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Atheists... Your life is pointless

 
 
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 03:00 am
<lag>
MattDavis
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 03:41 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
Hey Spade,
This video made me think of you. Very Happy
This is Father Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk.
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 03:47 am
@MattDavis,
I enjoyed that video mate...Thank you very much for sharing it with me...Wink Very Happy...And thank you very much for taking the time to think about me

I hope this post can summarize how much I enjoy thinking about our friendship, the concepts you have to offer...And how lucky I am to have a friend just like you...there is not another that will ever be exactly like you are...Wink...and I will always remember that...
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 03:53 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
Quote:
Atheists often claim that theists are wrong because they are ignorant and believe they know everything...

When in actuality it is the atheist position that rejects beliefs, so they either must be saying they know nothing or everything because they believe nothing, and know nothing or everything...Or they must be saying that they know that they know nothing or everything, because they do not believe that they do...


You just won't give this up, will you? You know perhaps a half a dozen atheists, if encountering someone online can be described as knowing them, and yet you are ever willing to speak about atheists as if, first, they are a monolithic group who can be described with universal traits, and as if you know many, many atheists. As usual, you demonstrate that you really don't know anything at all about atheists.
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 03:57 am
@Setanta,
Please describe for me into deep detail exactly how you believe that this is true?...Or how you know that this is true...? And if it is possible, please explain how you believe this is true, how you know this is true....because you do not believe it, or do not know it? But or because you reject it?

You have gotten my attention, and I am listening...
edgarblythe
 
  2  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 04:11 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
XXSpadeMasterXX wrote:

Quote:
Once the discussion determines if an atheist's life is pointless, perhaps someone could explain why belief in a god gives a point to the believer's life. I don't see it, myself. Perhaps some of you good people do see it.

Who could honestly say that they could explain the meaning of a belief for you and actually mean it? Or be truthful about it? If you do not believe that you see one? One can only understand a belief if they truly want to believe they do...Or believe they can...No one can get you to personally understand the meaning of a belief for you, unless you wanted to believe you could personally understand it....

Clear your mind, and think of any single thing that could honestly get you to believe anything that you did not see, or believe was true...etc...now tell me what was this thing? Was it a God? That is only the beginning of what a belief is, and how one could only find it by looking for it themselves...if they freely want to do it...

Actually, I could give you the same advice.
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 04:18 am
@edgarblythe,
Could give me the same advice about what? A belief? Or lack? What did you expect me to say? Something that you and I both knew was not true? Can you think of anything that a theist (like myself) could say, to show you the reason for a belief in God? Other than wanting to do it on ones own?

What would be a reason to do it other than one wanting to do it?

What other option were you looking for/expected to find?

I am a theist, and if you think that I explained that and you found it to be truthful, it does not mean that I do not believe...and am an atheist...

That is why I have said you must always believe in order to know, and you can not know if you do not believe that you do...

0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  2  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 04:27 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
Now you're playing Frank Apisa's silly epistemological game. It's pretty easy, and simple-minded, to dance around demanding that people explain what they know and how they know it. It then makes it easy to reject what they say by claiming it is unproven.

In the very first instance, i know it because you never accurately describe me, and i am an atheist. Next, there are atheists here, whose posts you could peruse, if you weren't too lazy to go to the trouble, who don't think as i do--that should show you that atheists are not a monolith that you are entitled to describe in a few, confused phrases.

Finally, you have told me yourself in these fora that you know a few atheists, and yet you seem to think you're entitled to speak authoritatively about what atheists think and believe and know. Atheists are, understandably, reluctant to talk to other people about it--they are the most despised minority in the United States. In my personal experience, implicit atheists far outnumber explicit atheists--but explicit atheists are the only ones who make a point of expressing their claim that there is no god. If reasonable estimates on the number of atheists in the world hold true in the United Staets, there would be about five million atheists here. So you don't know a tiny fraction of a tiny fraction of one percent of all atheists in the United States. This is further complicated by the responses on surveys, in which significant numbers of people who identify themselves as Catholics or Protestants have stated that they do not believe in a god. Read this Wikipedia article, and you may being to get an idea of just how complex this subject is.

You are not qualified to speak to what atheists do or do not claim.
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 04:50 am
@Setanta,
Do you also know this tiny, tiny fraction? Or do you know significantly more? (Lets say 10%...)

