Atheist Church Opens in 35 more Towns!

[Subyman]

Where did I say atheism is a religion? Just sayin', actually respond to what I'm saying and stop trying to respond based on your interpretation of what I'm saying.

Now come on, that is exactly what you were getting at. You were saying that it was funny that atheists want to pick out "the best bits" of religions, but not have god be a part of it. As if atheists were treading close to wanting to have a religion. You were trying to find hypocrisy where there isn't any. A gathering is just that, a gathering of people. People get together to discuss politics, play board games, talk about science, or, in atheists case, discuss issues that they are facing. It has nothing to do with religion or trying to be like a religion or however else I can phrase it so you won't find some fault with my wording.

Let me rephrase another point: I've never heard of a general consensus that atheists do not want to discuss atheist issues with other atheists.

As for your other point, as an agnostic/atheist I was giving my first-hand knowledge of never saying that, which is why I didn't understand where you were getting that atheists, in general, don't like to discuss common issues.

 

[DrPizza]

Interesting, but the commentary in the first 3 bullet points admits to not knowing how the stories are linked, but assumes they were copied somehow anyway.

Let me put a different spin on this to see how open you are to being possibly wrong, your response will be very telling:

I told 100 people about how I escaped a hungry pack of lions while hunting one day in Africa. I escaped by killing one of them with a shot gun blast, stabbed one in the eye as it was chasing me up a tree, killing it, and then the others decided to leave. These 100 people then moved to different parts of the US, and told this to their friends.

Upon returning to the US myself, I'm hearing stories ranging from me fighting lions with my bare hands, to dropping a grenade down a lions den to escape -- none of which are true. When people retell this, by the time it gets back to me, it's completely different than the original.

Does this mean a flood of any proportion happened? No. Does this mean any myth has even a little veracity? No.

All this means is that the similarities can, and are likely, a product of people retelling the same thing, but adding or exaggerating details.

Open your mind to other possibilities, then you'd have a more coherent and complete conclusion without a big of gap that I just exploited.

Ahhhhh, and given when the Bible was written, then it's safe to conclude that many of those stories might have added or exaggerated details. "He turned water into wine!" "Omg, how about that Red Sea - he waved his arms and it parted."


edit: what the heck? I thought I clicked on a current link to something and wound up a couple posts before the post I quoted. Sorry.

 

[Thebobo]

NM

 

[lotus503]

Well, perhaps they do get it, but want to stop lying to themselves about their beliefs.

I deeply believe atheists want a god or cause, just not a god that judges and holds people accountable -- in other words, they are the ones wanting a god made in their own image.

I think you miss the mark. As an Atheist myself what I miss is a sense of community, its not God or a cause.

 

[Chaotic42]

From reading the Bible, I don't think that the Christian god would look too kindly on Pascal's wager:

"So I don't really believe in you, but, you know, I guess I'll say I do just in case"