It Blows My mind....
Posted on: October 1, 2007 - 6:59pm
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It Blows My mind....
How in our country, it seems a lot of times that the lack of belief equals "strange", although the irony is clear. How it's wrong to argue against religion but fine to argue against atheism? It just boggles my mind, the absurdity of it all. Religious people, places all irritate me, make me uncomfortable, like I should feel guilty for not agreeing.
*Our world is far more complex than the rigid structure we want to assign to it, and we will probably never fully understand it.*
"Those believers who are sophisticated enough to understand the paradox have found exciting ways to bend logic into pretzel shapes in order to defend the indefensible." - Hamby
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It's funny that you should put the word strange in quotes like that. At the AAI convention this weekend Sam Harris suggested that we start using other terms than atheist to describe ourselves - it was the talk of the convention. The next day we had the opportunity to discuss what Sam had said with Dan Dennet; Dennet, only half jokingly suggested we use the term "queer" - as in different.
I share your sentiment though, and that's a big part of what we're trying to change. Not only have atheists and other non-believers been marginalized and stepped on by the majority, but in many instanes we've been made to feel quilty or as if we should feel guilty simply for standing up for ourselves.
Way past time to tear down that meme.
I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world. - Richard Dawkins
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Blows my mind too. Hard to believe people still believe in that shit. Theism should have went out the window centuries ago.
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They are getting more and more people to realize that we don't have to respect irrational claims. Now if I hear someone mention that they are a Christian or a Theist of any kind I ask them why? 9 times out of 10 they haven't even read their "Holy Books". I think that by questioning them enough we will eventually get them to question themselves. At least thats the hope.
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In part, it comes down to the fact that atheism straddles the line between a belief system and a lack-of-belief system.
People think it's OK to argue against/attack atheism because since we don't believe in something (God), therefore we don't have a belief to attack. Yet we do have a belief - we believe that God does not exist.
Yet when we argue against/attack theism, it can be taken personally because we're attacking someone's (more visible) belief.
Nobody I know was brainwashed into being an atheist.
Why Believe?
I feel it necessary to point out that saying "we believe that God does not exist" is not the same as saying "we don't believe that God does exist". To say that athiesm means a belief that a God does not exist would preclude agnostics from being athiests. Please read the RRS article "Am I Agnostic or Atheist?"