Atheism
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Re: Atheism
Post #2Atheism, is no belief or faith in a god or gods. Life minus God. Nothing is put in its place. It is not a religion.Beyonder wrote: People say its a religion and some say its not but what's your definition/opinion on this.[/url]
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Post #4
Atheism is definitely not a belief system. There is no dogma associated with it, no creed, no philosophy, etc.
All atheism means is that a person does not subscribe to a particular theism.
They could be "agnostic" in terms of how they feel about the possibility of a higher power, or mystical essence to life in general.
Some atheists are convinced that there is no higher power in terms of any conscious entity (like a God deity), so they subscribe to a "belief" in a purely materialistic existence that basically happened without any "higher power" being involved. Especially in terms of having any consciousness, or intent. However, that is a "belief" of secular materialists (not necessarily atheists in general).
In other words, all secular materialists are atheists, but not all atheists are secular materialists.
Even secular materialism has no "dogma" or specific philosophy concerning how life should be lived. So philosophies on that may differ dramatically from one secular materialist to another.
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Also atheists can actually be highly religious too. For example most Christians are atheists with respect to Zeus, Apollo, Thor, Odin, etc. They are even atheists with respect to "Allah", the God described in the Qur'an.
So everyone is an atheist with respect to some religion.
So Christians are atheists too. No question about it.
All atheism means is that a person does not subscribe to a particular theism.
They could be "agnostic" in terms of how they feel about the possibility of a higher power, or mystical essence to life in general.
Some atheists are convinced that there is no higher power in terms of any conscious entity (like a God deity), so they subscribe to a "belief" in a purely materialistic existence that basically happened without any "higher power" being involved. Especially in terms of having any consciousness, or intent. However, that is a "belief" of secular materialists (not necessarily atheists in general).
In other words, all secular materialists are atheists, but not all atheists are secular materialists.
Even secular materialism has no "dogma" or specific philosophy concerning how life should be lived. So philosophies on that may differ dramatically from one secular materialist to another.
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Also atheists can actually be highly religious too. For example most Christians are atheists with respect to Zeus, Apollo, Thor, Odin, etc. They are even atheists with respect to "Allah", the God described in the Qur'an.
So everyone is an atheist with respect to some religion.
So Christians are atheists too. No question about it.
[center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]
Re: Atheism
Post #5Religion was invented by man, all Gods are myths. Therefore, no religion or God is right or better, they are all the same, invented by man to explain and control things that they did not understand. Therefore, atheists do not believe or subscribe to a religion or god. Atheists do not put some other belief in its place, every atheist is free to decide what is right and wrong, how to live and who they want to be. How did the universe come to be? We don't know but we don't think a god put things in motion or controls things because there is no proof of that. We don't put a god or religious belief in place of knowledge.
Divine Insight makes a good point so that you can relate to what it is like to be an atheist when he says you don't believe in other Gods but your own. It is just like that for an atheist but we also include the God that you believe in. But you are not an atheist if you believe in even one God.
An atheist who has a set of beliefs or a creed or a philosophy of how to live may be an atheist but is also something else.
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Post #8
If you are attempting to shove all atheists into a single box then you will most certainly fail miserably at that.Beyonder wrote: So we got 2 different opinions but one main subject?
The term "atheist" doesn't define anyone.
Just as I had pointed out, even you are an atheist with respect to thousands of religions and their Gods, like it or not.
Christians try very hard to paint everything in black & white:
1. Either their religion is true or there is no God.
2. Either a person believes in the "Christian God" or they are an atheist.
It's just an attempt to create an "US verses THEM War". Which is what the Abrahamic religions are infamous for doing. The Abrahamic religions create "US versus THEM wars" even among themselves.
But in truth Christians are just as much atheists as everyone else. We are all atheists with respect to many theologies.
There are atheists who reject all theological claims. And those are the atheists that point out that they simply believe in ONE LESS GOD than you.
[center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]
Post #9
I'm actually trying to get more information my friend is atheist and he stated he believe in "Human Evolution" and such and I'm trying to find out all the different types/views/definition of atheism because all I know of is that they don't believe in a god.Divine Insight wrote:If you are attempting to shove all atheists into a single box then you will most certainly fail miserably at that.Beyonder wrote: So we got 2 different opinions but one main subject?
The term "atheist" doesn't define anyone.
Just as I had pointed out, even you are an atheist with respect to thousands of religions and their Gods, like it or not.
Christians try very hard to paint everything in black & white:
1. Either their religion is true or there is no God.
2. Either a person believes in the "Christian God" or they are an atheist.
It's just an attempt to create an "US verses THEM War". Which is what the Abrahamic religions are infamous for doing. The Abrahamic religions create "US versus THEM wars" even among themselves.
But in truth Christians are just as much atheists as everyone else. We are all atheists with respect to many theologies.
There are atheists who reject all theological claims. And those are the atheists that point out that they simply believe in ONE LESS GOD than you.
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Post #10
That's all there is to know about "atheists".Beyonder wrote: I'm actually trying to get more information my friend is atheist and he stated he believe in "Human Evolution" and such and I'm trying to find out all the different types/views/definition of atheism because all I know of is that they don't believe in a god.
Anything beyond this that your friend might believe or support is entirely his own personal views. You'd need to ask your friend for the details on that.
Of course, "Human Evolution" is a scientific fact. So you can always look that up in scientific literature.
That has nothing to do with atheism specifically.
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Perhaps I should add here that I am an atheist with respect to all the Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. And the scientific discovery of evolution had absolutely nothing at all to do with me becoming an "atheist" with respect to these Abrahamic religions.
I do recognize, however, that these scientific observations do indeed support that the Abrahamic religions are indeed false. But for me personally that's just additional reasons to reject them. It's not my main reason by far.
Last edited by Divine Insight on Fri Sep 04, 2015 3:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
[center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]
Spiritual Growth - A person's continual assessment
of how well they believe they are doing
relative to what they believe a personal God expects of them.
[/center]