God I hate it when I make stupid spelling mistakes and there’s no EDIT button ARGH!!!
Define atheistic zealot. On this board there is a lot of religious argument . Does a response to the religious make you a zealot. ? Are we not entitled to our opinions? Are we not allowed to defend ourselves without being called names.?
Atheists are not hard wired to convert the religious. It will come to you when the contradictions are too much for you. When logic walks in the front door ,religion walks out the back. It is not arrogant to not believe. It is arrogant to say ,I know the truth, I understand that god exists and telepathically communicates with me and religious leaders. You must also believe because I am close to god and tells me he exists. Sorry ,I do not buy it. You believe but you KNOW nothing for sure. No body does. Your certainty is a reflection of the strength of your acceptance. It not about superior knowledge and understanding.
What evidence do you have for the existence of Vishnu?
Why, exactly, are sky gods less ridiculous than the FSG or Bertrand Russel’s Celestial Teapot?
Great. What IS that evidence?
What are you talking about? Where do you think athjeists see a “coincidence,” and why do you think the only alternative to a coincidence is a sky god?
I think you’re projecting.
The atheistic evangeliziation doesn’t bother me. What bothers me in statements like this is the presumption to tell religious people how they think.
In my perspective, there’s significantly more ignorance on the part of people like you about how thoughtful religious people see the world than there is on the part of people like me about how atheists see the world.
Because such silly ideas are no more silly than believing in God; that’s the point. Belief in God is ridiculous.
They are. If you are religious, you are either stupid, gullible, or insane, at least on matters touching your religion.
No, they don’t.
“Giving the matter a great deal of thought” doesn’t mean they don’t hold the basic premises they based that thought on out of blind faith. And all religious belief is based on blind faith.
How do you know ? There are atheists who wish there was a God. And the facts, or the lack of them, aren’t “his perspective”.
No, there is not. Either one view is true or the other. And religion tolerates nothing but itself.
No, he wants to do so because he wants to stay alive and free, or wants humanity to better itself, or simply for humanity to survive. Or simply because he’s irritated at the religious making life hell and screwing up everything they can.
Religion is a blight on the world. And the religious are dangerously, and often violently irrational.
Again, another poster who is demanding that atheists be unsure about something while not demanding the same of theists.
Do you think most theists honestly sit around thinking that what they believe is not the truth? That if I go into a church on Sunday morning, most of the people in there don’t know that they’re doing what God or their religion calls them to do?
Certainly there is room for both views, as long as we either don’t talk about them, or agree to disagree.
“God theory”? 
He probably meant the “God Hypothesis,” which is how the concept is commonly phrased in scientific discussions (Dawkins uses the phrase a lot).
You guys want to convert me. I have no interest in your conversion. You have shown plenty of resistance to logic and proof by being a proclaiming religious believer. What new argument can I offer.?
I have logic and scientific method on my side. You have acceptance of programming. I have no reason to think I can convert you and really think it futile to try.
I’m an atheist. I know there is no god. Just like christian religious types know there is no Zeus. I could be convinced otherwise if there were any proof, but there isn’t.
What bugs me about religion is the ignorant arrogance of it. Because you happened to be born to a specific church it’s the right one. Period. That’s utterly stupid.
Religious people aren’t all stupid, but they all believe stupid things. It’s moronic to believe that there is a magic guy in space who will kick the shit out of you forever after you die if you don’t telepathically think how awesome he is every so often. It’s primitive and belongs with blood letting and purging ill humors, left on the floor of history as a cute, but soft-headed practice cleaved to by people too ignorant to know that washing hands before sticking them into an open wound is a good idea.
If you believe in god it’s because you chose to. It’s stupid to defend something factual based on no proof.
I believe there is no god because a floating guy in space is pretty fucking silly. And if you tell me there is one, you better have something better than a ratty old book written by ignorant stinking primitives who wiped their asses with their hands and locked women up during their menstrual cycle.
In no way is not believing in god the equivalent of believing in him. Because one is based on what we can see in reality and the other is based on a “wish it were so” feeling.
See? You’re atheistic, too. I just believe in one god less than you do. Is that so bad?
Damn. I came in hoping we were actually talking about atheist zealots. Because certainly there are what I would consider “fundamentalist atheists,” just as there are fundamentalist Christians, and they tend to make me sigh and wonder if they are aware of the fact that religious belief can be very wound up in a person’s identity, and telling such a person that they’re delusional and suffer from a form of a disease because of that belief generally just causes them to dig their heels in deeper.
shrug… I don’t agree with most of what the OP said, and what he outlined isn’t really “atheist zealotry.”
Most atheists don’t go around proselytizing. Most atheists don’t scold theists for their faith, telling them that nothing is going to happen to them after they die if they don’t change their belief structure (because, quite honestly, nothing is going to happen to them after they die even if they do, so what kind of threat is that?). Most atheists don’t burn down buildings and kill medical professionals because they’re trying to “save life.” In short, most atheists just want to get on with their lives, because they’re aware that this is all they have and they want the time they do have to mean something. And they would desperately appreciate the same consideration from theists.
