The definition of Atheist (LONG POST)
Offline I am a newbie on the forums here (this is my first post). I am an Atheist and do not believe in any God or diety. I discovered the RRS though a friend that told me to check out the debate with Kirk Cameron. Absolutely a great watch!
After watching the debate I came to this site and I would like to discuss/debate not God but the "Blasphemy Challenge" as well as define what an Atheist is. I have looked over this site (not the forums) and I cannot find ANYTHING on any other diety except for the Christian god? Now, I do understand that Christianity is by far the most brainwashing of all religions/lifestyles in the United States but an Atheist by definition is the dibelief of ANY diety.
With this in mind I watched the clips on YouTube as well as the instructions for the Blasphemy challenge. Besides entertainment and shock value, why would anyone want to go into a church or videotape themselves in front of a church to denounce Christ, God and the Holy Spirit? "Add EXTRA blasphemy", isnt denying enough? I understand the message but I do not see anything more than shock value and contraversy by doing the above mentioned things. I do see anger and frustration as an under lying message from the RSS. I do not see how shouting at strangers on the street denying the exsistance of the Holy Spirit is RATIONAL.
Why only the Holy Spirit? Why as an atheist are we only denying the christian god? What of the countless others like Muhhamad, Alla or Bhudda?
I grew up in a Southern Baptist household and that was horrible and yes I still have issues with the scare tactics and the double standards. I have however put the anger aside and I just focus on the true fact that god does not exsist.
While watching the debate I couldnt help but see anger and sarcasm from the RSS. I couldnt help but see Kelly mention gods that arent even widely worshipped (if at all)when the debate took that turn, Zues, Thor? Are you kidding me? Why then arent we as Atheist denying ALL GODS? Why does the Blasphemy Challenge only pertain to one diety not the entire lot of them? I do not see this as being politically correct. I am curious is it because of lack of knowledge of the countless other religions? Is it a deep seeded hate for the Christian belief system? Is it designed for shock? Please anyone help me understand the true message of this challenge.
My last point is simple, some people have to have religion. Some people couldnt function if they knew there was no God. We as Athiest can deabte all religious followers but many can never be swayed. Faith in a God, pathetic as it may be is what drives many people. As illogical as it may be, some people just want a glimpse of hope.
Oh, I almost forgot I would love to see "The God who wasnt there" and have for about a year since I read about it. Sadly it isnt sold in any brick and mortar store anywere near me. I do denounce the Holy Spirit, but I am not gonna make a video to do it, can or do I still get a copy of the movie? I will make a video denouncing the Holy spirit and the rest of ALL organized religions and I will blantly say "the Holy Spirit I deny". As I see that as the REAL blasphemy challenge. Opinions?
Dying will be the death of me.
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Making our selfs known either by making videos or shouting at dumb asses is the best thing we can do right now. Stand up and make your voice herd or else how is anyone going to know what we are trying to do. Believe it or not this isn't the only Atheist organization.
Opinions?
Welcome. Thank you for sharing your thought. Before going further I have one serious opinion
Paragraphs.
"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
Unfortunately I was using IE, and although I broke down everything into paragraphs it posted it into one.
On a lighter note I am using Firefox for the first time and it is nice. This site is so much better with it!
Just updated it thanks.
Dying will be the death of me.
Welcome Self Bias Resistor!
It's my understanding that there are well over 1,001 video responses to the Blasphemy Challenge. The DVDs were for the first 1,001 posters.
If you would still like to see The God Who Wasn't There, you can purchase it right here from the RRS!
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
Welcome Self Bias Resistor.
How right you are! And I believe we can answer that question rather simply. We debate all dieties, however we are mainly based in America, and America is mostly christian as well as I've noticed that the forum mostly attracts Christian theists. I suppose that is mainly why RRS debates christianity, that and it is the most controversial religion.
"Why would God send his only son to die an agonizing death to redeem an insignificant bit of carbon?"-Victor J. Stenger.
Atheism, defined as a philosophical view, is the position that either affirms the nonexistence of gods or rejects theism. But in its broadest definition, atheism is the absence of belief in deities, sometimes called "nontheism". Although atheists are commonly assumed to be irreligious, some religions, such as Buddhism, have been characterized as atheistic.
Many self-described atheists share common skeptical concerns regarding supernatural claims, citing a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Other arguments for atheism are philosophical, social or historical. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism, rationalism, and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere.
The term atheism originated as a pejorative epithet applied to any person or belief in conflict with established religion. With the spread of freethought, scientific skepticism, and criticism of religion, the term began to gather a more specific meaning and was sometimes used to describe oneself.
Explicit Atheism(me)- the absence of theistic belief based on scientific facts.
you-I am a newbie on the forums here (this is my first post). I am an Atheist and do not believe in any God or diety. I discovered the RRS though a friend that told me to check out the debate with Kirk Cameron. Absolutely a great watch! After watching the debate I came to this site and I would like to discuss/debate not God but the "Blasphemy Challenge" as well as define what an Atheist is. I have looked over this site (not the forums) and I cannot find ANYTHING on any other diety except for the Christian god? Now, I do understand that Christianity is by far the most brainwashing of all religions/lifestyles in the United States but an Atheist by definition is the dibelief of ANY diety.
