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Re:
Our thoughts are what make us "us!" Please keep yours, an' 'em cards 'n letters, a coming!
posted by
GEPRUITT
on October 14, 2008 at 10:46 AM
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E***
xactly *** w/TLC, BCA *** Bill*s Wave*** Blog on***
posted by
BC-A
on October 14, 2008 at 10:21 AM
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Re: Thanks for the laugh.
Mystiik. Laughter is good for the Soul; you are right. Although I cannot read much atheist-type material of the kind that daily appears on Blogit, I do sometimes read it for a good, old-fashioned belly laugh! Some people, it seems, only read religious materials to find more "holes" in it. Some of these are even "educated grown," men; believe it or not!
Excuse me, now: I think I will have a doughnut and some Swiss cheese; some things are actually improved by the existence of holes!!
Thank you for your well-put and appropriate remarks!
posted by
GEPRUITT
on October 14, 2008 at 9:57 AM
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I like your thoughts. I believe for it is not in vain! I have tolerance for others but I will not be dissuaded! sam
posted by
sam444
on October 14, 2008 at 8:59 AM
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What if?
If we atheists are right, then there is no basis for the conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis, between Muslims and Jews and Christians, between Roman Catholics and Orthodox Catholics in Serbia and Croatia, between Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland. I the majority adopted atheist belief, there would be no such thing as a religious justification for racism or sexism, and everyone would be forced to offer reasons for their positions and actions. There would be no excuse for bad behavior on the basis that God would sort it out in the next life. Much more of our public discourse would be based in evidence rather than a denial of evidence through faith. Maybe this wouldn't make the world better, but I think it's worth a try. Religion hasn't done much for us in ten thousand years of trying.
posted by
mousehop
on October 14, 2008 at 8:02 AM
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Thanks for the laugh.
I totally agree. I dont get mad at atheists. But some of the positions and massive content and how God is dead or bad and Jesus was a fraud and how value in Spirit is evil-makes me laugh. Thanks.
posted by
mystiik
on October 14, 2008 at 4:37 AM
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Re: Right or wrong
We are on the same page, Aardi! Thanks for your valued comments!
posted by
GEPRUITT
on October 14, 2008 at 1:24 AM
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Right or wrong
the world will not change. In my view only those who change their opinion regarding this matter may change in their behavior and attitudes towards others which will then steer the world on a different course. This may not be apparent to someone who does not know that every thought and our reactions to it influences the world in however small a manner or to someone who views the world as some definite self existing and separate thing and us as being things who's actions have no ongoing effect on this other thing.
A characteristic shared in general by fundamentalists and atheists (and probably any other category of peoples too) is one of conviction of superiority of view and intellect. If some fundamentalists ever become the ruling and controlling lobby in society, they will most probably attempt to get everybody to fall in with their view, believing that it will be for everybodies good (which they do anyway, but at least they don't make policies in secular states - at least I hope not). The same holds true for some atheists. If they become the majority and in position to regulate others lives, they may want to help everybody to "wake up" to their version of reality by ridiculing and suppressing alternative views, which they will believe to be for the good of all.
For the sake of peace and stability I wouldn't want to see either option become true in the short term but it may well be a good environment to keep on learning about the behavior people are capable of and how we react to it and it may happen at some point. That can be an exhilarating or boring time to live or a horrible nightmare depending on our own view, much the same as today.
In the final analysis it doesn't really matter as some of us are still always free to believe whatever we choose to regardless of the popular notions about reality and even if everybody gets programmed to view the world in one specific way, they wont know the difference.
Fortunately Real Life, my God, is not limited to our individual preferences at all and can create whatever It wants to. I'm happy, and stand in awe, with what It has accomplished thus far.
posted by
AardigeAfrikaner
on October 14, 2008 at 12:02 AM
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Re: You make sense to me!
Thanks, Whacky! I can always count on receiving a rose or two from you!!
posted by
GEPRUITT
on October 13, 2008 at 10:24 PM
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Re: I don't get it
Thank you, Stonedead, for your long reply. However, I will try to be brief as possible in my response. I have no desire to attack anyone or to cause any grief to any of my fellow planetary travelers. Your beliefs are yours and mine are mine, and am I content to leave it that way. My beliefs are, despite what you might think, mine. They are dependent only on my own experience and observation. I never believe a thing simply because some "man-made" God in this or that "Holy" book told me I must, and I am just as free as you are. I believe that Atheists and Believers will stand beside each other in "Heaven," and if I have reached any substantial level of Spiritual understanding, I will not "jam down your throat" any of your errors made in the previous life. In this, you, yourself, will probably be your own worst critic.
I do not wish you to go to hell! I do not even believe in Satan, Demons, or Hell. (One does not need to be an Atheist to have a free and inquiring mind.)
I hope this short response helps to clarify my position.
posted by
GEPRUITT
on October 13, 2008 at 10:19 PM
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You make sense to me!
A rose
or two
and
Woof! from the wonder dog
and from me too!
posted by
Whacky
on October 13, 2008 at 6:34 PM
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I don't get it
You complain that:
1. Atheism isn't marketed well. (So?)
2. Atheism is depressing in substance. (On the contrary, I find conventional theism terribly depressing, with its implication that values, meaning, purpose and fate have already been decided for me and for the rest of the world, as well as its assumption of a God who will reward or punish me, love me or hate me, based on rules I wasn't necessarily even aware of and behavior I may not have had control over. Atheism means that we are free.)
3. Atheists are blind to spiritual discovery. (Historically, and by ideology, theists and spiritualists are blind to scientific discovery--such as the earth moving around the sun, or the inefficacy of petitionary prayer--if it contradicts their pre-established dogma. Atheists in theory should be open to all forms of knowledge, including so-called "spiritual" wisdom, as long as it can be corroborated by reason or science.)
4. Theists can follow their conscience and ethics as well as atheists. (Yes...although they are also supposed to follow the commandments of their God, even if it runs afoul of their personal conscience and reason...)
5. If atheists are right, the world will not change at all. (So what is the value in theism?)
6. Atheists won't be able to gloat at theists in the afterlife in which they don't believe. Implication: It's better to be a theist so you have hope of gloat. (Gloat does not make right.)
7. The existence of God entails that our lives have meaning. (Why and how? Does this possibly contradict Statement 5? See, also, my response to Statement 2.)
8. If the theist is proven wrong, and there is no afterlife, at least he will not suffer. (Whereas the atheist will suffer if he is wrong and he finds himself in hell? Therefore, the theist is probably right--because his correctness will cause his opponent to suffer, while his opponent's correctness will cause him to evaporate? This is Pascal's Wager and much has been written to rebut it as a method of deciphering truth.)
posted by
stonedead
on October 13, 2008 at 6:15 PM
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Re: GePruitt – Yes, life requires optimism and faith.
Well-put. Thank you, Ammon, thank you!
posted by
GEPRUITT
on October 13, 2008 at 4:26 PM
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GePruitt – Yes, life requires optimism and faith.
We would never undertake any journey unless we had faith that we would arrive at our destination. Life is a journey.
posted by
ammon
on October 13, 2008 at 4:16 PM
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