Atheism is "cool"

[Chibi_Muffin]

Galactus, I think there might be a reason for people to say atheism is 'cool'. I realise that for most it is a life choice. However people may say it is cool, because some people (people like yourself, I may add) spout nonsense about perfectly non-religious things like Pokemon, about them being 'satanic' and 'evil'. I am aware that not all Christians are like this - I am one myself. However, people who do this may discourage people from religions even if it is just a small minority. They may view it as 'uncool' because of a stereotype, a stereotype that extremist Christians are setting on themselves.

 

[Grei]

dark rift, that's not a contradiction. In order for it to be a contradiction, what the bible says would have to be law--as if you are incapable of killing because the bible tells you not to. We know that is untrue, and the bible is simply saying that you should not kill, else you will have sinned.

I'm not saying the bible isn't chock full of contradictions, but the "contradiction" you pointed out is not a contradiction at all.

You know what's cool, sticking to your belief and actually living by it, I respect anyone who sticks to their belief and actually does what the religion says wether it be Jewish, Muslim, Prodestand, Catholic, or Buddhist. I hate anyone who claims their own religion as the best in the world and wants to convert others to do as he's told, I hate those who claim to be of a certain religion yet they don't follow anything about it like our "Christian" government. Since when do kids know what's cool it's just a trend they don't know sh-t, later on they'll see liking something because all your friends do is retarded.

Wether God is real or not who cares, all religions teach you to be a good person and if you're a good person you're cool.

This post is such a huge generalization, I don't know where to begin.

Yes, the U.S. was founded as a Christian religion (at least, I think it was), but our nation has strayed away from dramatic religious ties. We're able to do that because our people actually mean something in our government.

And claiming that "kids don't know shit" is incredibly rude and untrue. Saying "kids don't know shit" is about as accurate as saying "adults always know what's right."

i.e. it's a very inaccurate statement.

 

[J.T.]

Yes, the U.S. was founded as a Christian religion (at least, I think it was),

Mentioned this before, but no, it's not. Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli comes right out and says it's not founded on Christianity.

 

[Megalomania]

God is in contradiction with the second law of thermodynamics. Therefore he can't exist.

I'm not atheist because it's cool. My parents are atheists and I was raised without religion. Since then I have been given plenty of time to think about it, and I have concluded that it simply isn't logical for a god to exist. There are simply far too many paradoxes for an omnipotent and omniscient being to exist.
Then there is also the problem that there is no evidence at all for a God. Scientifically orientated as I am, I don't accept something for which no evidence exists.

God isn't in contradiction with any of our worldy laws, he isn't limited to the boundaries of what is current here on finite Earth especially not the laws of thermodynamics....

Sorry but atheist are jokes. "I have been given plenty of time to think about it, and I have concluded that it simply isn't logical for a god to exist". Wtf? You have scanned the scopes of the infinite reality and concluded that there is no god. Sorry but I find this kind of funny.

"Then there is also the problem that there is no evidence at all for a God. Scientifically orientated as I am, I don't accept something for which no evidence exists". Please provide any evidence that disproves a God. It's funny that atheists say that there is no God but atheism cannot provide any proof against god. ;026;

edit: ok lol On topic: Yes I think its a phase that kids go through, the 'i'm a rebel' phase.

 

[Snicker]

This is kind of tricky. :-/

Before anything else, we can't just assume that being an atheist is a trend now just because a lot of people /or kids/ say that they fall under that category. o_0' I mean, there HAS to be an underlining reason.

For example, I do not practise a religion at the moment, nor believe in a deity. But I'm loathe to actually call myself an atheist over it. I actually believe religion is a good thing and something fundamentally neccessary for any person to have in the sense that it provides you with moral and spiritual guidelines everyone needs in order to develop a stable personality.

So, I would like to adopt a religion, but at the same time I'd like it to NOT be a religion in whose name people have murdered or discriminated others. o_o

My point is, if some 11-15 year old kid says they're an atheist, the root of that is probably some sort of either conscious or subconscious displeasure with the religion practised by their surroundings.

But then again, there are always jerks /both religious and anti-religious/ who just like to stir up conflict by picking on people who feel differently than they do. ^_^'

 

[Tim the turtle]

Wtf? You have scanned the scopes of the infinite reality and concluded that there is no god. Sorry but I find this kind of funny.

