Atheist/Anti-theist/Agnostic Troper Group

Absolutely true. Details were chosen hundreds of years after. Doesn't mean that people still find meaning and purpose believing in a monotheistic deity that watches out for them. And I'm not a mean enough bastard to try to take that away from people who have yet to hurt me. The ones who try to force their views on others can go lose faith.

The creation myth and things like the Noah's ark story aren't God though. They also aren't a deity or unusual universal force that somehow keeps everything in order. Truth is we have no proof either way regarding God, gods, or unusual universal forces. We can say that it is not terribly plausible, but we can't really say for certain that we have proved it one way or the other. I honestly doubt we ever will and find the pursuit of such knowledge ultimately useless outside of academics (unless of course our knowledge allows us to communicate and bargain with this thing).

I trust my ears and ears not some book written thousands of years ago by people wondering in the desert. The story of noah does have a real life base. In ancient iraq the Euphrates river flooded badly and thousands died, the king comendered a barge and road it into a gulf. This is the basis for all the flood myths of the area.

The worse part about religious people is that the give all the credit to god for anything that goes right in their lives. It's sickening take credit for you dumb luck/hard work you shmucks

edited 2nd Mar '11 9:16:31 PM by vanthebaron

And not everyone who believes in God, gods, and mystical forces or at least the possibility of those things believes the words of the Bible and other religious texts. Or at the very least do not believe those things are all there is or should be looked at literally. You have me for example.

Also I am not sure why it matters who or what you are giving credit for your success to so long as you are happy. That's all that matters in life. Happiness.

edited 2nd Mar '11 9:22:12 PM by Aondeug

Not all religious people believe that God is what made them what they are. Many take on the clock-maker stance, that god just built the universe and stood back and watched what happened.

That's how I like to view God.

I personally never understood why a deistic God is a particularly compelling idea at this point in time.

I rather like pretending I have free will and dislike the idea of there being an all powerful being who exerts control over us. That and if I were God I'd just make the world and observe. It'd be nice if God was like me.

I didn't think I had to spell it out, but belief includes things unrelated to religion/superstition/spirituality. I believe I exist, and I tend to have some faith in people who are experts in their respective fields. I don't think it's illogical to have that.

But your belief in yourself and the experts you trust are based in reasonable assumptions, right? You have plenty of evidence that you exist, and you presumably have read enough by those experts to be convinced of their accuracy in what they describe. I don't know how to disprove the former, but I'd think you'd be willing to discredit those you previously trusted if you found evidence that their arguments were wrong. I don't see why this requires the word 'faith' to be used.

While "faith" does tend to be used in terms of religion, it can be synonymous to "trust."

yes lets trust a book written by people with absolutely no knowledge of the world really worked on how to live our life, that's what well do, then we can watch are the birth rate sky rockets, and people start killing each other for working on Sunday.

edited 3rd Mar '11 10:59:32 AM by vanthebaron

I trust logic. When if there is physical evidence that god exists, then come talk to me, Till then, each to his own.

same for the first part, for the second part, I just can't stand people that agree with a book that says "kill people that work on the sabbath", "if you hurt gods feelings he's make you burn", and that gods reaction to the first man who had faith in him was "HEY LETS HAVE A FUCKING BBQ". they say the story of Noahs arc was "beautiful" it was mass genocide. they just sit their and nod their heads back and forth.

edited 3rd Mar '11 11:06:39 AM by vanthebaron

You are right. We, unlike those litte retarded religious faggots whose death must be aided (sic) DO know how the world actually works, and we never ever kill each other for silly little reasons such as, i don't know, acquiring oil.

edited 3rd Mar '11 11:08:47 AM by Aminatep

that war was started by a religious prick, and anyone sent over their was played like a fucking fiddle (eg: 2 of my brothers)

I'm a firm believer in treat others how you want to be treated, and i dont want religious people pushing things down my throat, so I dont push my atheism on them. They can do whatever they want, its none of my business. Because insults and the like only make us atheists as a group look not as smart as we try and act.

edited 3rd Mar '11 11:14:25 AM by Rizu

that's why I'm and anti-theist...or as Dawkens put it "extremely strong atheist"

edited 3rd Mar '11 11:16:29 AM by vanthebaron

I am a fan of dawkins, however.

Van, you don't think I'm arguing in favor of religion, do you? That's nowhere near the point I was trying to make.

> that war was started by a religious prick
Any war that was started by anyone who was in any way religious has religion to blame! Right! You are amazing. I mean, you are just always right and your logic doesn't suffer.

edited 3rd Mar '11 11:21:44 AM by Aminatep

I am a fan of dawkins, however.

I think his putting atheist stuff in a book on biology is annoying, personally.

just pointing out that faith in anything then what you can experience is foolish.

he did that because christans were putting prefaces in bio books saying evolution is "Just a theory"

edited 3rd Mar '11 11:23:44 AM by vanthebaron

Dawkins is a generally good writer but he is incapable of not going on tangents that are only barely related to what he's supposed to be talking about. His newest book is at least good at keeping those tangents in footnotes.

he did that because christans were putting prefaces in bio books saying evolution is "Just a theory"

No, he didn't. They are tangential Take Thats. Even if they weren't, revenge is petty, not noble.