@hingehead,
You said:
Quote:I don't think an atheist will make you think one or another - except that you won't think the answer is held by some omniscient, omnipresent being and his massively retranslated, rewrtiten and self-contradictory book started by goatherds and manipulated by the politics and political figures of the distant past.
That's a huge consequence, which I have mentioned again and again in this thread: rationalism. The capacity to take decision irrespective of dogma. How com err you can SAY that and fail to see it's an important consequence?
Quote:You chop and change so much I'm never sure what point you are trying to make
That's because you don't look at the big picture; you just address one argument after the next without seeing what they really mean...
In this thread, it was argued that:
- atheism is not an idea or a belief, but a passive absence of belief.
- this lack of idea has no consequences.
- not two atheists are alike, they have widely different ideologies or world views, don't want to be together or act together.
- therefore, a thread such as this one is useless since two atheists would have nothing to share about, except perhaps baseball.
I am saying this is all BS. YOU AND I ARE HAVING A RATHER INTERESTING DISCUSSION, a simple fact which disproves at least the last point...
I am further saying that these points reflect an apolegetic view of atheism, the timid and shy outlook of people who are used to be a minority and are afraid to stand up and defend their minority view.
The believers will never give atheists anything. Either you take your freedom or you don't, but don't expect it to come from someone else.
Aka, grow some balls and carve out a space for political expression of atheism. If US atheists are too scared to do so, at least they should know better than hide behind casuistry.... and they should know better than to agress other atheists who are not shy to say:
"Atheism is a positive idea, a freeing idea which has and will continue to have importance and consequences. I will not hide it but will promote it, and address its social consequences responsively."
