Quote:
Originally Posted by Janszoon
I already did that and you simply ignored my response and continued with the strawmen.
Heh. You're not ill-formed, you're ill-informed. Atheism isn't a philosophy, all it is a lack of belief in a god or gods. That's it. Atheists have a variety of different philosophies, some are even members of religions even though they don't believe in the supernatural components.
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Thats irrelevant. If you didn't know what I meant you wouldnt have been able to correct it. Grammar and spelling is not really the issue here.
If they are a part of religion, then they're not atheist. Atheist = a self-proclaimed aversion to religion.
Psychologically, to be asocial is to decide to withdraw from social matters.
Biologically, to be asexual is to have a biological construction which does not require you to have sex in order to reproduce.
and so on.
Theologically, atheism is the decided rejection of theism.
It doesnt mean just not beliving.
It doesnt mean not beliving in the supernatural
It doesn't mean not beliving in God.
It means the rejection and dispute of theism. Atheists believe theism is unneccessary to the Human Condition in absolute.
Furthermore, if you won't accept the possibility of the supposed impossible, if you won't accept that there's more to life than you currently know, then you can't be a part of any religion. Can't is not really the word - I mean it more in the sense that there's no reason for you to be.
If there is no purpose to Humanity then I have no interest in Humanity.
But before you play the "without your religion you'd be a psycho killer" card, allow me to explain.
There is a purpose to Humanity, because we exist. Thus, we maintain that existence, and seek to understand it further. From that, we'll attain further purpose.
If I didn't believe THAT, then yes, I would be a psycho killer. Arguably, though, if it wasn't true I wouldnt exist or be here in the first place, so how would I kill anyone?
But you dont have to be religious to believe that. All I'm saying is religion is a useful component of such an idea.
You could decide to not follow a specific religion, but still assist to maintain Humanity and seek that purpose. All that would be different is the "name" and affiliation though, which is irrelevant in the end, you'd be doing the same things, with the exception of the corrupted religious and non-religious alike. Righteousness is Universal. What works works. What doesnt, doesnt.
But I don't really see how making yourself an enemy of religion helps. Because in essence, if what we're all doing truly works, it wont matter if we learnt it from a book or from experience. All that'll matter is whats done. Why should entire sources of input be written off just because you cant verify where they came from? Why does it matter where they came from? Why does it matter if Christ was sent by God or not? Why does it matter if Moses was physically handed the ten commandments in stone? Why does it matter if Muhammed was led to the mountains by a literal burning bush?
What matters is that we know of Christ and what matters is the message he left behind. What matters is that Moses gave us the ten commandments. What matters is that Muhammed was led to the mountain. God rest their souls.
What matters is what was said and done, because they hold very important messages, regardless of where they came from.
What matters is whatever larger framework we may be a part of.
How can you write off the possibility that they came from a higher power, a greater conciousness?
Why do you doubt the intention of that higher power, when the ten commandments have been shown very clearly to be functional and in the best interests of Humanity?
I'm not saying we shouldnt question, we should always question things.
it justs seems ignorant to me for someone to say "I am atheist, your rules dont apply to me" When we're not talking about rules of society. We're talking about rules of the Unvierse. If you're agravity will it stop affecting you? Religion is about understanding those laws of the Universe and then using our concious minds to maintain and apply them as best as possible to our own manmade social structures.
It doesnt matter who says them, it matters what's said and our understanding of whats said.
It's not who said it. It's what's said.
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