Atheist vs. Theist
Agnostic Theism
Submitted by ubuntuAnyone on November 14, 2009 - 1:05am.I wrote an article a few weeks ago about defining atheism, and the necessity to be clear as to what one is (or is not) ascribing to avoid confusion. In that article, I made a distinction between ontological claims pertaining to theism (that is, "gods do not exist"
and epistemic claims pertaining to theism (that is, "I do not know if gods exist". I was musing the other day concerning the nature epistemic claims and beliefs and asked: is it possible for one to be an agnostic and theist at the same time?
Putting Faith in it's place, and William Lane Craig
Submitted by ClockCat on November 13, 2009 - 5:35am.
Stop pushing our buttons!
Submitted by Wonderist on November 13, 2009 - 2:50am.While replying to a couple of theists in the comments to Mano Singham's new post, Introducing the 'Unapologetic Atheist', I devised this little story which I thought I'd share with y'all here at the RRS:
Stop pushing our buttons!
On November 8th, 2009 Wonderist says:Here's a little parable:
At the beginning of a class, the children were all given laptops. Many of the children belonged to a strange sect, and they loudly declared, "Whatever you do, don't press the buttons J, E, S, or U. Those are OUR buttons, and we will be terribly offended if you press them."
The few in the class who didn't belong to the sect just wanted everyone to get along. They thought, "One day, maybe they won't be so uptight, and we'll be able to use those buttons again. After all, we don't think there's anything special about those particular buttons, so we see no reason why we shouldn't press them. We'll wait until they loosen up." So, they tried very hard to do their work without pressing J, E, S, or U. It sometimes seemed like a useless burden, but the class seemed to be getting along fine, so on it went.
God and the Tooth Fairy
Submitted by Wonderist on November 13, 2009 - 1:39am.I enjoyed writing my reply to the following blog so much that I wanted to save it here in case the guy deletes my comment:
Why try to abolish religion?
Submitted by up_the_ante on November 12, 2009 - 10:07pm.So I was raised Christian and I guess you could say I'm now agnostic. When checking out atheism, I found this group but one thing struck me. Why are you trying to abolish religion? I understand that you don't believe in it but don't people have the right to believe it if they want?
I feel like a lot of the atheists here are mainly slandering religion instead acknowledging that religion is an option but then point out (amicably) why you disagree with its premise. Although I agree that a lot of atrocities have been done in its name (a lot of atrocities have been done in general), I feel like many good things have been done in its name. The same goes for atheism.
Tales from my first and last visit to a christian forum
Submitted by NoMoreCrazyPeople on November 12, 2009 - 5:11am.I had been recently asked by a theist on the site to visit a Christian forum to see the arguments and topics being discussed after i had said i had no interest of going on a Christian forum. At first I was relunctant, but i thought it coudn't hurt to hear whats up in the Christian world. I thought i'd bring back some quotes with me not for debate, simply to show you why you must now understand why i have no intention of hanging around Christians for my further education/enlightenment. I just opened threads randomly for about an hour, with every thread you only need to look a few posts down to find something upsurd.
On fasting:
God's ok if I fast to lose weight right?
I'm just asking because I know that fasting is done to get closer to God. I want to fast to lose some weight but I'm concerned that God might take offence to it because he'll know that I'm only doing it to lose some weight. I've been getting heavier lately and I'm up to 90 pounds... I feel like a cow! When Jesus comes down from heaven I want to look good for him so he knows that I love him, and doesn't think I'm trying to be lazy because I don't care about him. What do you guys think?
On evidence for macro-evolution:
Old to atheism new to the reality of death.
Submitted by CharlesJackson1... on November 10, 2009 - 4:03pm.
Question to anyone representing a faith that builds extravagant buildings to glorify their gods, why all the wasted money?
Submitted by NoMoreCrazyPeople on November 4, 2009 - 11:14pm.How do you justify this??? Would you not agree the money could be better spent helping people? Is it not hypocritical to claim humbleness and the spirit of giving while supporting a religion that builds these buidings? Imagine the billions/trillions that could be saved if the buildings atleast were not extravagant, not mind if no religious buildings were built atall. Nothing pisses me off more than (for example hypothetically) a nice church with a gold plated statue of jesus in poor city.
First Baptist Dallas unveils $130 million building plan for downtown
Submitted by ubuntuAnyone on November 4, 2009 - 9:51am.First Baptist Church of Dallas today announced a $130 million capital campaign to build a 3,000-seat worship center, a religious education building and parking garage, a glass concourse, and a sky bridge.
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/dn/latestnews/stories/110109dnmetfirstbaptist.274b283f4.html
What was gods purpose for the dinosaurs, and the immense amount of time that elapsed before our existence on earth?
Submitted by NoMoreCrazyPeople on November 2, 2009 - 8:44pm.I would like to hear some theists opignions on why god would have made the dinosaurs, for what purpose exactly would he have created acient earths beasts and allowed them to run around for hundreds of millions of years. Or do you believe the dating of these creatures is wrong? Just looking for opignions, i cant rationalize it, maybe you can try.
