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Ask the godless heathen - AKA Ask An Atheist — Page 6

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Jaitea said:

RicOlie_2 said:

I think a lot of atheists are religious and unfortunately for those who aren't, religious people (who belong to organized religions) lump all atheists together.

 Huh?.....my brain hurts, my brain hurts!

J

A large number of Buddhists are atheists, Some Quakers are too.

Buddhism has no godhead, any gods that may exist are tied to the same cycle of death, rebirth and suffering as anything else until they reach Nirvana (the state not the band) and are also illusional distractions.

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Bingowings said:

Jaitea said:

RicOlie_2 said:

I think a lot of atheists are religious and unfortunately for those who aren't, religious people (who belong to organized religions) lump all atheists together.

 Huh?.....my brain hurts, my brain hurts!

J

A large number of Buddhists are atheists, Some Quakers are too.

Buddhism has no godhead, any gods that may exist are tied to the same cycle of death, rebirth and suffering as anything else until they reach Nirvana (the state not the band) and are also illusional distractions.

 It so happens that some religions have no godhead

Atheism isn't a religion the same as off isn't a TV channel

J

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Atheism isn't a religion, but many atheists are arguably religious (I mean aside from Buddhists, etc.).

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RicOlie_2 said:

Atheism isn't a religion, but many atheists are arguably religious (I mean aside from Buddhists, etc.).

 The religious ones are but I don't think that is what you mean, in which case the sentence above makes no sense.

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It's kind of like saying a-"bigfootism" isn't a religion, but many "bigfootists" are religious, if you get what I mean (and even if you don't, it's still like saying that). I mean they might not call themselves religious, but they behave like they belong to a religion in the way that they are superstitious, are convinced of some conspiracy theories, which shape their worldview, or believe that all religious people need to be converted to atheism (and therefore "preach" atheism just as a Christian might preach their religion to others).

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RicOlie_2 said:

It's kind of like saying a-"bigfootism" isn't a religion, but many "bigfootists" are religious, if you get what I mean (and even if you don't, it's still like saying that). I mean they might not call themselves religious, but they behave like they belong to a religion in the way that they are superstitious, are convinced of some conspiracy theories, which shape their worldview, or believe that all religious people need to be converted to atheism (and therefore "preach" atheism just as a Christian might preach their religion to others).

 I don't know of any atheist clubs or churches,.....wouldn't be interested in them anyway, I've got more important things to do than not worshiping

J

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Jaitea said:

RicOlie_2 said:

It's kind of like saying a-"bigfootism" isn't a religion, but many "bigfootists" are religious, if you get what I mean (and even if you don't, it's still like saying that). I mean they might not call themselves religious, but they behave like they belong to a religion in the way that they are superstitious, are convinced of some conspiracy theories, which shape their worldview, or believe that all religious people need to be converted to atheism (and therefore "preach" atheism just as a Christian might preach their religion to others).

 I don't know of any atheist clubs or churches,.....wouldn't be interested in them anyway, I've got more important things to do than not worshiping

J

 'T'ain't what I mean. Religious people don't need churches to be religious. Nor do they need a leading body or a specific organization. I'm not talking about organized religion here, as you seem to think, but unorganized religion.

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RicOlie_2 said:

Jaitea said:

RicOlie_2 said:

It's kind of like saying a-"bigfootism" isn't a religion, but many "bigfootists" are religious, if you get what I mean (and even if you don't, it's still like saying that). I mean they might not call themselves religious, but they behave like they belong to a religion in the way that they are superstitious, are convinced of some conspiracy theories, which shape their worldview, or believe that all religious people need to be converted to atheism (and therefore "preach" atheism just as a Christian might preach their religion to others).

 I don't know of any atheist clubs or churches,.....wouldn't be interested in them anyway, I've got more important things to do than not worshiping

J

 'T'ain't what I mean. Religious people don't need churches to be religious. Nor do they need a leading body or a specific organization. I'm not talking about organized religion here, as you seem to think, but unorganized religion.

 A yes I understand....Humour leads to silliness, silliness leads to ridiculousness, ridiculousness leads to the Frink side!

J

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Religiousness means to belong to a religion, nothing more or less.

I think the word you are fumbling for is dogmatic.

Some Atheists are clearly that. They wear Atheist clothes (slogan tee-shirts etc), fill their home with atheist literature, try to convert non-atheists with a missionary zeal, define almost anything from an atheistic perspective.

I dare say if there was strong evidence for the existence of a deity or deities such Atheists would carry on in a manner as irrational as any Justsoist (they believe that Ethiopians are black because an ancestor spilt the pot of ink he put the leopards dots on with).

