for people who don't believe in Santa.

C'mon bro,
Atheism = Rejection of the claim made by theism.
Atheism =/= Disbelief in god.