Atheist, are you one??

[Jeff Vader]

Originally Posted by billybunter

I posted the link to show how crazy religion can be. If I had an atheist equivalent I would have posted it. There are no plans to dwell on the Phelps.

I don't know if you can blame religion for that BB, IMO mostly what they 'preach' is a right wing, anti-everything stance.

[Jack Keroact]

Problem is you can't explain everything by matter alone. It's not all just organs swishing together. Scientists now have determined that this universe contains less than 10 percent matter. Now we found dark matter. Atheists right when lambasting these misunderstood religions used to control populations. Nevertheless, the foundations of quantum physics were known thousands of years ago. It's not just a body, and there exists no science of consciousness to explain it. Yet

[Nobody1]

Interesting article on the subject.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/...on-of-atheism/

You should still read it critically. An mental attitude is just dangerous if it mutates into a omniscient ideology. That means dangerous are not faith or atheism per se, but their charismatic, power hungry ideologues and fanatics.

Same dance, different music.

[billybunter]

Originally Posted by Jeff Vader

I don't know if you can blame religion for that BB, IMO mostly what they 'preach' is a right wing, anti-everything stance.

WBC is registered as a religious organisation. There are quiet a few "fire & Brimstone" religious organisations like this in the north of Ireland, but not as extreme.

[howerd]

Originally Posted by Jack Keroact

Problem is you can't explain everything by matter alone. It's not all just organs swishing together. Scientists now have determined that this universe contains less than 10 percent matter. Now we found dark matter. Atheists right when lambasting these misunderstood religions used to control populations. Nevertheless, the foundations of quantum physics were known thousands of years ago. It's not just a body, and there exists no science of consciousness to explain it. Yet

Hmmm... again some highly contentious or down right wrong assertions here:

'Problem is you can't explain everything by matter alone.'
-Yet. Religions do not explain anything science cannot explain either e.g. Saying we are souls is a meaningless claim if you cannot say what a soul actually is. Can you demonstrate you know & how you know too? No, no one can, but prove me wrong if you can...

'Atheists right when lambasting these misunderstood religions used to control populations.'
Really? In the name of atheism rather than political ideology? When? I challenge you to give even one example. We can think of a great many evil acts perpetrated in the name of religions -now name even one which has been perpetrated specifically in the name of atheism rather than some political ideology?

'Nevertheless, the foundations of quantum physics were known thousands of years ago.'
This is simply nonsense. If you have empirical evidence of this give the scientific details because this is a scientific claim. The one person who possibly knew more about Quantum Mechanics than any other scientist was Richard Feynman & he said: 'If you think you understand quantum mechanics you don't understand quantum mechanics.'

[billybunter]

Originally Posted by howerd

'Problem is you can't explain everything by matter alone.'
-Yet. Religions do not explain anything science cannot explain either e.g. Saying we are souls is a meaningless claim if you cannot say what a soul actually is. Can you demonstrate you know & how you know too? No, no one can, but prove me wrong if you can...

Well i've had out of body experiences since I was a child. I thought everyone had them until I was about 10. But I can't prove that was my soul.

[scoundrel]

Originally Posted by howerd

Hmmm... again some highly contentious or down right wrong assertions here:

'Atheists right when lambasting these misunderstood religions used to control populations.'
Really? In the name of atheism rather than political ideology? When? I challenge you to give even one example. We can think of a great many evil acts perpetrated in the name of religions -now name even one which has been perpetrated specifically in the name of atheism rather than some political ideology?

Actually, Howerd, there are many instances of evils committed explicitly in the name of atheism. I would refer you to the Soviet Union (especially under Stalin and prior to WW2); the regime of Enver Hoxha in Albania; the Cristero War in Mexico in the late 1920s, a rebellion of Catholics against the total suppression of religion by the Mexican government of the day, which was put down with extraordinary violence; the Cultural Revolution in China; the vile sickness of the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia; the current sickness of the North Korean regime, where the cult of the leader's personality is the only permitted religion; the suppression of religious observance in several of the Warsaw Pact countries; even the reign of terror during the French Revolution. Just one example at random; whatever happened to Francis Hong Yong-ho, the Catholic bishop of Pyongyang, imprisoned by Kim Il Sung in 1949 and never heard of again?

The bigotry of official hardline state atheism is one of my reasons for regarding atheism as a belief, rather than an absence of belief. I doubt if many agnostics could give a tinker's damn what anyone else thinks or believes; not enough that they would resort to violence, anyway. Your typical red-book wielding Maoist, on the other hand, is just such another as the followers of John Knox, or the Huegenots who sacked Bayeaux cathedral, stole the communion plate and tried to burn the Bayeaux tapistry. Thugs and bigots; only the slogans are different.

BTW, we don't encourage the use of words such as "nonsense" when commenting on another member's post. I'm sure you can appreciate the reasons for this.

[TCO95]

Originally Posted by billybunter

Well i've had out of body experiences since I was a child. I thought everyone had them until I was about 10. But I can't prove that was my soul.

Would receiving an OBE give you an OBE?
===
Would the trance readings of Edgar Cayce be proof of the existence of Souls? He felt that when people died their experiences were added to the Universal Mind. He was controversial but he did provide information, especially medical, that an untrained layman shouldn't be able to provide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Cayce

What about ghosts? I don't believe they exist, however, a lot of people do. Would a ghost be proof of a soul? If not, how else can they be explained?

[RowanMooreFan]

There is no evidence whatsoever these crimes were committed in the name of atheism; these were crimes committed by pure dictatorship regimes who will use whatever comes to mind to justify their cruel acts and achieve their ultimate goals.

Atheism is absolutely non-violent, tolerant and respectful of other persons' beliefs, religions, culture and so on and so on. Hitler and Stalin both used the term socialism for their own purposes. 'State-socialism' or 'national socialism' is not the equivalent of atheism as you tend to suggest.

[howerd]

Originally Posted by Nobody1

Interesting article on the subject.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/04/...on-of-atheism/

You should still read it critically. An mental attitude is just dangerous if it mutates into a omniscient ideology. That means dangerous are not faith or atheism per se, but their charismatic, power hungry ideologues and fanatics.

Same dance, different music.

Having just read this article I find it some what wanting. Although the author uses the term 'weapon' or 'weaponized' no less than six time next to the word 'atheist' / 'atheism' it struggles to make any connection between them. The best it can manage is:

'A few days later, one of those defenders took out his revolver to clean it. The gun accidentally discharged. The bullet struck a man called William Jackson Brown; he died the next day.'

Yep, that's it: one accidental manslaughter -in the name of atheism? Errr no. -In no way. -Now ask yourself just how many people have killed or been killed in the name of religion? -The number is so vast we can only guess what the numbers must be & we still hear about it almost every day in the news. So precisely how does this article justify the hysterical title: 'The Weaponization of Atheism' then? If this claim isn't an exercise in bare faced proper gander I don't know what is.