I’m pretty much exactly in line with you (though I probably wouldn’t use the word “soul”…but I know you are using it in a metaphorical way).
I’ve said on many occasions on various threads that “atheist” is a useless term in describing what a person thinks other than an absence of a belief in a god or gods. Just as describing your sister as a “theist” would tell you zero about her other than she does have a belief. They are starting points and nothing more. As you have done you need to expand beyond that to give an idea of your worldview. You can and should describe yourself in terms that you feel explain your position as fully as you feel comfortable.
As such I would always describe myself as a humanist, liberal and sceptic. I happen to be an atheist, as are you and we cannot escape that fact but that alone tells people preciously little about yourself.
My quibble with Dibble probably harks back to them saying they were not exactly an atheist and me challenging that.
Had they said they were not simply an atheist then I’d agree because clearly they aren’t, neither am I, and neither are you.
Your unsolicited 2 cents on whether my worldview fits your narrow binary logic? Not so much welcome, no. It does nothing to address the OP or further debate. Just atheist bullying, basically.
You do realise I’m not the one making a claim here right?
Personally, I don’t know and I’m perfectly comfortable not knowing. Why on earth would I want to guess? If the evidence starts to point in a particular direction I may be convinced one way or another.
But I’m confused. Why are you asking *me *this. Ask those that do make a claim about it. There are theists and deists who *do *think there was something before the big bang or that was eternal.
Ask them why they think that, how they know that, and how the conditions that would apply to their god couldn’t also apply to the universe.
What more is needed? It tells someone whether or not you are “one of us”. That is the forefront feature of religion: othering. Expansive, mostly meaningless labels are very useful for that.
Not a meaningful question. Time begins at the Big Bang. There can be no “before” if there was no time to which “before” can be applied.
No, I’d say it’s pretty much always considered polite to ask permission before giving your opinion of someone’s beliefs if they didn’t (implicityly or explicitly) ask you first, online forum or no.
No, I’m going to continue to correct you for as long as you persist in wilfully misbeliefing me.
Yes, I know, I was taking part in some, before you started questioning my religious thought.
Telling people, unasked, that they’re mistaken about their own religious thinking isn’t civilised disagreement.
I’m starting to see what theists have against certain stripes of atheists, I can say that much…which is, ironically, a pretty depressing thought.
I wouldn’t use this message board as a guide for what is and isn’t considered polite. For instance, even online, “Why are black people dumb” isn’t considered a polite thing to ask outside Stormfront. Here it skates just fine.
You didn’t ask me, but I’m gonna tell ya that I think is ridiculous. You posted your position on a discussion forum; anything posted on that forum is fodder for commentary: it’s the nature of the medium and therefore your permission is implicit by posting there in the first place.
