The Rev

I found this video rather thought provoking. It's a little anti-christian, but the point it makes is solid, and worth a little reflection.



The Rev

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farmergiles

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Cultivate a stoic calmness

~1~

"It is very important not to mistake hemlock for parsley; but not at all so to believe or not in god"

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Wirikuta

as a matter of fact, and by definition, an atheist cannot reject god because he doesn´t believe in his existence, in order to reject something you have to believe in its existence.

an atheist has a disbelief in god, not a rejection.

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Pot doesnt create bad situations, but it breeds apathy towards them.


The only thing in the universe that really rquires faith is a bad salesman.


peace, Wirikuta

Roach

so what do you "label" a person who believes all forms of religion were created by people, to aid in controling other people ?.

Just curious, because I've never been comfortable being called athiest, agnostic..etc.

I'm a firm believer in evolution, and that the origin of man/life/the cosmos, cannot be scienticically explained .

yet.

And I accept that fact.

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לזיין את הקופים

Wirikuta

I know ppl who call themselves antirreligious. I agree with you that religions are a form of man made control tools.

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Pot doesnt create bad situations, but it breeds apathy towards them.


The only thing in the universe that really rquires faith is a bad salesman.


peace, Wirikuta

Waves

I hate anyone who thinks they know the truth when deep down we all know that its impossible to know who or what created us at this point in time or even if there was something (or WASNT something) that created us.

I hate smug people who think they know the real deal when I can prove with just a few questions that they dont, no one does.

Thats why I like the Socrates attitude of "I am the smartest man in the world because I know I know nothing"

People let their belief in truth turn them into judgmental assholes and it becomes about proving yourself right more than having a genuine discussion

It happens with both atheists and religious people. Its a function of belief. We are wired to have beliefs about ourselves and our realities. We are not wired to believe our beliefs are truth, thats a human distortion. If you approach someone with the idea that both of your beliefs are equally valid to each person you might find the discussion that entails to be much more productive. It becomes about genuinely exploring reality, whereas most debates between christians and atheists are "i will prove you wrong and me right at all costs"

The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle, and yet that very middle ground is what our beliefs influence us to run away from. Humans are addicted to being right.

also, quantam physics is beginning to validate the subjectivity of reality and that the observer DOES have an influence on the outcome or the reality. instead of everyone believing in some objective truth that exist, maybe the function of our minds is to possess subjective ideas about truth that are equally valid among individuals? (aka: beliefs)

What I believe to be true can be true for me, and what you believe to be true can be true for you. And not in some abstract sense, in a very direct and literal sense. Our perceptions literally create different realities based on what we as individuals believe. as with the quantam physics stuff, we influence actual matter and actual reality with our perception of it.

So taking that into account, seeing two people argue their beliefs over which one is truth to me is hilarious actually, at this point in my life and growth. Because they are both right. Its like watching God argue with himself.

And whats the use in the end anyway? To be "right?" Again, what if we're all "right" and there is no objective truth?

Heres a scary though- What if God can be real just by the very fact that people believe in him?

Not real in the sense of actually existing as an objective thing, mind you, but the EFFECTS OF THOSE BELIEFS just as real.

Whos to say Tim Tebow isnt winning cuz he prays to god and believes god will help him win?

Whos to say the cancer survivor who believed god spared their life, whos to say that belief is false? Even if an ultimate creator god doesn exist?

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On this life that we call home
The years go fast and the days go so slow

Cerpin Taxt

r/atheism. Except there is the hypocrisy angle to boot.

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Step Back. Evaluate. Recognize.

"All memory is really a form of regurgitation of undigested experience."
-Alan Watts

Roach

that doesn't bother me one bit.

Unless you make the laws we all must live by.

And I've always had a problem with that.

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Waves

The things that bother me and the things that bother you will be different. Again, reality is subjective.
Yeah that place is full of ignorance. And I consider myself an agnostic, so i would jive with alot of what they have to say if it werent so rude and ignorant. But then again i could say the same thing about churches. Two different sides of the same belief-coin. Its all people being condescending towards other people they perceive as being wrong because thats what their beliefs tell them.

