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Thread: A discourse on Atheism (not a religious debate)

  1. #166
    Existentialist Varenne Rodin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Darnay View Post
    I think the general view (from a Christian pov) of an atheist family sitting down to dinner is a lot like the dinner scene from American Beauty. Or rather:

    Pa: so did you here ---

    Son: no dad! you're wrong!

    Daughter: no you're wrong stupid.


    And you see, there's no Bible to immediately turn to so you can't resolve the debate by looking it up.
    That's one of the most obtuse things I have read. I don't ever fight at the dinner table. We smile, we thank each other for all of the help with the meal. If we had a disagreement we would settle it nonviolently because we care for each other. If your religion makes you suspect people of being evil to the people they love, without anything to support that idea, your religion breeds hate and distrust without cause.

  2. #167
    Jethro BienvenuJDC's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Varenne Rodin View Post
    That's one of the most obtuse things I have read. I don't ever fight at the dinner table. We smile, we thank each other for all of the help with the meal. If we had a disagreement we would settle it nonviolently because we care for each other. If your religion makes you suspect people of being evil to the people they love, without anything to support that idea, your religion breeds hate and distrust without cause.
    Varenne, that is one of the most obtuse things that I have ever read as well, and it's totally not true. Since I actually am a Christian, I can tell you my point of view, that I think an atheist family is much like a Christian family sitting at the dinner table. We don't think about such things. I'm not even sure why someone would make up something about someone else's point of view. It would be a good thing if we stopped stereotyping each other so much...and that goes for both sides.
    Les Miserables,
    Volume 1, Fifth Book, Chapter 3
    Remember this, my friends: there are no such things as bad plants or bad men. There are only bad cultivators.

  3. #168
    Existentialist Varenne Rodin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BienvenuJDC View Post
    Varenne, that is one of the most obtuse things that I have ever read as well, and it's totally not true. Since I actually am a Christian, I can tell you my point of view, that I think an atheist family is much like a Christian family sitting at the dinner table. We don't think about such things. I'm not even sure why someone would make up something about someone else's point of view. It would be a good thing if we stopped stereotyping each other so much...and that goes for both sides.
    Thank you, Bien. That is appreciated.

  4. #169
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    I think Charles was making a joke. . . .

  5. #170
    Registered User Calidore's Avatar
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    I think so also. Scans like satire.
    You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

  6. #171
    Existentialist Varenne Rodin's Avatar
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    Haha. Usually I pick up on that type of thing. It's pretty funny either way.

  7. #172
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Darnay View Post
    I think the general view (from a Christian pov) of an atheist family sitting down to dinner is a lot like the dinner scene from American Beauty. Or rather:

    Pa: so did you here ---

    Son: no dad! you're wrong!

    Daughter: no you're wrong stupid.


    And you see, there's no Bible to immediately turn to so you can't resolve the debate by looking it up.
    What you mean, Charles? Don't they have the collection of Atlantic Magazine and many others? Take a look in Wiki for a list of atheist authors. Never mind. Funny point.

  8. #173
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    Look at some of the things Atheists bibled inconspicuously, little by little. And there are many more volumes to look up.

    Philosophy is questions that may never be answered. Religion is answers that may never be questioned.

    Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.

    Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing.

    Atheists will celebrate life, while you’re in church celebrating death.

    The Bible – A Fairytale book of rules brainwashing millions. Obliviously used to help create war, kill, hate, judge and discriminate.

    Most religions prophecy the end of the world and then consistently work together to ensure that these prophecies come true.

    Religion has caused more misery to all of mankind in every stage of human history than any other single idea.

    Absolute faith corrupts as absolutely as absolute power but absolute power is corrupt only in the hands of the absolutely faithful.

    Since the Bible and the church are obviously mistaken in telling us where we came from, how can we trust them to tell us where we are going?

    Blind faith is an ironic gift to return to the Creator of human intelligence.

    If all the Christians who have called other Christians “not really a Christian” were to vanish, there’d be no Christians left.

    Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.

    I have no need for religion, I have a conscience.

    The finality of death is the coldest truth one must face. Religion makes the perfect distraction.

    Jesus hardly made the greatest sacrifice. He knew he would be resurrected anyway.

    On the first day, man created God.

    A believer states everything must have a creator but fail to say how he was created.

    The world holds two classes of men – intelligent men without religion, and religious men without intelligence.

