Wait, so the idea is that other people should go to a lot of effort to organize various schools of philosophy, thought, religion, etc, so you can treat their beliefs as a buffet line, picking and choosing? If you don’t care about consistency in your own beliefs (and I know this has been brought up before), why harp on consistency in other belief systems?
Also if that’s the case, why bother asking anybody to formalize a school of thought just for you to ignore parts and accept others? That’s not just lazy, that’s plainly rude.
For most denominations, it’s also tantamount to openly living in sin.
“Who’s got time to look into merits of different philosophies?” This question sounds really really odd to me, as if someone can grow up, get married, have kids, have a busy life, and be a completely blank slate when it comes to believing anything. I’d venture to say most people gather their “philosophies” as they grow up, are taught, and experience the world, whether they ever consciously examine those values and beliefs or not. I’d also suggest that if they DO look into structured philosophies and pick one for themselves to say they follow, they tend pick one that fits what they already believe and tweak it, rather than change their beliefs to fit it. You for example say you have done exactly that.
Help yourself. We don’t have any motivation or interest in convincing people to become atheists. That goes double if you’re demanding that we give you a whole philosophy because you don’t feel like coming up with your own.
I refer you back to post 416, which is more accurate than I thought when I read it the first time.
We’re telling you, multiple times, that there IS NO formalized “atheist philosophy,” and asking repeatedly for it isn’t going to change that fact. It’s like asking why don’t all the theists in the world (Christians, Hindus, Muslims, African animists) get together and agree on one set of beliefs. I’m sure you see the absurdity of that idea.
If you keep asking, we’re going to start making stuff up. “Oh yeah, every morning when we wake up, atheists believe in masturbating with a rubber chicken before going down to breakfast. Don’t ask why, it’s just one of those atheist beliefs.”
My experience with attorneys is that they’re very precise with language. Maybe they’re not all Bricker, but I thought that was a critically important part of the job.
The thread isn’t dying, it’s just futile. The reality of it is that pchaos’ questions about atheism probably could’ve been answered in one page of one thread. The original topic of this thread is kind of interesting, but like the others, it’s turned into ‘Atheism? What? I don’t get it.’
This is in rely to posts in the Atheists, what do you believe thread:
Ok, what we’re telling you, and what we’ve been telling you, is that we neither need nor want leaders. Why would we need them, why would we want them? We don’t buy into religion because we do not believe in the concept of a greater being telling us what we should do; why would we accept that from a human being? And as for being ignored, number one, we aren’t wondering that, because there is ample evidence that we aren’t, given all the public handwringing over the “secularization of modern society” and cries to “return to this country’s Christian foundations,” and number two, being ignored would be way preferable than being demonized.
If you read the other damned thread, you’ll notice plenty of people talking about their personal philosophies. Why are you saying there aren’t any? And where did you get the idea that there was some kind of organized “break” from the theists? For crying out loud, I was 10 when I realized I didn’t really believe in God. I was part of no movement, I had no atheist mentor. I didn’t lead anybody else, either. THERE IS NO MOVEMENT. There are only individuals who, whatever else they believe, don’t believe in God.
Hypothetically, a person sitting in Church on a Sunday morning might look out the window and see a number of people not being in Church. This person may, based on his understanding of his church community, presume that these people outside had been led out of Church by some person or mutually agreed upon impulse.
However, what really happened is that the folks outside of church hardly know each other at all, are doing all sorts of independent things, and if they had left the Church it was because each of them wandered off on his own. Just because a “Them” can be recognized it does not follow that they are organized like or at all equivalent to your “Us.”
It is interesting how a person’s preconceptions can colour their observations.
I am well past engaging with P. For his sake I hope he is a troll, otherwise it would indeed be for the best that his priest does his thinking for him.
To a child it is (in some casesI it does have an impact. My one granddaughter was very angry at her parents when she learned there was no Santa,She had a hard time trusting them for awhile.
To some,who no longer believe that there is not a God, or Gods, it becomes a relief, they can now feel free to use their own mind. For some it may have a bad impact, but it also may lead to more study of just what they were taught.
I don’t fault a person for their beliefs, if it helps them through a difficult time in their life so be it. It doesn’t affect my life one way or the other.But I do think all people should respect the Separation of Church and State, and I don’t know anyone in this country who cannot practice their faith if they so choose. There are some who don’t want another to have a different belief than they do, but that is their problem. and our founding Fathers saw the problems that arise when Church tries to run the State, and the State tries to rule the religions.
Even Jesus didn’t try to convert others to Judisum, He is quoted as saying."I was sent only for the lost sheep of Israel’. That is how I interpret it. He didn’t seem to be trying to persuade the Jewish people away from their beliefs, but to live their law,not just act like they did by looking down on others!