Doublethink
Offline The number of accusations Christians level at us is astonishing. Most of them are nonsense (some of them, like “heathen”, I would consider praise). But I am curious as most of them are internally contradictory. So, which is it? Are we anarchists, whose belief system is destined to make society collapse because of lack of absolute morals? Or, are we totalitarianists, whose beliefs gave rise to the dictatorships of the 20th century? Are we godless communists, attempting to fly the red banner across the world? Or are we capitalists, whose lack of spirituality is responsible for an overly materialistic culture? Are we intellectual snobs, who lack emotion and care nothing for the emotional comfort religion brings (actually, I wouldn’t consider this a terrible insult), or are we hedonists, caring for nothing but consumption? It’s astounding, isn’t it? To think that these people can get away with simultaneously holding internally contradictory nonsense (which would still be nonsense even if it wasn’t internally contradictory).
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
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I've always wondered about this too. Ever notice how apologists will often cite Hitler and Stalin in the same matter-of-factly rhetoric about what happens under atheistic regimes? Mentioning these two dictators out of hand like that, as though they were the same type of person, is preposterous. Apparently the atheistic state is every possible evil combined, and then some - so evil that even the mutually exclusive evils will sit side by side at our whims.
- Leon Trotsky, Last Will & Testament
February 27, 1940
This reminds me of a fucking brilliant little gem by iwbiek in response to some douchebag (I think it was Paisley) blathering on about how atheism leads to rampant consumerism:
"Physical reality” isn’t some arbitrary demarcation. It is defined in terms of what we can systematically investigate, directly or not, by means of our senses. It is preposterous to assert that the process of systematic scientific reasoning arbitrarily excludes “non-physical explanations” because the very notion of “non-physical explanation” is contradictory.
-Me
Books about atheism
I just think of how many of those same people take the 'written word', contradictions and all, as the inerrant word of their god, ... I am not at all that astounded
Slowly building a blog at ~
http://obsidianwords.wordpress.com/
Let's be honest: most people can only hold "bad" and "good" in their heads. If we ask more of them, it's like trying to get blood from a stone. Some people have decided that atheists are bad (m'kay) so the rest of it is retroactive justification of that "knowledge". It doesn't matter if they make sense, because they're only trying to explain what is obviously true, that being "atheists are bad".
In the case of truly stupendous minds, it might be "moral relativism is bad", whence come all the all-star apologists. Notice, though, that it's the same pathetic mechanism. People are just lazy. Enormously lazy. If they can pass off what they think sounds good, they will.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
It's a helluva lot more work being an atheist than a theist, to be sure. We actually have to figure shit out. There's no "God did it!" for us.
Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.
Why Believe?
On the other hand, we don't have to come up with insane rationalizations for ancient stories. It's a shame all that energy can't be harnessed for peaceful purposes.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence
Maybe we should invent a new religion in which people get in to heaven by being a good person.
After eating an entire bull, a mountain lion felt so good he started roaring. He kept it up until a hunter came along and shot him.
The moral: When you're full of bull, keep your mouth shut.
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Ah-Hahahahahahahahaha!
Hehe.
Ha!
Huh.
Whoo.
Oh. That's fresh.
...
Yeah, that would never fly.
Saint Will: no gyration without funkstification.
fabulae! nil satis firmi video quam ob rem accipere hunc mi expediat metum. - Terence