And as long as they do that they are missing out on a huge piece of what it means to be human. You cant be at peace inside if you are constantly fighting with others on the outside.

"“I believe that the very purpose of life is to be happy. From the very core of our being, we desire contentment. In my own limited experience I have found that the more we care for the happiness of others, the greater is our own sense of well-being. Cultivating a close, warmhearted feeling for others automatically puts the mind at ease. It helps remove whatever fears or insecurities we may have and gives us the strength to cope with any obstacles we encounter. It is the principal source of success in life. Since we are not solely material creatures, it is a mistake to place all our hopes for happiness on external development alone. The key is to develop inner peace.”

Dalai Lama quote"

If we all stopped caring about what the other guy believed and focused on our own development and happiness, the world would be a much better place. Or what if, instead of focusing on our own development and happiness, we ACTUALLY cared about the happiness of others? What a horrible world that would be! Everyone doing all this shit to make others happy and in turn giving them feelings of positivity and making them feel good!

It would become a giant feed-back loop of happiness!

Instead of arguing about whos right, it would be "how can we compromise our beliefs so that we are both right here?"

People would ACTUALLY agree to disagree!

The horror!

:P

In all seriousness, I do think we are getting there. Its taking time, but i think we'll get there. I am an optimist deep down despite the shitty world we've created for ourselves. Its all part of the growing pains of a species learning its place in the universe and what it means to exist and what it means to be human.

__________________
On this life that we call home
The years go fast and the days go so slow

Roach

So which tribe in Iraq is the "correct" one.?

This is where I'm coming from. Wars are fought over religion/religion based laws all the time, pretty much since the beginning of time.

So I agree, religion does not usually bring "peace and happiness".

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Terry

Internet atheists, to me, simply have traded gods for smarmy, elitist pretension.

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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

yeah r/atheism is obnoxious. like "check this out guys, I got 20 people to unfriend me on facebook cuz I'm so cool and right all the time. My mom said a prayer over my dying gramma so I told her she was retarded and gramma was just gonna suffer then turn into dust."

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Roach

uh, never been to that site, but it sounds like some pretty confused people post there.

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לזיין את הקופים

kitch

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Cerpin Taxt

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Step Back. Evaluate. Recognize.

"All memory is really a form of regurgitation of undigested experience."
-Alan Watts

SageTree

QFT....

Nice to see you in HT again, Waves, it's been a long time dude.





In the spirit of playing with words, which is all I think this really is,

I wish 'Non-Theism' wasn't associated solely with Atheism as I commonly hear spoken.

To me, it ought to be something more along the lines of:

''Don't need to know/Doesn't matter"

Vs. "I know, I don't know, I don't believe" etc...


Just a little Goodness for Goodness sake....
I don't need to be 'wrong' or 'right'.

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The Rev

Excellent use of the word "smarmy".



The Rev

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~1~

The word you all are looking for is 'apatheist'...


I have had several chances to explain what an apatheist is and it tends to leave the righteous speechless and the understanding, understanding.


You can have your god and your Sunday school and your whatever gets you off, I choose not to bother with any of that stuff as it (hopefully) has little impact on my daily life.

Apathy+theism = apatheism.

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SageTree

I get it, I've seen it...

I don't exactly like it...

Being a Passionate Apatheist seems paradoxical, eh?

I think living a 'Non-Theist' life means embracing a path of intentional living irregardless of the a/theist conversation.


If folks are going to be Atheist, just be an Atheist...

You don't see Theist taking up more 'room' in the label-vocabulary then they need to do ya?


Be a hard or soft or whatever Atheist....

But why hog the something that sounds fundamentally different, and claim it as a synonymy?


We've had this one before man.... just trying not to be apathetic about my beliefs about beliefs and how they are labeled


Labels! anyway!

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