Is Atheism Depressing?

[mjollnir]

Some definitions for you to ponder.

atheism: the doctrine that there is no deity

sect: A faction united by common interests or beliefs.

Lulz. Start with faulty assumptions and/or definitions, end with faulty conclusions.

Please be less stupid.

If you don't like the definitions used, you should probably take it up with Merriam-Webster.

Atheism is simply a non-belief in a deity. To elevate to the status of 'doctrine' is to turn it into something else entirely.

 

[PratchettFan]

For the most part, the Nazis were Christians.

As were most of their victims. But Nazism was not Christian and had nothing to do with religion.

I agree. As coummunism had nothing to do with atheism. My point is simply that Christians are no less likely to engage in genocide than atheists, or vice versa. Religion, or lack thereof, have nothing to do with it.

 

[Thunderbird]

Christians have opposed gladitorial combat: Telemachus: The Monk Who Ended the Coliseum Games

fought slavery: The Abolitionists
Despised and often attacked, they courageously carried the slaves' cause for thirty years. Why have these inescapably Christian men and women been forgotten?

William Wilberforce

demanded rights for Native Americans: Theodore Frelinghuysen

fought discrimination: Southern Christian Leadership Conference

supported rights for women: Woman's Christian Temperance Union

called for peace during World War I: Pope Benedict XV's Peace Note of 1 August 1917

combated the Nazis: Christian Opposition to Nazi Anti-Semitism

combated Communism: Emotional Walesa Thanks Pope For His Support Of Solidarity

Remembering Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

fought for human rights in East Timor: 2 accept Nobel Peace Prize for East Timor work

called for peace in the Mideast: Time to move on Mideast peace
Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter reflect on the stalled efforts to achieve peace in the Middle East in USA Today.

opposed infanticide/abortion: Priests for Life

And check out this site: ATHEISTS AND SOCIAL ADVANCEMENTS

 

[Jimmy_Jam]

Of course it's sinister.

Glad we agree.

Let's see, the Ku Klux Klan are militant and Protestant Christian in makeup. That must prove that Christians are violent and intolerant.

I see your point. My response:

1) Christianity is based on Jesus' message of forgiveness, kindness, peace, and human dignity. (Of course Christians have not always followed this teaching.) The most important atheist sects/leaders have called for violence and oppression.

2) Christians have done a lot of good in the world. Have atheists?

3) On a per capita basis atheists are by far the worst murderers in human history.

Check out my POST.

Glad to see we're making progress.

I can see clearly that you have an agenda. In order to prove that atheists are greater murderers than religious people, you must establish that communism and atheism are inextricably linked. If you can do that, then your argument gains strength. If you cannot, then your argument deteriorates. I get it.

Good atheists have done good things, bad atheists have done bad things. That's the only thing of which I am confident.

Same goes for Christians.

 

[Jimmy_Jam]

Lulz. Start with faulty assumptions and/or definitions, end with faulty conclusions.

Please be less stupid.

If you don't like the definitions used, you should probably take it up with Merriam-Webster.

Atheism is simply a non-belief in a deity. To elevate to the status of 'doctrine' is to turn it into something else entirely.

Okay, then you disagree with the Merriam-Webster definition and Thunderbird does not. I get it.

 

[Uncensored2008]

I agree. As coummunism had nothing to do with atheism.

Actually, Communism has a great deal to do with Atheism. Lenin, Mao, and Pol Pot were theocrats who strongly persecuted competing faiths. Mao and Pol Pot openly murdered those of other faiths, Lenin imprisoned and harassed them.

My point is simply that Christians are no less likely to engage in genocide than atheists, or vice versa. Religion, or lack thereof, have nothing to do with it.

Nonsense. Communism is tied to Atheism and virtually always engages in genocide. Communism is an Atheist Caliphate.

 

[Thunderbird]

Atheism is simply a non-belief in a deity.

But some theists would say that they don't believe in God, they know He exists. So according to your definition theist = atheist which is absurd.

 

[dblack]

Atheism is simply a non-belief in a deity.

But some theists would say that they don't believe in God, they know He exists. So according to this definition theist = atheist which is absurd.

What? You're claiming that some atheists don't believe in a god, but know one exists?

Hmm.... that doesn't make any sense, but it's certainly possible there's an atheist somewhere who would say such idiotic thing. So what?

 

[Capstone]

Not sure what your point is. [...]

Somehow that doesn't surprise me.

The point was to show that communism isn't contingent on atheism, and that, in fact, most of the communists on the planet are very religious.

[...]the CCP has about 80 million members and religious people are not allowed to join the party.

Three points:

First, nobody is "allowed to join" the CCP. Prospective members are hand-picked (supposedly based on aptitude) and groomed from childhood to play a role in Chinese politics.

Second, while 80 million sounds like an awfully big number, the population of China is more than 1.3 billion.

Lastly, if the separation of church and state is a principle worth preserving, the US might do well to at least consider taking a page from China's book.

 

[PratchettFan]

I agree. As coummunism had nothing to do with atheism.

Actually, Communism has a great deal to do with Atheism. Lenin, Mao, and Pol Pot were theocrats who strongly persecuted competing faiths. Mao and Pol Pot openly murdered those of other faiths, Lenin imprisoned and harassed them.

My point is simply that Christians are no less likely to engage in genocide than atheists, or vice versa. Religion, or lack thereof, have nothing to do with it.

Nonsense. Communism is tied to Atheism and virtually always engages in genocide. Communism is an Atheist Caliphate.

