If Atheism is not a religion...?

Question

what are they doing here slashing out with believers? Some Atheists in this site are accusing Christians of pushing their irrational agenda? Meant no offense. Truth is I love to hear Atheists' side on religious and spiritual issues. Just asking.

Answer 1

Why would you think that atheists discussing religion would make atheism a religion? There's a big gap in your reasoning here.

Atheists discuss the problem of the Christian agenda because it affects our day-to-day lives. The religious right is clearly the biggest threat to Americans' freedoms, and it would be silly and dangerous to just ignore the problem. You certainly don't have to be religious to recognize the problem - in fact apparently being religious causes some people to fail to see the problem.

Answer 2

Some are religiously atheist some bible slamming atheists if they truely believed in no God or gods ought to spend more of their time on things they do believe in.
Brainboyforu would rather sensor and ban human freedom of religion. Something impossible to impose. You can't ban people's beliefs.
Besides 99.99% of debates on religion and atheism never amount to reasonable opposing exchange of ideas that either party accept and take on board but rather argue and SHOUT until they are both blue in the fingers and remain unchangeable.
Not one person is ever won over in debate on the internet.

Answer 3

I'm just here to answer questions. And, to ask many of the same questions that led me to become an atheist.

Based on some of the answers I've seen given by "Christians," it appears atheists are needed to give valid answers to questions about the bible and history of religion.

Answer 4

Some people who are atheists are jackasses. It's just like any other large group of people.

Answer 5

ITs not a religion - Its a thought to eradicate innocensense in the society !

Answer 6

This is not an original (I wish it were) but saying atheism is a religion is like saying baldness is a hair color.

Answer 7

It's not a religion, it's a lifestyle that people choose, and they can change by attending church and prayer groups etc.

Answer 8

Anything that a person uses as their guiding principles, is their religion.

Answer 9

atheism IS NOT a RELIGION, it's ability to think rationally and on your own, we're here to give our opinion about your not-so-rational belief

Answer 10

Think of it as a Public Service.

It is the moral responsibility and ethical duty of rational people to protect vulnerable minds from being contaminated by Bronze Age myths and willful ignorance. Beyond that, Christianity represents a huge threat to the well-being and survival of our country and to the whole world... and so it must be confronted.

I prefer the term 'Rationalist', or 'Free Thinker', as opposed to 'atheist', since those terms capture more of the people who think that religious beliefs are stupid and irrelevant than the term 'atheist' does. Those terms capture the main reason that people BECOME Atheists... i.e., they have learned how to THINK properly. Once someone learns how to think properly, religious belief is one of the first casualties. Religious belief... particularly the Abrahamic cults of desert monotheism (Judaism, Christianity, Islam)... simply cannot withstand the glaring light of reason and critical thought. It just evaporates. Poof. The fact that Christians assert and promotesuch ridiculous beliefs is a clear indication that they CAN'T (or WON'T) think properly.

Rational people recognize that some people who visit this forum are truly, sincerely seeking answers... with an open mind (willing to honestly consider alternative possibilities), and with intellectual honesty (willingness to freely question and doubt their own presumptions). That being the case, it is the MORAL OBLIGATION of rational people to HELP them keep their minds open, and to make them aware of some of those alternative possibilities. Inevitably, those alternative possibilities DO NOT include things like a terrarium earth, talking snakes and donkeys, demons, friendly spirits, evil spirits, walking on water, multiplying loaves and fishes, people raising from the dead, stopping the sun in its tracks, parting seas, people being bodily sucked up into heaven (which, by the way, lies on the other side of the sky), world-wide floods, creating people from dust bunnies and ribs, magical trees of knowledge, gods speaking from burning bushes... and ritual cannibalism by eating god in the form of a cracker.

******************
"A thorough reading and understanding of the Bible is the surest path to atheism” ~ Donald Morgan
******************

So, when someone comes along in a PUBLIC FORUM, regurgitating dogmatic slogans, and the myths, superstitions, fairy tales and fantastical delusions of an ignorant bunch of Bronze Age fishermen and wandering goat herders, and declaring them to represent some kind of cosmic 'TRUTH' (without the least bit of credible evidence)... well, by golly, that just HAS TO BE confronted.

