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Roll Call: TOTA Atheist Thread (pg. 19)
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| Jem_hadar |
| quote: | Originally posted by SurrJRS
Yep, a Beach off the Mediterranean Sea would be where I would do it! :toocool: |
Currently, leaning towards Aussieland... Australia... but im not too fussy...hehehe, nor am i getting married anytime soon
~Jem~ |
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| karim |
Actually I'm part of a very strict islamic sect that originates from the mountains of Syria and Lebanon, that doesn't permit me to see my wife until after the marriage ceremony let alone premarital sex, I can't drink booze or smoke any mind altering substances, and I'm forbidden to listen to music......
Fack that, put me under agnostic.
:)
Karim |
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| Jem_hadar |
| quote: | Originally posted by karim
Actually I'm part of a very strict islamic sect that originates from the mountains of Syria and Lebanon, that doesn't permit me to see my wife until after the marriage ceremony let alone premarital sex, I can't drink booze or smoke any mind altering substances, and I'm forbidden to listen to music......
Fack that, put me under agnostic.
:)
Karim |
proud to do so my friend!
Cheers Karim... glad to have you *partially* on board! :D
~Jem~ |
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| karim |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jem_hadar
proud to do so my friend!
Cheers Karim... glad to have you *partially* on board! :D
~Jem~ |
When you get to lay that perfect 10, you look up in the air and swear that a god exists. A truely spiritual moment. Can turn any man away from atheism....now I just gotta quit imagining what that feels like and finally go on my pilgrimage....
:p
Karim |
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| SurrJRS |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jem_hadar
Currently, leaning towards Aussieland... Australia... but im not too fussy...hehehe, nor am i getting married anytime soon |
Heh down under with the dingoes! G'day mate!
Reminds me of Ryan Phillipe in Cruel Intentions: "How are things down under? ...Blossoming, I hope." referring to Selma Blair's pubescent state... :haha:
Sarah Michelle Gellar is awesome in that movie... I think her and Selma Blair were nominated for best female-female kiss! :eyes: |
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| DJ_Bananie |
| quote: | Originally posted by timmyboy
religion was created to make ppl feel better about themselves, give them hope and so on. its not a bad thing but believeing blindly and then arguing based on those believes is wrong tho. |
I totally believe all of that. all of the standard human prinicples are present in organized religion- you know the standard, do not kill, don't commit adultery- but believing that stories are true when there is no proof is kinda ridiculus! |
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| DJ_Elyot |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_Bananie
I totally believe all of that. all of the standard human prinicples are present in organized religion- you know the standard, do not kill, don't commit adultery- but believing that stories are true when there is no proof is kinda ridiculus! |
Those principles existed before modern religion did. Religion merely qualifies them (and perhaps provides an excuse for people to follow them.) Again, from an anthropic point of view, such principles are necessary for the survival of a society such as ours.
Consider 2 prehistoric human tribes, one filled with people who killed each other, and one filled with people who believed that killing was wrong. Which one would produce the most offspring in 100 generations? Which one would die out, and which one would undergo a population explosion? It is obvious that any tribes who practiced huge amounts of killing would quickly die out, and thus, we are the descendants of people who believed that killing is wrong.
Again... simple anthropic principle. Religion perhaps just provides an excuse for people to listen to the teachings, but it's not necessary. In Canada, our law is good enough to deter the vast majority of people from killing, and in addition to that, our culture believes that killing is wrong, so people would lose the respect and love of others in the culture if they were caught killing. If you look at Maslow's heirarchy of needs, the only needs more important than love and respect are physiological needs, so we, as humans, generally only kill when we need to survive (because killing hurts our love and respect, so it is only profitable to us when it fills a more important need.) Again, this makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint.
So in fact, most of those principles would exist anyway, even if there was no religion. Even 10,000 years ago, before the agricultural revolution, and before humans even had the concept of private property, they had principles within their culture that condemned killing other humans. Maslow's heirarchy is a biologically evolved brain function that allows that to happen.
Religion is NOT NECESSARY FOR THIS PURPOSE WHATSOEVER.
And of course, I'm not criticizing your post... I'm just using it to bring out a very valid point (which you're undoubtedly aware of) and that is that religion is not necessary to prevent "sinful" action... it just reinforces our tendencies to be good (which in the end, are for our own selfish reasons anyway: being good to get into heaven is no better than being good so people will like you.) |
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| bARTovsky |
| quote: | Originally posted by karim
When you get to lay that perfect 10, you look up in the air and swear that a god exists. A truely spiritual moment. Can turn any man away from atheism....now I just gotta quit imagining what that feels like and finally go on my pilgrimage....
:p
Karim |
:haha: :haha: :haha: :haha:
Amen! |
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| DJ_Elyot |
| quote: | Originally posted by karim
When you get to lay that perfect 10, you look up in the air and swear that a god exists. A truely spiritual moment. Can turn any man away from atheism....now I just gotta quit imagining what that feels like and finally go on my pilgrimage....
:p
Karim |
Just remember that everything you feel is a mere consequence of chemical reactions and electric signals in your brain.
Imagine a person who never understood the concept of god (we're all born weak atheists, which means we don't know what a god is and therefore can't believe in one)... and suppose this person was experiencing the same moment that you just described. Would they treat it as a spiritual moment? Of course not. They only would be able to do so if they had the knowledge of the concept of god or spirituality to begin with.
Of course, somebody had to come up with the concept of god for the first time, just as somebody had to come up with theories of gravity and quantum mechanics for the first time.
Just a thought. |
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| Jem_hadar |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ_Elyot
religion is not necessary to prevent "sinful" action... it just reinforces our tendencies to be good |
This I like. All too often I hear proponents for believing in god that its gives you morales and so on.
Well, yes, fine, it does indeed profess certain morals and behaviours all of which are good... BUT, you do not NEED to believe in god or follow a religion to have those morales. they are independent of following a religion... they are just incorporated into it!
definately not saying all biblethumpers or religious ppl think this, im sure most dont (hopefully), but in debates ive had in the past, this has often been a point my opposition has brought up... and i really dont think it carries much validity.
~Jem~ |
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| preppie chick |
whoaaaaa i cant believe this thread is still going... lol
some pretty well structured arguments too... |
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| Jem_hadar |
| quote: | Originally posted by preppie chick
whoaaaaa i cant believe this thread is still going... lol
some pretty well structured arguments too... |
SOme very fine and intellectual points have been made esp. towards the latter pages of this thread.
and OF COURSE its still alive and kicking Lars. we are atleats 16 strong :D
i think its great that this thread has survived. i find it awesome discussing the point we are and especially hearing about the view points of other atheists and where exactly they stand on matters and how they think.
~Jamie~ |
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