atheism. what does it stand for? Biscuits, it seems!

aboyceltaboy

Plenty of people don't believe in things, ideas, philosophies, but they don't make up pointless labels to wear for them disbeliefs. Atheism stands for nothing, you don't believe in God? so what. I bet there are lots of things you don't believe in, but do you have little labels for those too ? no. So really why do you put so much effort into a pointless and non productive ' cause '

magicbastarder

god lads, he has us pegged. better shut up shop.

lazygal

'gives up militant atheist belief in favour of sky god approach.

Mickeroo

I find religious folks/non-skeptics make much more of a big deal out of my lack of belief than I do.

iDave

Cant argue with that.
/Forum

See you all in church.

seamus

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

Atheism stands for nothing, you don't believe in God? so what.

You see unlike these "other philosophies" you talk about, people in religious countries tend to assume that everyone else is religious.

So when you're asked why you haven't put the ashes of a burnt tree on your forehead, or why you don't agree that homosexuality is an abomination before god, you kind of need a word to describe your worldview.

The only reason atheists exist in any kind of public way is because religious people refuse to keep their religion to themselves.

robindch

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

Plenty of people don't believe in things [...]

The Vatican doesn't believe in justice, equality, fair play, honesty, decency -- should the Vatican fold up its golden temples and just buy the world a collective six-pack?

aboyceltaboy

Typical responses from atheists. always trying to poke fun at the issue. can't give a rational explanation for their bizaree addiction to the topic of God and religion, so to rationalize it, make fun of any questions against atheism and have a bit of a joke and laugh about it with their fellow atheist buddies.
For the bloke who mentioned Catholic church. so by your logic, the catholic church encapsulates everything that is not atheist ? doesn't make much sense does it ?

coffee_cake

Anyone else got the song in their head now?
What is it good for!!
nyow nyow

daithi1970

..so why would someone else's atheism or agnosticism be of any concern to you or anyone else? People's beliefs or lack thereof have nothing to do with you.

daithi

oh and by the way, you might be confusing atheism with nihilism-I suggest you go and educate yourself on the difference between the two before you come back banging your little drum...

d

Bannasidhe

bluewolf wrote: »

Anyone else got the song in their head now?
What is it good for!!
nyow nyow

I bloody well do now. :mad:

aboyceltaboy

daithi1970 wrote: »

..so why would someone else's atheism or agnosticism be of any concern to you or anyone else? People's beliefs or lack thereof have nothing to do with you.

daithi

Oh right, so atheists don't get involved and try put down others beliefs do they not ? like hell they don't . i'm sorry pal a double standard is not acceptable nor fair

nozzferrahhtoo

People like labels. It is just a human thing. We even have labels for things that do not technically exist. Like "hole" for example. Or what do you think "cold" actually means?

It would be a very poor and empty language indeed if we only had "positive" labels, and no "negative" labels.

That said... I do not personally self-identify with the term "atheist". It is a term other people label me with. Usually theists who just want to label me as "Not one of us".

Though I do recognize that people who DO identify with that term tend to share many of my political and social and moral agendas. So for me the term is useful in identifying colleagues and I see no issue with my being a founding member of Atheist Ireland for example.

aboyceltaboy

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

People like labels. It is just a human thing. We even have labels for things that do not technically exist. Like "hole" for example. Or what do you think "cold" actually means?

It would be a very poor and empty language indeed if we only had "positive" labels, and no "negative" labels.

That said... I do not personally self-identify with the term "atheist". It is a term other people label me with. Usually theists who just want to label me as "Not one of us".

Though I do recognize that people who DO identify with that term tend to share many of my political and social and moral agendas. So for me the term is useful in identifying colleagues and I see no issue with my being a founding member of Atheist Ireland for example.

The point I am making is .... Atheism is pointless ! you might as well make up a label for those who don't believe in collecting stamps

Delirium

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

Typical responses from atheists. always trying to poke fun at the issue. can't give a rational explanation for their bizaree addiction to the topic of God and religion, so to rationalize it, make fun of any questions against atheism and have a bit of a joke and laugh about it with their fellow atheist buddies.
For the bloke who mentioned Catholic church. so by your logic, the catholic church encapsulates everything that is not atheist ? doesn't make much sense does it ?

You want serious answers to your question? How about not making silly generalisations to start with?

Lapin

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

I bet there are lots of things you don't believe in.....

True, but I believe that I don't believe in God.

Unfortunately a lot of those who do believe in him, refuse to accept my choice not to.

Bannasidhe

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

The point I am making is .... Atheism is pointless ! you might as well make up a label for those who don't believe in collecting stamps

Aphilatelist as opposed to a philatelist.

aboyceltaboy

daithi1970 wrote: »

..so why would someone else's atheism or agnosticism be of any concern to you or anyone else? People's beliefs or lack thereof have nothing to do with you.

daithi

oh and by the way, you might be confusing atheism with nihilism-I suggest you go and educate yourself on the difference between the two before you come back banging your little drum...

d

Your attempts at patronizing are not effective . You cannot deny many atheists are only on forums like this to put down those with any kind of theistic belief, not even religious beliefs, but even those who have any belief in god. You can try hold a double standard all you want, and that might fly on here on this virtual existence as you type on your keyboard, but not in the real world.
Do you or any of your fellow atheists here go around in real life attacking verbally believers ? I doubt it.. Do you break into churches and shout and poke fun at those in them ? I doubt it

coffee_cake

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

Do you or any of your fellow atheists here go around in real life attacking verbally believers ? I doubt it.. Do you break into churches and shout and poke fun at those in them ? I doubt it

So what's the problem?