All faith-based religious belief is fully deserving of all the scorn and ridicule that can be heaped upon it. It is a simple matter of people with rational minds having a moral obligation to stand in opposition to willful ignorance. It is quite necessary that this be done, if we are to have any hope that the human race will survive and evolve to meet its full potential. So, when these myths, superstitions, fairy tales and fantastical delusions are presented and declared to 'TRUTH', in the venue of a PUBLIC FORUM, a confrontation is inevitable.

***********
"I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do."  ~ D. Dale Gulledge
***********

In order to have a rational view of the universe, it is necessary that one possess the mental faculties that facilitate reason, logic and critical thought. The things that are entailed by Christian beliefs demonstrate, beyond any doubt, a lack of those capabilities. Christians do serve a useful purpose on this earth... as a classic 'bad example'. They obligingly provide assertions about impossible happenings and circumstances, and magical delusions, and glaring misconceptions about science and nature and the universe... which can then be rationally confronted and exposed, and their preposterousness revealed.

Again... rational people are not trying to convert Christians... we are trying to protect people FROM Christians, and the insidious mind killing delusions and willful ignorance which they seek to spread, as if they were some kind of organized, dogmatic insanity virus.

However, rational people DO respect everyone's right, in the privacy of their own minds, to delude themselves in whatever fashion they deem fit.

Science, logic, reason, and critical thought have long been regarded (by religious people) as the enemies of religion. Considering that those are the tools of highly intelligent people, it should not come as a huge shock to learn that intelligence (or lack of it) has some connection to religious belief. In fact, there are about 20 studies, conducted over a period of 80 years or so, that reveal a statistically significant NEGATIVE CORRELATION between intelligence and religiosity. In plainer language, that means that they found that the more intelligent a person is, the LESS likely that person is to be religious.

If you think about it, those findings make a lot of sense. Intelligence tests mainly provide an indication of reasoning ability and problem solving ability... logic, reason and critical thought. These are the very qualities that see through religion, and recognize it for what it is; i.e., religion cannot survive the glaring light of reason and critical thought. This was well understood by important figures in religious history. This is why the early church destroyed all the 'tainted' (non-canonical) writings, which were in conflict with dogma... Greek philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, engineering... all the good stuff. By this means, Christianity dragged humanity directly into the Dark Ages.

Just to illustrate the point, let's see what Martin Luther, the 'father' of protestantism, had to say about 'reason' and secular knowledge:

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." ~ Martin Luther

"There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason... Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason should be destroyed in all Christians." ~ Martin Luther

Christianity is essentially a criminal business enterprise... in fact, it is the world's longest running and most successful Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scam. The product they are selling is 'salvation'. FORTUNATELY, it only works on those who are gullible enough to fall for it. UNfortunately, THAT accounts for about 87% of the population of the USA. (There are a lot more people who DON'T know how to think properly than there are people who DO know how to think properly.) That is why there are a lot more religious people in the USA than there are 'Free-thinkers'... including Atheists. Also, Christians are generally too dense to realize that proselytizing (spreading the 'good news') is a key element of the Christian MLM MARKETING PLAN, which was instituted after Christianity lost the political power that had previously allowed them to simply torture and kill anybody who did not comply. Now, they attempt to just pester people to death, through persistent obliviousness and obnoxiousness.

Interestingly, statistics on supernatural beliefs count the USA with backward, developing Third World nations, rather than among modern, advanced industrial powers. How does it feel to be a contributor to that backwardness?

********************

"Selling eternal life is an unbeatable business, with no customers ever asking for their money back after the goods are not delivered." ~ Victor J. Stenger

"Businesses may come and go, but religion will last forever, for in no other endeavor does the consumer blame himself for product failure."  ~ Harvard Lamphoon, "Doon" (paraphrase)

http://www.religioustolerance.org/reconstr.htm
http://home.ca.inter.net/oblio/home.htm
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/HistoryOfReconstructionMovement.html
http://www.yuricareport.com/Dominionism/Clarkson_RiseOfDomionism.html