Dr. Nick Nasty

QFT.

Militant atheism is also a very upper middle class phenomenon-largely because it denies any possibility that we may not have the free will to 'improve' ourselves through consumption as much as those folks do.

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Roach

not.

it transends to all the non existant classes in America.

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לזיין את הקופים

farmergiles

I'm sorry I lost you there.

Could you spell that out in simple steps please?

What is improving through consumption?

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Cultivate a stoic calmness

Terry

Not to derail the thread but there is not a country on this earth that doesn't have a class system.

I suggest you bone up on your Marx.

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There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.

-Sylvia Plath

kitch

what about Sealand? they're far too small to have a class system.

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Roach

Both republicans and democrats refuse to acknowledge that there is a class system in America.

I was being sarcastic.

everyone refers to the middle class, but few recognize the "ruling class" (who are the wealthy, trying to become wealthier) and those below the poverty level, the ever growing "poor class".

But you missed the point, there are folks in every level of income, position, and level of power who are athiests, agnostics, and anti-religionists.

level of income has little to do with it, except for the fact that poorer people do tend to grasp at anything (particularly religion) to aid them in their plight/misfortune/dismal existence.

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לזיין את הקופים

farmergiles

They have a royal family.

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Cultivate a stoic calmness

Dr. Nick Nasty

The Upper middle class (defined generally as those making 86k to 200k) aka the 'professional class'-intellectuals, journalists, small bankers, upper mid management) makes its living fundamentally be servicing the elite/super rich class, BUT it also aspires to someday be that class. Of course, the elite have no interest in letting (most) of these folks into a true share of the spoils or power. But they hold out the belief that if one regulates themselves to appear super-rich, and consumes like the super-rich and adopts a value system (the Left-Right spectrum) that is patterned on them, they will someday get there.

As such, they have no time to think about spirituality, because that cannot give them the power that they crave.

Hope I was clear. If you want far better articulations of this argument, check out the work of Christopher Lasch and/or Bill Kauffman.

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kamikazi89

Lasch was just a cranky old man

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katie west is the best

Dr. Nick Nasty

So is Ron Paul. I happen to find that cranky, borderline anarchist intellectuals generally have a good reason for being pissed off.

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wellfleation

I think this amount is very subjective as to where you live. I know we are squarely in this bracket and are pay check to pay check.

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FIGHTPOWER

Dr. Nick Nasty

fair enough-im just ballparking the money figure (trust me, I know all about cost of living and living paycheck to paycheck-I just bought groceries on a credit card!)

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wellfleation

Yeah, I here ya.

Then factor in dependents too on top of that.

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FIGHTPOWER

kamikazi89

i just find him to be too reactionary for my liking

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katie west is the best

farmergiles

Thanks for the reply.

I think you make assumptions which are incorrect- for one that militant atheists tend to come from the upper middle class and ally themselves with power. What evidence do you have for this?
Why do you say atheists crave power particularly? Have you met any of these atheists?
I see no link whatsoever.

Maybe I should start another thread titled "Why do so many people consistently misrepresent the beliefs of atheists?".

Most militant atheists are in opposition to organised religion, which is one of the biggest power monopolies with the greatest accumulation of wealth ever to exist in human society.

I would suggest that if atheists tend to come from upper middle backgrounds this is because education leads to questioning organised religion.
But in my experience they tend to come from any walk of life as long as they have had the means to make up their own minds.

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Cultivate a stoic calmness

snuggly winter

As an atheist, I hate atheists, not the ones who understand tolerance and just keep to themselves, but the loud ones who take every second of every day to spew their arguments as to why all religious people are terrible and/or hypocritical with an active wish for everyone but themselves to burn in Hell.
I really just dislike evangelists of any kind, believing in a god or not.

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"Don't hate the player, hate the game."
-Alexander Meikheljohn

SageTree

Thanks for sharing SW.

I agree a zealot is a zealot.

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toastyroach

Atheism is blind faith that the universe was created in a cipher and aimlessly rushes nowhere

-AA Big Book. Lol my favorite atheism quote. (no offense intended to anyone)

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"I'm gonna pray for deadhead as well even though I'm not religious, just super committed to trolling." Terry

SageTree

I'm offended







How's it going this morning toastybro?

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toastyroach

Pretty good friend. My lawyer just put a beaten on a case I had yesterday. Somehow court even owed me 10$, too. First time I ever prayed before court and it worked!! Hahaha

How about you?

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"I'm gonna pray for deadhead as well even though I'm not religious, just super committed to trolling." Terry