Please Introduce Yourself Here

Believer · Post by **Believer** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:15 am

sweden78 wrote:please ban this teenage rant who can´t behave. I AM interested in religion, that´s why I´m here. now get of my back. you have no manners at all. see it as an opportunity to spread your knowledge to an atheist.

I am not a teenager, and I believe I am behaving just fine, you aren't. If you are interested in religion, stop attacking it then! You should start reading the website first, then read back threads, and then post questions, don't barge in here and attack us. You will find yourself banned.

BGoodForGoodSake · Post by **BGoodForGoodSake** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:25 am

sweden78 wrote:oh man.. no. atheism is not a religion . you can look up the word for yourself.

I think what he is trying to say is that athiesm is analogous to religion, in that it requires some "leap of faith" to beleive that there is no God or supreme being. As there is no proof that there is none.

Take love and hate for example. People normally regard them as opposite's when in fact they are not. Love and hate both engender an obsession to someone or something. The opposite of love is appathy.

sweden78 · Post by **sweden78** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:30 am

bgood - yes, I got the point as well. just wanted clearify for "thinker" (irony?) that atheism as a concept is not a religion. I have to go and eat now. see you!

Believer · Post by **Believer** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:33 am

sweden78 wrote:bgood - yes, I got the point as well. just wanted clearify for "thinker" (irony?) that atheism as a concept is not a religion. I have to go and eat now. see you!

Again, putting MORE words into my mouth. Did I inquiry what atheism is? Again, like so many times, NO!

AttentionKMartShoppers · Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:35 am

BGoodForGoodSake wrote:
sweden78 wrote:oh man.. no. atheism is not a religion . you can look up the word for yourself.
I think what he is trying to say is that athiesm is analogous to religion, in that it requires some "leap of faith" to beleive that there is no God or supreme being. As there is no proof that there is none.

Take love and hate for example. People normally regard them as opposite's when in fact they are not. Love and hate both engender an obsession to someone or something. The opposite of love is appathy.

No, I'm not saying atheism is like a religion, it is a religion. And the faith is that you base your thoughts upon presuppositions that CANNOT BE PROVEN-you have faith that they are true, they seem self-evident, but you can't prove it-it's faith that makes you say "these are true". And I have faith that God exists, which is based on Jesus and science...and atheists have what I'd have to call blind faith...they say "95% of the world is wrong, we're the only one right." Sweden seems to say majority rules when he says 199/200 scientists are atheist (based on what?), but when it comes to most people believing in supernatural...silence. Minority rules in his case

bizzt · Post by **bizzt** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:39 am

BGoodForGoodSake wrote:
sweden78 wrote:oh man.. no. atheism is not a religion . you can look up the word for yourself.
I think what he is trying to say is that athiesm is analogous to religion, in that it requires some "leap of faith" to beleive that there is no God or supreme being. As there is no proof that there is none.

Take love and hate for example. People normally regard them as opposite's when in fact they are not. Love and hate both engender an obsession to someone or something. The opposite of love is appathy.

I want to give you this thought

A university professor challenged his students with a question: "Did God create everything that exists?"

A student bravely replied, "Yes he did!"

"God created everything?" the professor asked.

"Yes, sir," replied the student.

The professor answered, "If God created everything, then God created EVIL. Since EVIL exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are, then God is EVIL."

The student became quiet and had no reply. The professor, quite pleased with himself, boasted he had PROVEN once more that the Christian FAITH was a MYTH.

Another young student stood and said, "May I ask you a question professor?"

"Of course," replied the professor.

This student then asked, "Professor does cold exist?"

"What kind of question is that? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?"

The young student replied, "In fact sir, cold does NOT EXIST. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the ABSENCE of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero is the total ABSENCE of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold DOES NOT EXIST. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat."

The student continued, "Professor, does DARKNESS exist?"

The professor responded, "Of course it does." The student replied, "Once again you are wrong sir, DARKNESS DOES NOT EXIST either. DARKNESS is in reality the ABSENCE of light. Light we can study, but NOT DARKNESS. In fact we can use Newton's prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You CANNOT measure DARKNESS. A simple ray of light can break into a world of DARKNESS and illuminate it. How can you know how DARK a certain space is? You measure the amount of LIGHT present. Isn't this correct? DARKNESS is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is NO LIGHT present."