It's no more rediculous than concluding that God does exist. Get off your undeserved high horse.

edit: ok lol On topic: Yes I think its a phase that kids go through, the 'i'm a rebel' phase.

So all the noted academics who are also atheist are simply rebelling? Right...

 

[Skull-Kid]

I believe in something. You don't.

Can't people just leave it at that?

Being atheist doesn't make you cool either. Nor does it make you uncool. It's just a label for what you believe. People just say they atheist because most other people are and they don't want to seem different. Just following the crowd mostly.

 

[jellsprout]

Sorry but atheist are jokes.
...
Yes I think its a phase that kids go through, the 'i'm a rebel' phase.

Burden of proof. The person claiming something exists needs to provide the evidence, not the person claiming it doesn't exist. You can't proof Santa Claus doesn't exist. Does that mean he exists?

As for the illogical part, God is supposed to be omnipotent and omniscient, correct? This means that God knows exactly everything that will happen from the birth of the universe till the end of the universe, which is also portrayed in Revelations where he foretells the end of the world.
This means that before he created Eve, he already knew she would be seduced by the snake. He already knew Adam and Eve would eat from the apple and that he would kick them out of Paradise. Going further, he already that Judas was going to betray Jesus. He already knew that Calvin was going to reject Catholicism. He even knew that I was going to sit here, on this forum and type up this paragraph about how God isn't logical. He has the power to change all of that, but instead he chose to damn us all to an eternal suffering in Hell.
If such a omnipotent and omniscient God exists, there is no free will and the exact paths of our lives were set the day the universe got created. That is in complete contradiction with any religion, and so it is illogical for a God to exist.

And I'd like to throw this in here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...serid=10&md5=bdb3ca48b21fdb2959f6f8ce4b6001de
This article published by Elsevier in 2009 shows that there is a negative correlation between intelligence and religious belief. On avarage atheists are more intelligent than theists.

 

[Tim the turtle]

Burden of proof. The person claiming something exists needs to provide the evidence, not the person claiming it doesn't exist. You can't proof Santa Claus doesn't exist. Does that mean he exists?

Please watch the beginning to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0WTtevBcQE

That is in complete contradiction with any religion, and so it is illogical for a God to exist.

That's a complete leap in logic. It is not illogical for a God to exist because of the above, it is illogical for a God to exist and for humans to have free will. You are assuming that God doesn't exist, rather than that humans don't have free will. Both however are valid options based on the above argument.

 

[miles0624]

Mentioned this before, but no, it's not. Article 11 of the Treaty of Tripoli comes right out and says it's not founded on Christianity.

You really can't say that that statement is true or false. If your going to use documents, lets look at our declaration of independence.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Now this creator could be taken as God, or as a father or whatever. There is no true answer to wether the U.S. was founded on Christanity or not. You find that out when you buy your first college history book or, like me, look at your parent's.

Also, the Articles of conferderation mention God wether you want to take it that way or not.

"And Whereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union."

However, despite all this, our founding fathers did not want a religion at the forfront of this great nation.

Here is the treaty you stated as well.


"As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries."

The document has found controversy because of originally being in Arabic.

Most people fall back on the fact that Christians are the majority, which bares no fact.

I feel like I have been talking in circles. Sorry if I have. However, there is no truth to the fact whether or not America was founded on Christanity or not.

2. Let's not start playing the truth game. Both sides ultimately win. If you go from one side, yes Christians have to bring the proof that God exists. If you go to the other side which we use in our court systems, then Atheist have to prove that God doesn't exists. This just leads to a stall war.

 

[Dragoon952]

As for the illogical part, God is supposed to be omnipotent and omniscient, correct? This means that God knows exactly everything that will happen from the birth of the universe till the end of the universe, which is also portrayed in Revelations where he foretells the end of the world.
This means that before he created Eve, he already knew she would be seduced by the snake. He already knew Adam and Eve would eat from the apple and that he would kick them out of Paradise. Going further, he already that Judas was going to betray Jesus. He already knew that Calvin was going to reject Catholicism. He even knew that I was going to sit here, on this forum and type up this paragraph about how God isn't logical. He has the power to change all of that, but instead he chose to damn us all to an eternal suffering in Hell.

Just as an interjection: there is a world of difference between foreknowledge and predestination. Just because something knows the future does not mean they force the future.

