Atheists of the forums

curiousgeorge wrote: You guys create thread after thread of thinly-veiled swipes against religion, and constantly retread the same old ground. We've an official religion thread, a religion vs science thread, a belief in the afterlife thread, and another thread where the OP calls people idiots for believing in God. All on the first page of serious discussions.

I think this is something that should be brought to the moderators.
Either there's only one thread on religion, or there can be several on different religious issues. Also there should be no personal insults.
I think this is the job of the mods and admins.

Though it isn't that easy. Many (mostly religious) people don't seem to understand this:

Ningage wrote: I don't disrespect religious people, merely their beliefs.

There is a difference between the person and the issue. But some people are very easily butthurt.
I don't care about this when I address other issues; I won't either when I address religion.

King Doubt wrote: Atheists are just deists with a different kind of god.

No. Atheism is the believe that there are no gods.
Actually I'm not really sure if it really includes all supernatural. It is called "atheism", and the word only excludes gods, not other beings.


Anyway, I've been an atheist for a long, long time.
Funny thing my parents told me just last weekend: when upon changing from Grundschule to Gymnasium I was asked whether I wanted to continue going to the religion classes, I said no without consulting my parents. I was about 10 at that time - actually only from the age of 14 you can legally decide on your own religion.
So, I've been around for a long while now. I've been through phases of saying "have a nice midwinter" instead of wishing people merry christmas, and of starting fights with Catholics when I told them that Satanism is a Christian religion, too. I've stood on the grave of a dear friend and wished I could truly believe that I'll meet him again, instead of believing that all that remains of his personality is our memory of him.
Lately I noticed things changed. I put it down to 9/11. Suddenly there were muslims and they were dangerous. If "they" are muslims, that means that "we" are Christians. After 9/11 I felt there was an increase in Christian fundamendalism. Religion suddenly mattered a lot more. Back in school (before 2001) instead of going to religion classes in school I had to go to Ethics classes - with all the other non-Christians. We knew that some were muslims, but it didn't matter, it just meant they were not Christians, it made no difference.
With religion gaining so much more meaning and people being so much more aware of it, atheism got more meaning, too. Atheists got louder.
Actually I think there's still a lot to do. Atheists are minority who are very much less achknowledged than members of the big religions. In my country the Christian churches fight against atheist burial places, you are not allowed to dance on certain Christian holidays, shops are not allowed to open on Sundays, the state collects taxes for the Christian churches, Christian classes are tought in schools, etc. But fighting for your rights does not mean disrespecting others.


On EB I think it's just kids trying to rebel.
That scenesters are hypocritical isn't new. Not only on the issue of religion vs. atheism.

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L wrote:
Actually I think there's still a lot to do. Atheists are minority who are very much less achknowledged than members of the big religions. In my country the Christian churches fight against atheist burial places, you are not allowed to dance on certain Christian holidays, shops are not allowed to open on Sundays, the state collects taxes for the Christian churches, Christian classes are tought in schools, etc. But fighting for your rights does not mean disrespecting others.

woa this is very different from where I live O: here if you go to chruch you get pretty much laugh at, not only that but a looot of churchs are closing cause more and more people stop going. Also, here most people are atheist or agnostic. and atm we have a lot of muslism and all with their belief. and we try to accomodate them but it make a lot of contreverse since we don'T really believe in anything anymore so to what point should we let them bring us back into religion ? and if we refuse religion stuffs from them should we also refuse the few left religion stuffs from us ? hmmm

I live in a college town. Some people go to church, a majority do not. I myself am Pagan, but I attend the church of my birth because I appreciate them. They do not meddle with politics, they regularly give to the poor, do food/clothing drives, do counseling at all stages of life, work on expanding faith rather than groupthink, and are a boon to the community. I love them, and I want to be married in that church. They are the type of Christians that I have zero problems with. German Lutherans, North American synod.

"Blue Laws" as they are called here regard morality and whatnot. The govern alcohol, gambling, business on Sunday, etc. Most of them have been repealed, but a few still stay on the books, namely regarding alcohol.

King Doubt wrote:

Ningage wrote: Actually, Atheists use logic and science on their side instead of two thousand year old books...
Kind of fail argument, brah.

So?
You can't deduce the supernatural.

Sure you can, you can disprove so called 'proof' of something and use logic/science to show that it doesn't exist.
We know the Loch Ness Monster isn't real, and that you really can't reach 'the end of a rainbow', so yeah, it's pretty easy to deduce it.

i never post my thoughts on religion,
or my personal beliefs and why i believe them.
because i was pretty sure that i would get bashed and called an ignoramus for not having an atheistic point of view.
and the confrontations on the forum a little too ridiculous for me.

L wrote:

curiousgeorge wrote: You guys create thread after thread of thinly-veiled swipes against religion, and constantly retread the same old ground. We've an official religion thread, a religion vs science thread, a belief in the afterlife thread, and another thread where the OP calls people idiots for believing in God. All on the first page of serious discussions.

I think this is something that should be brought to the moderators.
Either there's only one thread on religion, or there can be several on different religious issues. Also there should be no personal insults.
I think this is the job of the mods and admins.

the thread in question is being allowed for reasons beyond my control.
As for the other threads, it doesnt hurt to have a few other threads addressing specific questions, eg, what happens after death, opinions on the rapture, and the outright this vs that. Even this thread can be counted as one.
I dont know if anyone has noticed, but many questions asked in the religion thread get ignored, and instead a lot of people are like "i believe this" and dont respond to any replies ... makes me tempted to make a new religion thread.... perhaps i will.

