Atheism as a religion
Posted on: May 28, 2012 - 6:42pm
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Atheism as a religion
I have heard it seems all my life this moronic, twisted statement from theists: atheism is a religion. Atheists believe there is no god and that is a belief system. A belief system is a religion.
So I call myself a non-believer. Then of course I get "oh, you're an atheist blah blah blah".
You guys must have heard this claptrap as well.
Does anyone have a really good answer to this nonsense aside from fainting or running screaming into the night?
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Well, the comic ones are :
Is not watching tv a hobby ?
Is not exercising a workout ?
Is not believing in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy faith ?
Here is one of my favorite things to ask them :
Me : Do you agree with this quote : Even today, I am not ashamed to say that, overpowered by my stormy enthusiasm, I fell down on my knees and thanked god from an overflowing heart for granting me the good fortune of being able to live at this time ?
Theist : Of course I agree with that statement.
Me : Do you know who said that ?
Theist : Who ?
Me : Adolf Hitler said that in Chapter 5 of Mein Kampf.
I always ask them, "What is the Atheist creed ?," "Where is the nearest Atheist church ?,". "Who is the Atheist leader ?," "What is the Atheist Manifesto ?" "Can you recite the Atheist Prayer ?"
They usually stammer and stutter at those questions.
I think the thing that irks me the most, are the people that want to say "Atheists are just bitter people that hate god,"
Hmm, hard to hate something that I don't believe in. Easy to strongly dislike the fanatical spokespeople that tell me what I HAVE to believe.
Here is one that really messes with them : Who created God ? They all say : No one did. So I have to answer them with, that must mean that god is an atheist.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Not all belief systems are religions.
The exact definition of what a religion is, is hard to pin down, but this is a start:
http://atheism.about.com/od/religiondefinition/a/definition.htm
extract:
Some have argued that religion isn’t hard to define and the plethora of conflicting definitions is evidence of how easy it really is. The problem lies in finding a definition that is empirically useful and empirically testable.
So far, the best definition of religion I have seen is in The Encyclopedia of Philosophy. It lists traits of religions rather than declaring religion to be one thing or another, arguing that the more markers present in a belief system, the more”religious like” it is:
This definition captures much of what religion is across diverse cultures. It includes sociological, psychological, and historical factors and allows for broader gray areas in the concept of religion. It’s not without flaws, though. The first marker, for example, is about “supernatural beings” and gives “gods” as an example, but thereafter only gods are mentioned. Even the concept of “supernatural beings” is a bit too specific; Mircea Eliade defined religion in reference to a focus on “the sacred” and that is a good replacement for “supernatural beings” because not every religion revolves around the supernatural.
A better definition is:
Thanking god for what? If his objective was to be remembered after his death, his jewish publicists will assure he is remembered long after Europe is forgotten.
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
www.ussliberty.org
www.giwersworld.org/made-in-alexandria/index.html
www.giwersworld.org/00_files/zion-hit-points.phtml
Or a pragmatic view of everything in both lists and priests taking vigorish off the top. No matter how any religion is promoted, no matter how defined, the one constant is the priests taking their cut off the top.
The religion of the people is not the religion of the priests. Priests promote forms of religion which puts them in a position to skim off the top. That is ALWAYS the nature of organized religion as organizations costs money and makes work.
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
www.ussliberty.org
www.giwersworld.org/made-in-alexandria/index.html
www.giwersworld.org/00_files/zion-hit-points.phtml
for all the good quotable suggestions! I will have them in mind. The next time people start talking about religion and get in my face I will have a good retort. If they don't listen to me I will have the quotes carved into stone tablets to use for head-bashing!
Someone once emailed me from another board that I have a "hole in my soul". and told me how unhappy I must be. I emailed him back that I don't have a soul to have a hole in. Never heard back from him which made me much happier!
Much thanks as well to everyone that gave me ammunition!
A couple of other comic ones :
When they say " If people came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys ?,"
Like Jeffrick's signature says : If man were made from dirt why is there still dirt ?
If the original settlers who came to this country came from England. Why are there still English people ?
I like to ask them : "What do you think of the god Zeus ?," When they answer that Zeus is false, I tell them "Well, that is what I think about your god,".
See everyone is an atheist to some degree. Christians and muslims do not believe in Sumerian gods, Phoenician gods, Mesopotamian gods, Stone Age gods, Hellenistic gods, or Incan , Mayan and Aztec gods, the only difference is, we take it one god further. Everyone is partially atheist to some degree.
They usually look confused when you tell them that.
These are of course, simple one liner comebacks.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Re : From another part of the Forum :
To A-Nony_Mouse:
Quote from Bob Spence I think you'd appreciate
Brian37 made a comment I think you'd appreciate . . .
There is the key again. There may be a true thing as in 2+2=4 but no truth of the ultimate kind as truth has no idependent existence. A beautiful woman, a beautiful sunset but not independent thing called beauty independent of an object. No matter how common it is to talk about truth as an independent thing it does not exist. Simply playing with the language means nothing. How about the ultimate untruth being revealed? The ultimate untrue what?
Absent the common usage it is natural to ask 'untrue what'. The common usage does not lead to asking 'true what'.
This actually goes back to Greek theism where their ultimate god was unknowable. Sound familiar? But the eminations of this god such was truth and wisdom were knowable. This gave abstract qualities a perceptable reality. All these attempts to deal with imagined things as real lead to the same kind of nonsense.
Jews stole the land. The owners want it back. That is all anyone needs to know about Israel. That is all there is to know about Israel.
www.ussliberty.org
www.giwersworld.org/made-in-alexandria/index.html
www.giwersworld.org/00_files/zion-hit-points.phtml