Good news ... told by an idiot

[Pat Mustard]

Andrew Brown has a piece on the non-believing majority in the UK. However the Grauniad's religiou guru has a long history of denigrating atheism, and is on form today, including such gems as not believing in gods being its own religion and asserting that you are not atheist unless you're cerain there are no gods (mistakenly believing that atheism and agnosticism are points on the one scale).

Enjoy.

[robvalue]

Yeah, the author is a dumbass. No religion is the new religion?

Can people please stop it with that arse-crackery. Not everything is a fucking religion. However, the thrust of the article seems to be good. Most people are moral/liberal, at least in theory, without needing the church as usually claimed.

I expect to see more desperate stunts from the church such as the cinema debacle, and a boat load of whining.

[vorlon13]

So, not being sick is an illness ??

[henryp]

While "religion" probably has too many connotations associated with it, I've always thought of atheism sharing some similarity to a religion in that they are both one's take on the nature of existence, upon which you base your beliefs.

But perhaps I've been wrong all along. Rob's "I don't care if there is a God or not" thread, and the number of people who lined up to say they aren't changing no matter what the nature of existence is, throws a wrench in that theory.

That there are people who, no matter what they know/learn reality to be, are going to behave a certain way. I can certainly see why you guys wouldn't want to be likened to religion, as you've got your own thing going. I can't quite figure out what it is, though. Still trying to guess whether it's a real thing, or just being obstinate, because 'take that stupid religion people.'

[Faith No More]

While "religion" probably has too many connotations associated with it, I've always thought of atheism sharing some similarity to a religion in that they are both one's take on the nature of existence, upon which you base your beliefs.

But perhaps I've been wrong all along.  Rob's "I don't care if there is a God or not" thread, and the number of people who lined up to say they aren't changing no matter what the nature of existence is, throws a wrench in that theory.

That there are people who, no matter what they know/learn reality to be, are going to behave a certain way.  I can certainly see why you guys wouldn't want to be likened to religion, as you've got your own thing going.  I can't quite figure out what it is, though.  Still trying to guess whether it's a real thing, or just being obstinate, because 'take that stupid religion people.'

In my time here I've noticed a strong sense of individualism and the desire not to be associated with a group. People seem to really value their desire to be the individual that they are rather than conform to outside pressures. I think that is an inevitable result of people embracing free-thought.

Perhaps this "thing going" we have is a bunch of atheists fighting for our individuality?

[henryp]

Because of the negative associations they have from most people's time in a religion?  I guess that makes sense as a motivation, but it seems impractical.  And it fits oddly with the "Us vs. Them" attitude pretty prevalent on these boards.  A group of people brought together by their desire to not be in a group?  Although maybe that makes enough sense.

I'm probably just making the initial point, which is I'm associating a bunch of things with Atheists that I probably shouldn't be.  I do find this subset interesting though.  People who find 'the truth' of it all irrelevant to how they view their relationship with the world.  Whose atheism allegedly isn't a factor in their perspective.  But really, isn't that how most animals behave, I suppose?  You don't see cats or penguins pondering this nonsense.  They just behave as they see fit.  But I'm not sure humans are capable of that, even if they want to believe they are.

[zebo-the-fat]

I would post a long reply but I have to go out and not play golf

[Minimalist]

Ah ha!  See.  That makes you a golfer!

[Faith No More]

Because of the negative associations they have from most people's time in a religion?  I guess that makes sense as a motivation, but it seems impractical.  And it fits oddly with the "Us vs. Them" attitude pretty prevalent on these boards.  A group of people brought together by their desire to not be in a group?  Although maybe that makes enough sense.

The "Us vs. Them" mentality is only held by some users here.  There are others that understand that we all have different factors leading us to our beliefs and it's not something that needs to be a dividing line.  You'll find at least a few people here that are even married to believers, myself included. It can be hard to stay away from that mindset, however, when many vocal theists embrace it passionately.

We're not a group of people brought together by desire not to be in a group.  We're a group of people that don't get to meet many like-minded people in our daily lives, and so we hop onto the internet to find some.  It just so happens that many of those people are also strong individualists.

I'm probably just making the initial point, which is I'm associating a bunch of things with Atheists that I probably shouldn't be.  I do find this subset interesting though.  People who find 'the truth' of it all irrelevant to how they view their relationship with the world.  Whose atheism allegedly isn't a factor in their perspective.  But really, isn't that how most animals behave, I suppose?  You don't see cats or penguins pondering this nonsense.  They just behave as they see fit.  But I'm not sure humans are capable of that, even if they want to believe they are.

Atheism is just one position on one claim, and there are millions of ways to view the world and still be an atheist.  That's why we say it doesn't factor into our perspective.  It's our perspective that led to our atheism.

[downbeatplumb]

Yeah, the author is a dumbass. No religion is the new religion?

Can people please stop it with that arse-crackery. Not everything is a fucking religion. However, the thrust of the article seems to be good. Most people are moral/liberal, at least in theory, without needing the church as usually claimed.

I expect to see more desperate stunts from the church such as the cinema debacle, and a boat load of whining.

The article itself seemed not too unrounded so I wonder if it's just a case of making a provocative title to draw people in.