Finally the young student asked the professor, "Sir does EVIL exist?" Now uncertain, the professor responds, "Of course as "I" have already said. We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man's inhumanity to man. It is the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations ARE nothing else but EVIL."

To this the student replied, "EVIL DOES NOT EXIST sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. EVIL is simply the ABSENCE of God. it is just like DARKNESS and COLD, a word that man has created to describe the ABSENCE of GOD. God did NOT create EVIL. EVIL is the result of what happens when man does not have God's LOVE present in his heart. It's like the COLD that comes when there is no heat or the DARKNESS that come when there is no LIGHT.

The professor sat down.

The young student who challenged his professor was, Albert Einstein!

Blob · Post by **Blob** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:41 am

This is an interesting discussion. As I mentioned in my introduction I am not religious which I guess means the label "atheist" applies to me.

But I can't say that not being religious feels like religion or faith to me. This is because I am not sure - maybe I am wrong and there is a god. Yet religious people usually say they are absolutely certain in their beliefs - and that is why it is called faith.

(If anyone would prefer to call me an "agnostic" then that's cool with me. I don't mind.)

BGoodForGoodSake · Post by **BGoodForGoodSake** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:47 am

bizzt thanks for the story.

Blob wrote:This is an interesting discussion. As I mentioned in my introduction I am not religious which I guess means the label "atheist" applies to me.

But I can't say that not being religious feels like religion or faith to me. This is because I am not sure - maybe I am wrong and there is a god. Yet religious people usually say they are absolutely certain in their beliefs - and that is why it is called faith.

(If anyone would prefer to call me an "agnostic" then that's cool with me. I don't mind.)

Blob you appear to be an agnostic, which is ok. It is wisdom, to know you don't know.

Blob · Post by **Blob** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:49 am

BGoodForGoodSake wrote:It is wisdom, to know you don't know.

Thanks BGood!

Still, Socrates beat me to it by a few thousand years!

bizzt · Post by **bizzt** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:50 am

BGoodForGoodSake wrote:bizzt thanks for the story.

No Problem

What I was trying to show with the Story is this... Hate is the opposite of Evil Because Love is not present! So just like Cold is the Opposite but that is only a word the True Meaning is because Heat is not Present so we describe it as Cold.

AttentionKMartShoppers · Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:50 am

Blob wrote:This is an interesting discussion. As I mentioned in my introduction I am not religious which I guess means the label "atheist" applies to me.

But I can't say that not being religious feels like religion or faith to me. This is because I am not sure - maybe I am wrong and there is a god. Yet religious people usually say they are absolutely certain in their beliefs - and that is why it is called faith.

(If anyone would prefer to call me an "agnostic" then that's cool with me. I don't mind.)

Atheism as well as theism takes faith. I wish people would stop saying only theists have faith, and it's always blind...lol

sweden78 · Post by **sweden78** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:52 am

well. whatever attentionkmart says, atheism is not a religion. atheists don´t have faith. the dictionary states it is not a religion. ateists states it´s not a religion.

religion = "beliving in a devine power". would that be a suitable word atheism, when atheists deny supernatural powers?

AttentionKMartShoppers · Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:56 am

sweden78 wrote:well. whatever attentionkmart says, atheism is not a religion. atheists don´t have faith. the dictionary states it is not a religion. ateists states it´s not a religion.

religion = "beliving in a devine power". would that be a suitable word atheism, when atheists deny supernatural powers?

but why is it OK for you christians to say you know the truth? hmm.. or maybe let´s not go into that [/i]

Belief in divine power...well, a biased and arbitrary definition, of course. And, even atheism is claimed to be a religion...Humanist Manifesto I? And, you're a hypocrite, YOU are saying you know the truth too, so stop being so silly. Atheists claim to know the truth-atheism means, quite literally, the belief that there is no God.

sweden78 · Post by **sweden78** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 10:59 am

I´m not saying I know all the truth. only what the science has come to this far. but I do know it would in theory be able to answer all the questions.

AttentionKMartShoppers · Thu Sep 15, 2005 11:01 am

sweden78 wrote:I´m not saying I know all the truth. only what the science has come to this far. but I do know it would in theory be able to answer all the questions.

In theory? Science can only deal with the natural.