atheists

[Printer Bandit]

who cares if 1000 people steal?
who cares if 1 million people get raped?
who cares of 1 billion people die?
who cares of 2 billion universes get destroyed?
who cares...?

 

[LTC8K6]

who cares if 1000 people steal?
who cares if 1 million people get raped?
who cares of 1 billion people die?
who cares of 2 billion universes get destroyed?
who cares...?

Yes, we know that most criminals are atheists, and almost none are religious...

 

[Wingznut]

Yes, we know that most criminals are atheists, and almost none are religious...

I wonder if a good study has actually ever been done, to see if the ratios of convicted criminals' religious beliefs is any different than typical society.

I would bet it's no different.

 

[PowerEngineer]

who cares if 1000 people steal?
who cares if 1 million people get raped?
who cares of 1 billion people die?
who cares of 2 billion universes get destroyed?
who cares...?

christians:

Apparently the so-called Supreme Being doesn't care... At least not enough to prevent it.

 

[sandorski]

I wonder if a good study has actually ever been done, to see if the ratios of convicted criminals' religious beliefs is any different than typical society.

I would bet it's no different.

The US being the most Religious of Western nations also has the highest Crime Rates in many types of Crime amongst those Nations. Correlation doesn't mean Causation, but one would think that REligiosity would have some affect if religious claims were true.

 

[sandorski]

To answer the OP: People care.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

who cares if 1000 people steal?
who cares if 1 million people get raped?
who cares of 1 billion people die?
who cares of 2 billion universes get destroyed?
who cares...?

Me


/thread

 

[ShawnD1]

I wonder if a good study has actually ever been done, to see if the ratios of convicted criminals' religious beliefs is any different than typical society.

I would bet it's no different.

IIRC, the number of atheists in prison is disproportionately small. That doesn't really mean anything though since claiming you are religious is a good way to get a free pass out. Huckabee got a lot of bad attention because he was pardoning people based on religion. You killed 4 cops but you say you're all good now? Cool! Back into the streets you go. I would claim to be religious too. Saying you found Jesus sounds really good at your parole hearing.

 

[DominionSeraph]

I wonder if a good study has actually ever been done, to see if the ratios of convicted criminals' religious beliefs is any different than typical society.

I would bet it's no different.

I saw something on that a while back, and it was different. Buddhists were quite substantially underrepresented in the US prison system. Everyone else was pretty close in percentage to their percentage in the overall population, with atheists being decently underrepresented and Christians being slightly overrepresented.

To answer the OP: People care.

This. Morality doesn't come from a book, it is built up from a few innate values put against how the universe works. Because morality is built up it can change as the person's subjective world changes:
Why does power corrupt? Because it changes how responsive a person has to be to others.
Why are the hot girls so often snobs? See above: Because they can get away with it.

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

who cares if 1000 people steal?
who cares if 1 million people get raped?
who cares of 1 billion people die?
who cares of 2 billion universes get destroyed?
who cares...?

You mean apart from all the intelligent life in the universe? Nobody...I guess.

 

[sportage]

My little, but TRUE story on Atheists....

Last Winter I was walking the skywalks (exercise) during a cold weekend morning.
Usually the skywalks are vacant on the weekend. Maybe a homeless person or two
inside trying to stay warm, but that’s about it.

But on this day, the skywalks were filled with extremely well dressed people.
Men, women, old, young, children, parents with children, every one of them dressed in their Sunday best (but it was a Saturday?).

My first thought was... "must be some republican convention in town".
(Democrats would never dress that spiffy. )

Then I thought, some religious convention? Business convention? Pre-Easter convention?

Everyone I passed was "extremely" polite. Friendly. Nice looking.
Greeted me with a cheery "hello", and or "good morning", then a friendly glowing smile.

Hmmmm. Must be either some Baptist convention, or some republican thing?
Has to be either the republicans or Baptist.

Only later that same afternoon did I read it was, in fact, the annual national atheists convention being held this year in our own little city. A two day weekend event.
I was pleasantly shocked, to say the least.

As with most people, I'd expect an atheist convention to consists of evil looking, red eyed, slime oozing creatures of the night dressed all in black.
Not rightwing appearing, God fearing, Baptist looking, republican type folks with children, all dressed in their Sunday best.
And everyone as polite as (no pun) hell.
Good looking adults all of them, charming children, extremely handsome men, and women.
Truly an above average spiffy looking group, if ever there were such.

And they were all atheists. Atheists! Go figure....

So appearance is not necessarily what the stereotyping would suggest.
Lesson learned. Well learned! Take note....

I thought WOW! Is THIS what happens to normal people when they break free from the chains of religion? Can it be they become so clean, clear sighted, and uplifted?
They actually look.... happy!
(Much unlike the usual sourpuss faced locals of this bible-belt midwestern town)

There are two things in life I have had my eyes opened to, when it comes to the difference between the perceived stereotype, and the fact of reality.

#1. Atheists.
#2. Nudist. (another story for some other time)

No.. I was not converted or unconverted to the religion of atheism.
(And I do believe it must be a type of religion, to not believe)
But now I became very curious about these people in the skywalks heading to their convention gathering place...

WHAT do atheists talk about in their gatherings?
Isn't a gathering of atheists like a religion in itself?
If one were an atheists, a non-believer, shouldn't one requirement be that they not gather...?

