Why smug atheists are wrong

[Dr Grump]

It basically comes down to one word, wonder. Smug atheists insist there is no room for wonder in the universe, and that their experience is the only valid one. The simple fact is that, a sense of wonder makes us humble, and anyone that approaches the universe without wonder and humility is crazier than the guy who thinks he is in charge.

Total, utter crap. I am an athiest - maybe even a smug one - and I see a lot of wonder in the universe. I just don't think the Spaghetti Monster is responsible for it...

If you see the wonder in the universe then the thread is not about you, is it?

Why single out Athiests?

 

[koshergrl]

Not just atheists.

SMUG atheists. It's very specific. They get singled out because that's who the OP felt like talking about.

Are you one?

 

[PretentiousGuy]

Not just atheists.

SMUG atheists. It's very specific. They get singled out because that's who the OP felt like talking about.

Are you one?

You see if you just add an ill-defined qualifier you can shit on an entire group of people without any consequences.

"Oh no I didn't say anything bigoted about [insert minority group here] , its just those uppity ones I can't stand."

 

[Dreamy]

Not just atheists.

SMUG atheists. It's very specific. They get singled out because that's who the OP felt like talking about.

Are you one?

You see if you just add an ill-defined qualifier you can shit on an entire group of people without any consequences.

"Oh no I didn't say anything bigoted about [insert minority group here] , its just those uppity ones I can't stand."

Bigoted? How is disliking a certain type of person considered bigoted? I see your point but all I see him doing is qualifying a specific group that annoys him. People do it all the time. I am turned off by smug "chin in the air" Presidents.

 

[Luddly Neddite]

Total, utter crap. I am an athiest - maybe even a smug one - and I see a lot of wonder in the universe. I just don't think the Spaghetti Monster is responsible for it...

Yep, our world and the worlds beyond it are beyond incredible but they're also the way they are because they cannot be any other way.

Given the givens... THINK about it - the particular gases in our atmosphere in the very particular percentages, the other planets, the sun, the size of our rock, and more - Those are the givens. You can't change those things. So,

Given the givens, there is no other way for "it" to have turned out.

There was no Magic Sky Fairy involved. Just a bigger bang than any of us can imagine.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Total, utter crap. I am an athiest - maybe even a smug one - and I see a lot of wonder in the universe. I just don't think the Spaghetti Monster is responsible for it...

If you see the wonder in the universe then the thread is not about you, is it?

Why single out Athiests?

Why single out Christians? Muslims?

Why ask why?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Total, utter crap. I am an athiest - maybe even a smug one - and I see a lot of wonder in the universe. I just don't think the Spaghetti Monster is responsible for it...

Yep, our world and the worlds beyond it are beyond incredible but they're also the way they are because they cannot be any other way.

Given the givens... THINK about it - the particular gases in our atmosphere in the very particular percentages, the other planets, the sun, the size of our rock, and more - Those are the givens. You can't change those things. So,

Given the givens, there is no other way for "it" to have turned out.

There was no Magic Sky Fairy involved. Just a bigger bang than any of us can imagine.

The Big Bang was actually pretty small.

 

[mamooth]

The story of Lew Wallace.

Unfairly scapegoated Union general and _Ben Hur_ author Lew Wallace? You'll need to expand on how his story is evidence for God.

 

[koshergrl]

Hey, Lew Wallace was like my great grandfather's uncle.

wait...let me think...my great grandfather....yes, I think that's right. My great grandfather's dad was a Union Colonel...and Lew was his brother.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

The story of Lew Wallace.

Unfairly scapegoated Union general and _Ben Hur_ author Lew Wallace? You'll need to expand on how his story is evidence for God.

You should look into why he actually started the novel that eventually became Ben Hur.

 

[koshergrl]

William Henry Wallace

My great...great....grandfather...My grandmother's grandfather.

Hey he hailed from S. Carolina and fought for the Union. My family are all contrary cusses.

 

[koshergrl]

We have the pen and ink drawing of his son & my great grandma....after which my kids are named...hanging in my sister's hallway. Well, technically, she has it. For years it was rolled up under mom's bed. My sister paid to have it restored and framed.

We're like practically famous.

 

[newpolitics]

It basically comes down to one word, wonder. Smug atheists insist there is no room for wonder in the universe, and that their experience is the only valid one. The simple fact is that, a sense of wonder makes us humble, and anyone that approaches the universe without wonder and humility is crazier than the guy who thinks he is in charge.

You know this, how? You are dead wrong, and your position doesn't even make any sense. I'm an atheist, and the universe is absolutely wonderful, literally. I have just falsified your little assertion.

Actually, being that atheists tend to more scientifically literate, they likely possess (I can only speak for myself) more awe at the universe, simply because, they know more about it, than those theists, and fundamental christians in particular, who think science is evil.

 

[Jimmy_Jam]

It basically comes down to one word, wonder. Smug atheists insist there is no room for wonder in the universe, and that their experience is the only valid one. The simple fact is that, a sense of wonder makes us humble, and anyone that approaches the universe without wonder and humility is crazier than the guy who thinks he is in charge.

You know this, how? You are dead wrong, and your position doesn't even make any sense. I'm an atheist, and the universe is absolutely wonderful, literally. I have just falsified your little assertion.

Actually, being that atheists tend to more scientifically literate, they likely possess (I can only speak for myself) more awe at the universe, simply because, they know more about it, than those theists, and fundamental christians in particular, who think science is evil.

