"You guys are the most preachy atheists I've ever met!"

by GetBusyLiving 78 Replies latest jw friends

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  tetrapod.sapien

  doogie,

  i can't believe you would speak that way of dawkins! he he j/k

  big dog,

  dawkins could become a deist/theist tomorrow, like Antony Flew did, and it wouldn't make difference to me at all.

  the world would not be fixed if everyone were atheists. i think it would be somewhat safer (how many atheists do you know who are also suicide bombers?), but not fixed. and as far as communists like china and n. korea and cuba are concerned, if they nuked us tomorrow, would it be because they're atheists? or for other reasons?

  the plain fact of the matter is that we are just apes guessing as we go along. as long as we have ape brains, we will be thoughtless and violent to degrees. but some apes don't think that their ape daddy in the sky is going to come and make the world better, but that they are stuck with their own ape problems. some apes do not think that they are going to ape heaven after they die, or walk around as ape ghosts, therefore they only have one chance to make the world better for all apes before they die. some apes don't think they are special and better than other animals. some apes just admit that they're apes, while others refuse to. admitting that one is just a lonely ape, is the start to understanding and avoiding our violent nature.

  sure communism is immoral. but not because they don't believe in god. sure they kill and devalue human life, but not because they're atheists. communism is not the church of atheism, so what the hell do i care if they are atheist and retarded?

  christians and muslims are pretty much in the same boat, as far as i am concerned. they're both abrahamic , and both capable of the same violence. one is being violent in the new millenia , and the other was violent in the last millenia . both were violent in the name of the same god. abraham's god.

  i would like to see china attack us, or commit atrocities, or genocide under a banner of non-belief. it's absurd.

  i leave you with another dawkins quote:

  My point is not that religion itself is the motivation for wars, murders and terrorist attacks, but that religion is the principal label, and the most dangerous one, by which a "they" as opposed to a "we" can be identified at all.
  -- Richard Dawkins, The Devil's Chaplain (2004)

  classicist,

  The only difference is you quote Dawkins with a sense of smugness

  well, this would be the thread for it. besides, he's right, and you're wrong. but don't worry, there is no atheist hell for catholics.

  TS
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  Big Dog

  Tetra, I agree, I don't know that all of the evils that the Soviet Union committed were because of atheism, but by the same token I don't think that every evil committed by man has been because of religion either so to me that leaves us back at square one, as you put it, big brained apes piddling along in our quest for food, shelter, and clothing. And religion being the most dangerous label that separates people? Hmm, not sure if I buy that, seems to me race is a pretty strong selling point for hate and the division of the human family.
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  googlemagoogle

  but some apes don't think that their ape daddy in the sky is going to come and make the world better, but that they are stuck with their own ape problems.
  
  lol! classic.
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  LittleToe

  Tetra:

  the world would not be fixed if everyone were atheists. i think it would be somewhat safer (how many atheists do you know who are also suicide bombers?), but not fixed.

  Sounds a little bit like the argument the JWs used about their pacifist ways...

  I do take umbrage with you lumping me with Classicist. Not because there's anything wrong with Classicist and his views (he makes alot of sense a lot of the time - an intelligent young man, who I envy for his youth), but because you feel the need to lump anyone together.

  If you accept there are a wide range of views held withint the Atheist camp, why can't you accept that there are (more abundantly so) within the Theistic and Deistic camps? Not that there's anything wrong with that, now
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  DannyBloem

  
  First of all about the original topic:

  Preachy atheists: I think that is because many of us are a mix between JW's and atheists.
  It can't hurt, there are so many preaching theists, around. If you want to look for something on internet, you almost only find theists sites.
  so some more preachy atheists are needed I think.

  Tetra,

  the world would not be fixed if everyone were atheists. i think it would be somewhat safer (how many atheists do you know who are also suicide bombers?), but not fixed. and as far as communists like china and n. korea and cuba are concerned, if they nuked us tomorrow, would it be because they're atheists? or for other reasons?

  It would hold also, that if all people had one religion it would be safer.
  Suicide bombing is a bit odd, for atheists, because it is hard to talk them into it, as they can never have a reward. But see some of the 'internal' russian conflicts.
  If there would be no religion we would label people differently, and continue with much of the same practices?

  sure communism is immoral. but not because they don't believe in god. sure they kill and devalue human life, but not because they're atheists. communism is not the church of atheism, so what the hell do i care if they are atheist and retarded?

  Aren't you a bit hard on cummunism? Do kapatalists not do exactly the same?

  Some religions, like buddism, seem to be very peachfull in principle.

  p.s. I like the quotes of dawkins ....

  Danny
• 

  tetrapod.sapien

  LT,

  Sounds a little bit like the argument the JWs used about their pacifist ways...

  perhaps a little bit. i must say, nothing quite like lumping your opponent in with JWs on an exJW board. of course, i do believe that it's you and the JWs who read their bibles daily, no?