L wrote: Though it isn't that easy. Many (mostly religious) people don't seem to understand this:

Ningage wrote: I don't disrespect religious people, merely their beliefs.

There is a difference between the person and the issue. But some people are very easily butthurt.
I don't care about this when I address other issues; I won't either when I address religion.

as i've said many times
Differing opinions aren't the same as hating.
yet as soon as you try to start a debate you get accused of being a hater.
its not as though i go around telling people YOU'RE GOING TO BURN IN HELL BECAUSE YOU DONT BELIEVE WHAT I BELIEVE

Ah... but KK, there are countless recollections of, not you really, but other users just outright saying 'You're fucking stupid." instead of saying "I don't believe that's plausible, and here is why" in a courteous respetcting manor.

rockitemokid, I know im not the most tactful, and there have been times when i get lazy and call people stupid (though its usually for misinformation rather than opinions). I think my biggest problem in religious debate is when people use the bible as their only source in an argument, it really frustrates me, because to me its like using lord of the rings as a scientific source. Ugh. I dont try to be mean or offensive, im trying to understand religion

Maybe we need a "how to debate in an inoffensive manner" thread.

You're not really so bad as some other people, but, though it is totally fucking low that we need a GUIDE on how to be respectful, it might not be a bad idea for the bucket.

Religion is something people hold dear to their hearts, and frankly I envy someone that can take comfort in that. So telling someone "YOU'RE SO FUCKING STUPID THERE IS NO GOD" is sort of inappropriate, but at the same time if the religious person was saying something about how God's wrath will kill all of the homosexuals and sinners it's sort of the same.

It seems to be here that everyone is trying to 'convert' all the christians to atheism. That's just as bad the christians trying to convert athiests, which is something the non-believers scream about.

I'm not the most religious person, but I don't think I'd like to call myself athiest. When there's a religion thread I'd rather post a couple rambling paragraphs about spirituality, than a hate debate to someone that believes in life ever after.

It all comes down to not hatin', and that's not going to happen any time soon.

My best friend is a Christian, I respect most religions, and as long as someone has respect for the fact that I'm atheist/agnostic, I won't criticize them.

I don't think I've ever slandered religion on this website.

SnowXwhite wrote: It seems to be here that everyone is trying to 'convert' all the christians to atheism.

I think that's another misconception. Debating doesn't mean you want to "convert" them. Even telling them they're idiots doesn't meant wanting to convert them.
I think most don't give a shit whether a member on here continues to believe in gods or not.

KittensKill wrote: rockitemokid, I know im not the most tactful, and there have been times when i get lazy and call people stupid (though its usually for misinformation rather than opinions). I think my biggest problem in religious debate is when people use the bible as their only source in an argument, it really frustrates me, because to me its like using lord of the rings as a scientific source. Ugh. I dont try to be mean or offensive, im trying to understand religion

Maybe we need a "how to debate in an inoffensive manner" thread.

So what do you want?? Personal Experience.

L wrote:

SnowXwhite wrote: It seems to be here that everyone is trying to 'convert' all the christians to atheism.

I think that's another misconception. Debating doesn't mean you want to "convert" them. Even telling them they're idiots doesn't meant wanting to convert them.
I think most don't give a shit whether a member on here continues to believe in gods or not.

Yep.
once again, people are seeing having a different opinion as something more than it really is.
This is serous discussions, its the debate forum. If you dont want to debate GTFO.
If someone manages to poke holes in your beliefs, perhaps you'd better go rethink those beliefs.

I'm not trying to convert anyone, I'm just trying to open their eyes to other possibilities.
I've said several times that i think it is possible for there to be something else (godlike or other) out there, possible, but very unlikely, and even if it did exist, i dont think it would be anything like the biblical god.
But many religious types can not accept the possibility that things could be different to what they believe.

KittensKill wrote:

L wrote:

SnowXwhite wrote: It seems to be here that everyone is trying to 'convert' all the christians to atheism.

I think that's another misconception. Debating doesn't mean you want to "convert" them. Even telling them they're idiots doesn't meant wanting to convert them.
I think most don't give a shit whether a member on here continues to believe in gods or not.

Yep.
once again, people are seeing having a different opinion as something more than it really is.
This is serous discussions, its the debate forum. If you dont want to debate GTFO.
If someone manages to poke holes in your beliefs, perhaps you'd better go rethink those beliefs.

I'm not trying to convert anyone, I'm just trying to open their eyes to other possibilities.
I've said several times that i think it is possible for there to be something else (godlike or other) out there, possible, but very unlikely, and even if it did exist, i dont think it would be anything like the biblical god.
But many religious types can not accept the possibility that things could be different to what they believe.

i disagree KK
alot of people are easily able to accept the possibility that reality may be different than what they believe.

athiests just dont seem to understand the importance of faith when it comes to religion.
e.g. I know that logically there is no universal energy to the universe, but i still have faith that there is.

how many religeous members on this site can you honestly find that are unable to accept other viewpoints?