The Positively Atheist Thread

[Jose Jones]

nah he's a bit gay

You're more of a pteranodon man?

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Just watched Derren Brown's Miracle.

 

Apart from again proving the obvious fact that he's still a witch who should have been burned at the stake years ago, he does a full display of "faith healing" - all the "miracles" that various pastors and preachers claim that the Holy Spirit works through them, Derren Brown does on stage, with no need for divine intervention.

 

It's well worth watching, if only for the responses of the people who receive the "healing" - whereas a member of a fundamentalist congregation in a church in the Bible Belt might be moved to shout "Hallelujah!", a member of a sceptical audience in a theatre in England is moved to shout "Fuck me sideways!"

[AngryOfTuebrook]

I was toying with an idea today, which might be bollocks or it might not.

 

I was reading stuff about various churches, mosques, synagogues and temples coming together to feed and shelter the homeless over Christmas, and it started me thinking that there's a fundamental PR problem with atheism.

 

Whereas atrocities can be committed in the name of atheism as much as they can in the name of any given religion, there isn't a community of atheists to carry out good deeds and acts of charity in the way that various faith groups do.  Obviously, individual atheists are as likely to be generous, kind and thoughtful as anyone else, but any positive acts they do are not done in the name of atheism.

 

(This may be another example of why the "atheism is just another religion" trope is pure bullpoo.)

[Alan Sex]

I was toying with an idea today, which might be bollocks or it might not.

 

I was reading stuff about various churches, mosques, synagogues and temples coming together to feed and shelter the homeless over Christmas, and it started me thinking that there's a fundamental PR problem with atheism.

 

Whereas atrocities can be committed in the name of atheism as much as they can in the name of any given religion, there isn't a community of atheists to carry out good deeds and acts of charity in the way that various faith groups do.  Obviously, individual atheists are as likely to be generous, kind and thoughtful as anyone else, but any positive acts they do are not done in the name of atheism.

 

(This may be another example of why the "atheism is just another religion" trope is pure bullpoo.)

I got as far as "toying" and "bollocks".

 

Repped just for that. Not sure what the rest said.

[Rico1304]

But there's nothing uniting us other than a lack of belief in god. Why would you congregate to celebrate that? Although I think there was

an attempt to have something like a secular service somewhere in London a few years ago.

 

Check this bollocks out:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/22/terrorists-extremism-religious-terrorists-god?CMP=soc_567

[Lee909]

Fuck sake

What a load of shite that is

[Bobby Hundreds]

I went to church once and alter boys where waking down the aisle collecting money in a big fucking gold jug. Sell the jug. What would the little baby horus have to say about this greed.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

But there's nothing uniting us other than a lack of belief in god. Why would you congregate to celebrate that? Although I think there was

an attempt to have something like a secular service somewhere in London a few years ago.

 

Check this bollocks out:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/dec/22/terrorists-extremism-religious-terrorists-god?CMP=soc_567

Indeed.  As a great philosopher once observed "Men go crazy in congregations; they only get better one by one."

 

Here's a sentimental Christmas tune that all atheists can enjoy (especially if they're soppy old tarts like me).

 

[Rico1304]

Indeed. As a great philosopher once observed "Men go crazy in congregations; they only get better one by one."

 

Here's a sentimental Christmas tune that all atheists can enjoy (especially if they're soppy old tarts like me).

 

He's a fucking genius.

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Have you sussed out who the "great philosopher" I quoted is?

[Stu Monty]

I was toying with an idea today, which might be bollocks or it might not.

 

I was reading stuff about various churches, mosques, synagogues and temples coming together to feed and shelter the homeless over Christmas, and it started me thinking that there's a fundamental PR problem with atheism.

 

Whereas atrocities can be committed in the name of atheism as much as they can in the name of any given religion, there isn't a community of atheists to carry out good deeds and acts of charity in the way that various faith groups do.  Obviously, individual atheists are as likely to be generous, kind and thoughtful as anyone else, but any positive acts they do are not done in the name of atheism.

 

(This may be another example of why the "atheism is just another religion" trope is pure bullpoo.)

 

 

*Sigh*

[AngryOfTuebrook]

*Sigh*

You don't think it's possible for totalitarian regimes to kill and oppress people in order to eradicate religion?

[Kloppite]

Have you sussed out who the "great philosopher" I quoted is?

Marx

[Stu Monty]

You don't think it's possible for totalitarian regimes to kill and oppress people in order to eradicate religion?

 

Hmm. There might be something other than just not believing there's a god powering the actions of this regime, no?

 

It's the false equivalency that gets the sigh. The "as much". It's facile.

 

You can make a very strong argument that it's not being kind, altruistic, thoughtful or an act of charity if you're doing things because you want eternal bliss or to avoid being tortured for eternity. It definitely is if you think this is your only shot at existence (with the rider that you are doing good things for the benefit of getting a good reputation and helping build a co-operative society).

[SasaS]

Marx

 

No. He didn't subscribe to this point of view. But he loved his children too.

[Rico1304]

Have you sussed out who the "great philosopher" I quoted is?

Had to google it to be fair.

[Rico1304]

Marx

Can never chose been 'Hazard' or 'Right Here Waiting'

[cloggypop]

"Women should be obscene and not heard."- Marx

[VladimirIlyich]

"Women should be obscene and not heard."- Marx

Groucho?

[cloggypop]

Indeed

[Kloppite]

Midnight mass is on BBC 1 at 11:45.

 

May peace be upon you.

 

In the name of the father, the sun and the holy ghost.

 

Amen.

[Hades]

Human beings are designed solely for selfishness. Any form of empathy, kindness and sacrifice is a form of selfishness. That is all we are, selfish self-replicating gene machines. No other philosophical positions are valid. Everything is reducible to selfishness.

 

Selfishness.

[General Dryness]

Human beings are designed solely for selfishness. Any form of empathy, kindness and sacrifice is a form of selfishness. That is all we are, selfish self-replicating gene machines. No other philosophical positions are valid. Everything is reducible to selfishness.

 

Selfishness.

And now here's Tom with the weather.

[PestiRed]

Human beings are designed solely for selfishness. Any form of empathy, kindness and sacrifice is a form of selfishness. That is all we are, selfish self-replicating gene machines. No other philosophical positions are valid. Everything is reducible to selfishness.

Selfishness.

Tis the season to be jolly, tralalalala

[AngryOfTuebrook]

Hmm. There might be something other than just not believing there's a god powering the actions of this regime, no?

 

It's the false equivalency that gets the sigh. The "as much". It's facile.

 

You can make a very strong argument that it's not being kind, altruistic, thoughtful or an act of charity if you're doing things because you want eternal bliss or to avoid being tortured for eternity. It definitely is if you think this is your only shot at existence (with the rider that you are doing good things for the benefit of getting a good reputation and helping build a co-operative society).

It's not a false equivalency at all.  History is full of tyrants who want to destroy all versions of truth but their own: sometimes their own version of truth involves a god, sometimes it doesn't.  If that seems "facile" it's because it's patently bleeding obvious.

 

I agree with your last paragraph that there's arguably more moral worth to a more purely altruistic act (rather than just down payment on a cloud and a harp).  That's a whole other philosophical debate, though.  All I'm doing here is pointing out that it's easier for people to argue that religion is a positive force, because they can point at acts of charity carried out by religious groups, specifically in the name of religion.  The fact that there's no comparable arena for atheists to do stuff in the name of atheism should be borne in mind, if only to counter anyone who might try to argue that those charitable acts prove the moral superiority of religion.