[emma]

a·the·ism
1.
1. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.
2. Godlessness; immorality.

ag·nos·tic
1.
1. One who believes that it is impossible to know whether there is a God.
2. One who is skeptical about the existence of God but does not profess true atheism.
2. One who is doubtful or noncommittal about something.

skep·tic also scep·tic
1. One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions, or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted conclusions.
2. One inclined to skepticism in religious matters.
3. Philosophy.
1. often Skeptic An adherent of a school of skepticism.
2. Skeptic A member of an ancient Greek school of skepticism, especially that of Pyrrho of Elis (360?-272? B.C.).

ni·hil·ism
1. Philosophy.
1. An extreme form of skepticism that denies all existence.
2. A doctrine holding that all values are baseless and that nothing can be known or communicated.
2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.
3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.
4. also Nihilism A diffuse, revolutionary movement of mid 19th-century Russia that scorned authority and tradition and believed in reason, materialism, and radical change in society and government through terrorism and assassination.
5. Psychiatry. A delusion, experienced in some mental disorders, that the world or one's mind, body, or self does not exist.

[Wormsie]

Originally Posted by Kingzjester

Oh, and by the way...Screw you.

I told you I can't...

[Tamara]

Originally Posted by Tyler Durden

The magic word in your post was "belive"! Tamara "believes" that and Pleto "believes" something different. So this means that none of them is atheist.

er... what?! Why am I not atheist? I think I better get out of this thread, there's nothing that annoys me more than people presuming they know more about me or my beliefs than I do myself ...

[twifkak]

Originally Posted by Tamara

er... what?! Why am I not atheist? I think I better get out of this thread, there's nothing that annoys me more than people presuming they know more about me or my beliefs than I do myself ...

That's not true, Tamz. There are a couple things that annoy you more.

[twifkak]

On a more ontopic note, it seems that all but one have made up their mind wrt religion, or that the others are hiding out in agnostic's hizzouse. If the former, that's an interesting stat, if not unique to this place.

[Corley Motors]

I'm a Christian, because both my parents are Christians, and I just was brought up that way, so I stayed.

[pleto4_ryan]

Tamara :eek: be cool...

My thoughts weren't against you..personally....



Are you okay now?

Okay, firstly i just asked what others think...

and of course let me explain a little more..

a·the·ism
1.
1. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.
2. Godlessness; immorality.

that maybe the dictionary one(tnxs emma), but what i believe is...

Being an atheist means that you believe in nothing at all, you don't believe in a upper-being, you don't believe in nature, you don't believe in the power of love or feelings, you don't believe in human wanting to be greater, better and wiser, you just accept your surroundings as they are never wanting to do something better, you believe in Nothing...thus you are not human you are animal. (my opnions)

I just want to say that i have seen this "modern culture" of new people always saying "i am an atheist" so as with some way they could sound cool...
Just sharing my personal encounters...

personally i believe in the something up there, because of things that have happened to me. I also use logic to anything, but there are some things that only your heart can answer and not your brain...

And also, i don't believe in different religions, all the religions 99% believe in the same being, they just name it different

[tabacco]

I'm a seventh-day-advent-hoppist

(For those who caught the reference, good for you!)

[Corley Motors]

Nice icon, tobacco!

[Chrisse]

I believe in evolution.

[twifkak]

Originally Posted by pleto4_ryan

that maybe the dictionary one(tnxs emma), but what i believe is...

Being an atheist means that you believe in nothing at all, you don't believe in a upper-being, you don't believe in nature, you don't believe in the power of love or feelings, you don't believe in human wanting to be greater, better and wiser, you just accept your surroundings as they are never wanting to do something better, you believe in Nothing...thus you are not human you are animal. (my opnions)

That's wonderful, but making up definitions for words doesn't help anybody, except maybe people who think knowing Klingon is cool. Fact is, emma's is the agreed upon definition of "atheist" and it's the one we use to communicate, and communication is good. If you prefer, make up a word (i suggest Nogodist) and replace every instance of "atheist" with that, mmkay? Nobody has said that they don't believe in the power of love or feelings -- that may be true for some people, but it's orthogonal to the issue of a Higher Power(TM). People have communicated that they're atheists in the agreed upon definition of the word.

Funny -- atheists (well, the ones that aren't hypocrites) believe that *all* humans are no different than other animals.

[pleto4_ryan]

Originally Posted by twifkak

That's wonderful, but making up definitions for words doesn't help anybody, except maybe people who think knowing Klingon is cool. Fact is, emma's is the agreed upon definition of "atheist" and it's the one we use to communicate, and communication is good. If you prefer, make up a word (i suggest Nogodist) and replace every instance of "atheist" with that, mmkay? Nobody has said that they don't believe in the power of love or feelings -- that may be true for some people, but it's orthogonal to the issue of a Higher Power(TM). People have communicated that they're atheists in the agreed upon definition of the word.