  9. #174
    Philosophaster Climacus's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cafolini View Post
    Apparently good speech. But how do you know they have methaphysics or epistemology. Of the three things you mentioned the only one you can be sure they have is merely some form of morality, twisted or otherwise. Morality is intrinsic, residing in the unavoidable sense of good and bad. But methaphysics and epistemology are not realities for everyone, and nowadays are museum pieces archived scientifically.
    Like everything else I remember you saying about philosophy, this is wide of the mark. By the time a person has reached the level of intellectual maturity that allows them to say “I’m a theist” or “I’m an atheist,” they will have developed both a metaphysic and an epistemology, of some sort. They may be merely nascent, they may be ill-articulated, they may be incoherent, but they’ll be there. (“God exists” or “God doesn’t exist” are already metaphysical statements.) Only a true agnostic or a pyrrhonistic doubter can lack these things. Example: Take a hypothetical atheist that is also a materialist. She believes that only material things exist. That is her metaphysic. She also believes that we can know about things only sensibly – that is, through our senses. That is her epistemology.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Climacus View Post
    Like everything else I remember you saying about philosophy, this is wide of the mark. By the time a person has reached the level of intellectual maturity that allows them to say “I’m a theist” or “I’m an atheist,” they will have developed both a metaphysic and an epistemology, of some sort. They may be merely nascent, they may be ill-articulated, they may be incoherent, but they’ll be there. (“God exists” or “God doesn’t exist” are already metaphysical statements.) Only a true agnostic or a pyrrhonistic doubter can lack these things. Example: Take a hypothetical atheist that is also a materialist. She believes that only material things exist. That is her metaphysic. She also believes that we can know about things only sensibly – that is, through our senses. That is her epistemology.
    Well, metaphysics and epistemology are not by themselves in the museum. Have fun, champ.

  11. #176
    Existentialist Varenne Rodin's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Climacus View Post
    Like everything else I remember you saying about philosophy, this is wide of the mark. By the time a person has reached the level of intellectual maturity that allows them to say “I’m a theist” or “I’m an atheist,” they will have developed both a metaphysic and an epistemology, of some sort. They may be merely nascent, they may be ill-articulated, they may be incoherent, but they’ll be there. (“God exists” or “God doesn’t exist” are already metaphysical statements.) Only a true agnostic or a pyrrhonistic doubter can lack these things. Example: Take a hypothetical atheist that is also a materialist. She believes that only material things exist. That is her metaphysic. She also believes that we can know about things only sensibly – that is, through our senses. That is her epistemology.
    "She" doesn't have to believe that only material things exist in order to observe the material world and not observe the metaphysical. How do you determine what exists and what doesn't, Climacus? It makes sense to observe the observable, does it not?

  12. #177
    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mutatis-Mutandi View Post
    I think Charles was making a joke. . . .
    ca c'est correct.


    And Bien, I did mean to stress "general" - as, no not everyone subscribes to this, but there is a view I have seen expressed regarding atheists time and time again that: because the foundation of atheism is based on deconstructionism, atheists will jump into an argument about anything - taken to a satirical point: about absolutely nothing.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

  13. #178
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Darnay View Post
    ca c'est correct.


    And Bien, I did mean to stress "general" - as, no not everyone subscribes to this, but there is a view I have seen expressed regarding atheists time and time again that: because the foundation of atheism is based on deconstructionism, atheists will jump into an argument about anything - taken to a satirical point: about absolutely nothing.
    May I modify your last phrase? "about absolutely nothing of consequence."

    Atheists existed long before Derrida. But they were persecuted. Naturally, when they found expression, they overfed talking to walls.
    We have come such a long ways in science that now the three stooges of history, namely the theist, the atheist and the agnostic have been placed together with humanity/inhumanity in a confortable museum awaiting recycling. And they are not coming back as anything of consequence.

  14. #179
    In the fog Charles Darnay's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by cafolini View Post
    May I modify your last phrase? "about absolutely nothing of consequence."

    Atheists existed long before Derrida. But they were persecuted. Naturally, when they found expression, they overfed talking to walls.
    We have come such a long ways in science that now the three stooges of history, namely the theist, the atheist and the agnostic have been placed together with humanity/inhumanity in a confortable museum awaiting recycling. And they are not coming back as anything of consequence.
    Yeah, I don't know why the Farrelly Brothers are re-making 3 Stooges either....you know it will be bad.
    I wrote a poem on a leaf and it blew away...

  15. #180
    Ecurb Ecurb's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Charles Darnay View Post
    Yeah, I don't know why the Farrelly Brothers are re-making 3 Stooges either....you know it will be bad.
    If it is bad, then it may be an accurate remake of the work of a trio of the worst comedians of all time.

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