DarkJager

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

Your attempts at patronizing are not effective . You cannot deny many atheists are only on forums like this to put down those with any kind of theistic belief, not even religious beliefs, but even those who have any belief in god. You can try hold a double standard all you want, and that might fly on here on this virtual existence as you type on your keyboard, but not in the real world.
Do you or any of your fellow atheists here go around in real life attacking verbally believers ? I doubt it.. Do you break into churches and shout and poke fun at those in them ? I doubt it

You are quite the hypocrite to be on an atheist forum attacking things they do or do not believe in when it's exactly the thing you are complaining about.

iDave

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

The point I am making is .... Atheism is pointless ! you might as well make up a label for those who don't believe in collecting stamps

you'll love the Non-Stamp Collector Youtube page so

daithi1970

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

Oh right, so atheists don't get involved and try put down others beliefs do they not ? like hell they don't . i'm sorry pal a double standard is not acceptable nor fair

..so why have you come onto a thread called "Atheism and Agnosticism" to give us your 2 cents on the "pointlessness" of atheism then????

aboyceltaboy

DarkJager wrote: »

You are quite the hypocrite to be on an atheist forum attacking things they do or do not believe in when it's exactly the thing you are complaining about.

attacking ? no, but merely asking very valid questions about the internet atheist cult

A Primal Nut

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

The point I am making is .... Atheism is pointless ! you might as well make up a label for those who don't believe in collecting stamps

Religious organisations have plenty of labels for atheists themselves ...nonbeliever, infidel, Godless heathen. So its just not atheists who have a label for it. In fact all religious organisations use the word atheist themselves.

Your problem in the original post is not with Atheists but with the English language for having such a word, although I don't see why that is a problem at all?

Its not just with religion, in addition to Atheist there is also Apolitical for example.

nozzferrahhtoo

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

The point I am making is .... Atheism is pointless ! you might as well make up a label for those who don't believe in collecting stamps

This comparison has been made before but was shown to be pretty facile. In order for the analogy to hold the VAST majority of people would have to be collecting stamps and believe that the post office created the universe. They would also have to be trying to use their collecting of stamps to influence policy in our halls of power, education and science.

What I think you missed in my post is that I quite agree with the idea behind your post... despite the fact it is an obvious attempt to incite rather than discuss. I too see no point in calling myself "atheist" as I prefer to identify myself by what I am... rather than by what I am not.

Sam Harris did a lengthy talk on this very issue before and this forum has seen more than a few threads discussing the issue which you clearly did not bother to check up on in the search function.

All that said however... I repeat that in a world dominated by theists I see nothing inherently wrong with people having a term with which to identify themselves as being outside the norm. It allows them to identify themselves, each other, and lends a banner under which to resist the more objectionable aspects of religious influence on our world.

aboyceltaboy

daithi1970 wrote: »

..so why have you come onto a thread called "Atheism and Agnosticism" to give us your 2 cents on the "pointlessness" of atheism then????

Avoids much of what I said. Typical !
I'm sorry, do questions about your internet atheist cult bother you ? bless

Bannasidhe

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

attacking ? no, but merely asking very valid questions about the internet atheist cult

Funny, my internet was down for about 2 hours this morning and I still didn't believe in the existence of a God.

coffee_cake

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

attacking ? no, but merely asking very valid questions about the internet atheist cult

How can it be a cult if it's "nothing"? Is not-stamp-collecting a cult too?

You're not very good at this

nozzferrahhtoo

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

do questions about your internet atheist cult bother you ? bless

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

Your attempts at patronizing are not effective

Pot... meet kettle.

aboyceltaboy

nozzferrahhtoo wrote: »

This comparison has been made before but was shown to be pretty facile. In order for the analogy to hold the VAST majority of people would have to be collecting stamps and believe that the post office created the universe. They would also have to be trying to use their collecting of stamps to influence policy in our halls of power, education and science.

What I think you missed in my post is that I quite agree with the idea behind your post... despite the fact it is an obvious attempt to incite rather than discuss. I too see no point in calling myself "atheist" as I prefer to identify myself by what I am... rather than by what I am not.

Sam Harris did a lengthy talk on this very issue before and this forum has seen more than a few threads discussing the issue which you clearly did not bother to check up on in the search function.

All that said however... I repeat that in a world dominated by theists I see nothing inherently wrong with people having a term with which to identify themselves as being outside the norm. It allows them to identify themselves, each other, and lends a banner under which to resist the more objectionable aspects of religious influence on our world.

Stop exaggerating. The way you and some of your other atheists go on, you would swear you were encountered on a daily basis by theists trying to convert you. With most of you it's just an excuse a rebellion against what is right, and normal.

DarkJager

aboyceltaboy wrote: »

attacking ? no, but merely asking very valid questions about the internet atheist cult

Pointless questions which you just keep throwing without clarifying. This entire thread has as much point as me going to the Christianity forum and starting a thread "Christianity, what's the point of it?". What's the point of that?