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I am partially referring to dogmatism, but also to those atheists who have faith in things like bigfeet or the Loch Ness Monster. For them, the lack of evidence doesn't seem to hinder their beliefs and I call them religious. Or how about those who were convinced the world was going to end in 2012? Some of them believed it like a Christian might believe in the second coming. Maybe they aren't really religious in the normal sense of the word, but their beliefs have elements of religiousity (is that a word?) in them.

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......the Loch Ness Monster religion?

sign me up

J

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I said non-organized religion which means it wouldn't have a specific name and its believers wouldn't all meet and discuss the Loch Ness Monster. It's a terrible example though.

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Sadako said:

What's your response to atheists who are not skeptics (or to phrase it another way, people whose atheism is not informed by their skepticism), and believe in ghosts, Bigfoot, alien abduction stories, Nostradamus, water crystals, etc.?

I find them to be annoying blowhards, who think that religion is just another conspiracy, so they pat themselves on the back for wearing their tin foil hats when they walk past churches, so that super secret Catholic Technology they stole from Nikola Tesla can't brainwash THEM, no siree! They're SMARTER than that, man--it's just another way for The Man to keep us from knowing the truth about Area 51, man. You should read this Geocities page from 1997, it tells you all about how the Mayans knew this was going to happen, so they sank Atlantis and then shot JFK. Then you will have your eyes opened, man. It's like, whoa. Totally.

 

RicOlie_2 said:

I am partially referring to dogmatism, but also to those atheists who have faith in things like bigfeet or the Loch Ness Monster. For them, the lack of evidence doesn't seem to hinder their beliefs and I call them religious. Or how about those who were convinced the world was going to end in 2012? Some of them believed it like a Christian might believe in the second coming. Maybe they aren't really religious in the normal sense of the word, but their beliefs have elements of religiousity (is that a word?) in them.

 ^ I think you're both perhaps confusing "Athiests" with "Agnostics who have lumps of wet moss where the brains should be" ;-)

All thiests and athiests should unite in their condemnation of people who believe in aliens, bigfoot and de-toxing etc. I bet the force would have a strong influence on that group of people ;-)

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But there ARE atheist churches--and I don't mean UU churches, or Scientology churches, or Buddhist temples. There are 'Sunday Assemblies' for atheists (a concept which was started by a couple of British comedians), there's the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, there's the followers of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, etc. But you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone attending one of those meetings claiming it's their 'religion', whereas Scientologists, for instance, WOULD claim that they practice a 'religion'.

'Atheist' is just a person's answer to exactly one question ('Do you believe there is at least one god?'), and doesn't tell you anything else about a person's beliefs. It doesn't tell you if they're a skeptic, or their politics, or their favorite sport, or what their ethical code is--same thing for 'theist'. That's how you can have atheists who also believe in ghosts, alien Elvis, or fairies at the bottom of the garden. Or theists who are One Percenter bikers, for that matter.

...And that doesn't even begin to touch on the quagmire that attempting to define 'religion' gets you into.

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TV's Frink said:

I believe in big feet.

 Well you know what they say...

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Sadako said:

There are 'Sunday Assemblies' for atheists (a concept which was started by a couple of British comedians), there's the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, there's the followers of the Invisible Pink Unicorn, etc.

Can the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster really be considered an atheist church, though? It's a parody religion created to mock Intelligent Design, but you don't have to be an atheist or even an agnostic to do that.

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RicOlie_2 said:

It's kind of like saying a-"bigfootism" isn't a religion, but many "bigfootists" are religious, if you get what I mean (and even if you don't, it's still like saying that). I mean they might not call themselves religious, but they behave like they belong to a religion in the way that they are superstitious, are convinced of some conspiracy theories, which shape their worldview, or believe that all religious people need to be converted to atheism (and therefore "preach" atheism just as a Christian might preach their religion to others).

The Loch Ness Monster is arguably less silly than a Biblical Literalist interpretation of the Abrahamic God but yeah to irrationally believe in it without recourse to evidence is a Dogma (something taken to be universally true without the requirement of proof).

Religiosity is a word meaning excessive religiousness but religiousity is something you just made up... I believe.

As I point out to Warb's continued annoyance...sorry Warb, there are conspiracies. There are even government conspiracies involving UFOs. Proven conspiracies. So to be a conspiracy theorist isn't the same as belonging to a religion anymore than belonging to the RSPB is the same as worshiping Big Bird. Believing demonstrably untrue conspiracies (like the Lunar landing conspiracy) is more on par with believing that the world was created in six 24 hour periods and that we are all descended from a man made of clay.

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The only people who would have been able to identify these babies back in the day were those in the know in the governments that commissioned them, what with them being Top Secret and all.

Bet you thought I was talking about the little blue men with three heads?

UFO means unidentified flying object and people conspire to keep some of their hardware unidentified.