If you will admit that you also know a tiny, tiny fraction...What authority do you possess to accurately describe "the atheistic position" unless you believe you can?, Or know you can? Because you believe you are one? Or know you are one? And believe I am not one? Or know I am not one? Which would mean you would have to have beliefs you can explain the position accurately knowing so very few, because you have beliefs that you can, and are one...that you say you reject...Or think you know that you can describe this position because you think that you know you can, when you have then said I could not accurately explain this position because I also know I can....Which means your "more accurate portrayal" is self-contradictory...Or you know no more than I do about it, and your attempt to point this out, and why, is also flawed...If I can not know because I do not know enough, then you can also not know, because you do not know enough...Unless you are willing to explain this high % you do know? And if you are willing to admit you do know more than I do because you believe it, and atheism has beliefs, then I will admit that you are correct...because I am only speculating the atheistic beliefs...and do not believe I know them...

So either atheism can not be solely about rejections, (like you claim yourself compared to the millions you do not know) Or you believe you can more accurately describe atheism over I because you believe you can, because you believe you are one, and because you believe that atheism has beliefs, and is not just about rejections like you have said...

Which would once again mean that you and I think we can because we believe we can, and no one knows we can...
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 04:53 am
@Setanta,
Quote:
In the very first instance, i know it because you never accurately describe me, and i am an atheist. Next, there are atheists here, whose posts you could peruse, if you weren't too lazy to go to the trouble, who don't think as i do--that should show you that atheists are not a monolith that you are entitled to describe in a few, confused phrases.

How many posters have you gone through, or viewed to come to this view yourself? Before I go look, and "weren't being so lazy"
0 Replies
 
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 05:09 am
@Setanta,
You must either believe and know you can accurately describe the atheistic position, because you believe and know you can...

Or you must think you are not able too, because you do not believe you can, or know you can not, because you do not believe you can...

There is no other way...and I challenge you to provide me with another way...

Is it possible to accurately explain it, because you do not believe you can?, or do not know you can?

Show me...Prove it...
Setanta
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 05:15 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
The difference is that i am not making pronouncements from ignorance as you are doing. I haven't tried to describe any "atheistic position," and if you had actually understood the point it was making, you'd know that i deny that there is any such thing a the atheistic position.

Don't try to play Frank's witless epistemological games with me. If you want to play that bullshit, then every time you shoot your mouth off about atheist, i would be entitled to ask you how you know that, or if you are just guessing. Among other things that you don't understand is rhetoric. If you make a claim, i need only find one example which contradicts you to invalidate your claim. However, if you want to establish your claim, you have to do a lot better than a half dozen or so people whose opinions you have read here, and have probably grossly mis-characterized. (Like that hilarious bullshit you came out with about two atheists who said they'd believe if they had "a sign from god"--ah-hahahahahahaha--at least you're entertaining.)

As for knowing "no more than [you] do," although i find it hard to believe that there are very many people as ignorant as you who are still willing to spout nonsense about what others do or don't know or believe, once again, i don't have to produce measurable amounts of evidence. If i find one case which contradicts you, that is sufficient. You really, really have no clue about forensics and rhetoric.

You're also employing a straw man, or are merely a liar. Where have i claimed that "atheism is solely about rejection?" Quote and link the post. Otherwise, i'm entitled to call you a liar.
Setanta
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 05:22 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
I don't have to jump through your epistemological hoops, Bubba. (Jesus wept, i suspect we're going to have to put up with your latest, idiotic mantra about knowing and believing from now on.) I only need demonstrate that there is no such thing as "the atheistic position," and that is simplicity itself:

What's the Difference Between Implicit & Explicit Atheism? from "About-dot-com." If there are at least two differing opinions about atheism, and there are obviously more--then your simple-minded palaver about "the atheistic position" is just so much hogwash.

By the way, this new mantra of yours isn't alleviating the incoherence with which you commonly write.
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 05:55 am
@Setanta,
Quote:
The difference is that i am not making pronouncements from ignorance as you are doing. I haven't tried to describe any "atheistic position," and if you had actually understood the point it was making, you'd know that i deny that there is any such thing a the atheistic position.

OK, how would you self-describe being an atheist once again? So we can deal with this...straight out...and put this circular stuff behind...

