Why are atheists disliked in America?

[Yedtarts]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

I never said there is no God, right off the bat you're showing that still, after all this time, you have no idea what my point is. I don't mind you challenging my position if you actually can, but at least know what my position is. As for the hallucinating things, if you actually imagine Jesus coming into your room or hear voices in your head, I don't know what else I would call that. Again, you're focusing on this being something incredibly insulting I said. If you went up to most people and said you hear voices in your head, they wouldn't just nod and accept that as something legitimate or normal to say. You act as if I'm the only one who would think it's odd for you, or anyone, to hear voices in your head or see a biblical figure, that apparently the rest of us can't see, appear in front of you. If you're insulted by me pointing out how mentally unstable those symptoms are, then you better not tell most people, cause they will likely feel the same way.

You and the rest of the people like you can go and screw yourselves till the cows come home and see if I, or people like me care!

[Jinx]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

You and the rest of the people like you can go and screw yourselves till the cows come home and see if I, or people like me care!

Wow. Alright.

[KanadaHye]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

Scientists from La Place all the way up to Dawkins can provide plenty of reasons as to why you don't need a God, which is no one proves that there isn't a God, but it does license unbelief. That's all I'm saying. The whole argument about how the universe couldn't possibly work without a God tends to come mostly from (but not limited to) people who simply don't know as much about science or done the hard research that dedicated scientists have.

Ehhhhh....a lot of people believe Thomas Edison was a brilliant inventor but really he was a business man who owned the rights to things other people invented. Dawkins is an author and political scientist at best. He should have put his energy towards doing something rather than wasting his time preaching about something that doesn't exist.

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

For the "hallucination" thing, let's try this...

Bob's grandma is in the hospital dying of a low terminal illness. Bob has a vision in which he believes that God spoke to him and told him the humane thing to do would be to put an end to Grandma's suffering and reunite her with God. He takes his pistol to the hospital with him the next day and shoots Grandma in the head.

Has Bob seen/heard God? Is he guilty of any crime?

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

Also the atheist can never really justify philosophically or morally his existence. In other words, what difference does it make if I live or die? Not how should I live, but why should I live in the first place. You will find that the answer to that question lies beyond the purely rational realm. If you take that there is no meaning, you descend into nihilism and into the realm of absurdity...

I don't understand what you mean... apparently, I've never struggled with this. Why am I here? Broader, more distal reason: Millions of years of evolution. More proximate? My parents had sex and conceived me. Is it any less amazing to be alive? Nope. Does it make me less motivated to do something with my time? No.

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

I think the universe is too perfect and mankind too imperfect for there not to be a greater source of intelligence. If someone were to say they saw God or God spoke to them, nobody would believe them anyways. Certainly people can have visions in their dreams and attribute that to having contact with God but it could just be that our minds are more powerful during sleep than when awake. Concepts of good and evil, God and Devil, etc. are representations of pros/cons, hot/cold, positive/negative. If you think about it, all the forces that are holding the universe together is in perfect equilibrium and if there was an imbalance, our world would cease to exist.

In the same way that we don't have evidence to prove there is a God, we also don't have evidence to prove there isn't a God. Atheists argue proof is not needed for something that doesn't exist. For whatever reason, we are conditioned to imagine things that don't exist, something we refer to as vision. If people didn't have vision, there would be no cars, no television, no vcr's, etc. These things came from people that had vision. Mind you, some people are still hunting for the fountain of youth and Big Foot (imagination is separate from vision). There was a time when people sat there and wished they could change the TV channel without getting up and wham, the remote control was invented. Some people wish and hope while others do work and create. I would be shocked to find out that scientists and inventors in the past were non believers, despite what most of us are told today.

The life on this Earth is adapted to Earth because of evolution! Evolution fits the observations better than creation because neither we, nor other animals, are well enough adapted to suggest design.

That's a very inspirational story about inventing things, but because God cannot be imagined into existence, your example is not persuasive.

[KanadaHye]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

The life on this Earth is adapted to Earth because of evolution! Evolution fits the observations better than creation because neither we, nor other animals, are well enough adapted to suggest design.

That's a very inspirational story about inventing things, but because God cannot be imagined into existence, your example is not persuasive.

What do you mean we or animals are "not adapted enough"? The Earth also adapts to what people do with/to it, the forces are reciprocal.

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

What do you mean we or animals are "not adapted enough"? The Earth also adapts to what people do with/to it, the forces are reciprocal.

The design of the eye. Reproductive/digestive systems. The fact that human embryos develop gills and tails that then disappear.

[KanadaHye]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

The design of the eye. Reproductive/digestive systems. The fact that human embryos develop gills and tails that then disappear.

Huh? Gills and tails? Are you serious?

[Siggie]

Re: Why are atheists disliked in America?

Huh? Gills and tails? Are you serious?

Dead serious. Why would human beings have gills or tails in their dna at all?

--- Edit

I haven't watched this through so I can't point to a specific time (at work now ), but I strongly suspect this is nearly identical to the talk I saw Jerry give about his book last year at a different conference. If so, he will discuss the physical evidence for evolution and the gills are among the many others. It also provides a decent explanation of evolution, which is handy as I don't think the majority of people have an accurate grasp of what it is.


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