[Mercy Medical]

We all know this forum differs widely in it's religious beliefs (or lack there of). Those kinds of debates can be fun and thought provoking. I encourage you to keep those types of debates in the bounds of this thread. Too many threads and topics are getting veered off course and turning into debates about religion. If you want to have the debates, great, do it here, otherwise try and leave it out of the other threads.

[The Personist]

This was a good idea.

[goodarmcindy]

Probably for the best there is an official thread for this.

[Mercy Medical]

Except for the fact that the ones causing all the dickery are now refusing to use it out of some childish stubbornness to prove a point...

[GeeBee]

Originally Posted by Mercy Medical

Except for the fact that the ones causing all the dickery are now refusing to use it out of some childish stubbornness to prove a point...

On the contrary, as I stated before the "who believes in god" thread pretty much hashed the whole debate out, and continues to do so. Your new thread therefore seems a tad redundant, but whatevs.

Sorry if you don't like my points of view, but your efforts to contain them to one thread are pretty overdone, since you could just click "ignore", and I go away forever.

For what it's worth, I've enjoyed your posts, even the ones I disagree with. I apologize if I've perpetuated any "dickery", and I'll try to keep my outspoken views on religion/atheism confined to threads where that's the main point of discussion.

Truce?

[Nevuk]

Does neo-atheism merely replace faith in god with faith in an equally ubiquitous version of science and technology?

[GeeBee]

Originally Posted by Nevuk

Does neo-atheism merely replace faith in god with faith in an equally ubiquitous version of science and technology?

Strictly by virtue of semantics, I'd say no. Atheism doesn't make any claims, it is simply a non-belief. It's the absence of belief in deity. You'd have to come up with a term that implies belief IN those things, not absence OF belief in something else. But again, that's simply semantics.

[Analog Rebellion]

Originally Posted by Nevuk

Does neo-atheism merely replace faith in god with faith in an equally ubiquitous version of science and technology?

No.

[GeeBee]

Originally Posted by Nevuk

Does neo-atheism merely replace faith in god with faith in an equally ubiquitous version of science and technology?

Originally Posted by PlayRadioPlay

No.

Here's some good info on atheism from August Berkshire, president of the Minnesota Atheists:
THE FOUR C's OF ATHEISM
"Atheism is a conservative position. We make no leaps of faith. We accept statements only so far as there is reason and/or evidence to back them up. Anything else is speculation. Atheism is also consistent. We apply our skepticism equally to all supernatural claims. We do not say, “All prophets, saviors, or gods are false – except ours.” We make no exceptions or special pleadings, which makes us consistent.
Another benefit of atheism is that it is contradiction-free. We don’t have to try to reconcile an all-loving, all-seeing, all-powerful god with the existence of evil. We don’t have to define love exactly the opposite of the way we normally define it in order to make it applicable to our god. We don’t have to claim a poor supernatural designer is intelligent.
An atheist also possesses clarity in his or her thinking processes. An atheist has the courage to follow the trail of reason and evidence wherever it may lead. If there should some day be a compelling reason or piece of evidence for a god, then we would acknowledge it and change our views. This is also known as intellectual honesty."


Let the fun begin...

[Analog Rebellion]

Originally Posted by GeeBee

Here's some good info on atheism from August Berkshire, president of the Minnesota Atheists:
THE FOUR C's OF ATHEISM
"Atheism is a conservative position. We make no leaps of faith. We accept statements only so far as there is reason and/or evidence to back them up. Anything else is speculation. Atheism is also consistent. We apply our skepticism equally to all supernatural claims. We do not say, “All prophets, saviors, or gods are false – except ours.” We make no exceptions or special pleadings, which makes us consistent.
Another benefit of atheism is that it is contradiction-free. We don’t have to try to reconcile an all-loving, all-seeing, all-powerful god with the existence of evil. We don’t have to define love exactly the opposite of the way we normally define it in order to make it applicable to our god. We don’t have to claim a poor supernatural designer is intelligent.
An atheist also possesses clarity in his or her thinking processes. An atheist has the courage to follow the trail of reason and evidence wherever it may lead. If there should some day be a compelling reason or piece of evidence for a god, then we would acknowledge it and change our views. This is also known as intellectual honesty."


Let the fun begin...

I like that.

[thespearkid]

I think we should have a group prayer before we start the thread.

[vodyanoj]

Originally Posted by Nevuk

Does neo-atheism merely replace faith in god with faith in an equally ubiquitous version of science and technology?

No; there are atheists who are also anti-technological, and even anti-scientific. They only share their disbelief in the one god; besides that, anything goes.

[GeeBee]

Originally Posted by thespearkid

I think we should have a group prayer before we start the thread.

Which god(s) do you propose we pray to? I'm in.

[vodyanoj]

Originally Posted by thespearkid

I think we should have a group prayer before we start the thread.

Excellent! Except for the only deities I pray to are pagan phallic deitieis before I get laid, to make sure my parts function properly, and I do it facetiously.

[GeeBee]

Originally Posted by vodyanoj

Excellent! Except for the only deities I pray to are pagan phallic deitieis before I get laid, to make sure my parts function properly, and I do it facetiously.

You're just begging them to strike you with limpness.