Atheism

I still haven't been swept away by a belief in the existence of an almighty.

My Christian friends tell me: One doesn't find God, God finds them.

panzade wrote:

My Christian friends tell me: One doesn't find God, God finds them.

That's either shamelessly disingenuous or delusional. If people have never heard of the concept of a god, are we to expect that "god" shows up and leads them off to spiritual fulfillment? How are they to know what the significance is of what they are experiencing? In the context of that bullshit, "god" can only find them if they are already aware of the concept, and at least slightly well-informed about the whole dog and pony show.

But, uh uh. I still haven't been swept away by a belief in the existence of an almighty.

If they have a "spiritual" concept, it is very likely in the form of references to "actual" spirits. Spirits which inhabit things, places, animals and other people.

Freud regularly described God as a psychological equivalent to the father, and so a natural expression of Oedipal motivation would be powerful, unconscious desires for the nonexistence of God. Therefore, in the Freudian framework, atheism is an illusion caused by the Oedipal desire to kill the father and replace him with oneself. To act as if God does not exist is an obvious, not so subtle disguise for a wish to kill Him, much the same way as in a dream, the image of a parent going away or disappearing can represent such a wish: "God is dead" is simply an undisguised Oedipal wish-fulfillment.

Modern atheism has attempted to accomplish this. Now man, not God, is the consciously specified ultimate source of goodness and power in the universe. Humanistic philosophies glorify him and his "potential" much the same way religion glorifies the Creator. We have devolved from one God to many gods to everyone a god. In essence, man-through his narcissism and Oedipal wishes-has tried to succeed where Satan failed, by seating himself on the throne of God. Thanks to Freud it is now easier to understand the deeply neurotic, thoroughly untrustworthy psychology of this unbelief.

Maybe you are not singing and playing with enough "feeling".

I wonder what my fellow infidels think of this campaign?

Its funny Intrepid , tha you feel that atheists come and trash every religious thread. Yet herein we have examples of two self proclaimed religious people who have been rude, and disrespectful of those NOT religious. They claim that its the atheists who are "attacking them", yet, the very title of this thread was based upon a discussion of atheism.
If you notice, there are several very specifically religious threads that abound on this board. They all seem to die because why

ATHEISTS USUALLY STAY AWAY BECAUSE THEY HONOR THE PREMISE OF THE THREAD.
Such is not the case whenever an atheism or even "evolution thread is begun. The religious come in and start taking their potshots at the correspondents. This usually leads to some firece encounters and brings out the worst in everyone.

There are several actual trolls who , as set has said, dont really care about any responses and dont care about discourse. They only want their own points heard.

I too, have usually found your responses quite respectful even when we disagree Intrepid. However its been kind of a running gun battle among several disparate yelling sessions(Usually all fomented by a few individuals).
Ive finally put them on ignore and I cansee that they pile up 5 to seven posts in a row, each one disrespectful of a separate correspondent. Yet these individuals claim that it is they who are "being attacked". I hope that you stick around and add your more reasoned opinions to this thread Intrepid. I picture you like Georgeob, reasoned , logical, (even when ead wrong). I cant imagine georgeob getting all violent and PTSD on us. You and he(and several other of the religious folks do discuss and debate points from a nexus of understanding . I think that theres more room for that kind of debate.

Someone has just been running thru the thread voting you all back up, set. Coulda been me, maybe, dunknow for sure. Tit for tat.

Ive finally put them on ignore and I cansee that they pile up 5 to seven posts in a row, each one disrespectful of a separate correspondent.

Speaking of sides, I truly dislike the reference to sides as if it is two camps like the Union and Confederates that you folks in the U.S. had almost 150 years ago.