What is atheism all about? (4 Viewers)

[Martin]

I don't care about religion. How can talking about religion result in any philosophical conclusions?

Well you posted a thread debating religion, and now you're not interested in religion. I don't get it.

"My" debate? This was the first debate, even the first real source of information, I ever came in touch with regarding this subject. You have obviously read and heard a lot of stuff about this, but you must admit that the debate I posted is interesting for "beginners".

Perhaps you were taking me too seriously (or perhaps I was taking myself too seriously). Clearly, it is not so that whatever I decide is worthwhile is law. But most people are motivated by what is interesting to them, so that's the basis on which I've made these comments.

And by the way, how many people here on Juventuz do you think are able to understand the things said in that debate? Half of the thread people were talking about stuff like Jesus turning water into wine.

You always have to start somewhere. You called them "beginners". It isn't really about your starting point, it's about whether you have enough curiosity to investigate the issue. So yes, you're right on this point, although part of me doubts a lot of people watched the whole thing.

 

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[Dinsdale]

Well you posted a thread debating religion, and now you're not interested in religion. I don't get it.

To me, religion and philosophy cannot blend. From the first page of that thread:

To whoever placed this thread to the religion section: I can understand moving it to this section, but it's not a discussion about religion! I intentionally didn't place it there because then it might be interpreted wrongly. The debaters talk about God from a purely metaphysical - and not religious - viewpoint.

Althought it might be hard to define where philosphy ends and religion starts, it should be obvious to you I don't care about what anyone has to say about whether Jesus turned water into wine or how god wants us to live.

 

[Martin]

What you keep saying is that it's obvious what you mean by religion and that if anyone saw the video it should be obvious to them too. Well I saw less than half of it, I guess that should be enough for a working definition. But I still don't know what your definitions are and it's very confusing. I have no interest in biblical literalism either, but that is not where religion somehow ends, religion is a very vast concept and I've never had a problem with the definition of religion as I seem to have with you.

 

[*aca*]

I'll just throw in few books, if anyone is interested


Why People Believe Weird Things - Michael Shermer

The Science Of Good & Evil - Michael Shermer

Breaking The Spell - Daniel C. Dennett

Atheism - George H. Smith (this is a must read!)

Atheist Universe - David Mills

God's Defenders - S.T. Joshi

Atheism: A Reader - Edited by S.T. Joshi (collection of essays various authors)

The Impossibility of god - Edited by Michael Martin & Ricki Monnier (collection of essays various authors)

The Portable Atheist - edited by Christopher Hitchens (collection of essays various authors)


There are many other that i could mention, but they would deal with workings of the brain, meme theory and general science.

 

[IrishZebra]

I found the God Delusion to be a very interesting read, but very confusing at some points.It's very academic and phrased in such a way (and backed up with footnotes, references etc.) that its a pretty air-tight argument so obviously it can get side tracked in pointless potato-potaaaatoe bits.

Just on a personnal note; I find the whole attack on religion thing a bit anoying as I find Relgion itself an affront to my belief system and the victim act is a precursor to the white flag...

 

[mikhail]

I've never been that interested in pure atheism though. To the intellectual it is, in most cases, more appealing than believing in God, but agnosticism is the only thing that's really fair. More importantly I think that anyone who is the least bit intelligent is always somewhat of an agnostic, because even if he does believe there is something out there, he must acknowledge the fact that he might be wrong. I'd like to read more about the subject though, which one of the three would you say is most worthwhile?

I read a wonderful quote once, which I can only paraphrase, "An atheist isn't someone who believes with absolute certainty that there is no god. He just believes that the evidence for a god is on a par with the evidence for werewolves."

 

[Respaul]

Are you suggesting that werewolves dont exist... I cant agree with that...

 

[gray]

 

[mikhail]

Hehe.

On a more serious note, I think more highly of someone who's ethical for its own sake than someone who does so for fear of devine retribution.

 

[Lawnchair Bes]

a lot of people are like that and they don't even know it

 

[Snoop]

Hehe.

On a more serious note, I think more highly of someone who's ethical for its own sake than someone who does so for fear of devine retribution.

Absolutely DA!

 

[Hist]

To me, religion and philosophy cannot blend. From the first page of that thread:



Although it might be hard to define where philosophy ends and religion starts, it should be obvious to you I don't care about what anyone has to say about whether Jesus turned water into wine or how god wants us to live.

Read
Averroes (IBN Rushd) - "The decisive treatise"
and/ or
Thomas Aquinas - "On Faith and Reason"



I am actually a philosophy minor i am a muslim and i have good knowledge of islamic philosophy. I also have fair knowledge of christian Philosophy.
if you want me to provide good constructive arguments i can help... but you have to ask as i am way too lazy to do it for nothing lol