It’s really quite simple. You believe what you want based on some book written by animistic nomads who couldn’t find their way out of a desert, and I’ll believe what I want based on available scientific evidence, and we’ll both leave each other the hell alone. How’s that sound?
We’ve never as a race encountered a spirit. We’ve never had a recorded miracle. We have no visitations from angels. There is no reason to assume any of these things exist without proof. Just like there is no reason to assume unicorns or sasquach or intangible love-ninjas.
You don’t assume silly things that are contrary to our experience. You wait for proof.
God is silly. He is a invisible buddy that loves you. Aww, cute. Your imaginary friend doesn’t warrant me believing in him until you pony up some proof.
So I know you are wasting your time in prayer, talking to yourself like a crazy person. Just like you know that Hindus are wasting their time or Scientologists are wasting theirs.
I know it, but could be proven wrong. That is if there were a single solitary chunk of proof for the divine. It’s not a leap of faith to believe that silly things that contradict all known reality aren’t true.
I love how everyone automatically assumes I’m religious. Its pretty funny actually. Look at all the rantiing replies to my post. Doesnt’ surprise me at all. People flip out if you point out the truth.
You feel comfortable pillowed in by your assertion that believers are nutters or bonkers or whatnot, you spend much of your day reassuring yourself that THEY are the crazy ones.
Why?
I am an atheist. I do not believe in God. It think God is a repsonse to language actually. I’ve written a paper about it if anyone is interested. I think God theory is a response to the separation of self from the group through the use of language. In other words language serves to both unify and separate.
But I digress.
I certainly don’t think anyone who believes in God does so out of ignorance but rather out of experience. Just because I or you haven’t had this experience doesn’t mean that the believer is wrong.
I think they might see something I don’t see. I don’t treat them like an idiot for believing it because I am secure in my belief that what they see has no impact on me and therefor concerns me not.
I do not need to disprove, disparage or debate it, in order to go on with my “not believing” stance. Nor do I need to acknowledge, accept or understand it for myself. In this regard I accept their experiences as THEIRS and mine as mine.
I do not try to make MY experiences the 'world view."
There is a reason that so many people believe in God and have since the beginning of our existence. I respect that FACT.
Well, I might as well take the opportunity.
If anyone in the past on these boards has felt i’ve been a zealot about atheism (or anything else, I guess), I apologise. And I ask you to please point it out if i’m a jerk about it in the future; I won’t promise to agree but I will promise to honestly rethink what i’m saying.
Anyway, I find atheist zealots annoying too. I’m not really sure everything in the OP would match my definition of one - the first point, for example, seems to be “you’re a zealot because i’m right” - but I can certainly sympathise.
Oh, and I apologise for everyone being huge jerks in this thread. You all suck. There are ways of putting things politely, and Charger’s given a good example. But of course, this would require actually being bothered enough to try and take the high path, when pointing and laughing is just so much fun! Yes, let’s all take the piss out of people we don’t agree with - that’s sure to get them on our side!
I refer to God Theory btw as any God theory because generally these debates are aimed at Christian fundamentalists. When I do choose to discuss God theory, I mean any and all theory that there is any kind of God. I don’t differentiate between Zeus, Yahweh, or Odin.
To me they are all God theory.
In general if anyone has seen the movie Happy Feet, the way the penguins referred to the Great Guin, is how I see human manifestation of God.
To me its all the same. Hence I use the phrase God Theory.
Ok, look. You and everybody else really needs to take a step back and evaluate your position before you start pointing fingers at people.
You find it funny that people assume you’re religious? Well, your language indicated it. Not your position or your opinions, but your use of pronouns:
You talk about ‘the atheist’ as an entity separate from yourself, and then tell the atheist that he (you) do such and such. You are pretty clearly saying there that you are not an atheist. If people misunderstood, it’s your vocabulary problem, not ours.
And again, holy flying FUCK!!! I feel like I’ve stepped into bizarre-o world where nothing anyone says has anything to do with the responses of anyone else. The OP says he’s pissed off at atheists who say they know there is no God (er, higher power). That sort of atheist is a zealot, and is arrogant.
I’ve asked numerous times for someone to explain exactly how it is that an atheist is meant to doubt his perspective (ie; not claim to actually know), while a theist is perfectly free to know something about this subject. Only one person even attempted to address that (bbs2k), while everyone else goes on about how atheists are the ones angrily foisting their worldview on others.
The OP isn’t ranting about atheists who are aggressive towards theists!!
Why the hell do people feel the need to circle the wagons in support of a fundamentally weak and flawed OP, when there could actually be some interesting discussion, or some ignorance fought?
Instead of ranting, make your point, instead of expecting others to make it for you.
I love when people do this online. Chuckles.
Aren’t you ranting?
I mean, there is some inherent hypocrisy in saying essentially “All you people who mock and insult are idiots”, you know.
Okay, you first. Lawls.