Thread: Respect vs. Blasphemy

Originally Posted by ControlFreak1

An absolute dogma of the 'atheist' religion - denying that there is nothing to deny or accept. You must 'tow-the-line'.

He's not denying there is nothing to deny or accept. He is affirming there is nothing to deny or accept

I have said that I was raised by atheists.... and they were atheists until the day they died. At the age of around 10 or 11 I was really wondering if there was a purpose to life. I felt that there must be but I couldn't figure out what it was. I came to a place in my early teens reading Joseph Heller IIRC where one of his characters says (paraphrasing) "he looked for a purpose in life and found there was no purpose." Maybe it was Steinbeck and not Heller but that is the conclusion that I came to.

As I've noted before I began searching for something of the spiritual in my thirties. Among the books I read was C.S. Lewis's "The Problem Of Pain." In the introduction to this book Lewis, an atheist who became a Christian apologist, gives as strong a case for atheism as I've ever read. Follow this link here to read 6 pages of the introduction and you'll see what I mean. Turn on java script to utilize the 'look inside this book' feature.

Lewis came to believe and explains his conversion by the "Numinous". Find the definition here. Haven't we all experienced this phenomenon ? I know it was the numinous that had me searching for a meaning to life as a child and still today.Whether there is a supreme being, a creator, or not is still debatable but I agree with Lewis that we humans have an innate intuition that there is. YMMV.

Originally Posted by ControlFreak1

Don't fall for that lame 'atheist' cop-out either, they can deny it until they are red white and blue in the face but it doesn't change the fact that their beliefs are inherently religious.

It's not a cop-out. There is no belief with atheists. It's a lack of belief.

Originally Posted by ControlFreak1

There's no proof that God doesn't exist.

No there is no proof that god exists. The atheist isn't making the claim.
The religious person is making the claim that god exists so it's they who
need to supply the proof.

Originally Posted by ControlFreak1

Every cotton-pickin' way that they can, the real fundamentalist ones at least. Through the government school system for one, and of course with these weak lame phoney reverse psycho babble scenarios of theirs.

What? Through the school systems? Oh my you're not referring to teaching
evolution are you? That has nothing to do with atheism.

And what are you referring to when you say "eak lame phoney reverse psycho babble scenarios of theirs"?

And also why is it so important to you to define atheism as a religion?

Originally Posted by NYCshaver

It's not a cop-out. There is no belief with atheists. It's a lack of belief.

Another way to cut this is that atheism is the DENIAL of the existence of a supreme being, in which case atheism is a religious position.

Atheist Definition | Definition of Atheist at Dictionary.com

On one side you have the religious claiming that God exists, and on the the other are the atheists, denying that God exists. Both are religious positions.

Originally Posted by NYCshaver

And also why is it so important to you to define atheism as a religion?

Because it obviously is, and the 'atheists' want to pretend that it isn't to try and strengthen their postition.

The old phoney "We are based solely on observable facts and logic but the other side is just religious." nonsense.

Originally Posted by Stubear

Another way to cut this is that atheism is the DENIAL of the existence of a supreme being, in which case atheism is a religious position.

Atheist Definition | Definition of Atheist at Dictionary.com

On one side you have the religious claiming that God exists, and on the the other are the atheists, denying that God exists. Both are religious positions.

Well religion is defined as a set of beliefs. What is the set of beliefs of an atheist? There is no set of practices either.

And atheists deny the claims of the religious because they don't believe the
religious have proven their case.

Atheist just deny the existence of one more god then the religious.

Originally Posted by NYCshaver

What is the set of beliefs of an atheist?

Originally Posted by NYCshaver

Atheist just believe in one less god then religious.

............

Originally Posted by ControlFreak1

Because it obviously is, and the 'atheists' want to pretend that it isn't to try and strengthen their postition.

The old phoney "We are based solely on observable facts and logic but the other side is just religious." nonsense.

You claiming it's obvious doesn't make it so. You haven't shown it's a religion. You just keep claiming it is a religion. I also don't see how not being a religion strengthens their position.

Atheism isn't based on anything. It's just a lack of belief. The atheist has
nothing to prove. They're just saying they don't believe the claims.

And again you haven't show how atheists are pushing their beliefs on others.

Originally Posted by hoglahoo

............

woops I messed that one up.

I meant to say that atheist just deny the existence of one more god then the religious.

Christians deny the existence of plenty of gods. Atheist just deny those
plus the christian god.