Atheism, the short lived idea?

[Skipper]

Atheists in the past in the countries we now see as secular countries were in a vast minority to begin with, yet Atheism grew along with education standards, technology and our understanding of the world we live in. I don't see the logic in saying that people coming into countries where Atheism now has a much stronger presence than it did in the past and yet grew, will reverse that. These countries you say they will need to go to as "Europe's population is dwindling" (where are you getting this idea by the way?) are much more educated, liberal and free thinking than those they will be leaving, maybe that won't change their opinions but it will certainly make it harder for them to keep their children in the isolated, unquestioning and close minded environment that religion needs to grow.

[Edwardo Piet]

Atheism is rational. Whether it's pleasant or not isn't as important as the truth of the matter IMO.

And I certainly wouldn't want Yahweh, Jehovah, or Allah as a God that's for sure.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

Atheism is rational.

No, it is not per se.. It MAY be ,but in principle is a-rational, being only a lack of belief. Reaching and maintaining that position may or not be based on reason.

Conversely,most religions ARE rational, with a consistent internal logic.However,not one has ever been able to provide evidence to support its carefully reasoned sophistry.

[Anomalocaris]

Really? which religion exhibits fully consistent internal logic across most of its major expressions?

[solja247]

Well no, the christian militias in the Balkan conflicts were bloody minded arseholes

Centuries of hatred among two ethnic groups your point being?

( but for god so it was ok).

Can you prove that?

And not forgetting the christians that have blown up abortion clinics

How many abortion clinics have been blown up?

Everything is permissable when you're doing it in the name of god.

You should change that statement:

Everything is permissable when you're a human.
You do realise atheists can be bad people?

You are aware that hong kong is not representative of china right? That it was a british crown colony until 1997, and it inherited British colonial tradition, legislature, judicial and administrative structure? Despite being governed by Beijing now it still has it's own passport, currency, system of international visa arrangements? And why do you think atheism has no hope? Do you think everyone in as ruthlessly competitive a society as chinese society is now would indulge in self infantilization and seek comfort in squishy fairy tales?

Very much so.
It is hard to get an exact number of Christians in China, as many are house churches, but it is considerably growing, some statistics claim there are over 100 million Christians in China, its hard to really say as a lot are underground...

[Welsh cake]

For the past 200-300 years or so Atheism has flourished in developed countries, with atheism, has led to being secular countires, which have made us humans take leaps and bounds in all fields of science. However, is that about to end?

Obviously you vomited out that statement without bothering to conduct any research into classical antiquity. If you had done you'd understand the significance of being called 'atheos'. It's especially embarrassing to make that omission from your perspective since early Christians in Rome were persecuted as atheists for not subscribing to the official state-recognised religion at the time.

Now the term "theism" was originally coined from Ralph Cudworth in the 17th century, the definition "atheism" appeared in the late 18th century, and from there on people finally started identifying themselves as either "theists" or "atheists" whenever addressing the subject of belief or absence of belief in gods. Logically, the non-belief in deities has been around as long as theism has.

Atheism and Theism begins and ends with us, for as long as there is a mind to perceive a reality with or without higher powers.

Europe's population is dwindilling,

Citation please.

Whether the idea of God is a dellusion or not, Atheism isnt a very nice idea (You are a product of nothing and mere chance) most people will not adopt it, espically if they are from a developing country.

Atheism is broadly the lack of belief in any gods, it says nothing about reality - atheism should not be confused with concepts in philosophy such as determinism, indeterminism, predestination or self-determination.

Are we going to see the slow and steady decay of Atheism? I believe so.

All because of immigration? Do you have any evidence to back up that claim?

I guess the question is, would you prefer to live in a majority Christian or Islamic country?

Neither. Ever heard of secularism? And what does any of this have to do with the your opening paragraph on the supposed "decline of atheism"? This is addressing a very separate issue altogether.

[downbeatplumb]

[quote='solja247' pid='98507' dateline='1286716179']

a lot are underground...

Waiting for the rapture no doubt.

Just googled it there between 40 and 130 million chinese christians, which is by far the largest margin of error I have ever seen!

as there are 1,324,655,000 chinese even the 130 million makes them about as numerous as Scientologists in our society. More of a cult than a religion.

even the Falun gong have 2.1 million members and the state have been trying to stamp it out for decades.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falun_Gong

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By the way atheism was here first.
Before someone made up the first god, no one believed in god and so were atheists by default.

[theVOID]

So I personally would prefer to live in a Christian nation, if I was an atheist...

No you wouldn't, if you were an atheist you would be sick of all these fucking stupid myths having an impact on public life, just like the rest of us.

[Ashendant]

So I personally would prefer to live in a Christian nation, if I was an atheist...

No you wouldn't, if you were an atheist you would be sick of all these fucking stupid myths having an impact on public life, just like the rest of us.

That's not his point if you were an atheist would you prefer to live in a Christian country or in a islamic country, i would choose Christianity because it's tame nowadays unlike islam

[solja247]

Obviously you vomited out that statement without bothering to conduct any research into classical antiquity. If you had done you'd understand the significance of being called 'atheos'. It's especially embarrassing to make that omission from your perspective since early Christians in Rome were persecuted as atheists for not subscribing to the official state-recognised religion at the time.

I know that. When someone is talking about gay people do they stop and say, 'I dont mean happy people, I mean homosexual people.'

I understand there have been 'atheists' for milleniums, it just picked up momentum with the enlightenment era...

No you wouldn't, if you were an atheist you would be sick of all these fucking stupid myths having an impact on public life, just like the rest of us.

True, now that I rationalise everything, I used to get so annoyed and angry when Christians would say things I thought were ridiculous, I was going to throw it all in! They are just idiots, and then I realised it helps them to live a 'good' life, so why should I call them an idiot, perhaps I am in the idiot. So you are right if I was an atheist I would be impatient and call everyone 'idiots' if they believed in something ridiculous, but I am working on being patient with people, even if I am in the middle of a Bible study and they ask to pray so that the devil will stop it from raining!

I eat meat, they are drinking milk still....