The Atheist Thread: Re-envisioning Social Mores

[D_Davis]

I believe in the power of love.

[amberlita]

Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself. I quote John Lennon, "I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me." Good point there. After all, he was the walrus.

[B-side]

Atheism shouldn't be grouped indiscriminately with religious and dogmatic "-isms".

Also, John Lennon was not only the walrus, but a wife-beating hypocrite.

[Qrazy]

Atheism shouldn't be grouped indiscriminately with religious and dogmatic "-isms".

No one is grouping it that way.

[number8]

Especially when atheism's two biggest opponents aren't -isms, but -ianity and -am.

[B-side]

No one is grouping it that way.

Ism's in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ism, he should believe in himself.

Yeah.

[Qrazy]

Yeah.

I see nowhere in that sentence where she's claiming don't embrace atheism. She may feel that way but she's not expressing that there. She's making a general statement in relation to what she feels about isms.

[B-side]

I see nowhere in that sentence where she's claiming don't embrace atheism. She may feel that way but she's not expressing that there. She's making a general statement in relation to what she feels about isms.

... and does atheism not end in "ism"?

[amberlita]

I'm tempted to put a stop to this, but I'm waiting for it to dawn on somebody.

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Sorry. Continue arguing as if it really were my opinion (which it pretty much is).

[number8]

Hey I got the Bueller reference, I responded with a joke.

[Robby P]

Kind of surprised that on a movie discussion forum people wouldn't immediately pick up on that reference.

[Yxklyx]

This is all just a product of atheist shaming. Nobody wants the label, so they're forging roads around it. The irony is that the more you reject the label the more people have occasion to marginalize and mischaracterize you. Accept the label and start showing people you're still a decent person despite not adhering to their bullshit dogma.

Perhaps but I see an analogy with the War on Terror where:

USA Government -> Terrorists or Freedom Fighter?
Religious Establishment -> Atheist or XXX?

If you see yourself as an Atheist aren't you just following the Religious Establishment's take on things?

[number8]

It seems silly to be against not being something because you don't want to be the absence of something.

It's not like choosing a political party or an activist group where you act in the affirmative. Whether you're an atheist or not is basically like someone handing you a donut and saying, "Here's a donut, do you want it?" You can say yes, or you can say no, or you can say, "Damn, I dunno right now, let me think about it..." But you can't say no and then insist that you didn't just refuse a donut because you prefer if people say you chose to eat a salad instead. Eat whatever the hell you want instead, but you're still going to be someone who said no to a donut.

I can't help it that the concept of god exists in this world. It was handed to me. By not believing in that stuff, I am an atheist. I can be a libertarian, a humanist, a helicopter pilot, I can be a lot of things, but I am also always going to be an atheist on top of them because someone said, "Here's our creator, you dig?" and I said, "No, bullshit."

[Winston*]

"Look at those holier than thou idiots with their donuts. Don't they know its all just flour and sugar?"

*goes of to read Richard Donuts*

[D_Davis]

The Donut Delusion changed my life.
I liked it better than The End of Donuts, and Donuts are Not Good.

[Yxklyx]

There is no donut.

[D_Davis]

It is the hole, the empty space, that makes the donut a donut.

[Qrazy]

Kind of surprised that on a movie discussion forum people wouldn't immediately pick up on that reference.

Not all of us were weaned on Bueller's tit.

[Qrazy]

Perhaps but I see an analogy with the War on Terror where:

Religious Establishment -> Atheist or XXX?

If you see yourself as an Atheist aren't you just following the Religious Establishment's take on things?

No.

[Irish]

Not all of us were weaned on Bueller's tit.

Pfft. Cinema noob.

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[Spun Lepton]

I hate CNN, yet I continue to visit the site. I am a glutton for punishment.

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2014/0...god/?hpt=hp_t4

SHUT UP CNN!!!

[Dead & Messed Up]

You could swap out that Genesis story with any of the hundreds of creation stories out there.

[chrisnu]

That sounds a lot like Genesis 1:1 to me: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.”

This is why I don't like this translation, it's used to do stuff like this. I do think that when looking at the original Hebrew and the translation of the individual words, the NJPS translation of the Tanakh has it best:

"When God began to create heaven and earth..."

Not the same meaning.

It’s not just about cracking open the Bible and reading whatever we find there from a 21st-century American perspective.

Guess what, that's exactly what you just did.

This sermon also wants to use Genesis 1:1 in a forensic manner, and then state "Genesis was never intended to be a detailed scientific handbook."

Alright, I'm doing being pissed off by this.

[BuffaloWilder]

Holy shit, this entire thread is just absolutely retarded. Arguments about semantic definitions of atheism, a bunch of reactionary, silly sub-reddit quality screeds equating belief in God to "fairies" and "unicorns," (it's customary with this kind of thing to tip your fedora afterwords, you know) and the circle just keeps going. It is mind-boggling that you guys, for all of your collective experiences, can think of nothing more interesting to say about theology and its implications (or lack thereof) than "I don't believe it because it's sexist/old/archaic/racist/insert here," and the religious equivalent, for 95 pages.

Except for Qrazy, who seems content to sit back and watch. Which is the proper response.

[bac0n]

Holy shit, this entire thread is just absolutely retarded.

And it is somewhat disappointing to me that you, despite your obviously strong command of the English language, would resort to childish and insulting words like retarded.