Given that this is a thread of mostly people speaking for themselves (including the OP) then there really are not valid positions, just observations. So, for the reader, whatever observation speaks to one the most will undoubtedly win out.

 

[Capstone]

I would like to think you as an unbeliever can still comprehend many reprehensible acts and many other immoral or criminal acts. Or did we or the Bible say you would be incapable of that as well as refusing to acknowlege God?

First things first: I don't presume to speak for any unbeliever (in the God of the Bible) other than myself.

Now, what I personally find impossible to comprehend about many of the 'reprehensible/immoral/criminal acts' reported in the scriptures is how anyone with a conscience could conclude that the figure guilty of such atrocious behavior is nonetheless worthy of 'worship' and 'praise'. What I've concluded from my experiences with the Bible as it applied to life in general (BTW, I was raised in the church, attended private Christian schools where the Bible was part of the curriculum, and my father was a Pastor with a doctorate in theological bullshit) is that, even if the God of the Bible exists, I want no part of any belief system that would place such a MONSTER on a pedestal!

[...] Consequently, after years of refusal, apathy or defiance one does tend to become blind, and also to make up strange excuses for their unbelief

I spent the first 23 years of my life looking in earnest for reasons to believe, NOT for excuses not to believe.

Incidentally, while I'm no longer actively looking for a reasonable basis to place my faith and admiration in the Christian God, I'm still open to the possibility (however remote) that one exists.

What I'll NEVER do is compromise certain principles in order to justify bowing down to a genocidal tyrant.

 

[Jimmy_Jam]

What I'll NEVER do is compromise certain principles in order to justify bowing down to a genocidal tyrant.

I may have missed something and don't much feel like digging through a thread of mostly petty bickering over meaningless minutiae, but this stuck out. Which genocidal tyrant?

 

[Capstone]

What I'll NEVER do is compromise certain principles in order to justify bowing down to a genocidal tyrant.

I may have missed something and don't much feel like digging through a thread of mostly petty bickering over meaningless minutiae, but this stuck out. Which genocidal tyrant?

Well, any; but the worst imaginable was the one I had in mind.

Click on some of the links in this post for further reason to denounce the God of the Bible in the strongest terms possible.

To reiterate: as far as I'm concerned, it's not as much a question as to whether HE exists or not ...as it is a firm conviction that such a hypothetical being isn't worthy of praise or admiration either way.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

It basically comes down to one word, wonder. Smug atheists insist there is no room for wonder in the universe, and that their experience is the only valid one. The simple fact is that, a sense of wonder makes us humble, and anyone that approaches the universe without wonder and humility is crazier than the guy who thinks he is in charge.

You know this, how? You are dead wrong, and your position doesn't even make any sense. I'm an atheist, and the universe is absolutely wonderful, literally. I have just falsified your little assertion.

Actually, being that atheists tend to more scientifically literate, they likely possess (I can only speak for myself) more awe at the universe, simply because, they know more about it, than those theists, and fundamental christians in particular, who think science is evil.

I know this from experience. If I was actually dead wrong somebody would have been able to come up with a better argument than trying to say I am talking about all atheists by now, yet not one person has. Since you can only speak for yourself, and have no idea how the smug atheists, like Cammmpbell, think, you cannot prove me wrong either.

Thanks for once again contributing to the data points that help prove me right.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

I would like to think you as an unbeliever can still comprehend many reprehensible acts and many other immoral or criminal acts. Or did we or the Bible say you would be incapable of that as well as refusing to acknowlege God?

First things first: I don't presume to speak for any unbeliever (in the God of the Bible) other than myself.

Now, what I personally find impossible to comprehend about many of the 'reprehensible/immoral/criminal acts' reported in the scriptures is how anyone with a conscience could conclude that the figure guilty of such atrocious behavior is nonetheless worthy of 'worship' and 'praise'. What I've concluded from my experiences with the Bible as it applied to life in general (BTW, I was raised in the church, attended private Christian schools where the Bible was part of the curriculum, and my father was a Pastor with a doctorate in theological bullshit) is that, even if the God of the Bible exists, I want no part of any belief system that would place such a MONSTER on a pedestal!

[...] Consequently, after years of refusal, apathy or defiance one does tend to become blind, and also to make up strange excuses for their unbelief

I spent the first 23 years of my life looking in earnest for reasons to believe, NOT for excuses not to believe.

Incidentally, while I'm no longer actively looking for a reasonable basis to place my faith and admiration in the Christian God, I'm still open to the possibility (however remote) that one exists.

What I'll NEVER do is compromise certain principles in order to justify bowing down to a genocidal tyrant.

Genocidal? Tyrant? What where you reading?

 

[Quantum Windbag]

What I'll NEVER do is compromise certain principles in order to justify bowing down to a genocidal tyrant.

I may have missed something and don't much feel like digging through a thread of mostly petty bickering over meaningless minutiae, but this stuck out. Which genocidal tyrant?

Well, any; but the worst imaginable was the one I had in mind.

Click on some of the links in this post for further reason to denounce the God of the Bible in the strongest terms possible.

To reiterate: as far as I'm concerned, it's not as much a question as to whether HE exists or not ...as it is a firm conviction that such a hypothetical being isn't worthy of praise or admiration either way.

In order for you to classify God as genocidal for the story of Noah you would actually have to believe that it literally happened. Do you have some evidence of that that I am unaware of?