Well, if that is what you want to believe...

 

[Uncensored2008]

Somehow that doesn't surprise me.

The point was to show that communism isn't contingent on atheism, and that, in fact, most of the communists on the planet are very religious.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Three points:

First, nobody is "allowed to join" the CCP. Prospective members are hand-picked (supposedly based on aptitude) and groomed from childhood to play a role in Chinese politics.

Second, while 80 million sounds like an awfully big number, the population of China is more than 1.3 billion.

Lastly, if the separation of church and state is a principle worth preserving, the US might do well to at least consider taking a page from China's book.

Looks like Obama is taking more than a page, and adopting the entire book.

 

[mjollnir]

Atheism is simply a non-belief in a deity.

But some theists would say that they don't believe in God, they know He exists. So according to your definition theist = atheist which is absurd.

So take it up with 'those' theists, asshat.

No one rational is buying the bullshit you're desperately trying to peddle.

 

[Jimmy_Jam]

Not sure what your point is. [...]

Somehow that doesn't surprise me.

The point was to show that communism isn't contingent on atheism, and that, in fact, most of the communists on the planet are very religious.

[...]the CCP has about 80 million members and religious people are not allowed to join the party.

Three points:

First, nobody is "allowed to join" the CCP. Prospective members are hand-picked (supposedly based on aptitude) and groomed from childhood to play a role in Chinese politics.

Second, while 80 million sounds like an awfully big number, the population of China is more than 1.3 billion.

Lastly, if the separation of church and state is a principle worth preserving, the US might do well to at least consider taking a page from China's book.

Possibly. However, the early communist China government was vehemently anti-religious. I'd have to look into it more, but it may be that the reason China did not deteriorate as the USSR did is because they transitioned into a more religiously tolerant government. If that is the case, it wouldn't surprise me.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Well, if that is what you want to believe...

What I believe is irrelevant. Historical fact is that Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Ho, et al. were adamant Atheists who took a theocratic approach and instituted Atheism as the state religion in the Communist nations they ruled.

Fact. I understand this is inconvenient to evangelical Atheists who try to distance their religion from Communism, but the facts remain.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Possibly. However, the early communist China government was vehemently anti-religious. I'd have to look into it more, but it may be that the reason China did not deteriorate as the USSR did is because they transitioned into a more religiously tolerant government. If that is the case, it wouldn't surprise me.

China put to death 7 Christians last year for unauthorized religious services. China remains an Atheist theocracy.

 

[Jimmy_Jam]

Atheism is simply a non-belief in a deity.

But some theists would say that they don't believe in God, they know He exists. So according to your definition theist = atheist which is absurd.

So take it up with 'those' atheists, asshat.

No one rational is buying the bullshit you're desperately trying to peddle.

Thunderbird believes that atheism is a well-defined set of beliefs. I realize that atheism is far more of an abstraction than that. That said, I've noticed that the loudest atheists tend to be the more intolerant ones. Not surprising that this is also true of Christians.

 

[mjollnir]

Somehow that doesn't surprise me.

The point was to show that communism isn't contingent on atheism, and that, in fact, most of the communists on the planet are very religious.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

It's quite true, as history clearly shows.

What we have called the communist states promulgated the religion of the state and cults of personality. Every bit as much a religion as, say, Christianity.

Three points:

First, nobody is "allowed to join" the CCP. Prospective members are hand-picked (supposedly based on aptitude) and groomed from childhood to play a role in Chinese politics.

Second, while 80 million sounds like an awfully big number, the population of China is more than 1.3 billion.

Lastly, if the separation of church and state is a principle worth preserving, the US might do well to at least consider taking a page from China's book.

Looks like Obama is taking more than a page, and adopting the entire book.

No, it doesn't look like that at all.

 

[Uncensored2008]

Thunderbird believes that atheism is a well-defined set of beliefs. I realize that atheism is far more of an abstraction than that. That said, I've noticed that the loudest atheists tend to be the more intolerant ones. Not surprising that this is also true of Christians.

I've yet to meet a "tolerant" Atheist. Atheists are a little bit more pushy than Jehovah's Witnesses and Scientologists, in my experience.

 

[mjollnir]

But some theists would say that they don't believe in God, they know He exists. So according to your definition theist = atheist which is absurd.

So take it up with 'those' atheists, asshat.

No one rational is buying the bullshit you're desperately trying to peddle.

Thunderbird believes that atheism is a well-defined set of beliefs. I realize that atheism is far more of an abstraction than that. That said, I've noticed that the loudest atheists tend to be the more intolerant ones. Not surprising that this is also true of Christians.

Yeah, pretty much. I hate to bring up old warhorses, but the adage about not collecting stamps being a hobby come to mind.

Some people pathologically need atheism to be a catch-all boogeyman for perceived ills that frighten them, so they give it characteristics, history and sway that it simply doesn't have.

 

[Uncensored2008]

It's quite true, as history clearly shows.

It's a laughably absurd pile of shit, as you fully know, and history shows.

What we have called the communist states promulgated the religion of the state and cults of personality. Every bit as much a religion as, say, Christianity.

Quick, point out the one who was NOT a solid Atheist:

• Karl Marx
• Vlad Lenin
• Josef Stalin
• Mao Tse Tung
• Ho Chi Minh
• Pol Pot
• Kim Jung Il

No, it doesn't look like that at all.

Actually it does.

Thanks for playing, though.