"Christianity is very wide spread, not as many as Buddhism by population but because the deception and the power it has over its followers, of this it makes it the most dangerous.The reason most of you are all white is because when up tight scandals Christians in Europe were tired of being around all the sex and freedom of the people there so the decided to come here and kill off my ancestors and then advertise false freedom so that other up tight fucks could come and add to the growing population of mindless obedient slaves so that we haft to deal with this problem today. This adds to the reson why we focus mostly on christains."
you- With this in mind I watched the clips on YouTube as well as the instructions for the Blasphemy challenge. Besides entertainment and shock value, why would anyone want to go into a church or videotape themselves in front of a church to denounce Christ, God and the Holy Spirit? "Add EXTRA blasphemy", isnt denying enough? I understand the message but I do not see anything more than shock value and contraversy by doing the above mentioned things. I do see anger and frustration as an under lying message from the RSS. I do not see how shouting at strangers on the street denying the exsistance of the Holy Spirit is RATIONAL. Why only the Holy Spirit? Why as an atheist are we only denying the christian god? What of the countless others like Muhhamad, Alla or Bhudda?
"I think its pointless to use the wording they gave us as in "denying" god. Denial is what they are doing to their own faith when facts are put infrunt of them, while i dont know about anyone else but my understanding is based on facts alone. If we want people to take us seriously stop using loose words like belief or denial to describe our dedication to atheism because those are faith based words, our conclusions are based on facts.
Making our selfs known either by making videos or shouting at dumb asses is the best thing we can do right now. Stand up and make your voice herd or else how is anyone going to know what we are trying to do. Believe it or not this isn't the only Atheist organization.
I said up there Buddhism is a religion that has no god, instead a Buddha is a person who has become fully awakened (enlightened), and has experienced Nirvana. The other people you mentioned are characters in the bible, many of the religions are ripoffs of the idea of the invisible man in the sky."
you- I grew up in a Southern Baptist household and that was horrible and yes I still have issues with the scare tactics and the double standards. I have however put the anger aside and I just focus on the true fact that god does not exsist. While watching the debate I couldnt help but see anger and sarcasm from the RSS. I couldnt help but see Kelly mention gods that arent even widely worshipped (if at all)when the debate took that turn, Zues, Thor? Are you kidding me? Why then arent we as Atheist denying ALL GODS? Why does the Blasphemy Challenge only pertain to one diety not the entire lot of them? I do not see this as being politically correct. I am curious is it because of lack of knowledge of the countless other religions? Is it a deep seeded hate for the Christian belief system? Is it designed for shock? Please anyone help me understand the true message of this challenge.
"Personally i dont know there plan on this, I'm just commenting on your questions about god. As atheists we denounce any form of deity but pertaining to the ones that have actual creation story and no scientific evidence to prove it. Others like the tale of Zeus or even gaia were merely human embodiments of physical items like earth, or other planets."
you- My last point is simple, some people have to have religion. Some people couldnt function if they knew there was no God. We as Athiest can deabte all religious followers but many can never be swayed. Faith in a God, pathetic as it may be is what drives many people. As illogical as it may be, some people just want a glimpse of hope.
"Yes i know this, but god isn't the only reason why people have this belief system. A place you go after you die is also a fuel, i argue that belief in a reward after death is poor motivation for moral behavior while alive. It is more noble to help people purely out of concern for their suffering than it is to help them because you think the Creator of the Universe wants you to do it, or will reward you for doing it, or will punish you for not doing it. The problem with this linkage between religion and morality is that it gives people bad reasons and fuse to help other human beings when good reasons are available thus a reason for good and evil. My goal is not to wipe religion off the earth forcibly, people will hate you for it, rather why not tell the facts and make them available to everyone and let them chose what to do because thats what I'm after, Freedom."
"Freedom of religion, means freedom of religion"
-ME
Just an FYI - here's a little tutorial about how to use the quote function.
Using the quote function makes things a lot easier to read.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
Many self-described atheists share common skeptical concerns regarding supernatural claims, citing a lack of empirical evidence for the existence of deities. Other arguments for atheism are philosophical, social or historical. Although many self-described atheists tend toward secular philosophies such as humanism, rationalism, and naturalism, there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere.
True, thats why I think Hedonism has a certain attraction.
"Christianity is very wide spread, not as many as Buddhism by population but because the deception and the power it has over its followers, of this it makes it the most dangerous.
The reason most of you are all white is because when up tight scandals Christians in Europe were tired of being around all the sex and freedom of the people there so the decided to come here and kill off my ancestors and then advertise false freedom so that other up tight fucks could come and add to the growing population of mindless obedient slaves so that we haft to deal with this problem today. This adds to the reson why we focus mostly on christains."
Yes Christinaity is the most widespread lifestyle/religion however I will have to disagree that it is the most dangerous based on the fact that it is the most deceptive. Look at the confused Muslims who honestly think that they are doing the right thing by plowing a plane through a building in thier gods name. Or how they strap bombs to themselves on a daily basis and kill many innocent people. Fighting and killing for what, a small peice of supposed sacred dirt? To me that is the most deceptive and dangerous.
The reason I am white? I never mentioned anthything about my nationality. Whilst on that topic, I am white because my parents and my parent before them were. I also came from Scottland, wasnt born there but both my sides of my Grandparents were born there. Dont see your point just an angry rant there.