One thing i've noticed
Offline Hey all, new here. I'm a long time atheist, I believe very strongly that there is no god, or supernatural beings in the world, or otherwise... however, there is one thing i've noticed... It's the extreme bashing of christians going on, christianity is not the only religion, it is all just as bad, some of it worse! To be completely atheist, you should know more about each and every religion before judging it. Buddhism is not a bad thing, the only downsides are reincarnation beliefs, karma and dharma. Buddhism itself is a very valid 'religion' (I'd call it a philosophy if it were called that in the mainstream of society) So why discredit every religion without exploring them? I just find it more ignorant than the christians themselves when an atheist says, ALL RELIGION IS TERRIBLE AND IT'S STUPID TO FOLLOW ONE. There are hundreds of religions many of you may have not heard of that have no actual beliefs in a god or a certain supernatural power.
My $.02
-Hanger
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No, obviously it's not the only religion, however it is the largest worldwide, and in America it is overwhelmingly the largest at twice as high a percentage as it is worldwide.
No, to be completely atheist you simply need to lack belief in a god. You could be a complete moron who doesn't believe in evolution and has no idea what the word religion even means, but if you lack belief in a god then you are "completely atheist."
The ONLY thing one atheist MUST have in common with another is the lack of belief in a god.
I don't think Buddhism is a very bad thing either, which is why you don't see us attacking it. Do we think it has flaws? Yeah, but to us, the more irrational it is, the more it deserves attacking.
To avoide confusion you'll generally hear us use the word "theism." We attack "theism" moreso than religion, but this is simply to avoid confusion as we see in your follow up statement....
And here's the confusion. Many people define religion as we see at dictionary.com with the first 4 definitions. Many people see Religion as something that requires God belief, however if you define religion as "a cause or activity pursued with zeal or devotion" then there are things without god that can be religion. I personally don't care how you define it, just know that when we speak about religion being irrational, we are only speaking (in a blanket manner) on everything that hinges on a god belief.
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This is what I gathered, you are basically out there to turn around the most of the hard headed, and not religion itself? I can see why you wouldn't want people believing in god, but that's you, i've read otherwise on this site, not that inclined to cite specifics though.
For the most part yes. And again it depends how you define religion. If you define it as a cause pursued with zeal, one could say that talking on the internet about theism is my religion.
Well obviously that's "me." Feel free to discuss others on this site, I've read every single post ever written on this site, you wont be outing someone. We don't claim that everyone thinks like us, nor do we claim that everyone shares our goals, or for that matter should. Obviously there are a great many "live and let live" atheists out there, that's for them... we (RRS) have moved on from that, and were all "live and let livers" at one point.
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Christians also tend to be the ones (in this country at least) who are overwhelmingly most likely to try to force their beliefs on everyone else. (pro-life, anti-gay marriage, 10 commandments plaques, etc.)
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I discredit every religion because they all, by definition, believe in god or gods, and I see no reason to believe in any.
There are some Buddhists who refer to themselves as part of a philosophy instead of a religion. Not all Buddhism is theistic. I think the Theravadic sect is nontheist. However, some Buddhist factions talk about deities, which are probably holdovers from the days of Hinduism.
A religion does not mean beliefs with which one disagrees, or beliefs that one finds stuffy, or simply something that is very popular. It means to think that there's a god, a group that worships a god or the traditions and customs around such worship. People sometimes try to fudge the meaning of a word because they don't like its connotations. I can't do that.
Given that theocracy threatens everyone's rights, even religious people if you think about it, I think it's our duty to disabuse people of these fantasy ideas that basically come from ancient fairy tales. It's the same as when you tell someone there's no Santa Claus. At some point, mentally you just have to grow up.
The thing is, religion is completely unnecessary. We don't often go after many of the more peacful relgions -- for instance, Jains (sp?). (Ghandi got most of his ideas on peaceful revolt from that religious philosophy) This doesn't mean, however, that we don't think Ghandi could have led peaceful revolts based on rational thought. In fact, that's pretty much what he did. He just attributed the source of the rational thought to some supernatural buggety boo. Why not give him the credit for doing it himself? Why demean humanity by forcing it to give credit to some deity or life force or whatever?
The fact is, any admission of the existence of "that which is beyond scientific comprehension" gives more militant religious thought fertile ground in which to grow. I am, of course, speaking only for myself, but I am sure that a great many atheists agree with me that the world would be better off if we just admitted as a species that the supernatural is something best left in the past.
Atheism isn't a lot like religion at all. Unless by "religion" you mean "not religion". --Ciarin
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