Second of all, I think there is a lot to be said for the depth of understanding of a full range of experiences provides. I am a firm believer that a human being could not possibly understand as much as it does without experiencing both things and their opposites. That's what keeps human beings from being mindless automatons.

There is nothing philisophically illogical about any of that.

If such a omnipotent and omniscient God exists, there is no free will and the exact paths of our lives were set the day the universe got created. That is in complete contradiction with any religion, and so it is illogical for a God to exist.

There is a difference between freedom of choice and freedom of will, and again no free will doesn't necessarily mean predestination. And how is the a conclusion of a lack of free will contrary to religion? Not sure where that conclusion came from.

Free will is still philisophically pondered about. Just look at Augustine and Aquinas.

 

[GhostAnime]

Just because something knows the future does not mean they force the future.

but if that person is 100% right, it has a 100% chance of happening.

 

[miles0624]

but if that person is 100% right, it has a 100% chance of happening.

That goes back to 2+2=4 We don't force it to equal 4. It just does. I am a hundred percent sure that 2+3=5. Do i force it to equal 5, no. Maybe I do. Who knows.

 

[Dragoon952]

but if that person is 100% right, it has a 100% chance of happening.

Yes, but that doesn't mean that person caused it to happen simply because he knew it would.

 

[GhostAnime]

That goes back to 2+2=4 We don't force it to equal 4. It just does. I am a hundred percent sure that 2+3=5. Do i force it to equal 5, no. Maybe I do. Who knows.

I'm not sure how to follow this. This example doesn't exactly involve a human begin's choice...

Yes, but that doesn't mean that person caused it to happen simply because he knew it would.

Well when you're talking about free choice and something has a 100% chance of happening, there isn't much free choice is there? If somebody told me i'd die by somebody murdering me at <x> store, I'd die even if I tried to prevent that. That's pretty darn fixed.

 

[Dragoon952]

Well when you're talking about free choice and something has a 100% chance of happening, there isn't much free choice is there? If somebody told me i'd die by somebody murdering me at <x> store, I'd die even if I tried to prevent that. That's pretty darn fixed.

Setting aside the fact that no human being can predict the future, you're venturing into temporal paradox land. A person with that kind of foreknowledge could, most certainly, change the future by getting involved. THAT would violate your "free choice." If you intended to go to <x> store, that was your choice. If he told you that you would die there if you went, undoubtedly you'd choose not to go. Foreknowledge would not be just seeing "the" future, but the infinite possibilities that would follow the infinite amount of choices.

But still, in terms of discussing a higher being such as a god, it is kind of impossible to comprehend an infinite temporal foreknowledge from the perspective of a being that isn't bound by the temporal, isn't it?

 

[GhostAnime]

If he told you that you would die there if you went, undoubtedly you'd choose not to go. Foreknowledge would not be just seeing "the" future, but the infinite possibilities that would follow the infinite amount of choices.

So if we're talking about a perfect god, what if his knowledge was also perfect?

 

[Erienne]

I had made a rather controversial topic the other day on the subject of God, and ended up with many children presumably around the age of 11-15 declaring themselves to be Atheist. They think by being Atheist they become "cool dudes" and believing in god is uncool. This trend has been catching on quickly, I received several messages saying "Shut up I am an Atheist.". What!? Do you think believeing in God almighty is "uncool"??

Discussion commence!

God almighty? Oh please. It's not about being cool to be atheist, or agnostic. I'm agnostic, but not because it's a trend or anything. I just find the concept to be so unfalsifiable and just an assault on logic to believe full-heartedly that there is some big man/woman/it in the sky that can do anything.

Also, it depends how you see it. If you have foreknowledge, I don't see why you couldn't change the future. Unless like you time travel backwards from the future and you interact with said future time traveler of yourself, thereby sharing information and creating a paradox, I don't see why the future isn't changeable.

Plus, you guys aren't thinking outside the box. It's quite possible another lifeform can see time in the same way we see the three spatial dimensions.

 

[Dragoon952]

So if we're talking about a perfect god, what if his knowledge was also perfect?

It would be perfect.

All I'm saying is this: knowing someone will make a choice would not nullify the fact that it was that person's choice to make, nor would it be forcing that person to make that choice.

 

[GhostAnime]

So let's say a God with perfect knowledge knew the choice before the person was even in existence. When did he make the choice? If it had a 100% chance happening before the being existed, are you saying that it's made beforehand?