Dear Atheists..

JASR said:
yep… which implies the ‘leaders’ aren’t weak. You need something about you to control others behaviour.

It’s How to extract influence, money and power from as many people as they can.

Religion is essentially just another term for a profit making business , wrapped up in a facade of mythology & symbolism, with self serving interests at the top, and with their workers doing their bidding and ensuring the business grows, lobbys, profits and attacks their rivals.
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You're dodging the two main thrusts of the conversation though.

1. Your view implies almost all religious people are stupid, naive, or gullible. There's also a shared implication that people who aren't religious are the opposite and therefore superior intellectually.

2. Your view doesn't fit with the reality of the world and is instead a tiny microcosm of a highly cynical view.

And we can add the third now

3. Your view implies that religious leaders are sociopathic control freaks and liars.

The interesting thing when you talk about religion is that the conversations usually tell you more about the other person. When people don't understand something, the default reaction in the modern information age is to presume either moral or intellectual failings instead of presuming the competence of other people and actually attempting to understand the whats and whys. Somehow they feel this is more enlightened and intelligent. It's a weird form of arrogance when you think about it. "This doesn't check out with me so the only possible solution is that they are failed in some way, because if this point had merit then I would also find it compelling and I don't."
 
Can we not consign anyone defending Theism to the corner with the people who think the earth is flat?

It's possible for grown ups to discuss Einstein's non-dice playing Deist god. But thinking Jesus is the son of God or that Mohammed didn't just invent the verses in the Koran is batshit crazy.

I don't attack Theists on the basis of their intelligence. It's their intellectual curiosity, courage and integrity that is in question.

Accepting that your life is bounded by conception and death is difficult but ultimately liberating.
 
Damocles said:
You're dodging the two main thrusts of the conversation though.

1. Your view implies almost all religious people are stupid, naive, or gullible. There's also a shared implication that people who aren't religious are the opposite and therefore superior intellectually.

2. Your view doesn't fit with the reality of the world and is instead a tiny microcosm of a highly cynical view.

And we can add the third now

3. Your view implies that religious leaders are sociopathic control freaks and liars.

The interesting thing when you talk about religion is that the conversations usually tell you more about the other person. When people don't understand something, the default reaction in the modern information age is to presume either moral or intellectual failings instead of presuming the competence of other people and actually attempting to understand the whats and whys. Somehow they feel this is more enlightened and intelligent. It's a weird form of arrogance when you think about it. "This doesn't check out with me so the only possible solution is that they are failed in some way, because if this point had merit then I would also find it compelling and I don't."
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re: 1. nope, you are just making up stuff. Perhaps youre on the PL panel...

re: 2. Nope. Cynical yep, but the world and it's history is clearly the reality.

re: 3. Yep, though not to the level you suggest, again, you're just making stuff up. ironic.
 
The universe is vast, mostly unknown and quite amazing when you look at it.
Who the fuck knows where it all came from and what’s out there beyond the stars.
The way I look at it I’ve got about 70/80 years on this particular planet give or take and I’m not wasting any of it worrying about what comes next if anything.
I’m just out to enjoy my own little bubble.
Works for me.
 
kaz7 said:
I dont think i will have a long life so i had better find god now just in case he is real and i need him to get me into heaven !
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Which god, though, Kaz? Remember, if you choose the wrong one, you won't get to cat heaven! ;)
 
johnny crossan said:
Do some research for yourself it helps. Suggest you start with Wikipedia on the percentage of the world population with a religious faith & then have a look at the history of atheism and then listen to Dawkins get dismantled on the YT debate I posted earlier on here. After that if you've got a sensible question I'll try to answer it.
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Just because billions of people believe in some form of higher deity or other, it doesn’t mean any of them exist.
 
Vienna_70 said:
It’s extremely difficult to prove a negative.

It’s like asking a man to prove he’s not cheating on his wife.
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It would be technically possible to prove that you didn't cheat from this day forward.

It's not just difficult, but surely impossible, to prove that an imaginary being doesn't exist.
 
JASR said:
yep… which implies the ‘leaders’ aren’t weak. You need something about you to control others behaviour.

It’s How to extract influence, money and power from as many people as they can.

Religion is essentially just another term for a profit making business , wrapped up in a facade of mythology & symbolism, with self serving interests at the top, and with their workers doing their bidding and ensuring the business grows, lobbys, profits and attacks their rivals.
Click to expand...

Your post has ZERO attachment to religion.

People in power or borne into powerful families/ wealth utilise your points all the time. People elect leaders at all levels to lead them out of crisis points at whatever level.

Yes, you can saddle religion with these tropes and I'd agree, but to level your accusation at JUST religion is so far off the mark it's incredulous, looking at the world around us!
 
Vienna_70 said:
Just because billions of people believe in some form of higher deity or other, it doesn’t mean any of them exist.
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My privileges now seem to have been restored to allow a reply. The point being made here is simply that the majority of posters on here who are writing off almost everybody currently alive (and indeed who have ever lived) as simple-minded dupes or at best lacking "intellectual curiosity, courage and integrity" aren't contributing anything to the debate except crude offence. Not a good advert for the quality of BM Off Topic.
 
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