Atheists... Your life is pointless

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It takes all kinds, they say.

They can not lose something if they never had it...and if they had it, then there is nothing that they have ever lost...and one can only maximize something if one already possesses it...If one does not have it already, then they can not lose it unless they have gained it already, and still possess it...

They can not lose something if they never had it...and if they have it, then there is nothing that they have ever lost...and one can only maximize something if one already possesses it...If one does not have it already, then they can not lose it unless they have gained it already, and still possess it...

I don't exclude present company neo.

If promoters of atheism cannot or will not answer the question "do they want everybody to be atheists?" there is no other feasible explanation for their efforts.

First, references to "Atheism" represent a misnomer and a failure to understand. "Atheism" does not exist to the extent that it's not a set of beliefs, and atheists are no an intellectual monolith that one can point to to say: "They think this, they believe that."

Second, a good many atheists, for however much or little they may despise priests or ministers, are atheists because they don't see any evidence for a deity.

Finally, i'm sadly disappointed that you would trot out that old bullshit which suggests that because atheists don't believe in a god, they have no moral compass, no ethics. Really, you ought to know better than that.

In an atheist world there is no moral compass and neither is there a source of morality. It is an affectation that there is and it derives from Christian teaching.

That some Christian teachers fall short of the ideal is neither here nor there. Recourse to citing examples of such people is a sign of desperation and it is illogical because if there were no examples to cite there would be nothing to say. It says nothing about Christian morality to bring forth examples of human weakness.

Perhaps you mean that from an Atheist stance there is no good Moral theory or justification yet, but certainly you don't mean that there isn't a moral practice...whether such need derives specifically from Christianity would raise the question of what you think the world was like, morally speaking, before Christianity came along...your begging the question of moral sources affected specifically in Christianity even if not particularly concerning God itself generally speaking...as for pointing to God broad as it may be the meaning in the usage of such transcendental wording you are not saying much more then morality simply has a source or a reason to be, a cause...well, all things do, and I don't think atheists disagree !

If you need the threat of hellfire and damnation to make you moral, then you're deeply flawed to begin with. Do you see atheists crowding the prisons? No. The vast majority of prison inmates self-identify as theists of one variety or another.

How lazy and stagnant would be the world If every time someone ask us what was the cause we replied it was X not knowing much about X aside by definition X is the source and end of all stuff...that's like saying causes cause therefore they are causes...while Morality is perhaps necessary fancy wording its reason won't change it a bit !

Yes- I do mean that.

[/quote]but certainly you don't mean that there isn't a moral practice[/quote]

I do mean there is no moral practice as well. The practice is mere strategy. Confusing the two is a trick and it is used selectively.

For example--an atheist might well express moral indignation at price gouging, saying that it is wrong (immoral) or that it should not happen (ethical) but in reality he is trying to win support for the idea that he or she is not to be gouged. That price gouging is morally wrong would not occur to a gouging atheist. Any moral stance would be phoney and dependent on being a gouger or risking being gouged. A strategy.

As a Pride and Prejudice fanatic Setanta should know the skill of strategy masquerading as morality and ethics.

To what extent do political leaders use moral and ethical stances for no other reason than that of winning power. And to the extent that they only apply such stances to their own electorate rather than as a general principle is evidence that they are racists.

That statement in itself means nothing. You could just as easily claim that black people are more criminally inclined than whites because there's far more of them in prison as a percentage of the population.

Some people claim religious conversion in prison, Jonathan Aitken is a classic example, and it's hard to atone for one's sins without a concept of sin.

Similarly there's a lot of 'cushy numbers' attached with religion, time off to go to the chapel, special diet, recognition of certain holy days. There's no cushy numbers available for atheists.

Therefore it would make sense to claim one particular religion or another in prison, because it will make one's stay slightly more bearable, regardless of what one actually believes.

Hell fire and damnation are anachronistic concepts ,FB. Dante's masterpiece merely reflects his view of what some types of behaviour deserves. It is not, and was not intended to be, a description of reality.

Obedience to authority is not an anachronistic concept and anybody questioning the authority is duty bound to offer an alternative so that it can be debated fully. Such is standard practice in elections and primaries and in every decision making centre you might think of. That it is not standard practice on here is due to there being no alternative on offer which can withstand proper scrutiny.

Hell fire and damnation, and references to little nuns rapping little lads on their little hand with a little ruler in a little church, are simply cheap substitutes for offering an alternative.

Ever hear of Ethical Culture? I'm not a follower, but their belief certainly demonstrate the positive moral inclination of mankind in general.

You touch on a very important issue; why blacks "are more criminally inclined." The fact of the matter is that most grow up in poor neighborhoods with the influence of their peers where gangs are prevalent. Those are the kinds of social issues that needs to be addressed, and some have been successful in places like the south side of Chicago.

Most people still don't accept that we still have discrimination in this world where blacks don't get equal opportunities.

Those are the problems which many ignore.

This silly contention that one needs god to be moral raises many awkward questions for would-be budding theologians. Does this mean that before makind invented gods . . . Oh! . . . i'm sorry, before God revealed himself to mankind ( ) . . . that all of humanity were immoral and depraved? If one group declares that the god of another group is a false god, does that mean that that second group is immoral and depraved (and therefore, ripe for rapine and plunder)? Does that mean that people who have never conceived of a god are immoral and depraved? Are people such as animists, who believe that all of nature is imbued with supernatural spirits, but don't believe in a god are immoral and depraved? My, my, my . . . how did humanity ever survive and prosper?

Of course, there is a certain force to the argument--we all know that Buddhists are immoral and depraved. (That was special, just for FBM.)

And now a pleasant musical interlude from Pink Martini . . .

The bible agrees with you, Set "For whenever people of the nations that do not have law do by nature the things of the law, these people, although not having law, are a law to themselves. 15 They are the very ones who demonstrate the matter of the law to be written in their hearts . . ." (Romans 2:14-15)

Did you enjoy the musical interlude? Pink Martini is from Portland, i believe. You should go find a small picture of Neo and take it over to Gravitar to have sized and then use if as your avatar here. That way the slower of our members will more readily recognize just how cool you are.

This one would be cool, and it's a gif file:

Playback very slow on my tablet. Very cool; I'll get it all eventually.
As far as my avatar is concerned, I should probably change from mighty zap to blown fuse. Rats! I used to be . . .