Is it fair to say that you think that no one (not even an atheist) can accurately describe an atheistic position because there is no one monolith? Or do you think that, any atheist, in anyway, can self-describe themselves better than any one single other person? (atheist, agnostic, theist)

(I do not need any critiques about incoherence, answer the question if you wish...do not if you do not wish...I too, like to challenge one invalid claim...which again is just a subjective belief as well, especially if no one can accurately describe this position, as there is no such thing, and there is no monolith)
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 06:09 am
@Setanta,
Quote:
What's the Difference Between Implicit & Explicit Atheism? from "About-dot-com." If there are at least two differing opinions about atheism, and there are obviously more--then your simple-minded palaver about "the atheistic position" is just so much hogwash.

Show me how this is proven or known...Or how this is a belief, or not a belief?...Unless their are beliefs involved that self-destroy the people who claim that atheism are rejections, and are not strictly beliefs themselves....

Show me a way (if you can) how this above is true using rejections only, since you have already posted that there are atheists who have beliefs that they express there are no Gods...And your personal atheism is based more/if not all/ upon rejections?....Why would you say that atheism is about rejecting asserted claims?...(or however you specifically specified your personal atheism) If you are posting how atheists have beliefs about expressing there are no Gods, and you are not subjectively believing that atheism is about rejections or skepticism, simply because you chose to believe it is and not believe it is about beliefs about Gods, like other atheists do? Before you play the ignorance card...allow me...Do you think that they think this way because of rejections? So then they must reject that they reject there are beliefs in Gods? Or do you think that they have beliefs? What is the difference if it is rejections and not beliefs? (From your own personal perspective of a tiny fraction...)

Quote:
I don't have to jump through your epistemological hoops, Bubba. (Jesus wept, i suspect we're going to have to put up with your latest, idiotic mantra about knowing and believing from now on.) I only need demonstrate that there is no such thing as "the atheistic position," and that is simplicity itself:

By the way, this new mantra of yours isn't alleviating the incoherence with which you commonly write.

I am not interested in your self critiques or baits...I am more interested in the actual answers...

spendius
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 06:13 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
The atheist position Spade is that all life is pointless and that any moral position is merely a strategy for dealing with life under the circumstances presented at a given time as conveniently as maybe.
Setanta
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 06:17 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
You need constant critiques about incoherence because it is so often difficult, and sometimes almost impossible, to decipher what you are saying--never mind what you think you are saying.

This still hasn't sunk in with you, obviously. I am not concerned with an atheistic position, although i suspect that there are a great many of them. I was referring to your repeated use of the atheistic position, both inferential and the explicit claim. As i made no claims about individuals, i am not obliged to play that silly game of yours. You repeatedly implied and stated that there is a single "atheistic position" when you used the definite article. I refuted that in one attempt, by demonstrating that there are at least two. Now i'm sure you think you're slick because you've changed to the indefinite article.

That last parenthetical entry of yours is a tour de force in incoherence.
Setanta
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 06:18 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
I don't have to show you anything. You're just going to be insufferable with your new, idiotic epistemological mantra, aren't you?

I wasn't critique myself, i was ridiculing your typical incoherence and you new mantra about knowing and belief.
0 Replies
 
XXSpadeMasterXX
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 06:27 am
@Setanta,
Yes, you decided to oblige to try to subjectively validate how there is not one common monolith in your own subjective ways...So you are also then obliged to answer exactly how you think or believe there is no one common monolith in your own subjective ways since you tried to post that/those link(s) to destroy my views of being one common monolith, since you are the one who claims that this is evidence, that not every atheist would obviously believe or reject...by evidence of that very own link you posted itself...but because you subjectively believe that that is evidence that not everyone, (not even every atheist would agree with)

You are correct, I am not going to let you post that as "evidence" and then duck out...

Validate how that link you posted is "proof" or "evidence" and not a subjective belief of one, or millions but not all?
Frank Apisa
 
  1  
Thu 14 Mar, 2013 06:48 am
@XXSpadeMasterXX,
Setanta wrote:

Quote:
I am not concerned with an atheistic position, although i suspect that there are a great many of them. I was referring to your repeated use of the atheistic position…


Spendius wrote:

Quote:
The atheist position Spade is that all life is pointless and that any moral position is merely a strategy for dealing with life under the circumstances presented at a given time as conveniently as maybe.


Sounds as though you would be better off discussing this with Spendius. Might bear more fruit.
 

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