Well, then, it’s a good thing there’s that big ol’ list of atheist organizations I posted back there for atheists to join if they want to.
What did you think of that list, BTW? Kinda puts your insistence that atheists have no organizations to rest, doesn’t it?
Struck a nerve, did it? You’ve ignored it so far.
Sorry, but I just can’t let the ‘irregardless’ comment go unhighlighted.
It’s good, so my advocating an atheist coherent philosophy wasn’t too far off base was it? I’m sure that these organizations have more to offer than some day we’re all going to turn into dust.
I don’t know why anyone should bother. Your posts so far show that you have no desire or ability to respond in any rational, or, indeed coherent, manner.
I am afraid that watching the Dunning Kruger Effect in action might be more damaging to my mental state than the entertainment value warranted.
So far off base its not even in the same ballpark -
While there are many ‘atheist’ organizations for different purposes - the idea of a ‘aheist coherent philosophy’ other than “we dont believe in God(s)” is nonsensical.
I get depressed because I actually understand intellectual bs like this. Most people that go to church don’t want to hear this kind of stuff, they want a philosophy that will tell them that their spouse is waiting for them in the after-life. They want to hear that their suffering in this life-time has value.
You must be shitting me.
Don’t bother- you have never posted a good example and I doubt you ever will. What I would like you to understand (if you’re capable) is that atheists aren’t interested in persuading people this way- not with prestige, not with phony threats. If people choose to become atheists, that’s great. If not, we don’t have a vested interest in persuading them. God’s not telling us to do it, we won’t go to heaven for it, and people who get it wrong aren’t going to be tortured forever and ever. I’m glad to see secularism on the rise in the West, but I’m just as happy to share a planet with sensible religious people as I am with atheists.
Yes, they do. People already explained what they have to offer. It’s not about a broader atheistic philosophy of life (of which there are plenty, as you have sometimes admitted).
You clearly understand nothing - or you are truly just trolling - which is it?
So, “church people want a bullshit feel good philosophy that has no basis in fact and makes them feel good”
yeah - thats coherent and reasonable.
Well, you have to admit, it coheres. And “let people believe whatever makes them feel good” can be given a basis of reason.
But you could add a lot more descriptives to those – simple-minded, self-delusional, pandering – and its morality and intellectual rigor are thin – and that’s not even going into the possible negative outcomes of pursuing such a philosophy.
Man, it’s such BS that religious people are so lazy. Not me, though. I just do whatever the Bible tells me and order everybody to make me a sales pitch because I don’t want to figure things out on my own. But unlike those lazy stupids, I have the brains to make demands!
It’s not coherent amongst all theists on that philosophy -not even coherent among the same brand of theists - its only coherent in one aspect ‘faith in things not seen’ - so, he (they) is in no position to ‘demand’ a coherent atheist philosophy as a substitute.
He doesn’t even accept all the tenets of his own philosophy from his church - he picks/chooses what he likes.
SOmething about this quote rings true here -
[QUOTE=THE BIBLE]
You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.
[/QUOTE]
Maybe I haven’t demonstrated it hear at the SDMB, but I can be as logical as the next guy. I just don’t choose to be. If you want to be logical…it’s pretty easy to argue that life has no meaning whatsoever and the atheist is also deluding themselves.
But I choose not to do that. I choose instead to lean on God and find objective meaning in Him. And other Christians can go hang themselves, I rely on my special relationship with God and I answer to Him alone and my parish and my pastor.
The next guy should be insulted.
I think this is a self-serving lie.
In other words, you’re lazy and full of contempt for everybody, but atheists should do more to recruit people like you.
Exactly what many trolls before you have said.
Have a nice day!
I think this probably means you just have your own special definition of ‘logic’ that isn’t the same as everyone else’s, or the one in the dictionary. Why bother doing that all the time?
By the same token, if people like steak, and they’re satisfied with their local steakhouse, they’ll keep eating there, and if not, they’ll check out some other restaurants. Whether […] vegetarians like it or not, they are going to be thrown into this market.
And most vegetarians - like most atheists - will say, “So the fuck what? Who cares about the “market”? If someone else wants to eat meat, or worship something, or whatever else tickles their pickle, they can have at it! What does it have to do with me? I don’t, so live and let live.”
Some vegetarians, and some atheists, do indeed express the evangelistic zeal more commonly found among the religious, and they do want to appeal to the meat-eaters and/or god-believer-inners. Not because they want more veggie/atheist buddies, or because they get a commission for every conversion (plus entry in the Grand Prize Drawing!), but because they are right. And the more people who are right, who do and think correct and beneficial things, as opposed to wrong and harmful things, the better a place the world will be for everyone.
But again, I think *most *vegetarians, atheists, Catholics, lawyers, and rational adults of every race and creed come to realize eventually that unfortunately, people will think what they want to think, and do what they want to do, and there’s very little any one person can do to change their minds, and indeed, any one person trying too hard to do too much to change their minds tends to have the opposite effect.
Of course they do.
Some groups say, “Someday, we’re all going to turn into dust, and this world is all we have, so let’s go do community service and get involved in social justice and try to make this life the best one it can be.”
Some groups say, “Someday, we’re all going to turn into dust, and we should be free to state that fact without negative consequences. We should never be forced to claim or agree otherwise, and our laws should enforce that, so let’s get together and work to protect our rights and freedoms.”
Some groups say, “Someday, we’re all going to turn into dust, and since time immemorial, people have grappled with the philosophical and existential questions raised by this fact. So let’s get together and have a Socratic dialogue about Life, the Universe, and Everything.”
Some groups say, “Someday, we’re all going to turn into dust, and therefore, sitting in church on a Sunday morning is silly, so instead, let’s get together and have a few beers and toss a frisbee around.”
But you’ll note that while these groups do indeed offer a lot, the one and only thing they all have in common is that they acknowledge that, “Someday, we’re all going to turn into dust.”
Right. And most atheists do want to hear exactly this kind of stuff. They would rather hear the truth, however much they might dislike it, than be placated with pleasing platitudes. And if they are the kind of person who cares whether their suffering in this lifetime has value (and I can’t imagine what you mean by “value” here, so I’ll just mentally substitute “meaning”), then they find that meaning for themselves, here, in this lifetime.
Well… okay, then. Have fun with that.
He also must be using an idiosyncratic definition of “objective”.
I would say “idiot’s definition” - its clearly not one of the 5% of words he understands.
Some of you guys are pretty smart. I like your response better than Czarcasm, who would say, “what’s the definition of objective.” Since I didn’t look at the dictionary in law school, I’m not going to look at it now.
For me the key to being a Christian isn’t the Bible, it is the desire to be God-centered instead of self-centered. To me that is objective. When a friend’s wife passes away, He wants me to console her. He doesn’t want me to start crying about how she was my friend also. I believe God would want me to do that, even if I felt like crying for my loss.