Funny -- atheists (well, the ones that aren't hypocrites) believe that *all* humans are no different than other animals.

actually i don't try redifining the word....
I am just going it forward logically.
Not believing in something, causes these reactions to the mind...

atheists believe that *all* humans are no different than other animals

[remixor]

Originally Posted by pleto4_ryan

Being an atheist means that you believe in nothing at all, you don't believe in a upper-being, you don't believe in nature, you don't believe in the power of love or feelings, you don't believe in human wanting to be greater, better and wiser, you just accept your surroundings as they are never wanting to do something better, you believe in Nothing...thus you are not human you are animal. (my opnions)

Er, no... I believe you are thinking of nihilists.

[pleto4_ryan]

Originally Posted by remixor

Er, no... I believe you are thinking of nihilists.

mm....true, they get close

but look at this...

2. Rejection of all distinctions in moral or religious value and a willingness to repudiate all previous theories of morality or religious belief.
3. The belief that destruction of existing political or social institutions is necessary for future improvement.

they mostly want to "destroy" the political and social base so as to change it and make it better...

hmmm

[emma]

You have to pardon me, pleto. As I see it you have created your own distinction of the use of the term atheist. If I were you, I'd settle to explain what YOU read into the word, because if you are to use the term logical in explaining why your view is different, then it logically would be that the word means what it means, not what you have at some point misunderstood it as.

You are now coming across as the person who tell us the dictionaries are wrong. That type of a person has always been amusing, in a less that flattering way, believe me pleto. Let it go.

[pleto4_ryan]

Originally Posted by emma

Let it go.

Alright if you see appropriate. I am still open for some dibate if anyone wants. (For the record, not accusing anyone(ANYONE can believe anything they want, just don't harm yourself and other people (golden rule), just using some logic and seeing past the words not trying to create new dictionary...which could be cool actually )

[Garyos]

Originally Posted by tabacco

I'm a seventh-day-advent-hoppist

(For those who caught the reference, good for you!)

What if you caught the reference, but don't remember where it was from? My mind is hurting now. This is probably just me looking at your avatar, but was it from Futurama?

[Erwin_Br]

I believe in the force, but I voted atheist.

Personally, the idea of a mighty God who created and controls everything seems even more improbable than the possibility that Elvis is still alive. I find it very interesting why so many people for instance reject the idea of intelligent life from outer space, yet believe in a mysterious mighty force called God.

I'm not sure if I'm going to hit the post button now. This is a very delicate subject and it's very easy to hurt other people's feelings.

--Erwin

[Erwin_Br]

Originally Posted by pleto4_ryan

Being an atheist means that you believe in nothing at all, you don't believe in a upper-being, you don't believe in nature, you don't believe in the power of love or feelings, you don't believe in human wanting to be greater, better and wiser, you just accept your surroundings as they are never wanting to do something better, you believe in Nothing...thus you are not human you are animal. (my opnions)

You're calling me an animal?

Anyway, you're defining a nihilist, not an atheist.

I just want to say that i have seen this "modern culture" of new people always saying "i am an atheist" so as with some way they could sound cool...
Just sharing my personal encounters...

Maybe, but I don't think it sounds cool. I think it rather sounds negative, but that's just me. Look, I believe everything has a logical reason but some things are too complex (yet) for us to understand. I *think* some of us try to find a spiritual answer for those complex questions.

personally i believe in the something up there, because of things that have happened to me. I also use logic to anything, but there are some things that only your heart can answer and not your brain...

Your brain can't answer everything, that is correct. Let me take you a step further in my theory; I don't believe in a 'soul'. I think our brain is 'programmed' to experience emotion and to establish our own personality. Especially after seeing a documentary on Discovery Channel where they kinda tried to explain how the brains work. For instance, I saw how doctors manipulated certain parts of the brain with an electrical device via open-brain surgery. This doctor could manipulate the behaviour of his patient while temporarily disabeling certain parts of the brain. (the patient was still concious, of course). Very interesting stuff that makes you think.

--Erwin

[Kingzjester]

If you feel like it, try reading Descartes' Error, by Antonio Damasio. That book thoroughly killed the notion of a 'soul' for me. It deals with pretty much the same thing as that Discovery Channel documentary (which I haven't seen; I but assume from your description).

You know, I still haven't read that book. With every passing chapter I would spend days pondering of the implications - Damasio is more informative than interpretative - and after a while I just couldn't go on. If the book takes more than a few weeks to read it is very strenuous.