  I do take umbrage with you lumping me with Classicist. Not because there's anything wrong with Classicist and his views (he makes alot of sense a lot of the time - an intelligent young man, who I envy for his youth), but because you feel the need to lump anyone together.

  i think he's a smart dude too. and probably just as irritating as i am myself, when debating.

  If you accept there are a wide range of views held withint the Atheist camp, why can't you accept that there are (more abundantly so) within the Theistic and Deistic camps? Not that there's anything wrong with that, now

  the problem with xians being of many different camps is that supposedly only one of you are right? or, jesus will favour one of you more because of the way you go about worshiping? but the question that's really begged is "why any difference at all if you all have the creator of the universe on your side?"

  of course, atheists have a wide range of views because we are simply humans. we admit that we could be wrong. and it doesn't matter. why? because we have no rewards or punishments for being right or wrong. it's one of the things that makes debating with religious or spiritual folk so fun.

  danny,

  It would hold also, that if all people had one religion it would be safer.

  yes, except that there would still be problems in the world that we would be no closer to fixing. religion is not the root of problems. fine. greed is a good root to look at. and yet, there is no real way to tackle greed, if we cannot show people the root of greed itself. and the root of greed itself is found in our evolutionary history. and the implications of evolution are that we are all alone in a cold dark universe. that we are but apes, guessing as we go along. god is not going to come and help us out of any mess, in this life or otherwise. if people could look at the world like that, it would be a safer place than a world in which everyone was a pentecostal or a muslim. we would be able to truly focus on problems. their causes and parsimonious, economic solutions.

  If there would be no religion we would label people differently, and continue with much of the same practices?

  yes we would. however, i maintain that we would be closer to realistically dealing with these root problems if there were no delusions about life after death or jesus coming in the rapture to save and destroy.

  Aren't you a bit hard on cummunism? Do kapatalists not do exactly the same?

  in theory i prefer communism to capitalism, indeed. in practice, i found it to be immoral. and such a shame. it had real potential. and in practice i hate capitalism. but for a bunch of dumb, greedy, self-serving, ignorant and arrogant apes that we are (albeit apes in suits), capitalism seems to work better. it may make me want to throw up, but such is the life of an ape all alone in the universe.

  Some religions, like buddism, seem to be very peachfull in principle.

  i love buddhism, of all forms of magical thinking. i am actually going to try meditating one of these days. i am fully aware of the scientific studies conducted on the brains of meditating buddhists and how it works more or less, but none the less, i still want to try it. still, i think the worlds problems would be easier to solve without karma or any other buddhist type magical thought processes.

  p.s. I like the quotes of dawkins ....

  the thread was about preachy atheists. so in stepping up to the plate, i prefer to call the scriptures. i honestly think he is the coolest atheist in the history of the world. i like David Hume and Athony Flew (in his day) as well, but Dawkins holds no punches. i admire him for that. i think too many atheists pussyfoot around the sensitivities of religious folk. but what will the world become if successive generations of children continue to be taught magic in science class, and the ability to think critically from A to Z continues to fall out of vogue? i dare say we will not be able to sustain ourselves in our current fashion. religion is but one obstacle to throw out of the way so we can concentrate on the true evolutionary roots of our problems. that is the thought i would like to leave the thread with. that, and another preachy atheist scripture. cheers danny :)

  
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  Preston

  He got stoned for the first time ever a few weeks ago and I screamed "GOD IS DEAD" in his face sporadically during a NIN concert DVD. Little things like that I think have been maybe getting to him.

  Don't forget to clamp his eyes open and tie him to a chair while forcing him to watch Rosemary's Baby

  I kid...I kid....

  - Preston
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  Daunt

  Atheist is just a label. It is nothing more than lack of belief in God. Nothing more. When you start adding on attributes (good or bad) to atheists you are only prejudging atheists. You can be highly irrational and just plain ignorant and be atheist. Rational thinking is a much better world goal than atheism. However, it just happens to be somewhat rational to be atheist or on an agnostic path. Reason and logic are the greatest things we have to solving our problems. Without reason and logic, economics, science, realistic observation, and evidence gathering wouldn't be possible.
  
  If everybody was atheist we would still have to worry about the initial human tendacy to be on top in social order, to make babies like crazy, and a host of other things to worry about. Just advocate reason and logic, and hopefully folks will realize that trying to kill off a civilization of people for an idea that has nothing more than your mind and other people's minds holding it together, is ignorance.
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  LittleToe

  Tetra:

  the problem with xians being of many different camps is that supposedly only one of you are right? or, jesus will favour one of you more because of the way you go about worshiping?

  This would be one reason that I don't particularly favour one denomination over another.

  If it's all about be right, or righter than the next man, then we've missed the point...