I never realized people, that do not believe in something, must group and gather to proclaim their belief in that nonbelief of believing.
(Something like that???)

But... they sure dress damn spiffy I must say.
And I'd easily trade an afternoon locked in a room with your typical kids,
to be locked in a room with the kids of the atheist parent.
And I bet after encountering these well behaved children, so would you!!!
.
.
.

 

[novasatori]

less than 0.25% of the prison population in the US are atheists

here is a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbef07aQtB8

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Reflecting a bit more on the OP, it seems to represent a particularly terrible line of argumentation.

Suppose we follow his implied line of reasoning, and stipulate that in an atheistic universe, nobody cares if people steal, or if people murder, etc...

Can we conclude from this that a god exists?

Does the OP really expect us to accept a rationale that basically boils down to "it would really suck if there wasn't a god, therefore a god must exist"?

If this is the type of reasoning that undergirds theism, it's in real trouble.

 

[novasatori]

No.. I was not converted or unconverted to the religion of atheism.

Atheism isn't a religion.

 

[Kadarin]

who cares if 1000 people steal?
who cares if 1 million people get raped?
who cares of 1 billion people die?
who cares of 2 billion universes get destroyed?
who cares...?

Because atheists have no moral code?

 

[sleep]

i googled "athests", i had no idea what it meant.

 

[J-Money]

OP must be of the mind that only religious people have morals and only religious people are good people.

Kind of weird since I be a good person for the sake of being a good person because my 100% non-religious parents raised me as such.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Atheism isn't a religion.

Yeah, you can't "convert to the religion of atheism" any more than you can ask your hair stylist to dye your hair bald. ^_^

 

[J-Money]

Yeah, you can't "convert to the religion of atheism" any more than you can ask your hair stylist to dye your hair bald. ^_^

Yeah it's funny isn't it?

Only in religion is not believing also a religion, and only in religion is the burden of proof on people who claim something DOESN'T exist.

It's like someone believing a sasquatch is real because we can't give 100% definitive (to them) proof it isn't.

 

[radhak]

As with most people, I'd expect an atheist convention to consists of evil looking, red eyed, slime oozing creatures of the night dressed all in black.
Not rightwing appearing, God fearing, Baptist looking, republican type folks with children, all dressed in their Sunday best.
And everyone as polite as (no pun) hell.
Good looking adults all of them, charming children, extremely handsome men, and women.
Truly an above average spiffy looking group, if ever there were such.
...

WHAT do atheists talk about in their gatherings?
Isn't a gathering of atheists like a religion in itself?
If one were an atheists, a non-believer, shouldn't one requirement be that they not gather...?
...
I never realized people, that do not believe in something, must group and gather to proclaim their belief in that nonbelief of believing.
(Something like that???)

But... they sure dress damn spiffy I must say.
And I'd easily trade an afternoon locked in a room with your typical kids,
to be locked in a room with the kids of the atheist parent.
And I bet after encountering these well behaved children, so would you!!!

I am an Atheist. There. I said. I am out. <cringe>

Sportage, your post was illuminating, to say the least. I never realized how alien we must be to the rest !

But then, there's a reason to it : most atheists don't 'proclaim' their atheism (unless they have a book to write ) because we think
(a) it's not anybody else's business
(b) it's not a big deal, because it's so logical
(c) religion, even talking about it, can cause big rifts among best of friends; and if some of friends knew why I was an atheist they'd feel insulted :whiste:

But I can assure you this : there are far more atheists in your world than you can imagine. They are just hidden - not because they fear prosecution (though that might be true - not many celebrities, particularly politicians, confess to be atheists) - but because they don't want to put down theists... If you ask around nicely, you'll find a bunch in your own circle.

Before you google, try and guess how many (and which) celebrities are atheists. You'd be surprised. And many of them are so much more lucid than me in talking about this that I could state my beliefs just by quoting them. One for example goes something like this (not an exact quote) : "Does God exist? For some people, yes - I hope so, for their sake. They need the peace of mind this belief provides" (I'm sure your googling will tell who said that)

As for your other comments : logically, atheists become so, not because their parents told them to be, or because of some other societal force. They are so because they gave it a lot of thought, and found theism wanting. This process itself eliminates the lunatic fringe (that you half expected), and almost guarantees a thinking, logical, reasonable person. (Don't crucify me now, I did say almost).

I don't say religious people cannot be all that, but religion does attract the nutcases.

Btw, my 12-year old daughter seems to take to religion - she prays to god religiously every night. She knows my beliefs.

As for what we talk about - well, you know for sure what we don't talk about!

Yeah, you can't "convert to the religion of atheism" any more than you can ask your hair stylist to dye your hair bald. ^_^

That is one of the funniest take on atheism I've ever heard. I'm gonna use it a lot, thanks!

Yeah it's funny isn't it?

Only in religion is not believing also a religion, and only in religion is the burden of proof on people who claim something DOESN'T exist.

It's like someone believing a sasquatch is real because we can't give 100% definitive (to them) proof it isn't.

Spot On! I find it so difficult to reconcile with this idea that I don't bring it up at all - because there's no explaining it.

 

[Mike Gayner]

ITT: Christians demonstrate just how retarded they really are.

 

[IronWing]

I care.

 

[frostedflakes]

Somewhat related.

http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/..._atheist_research_ubc_rapists_111201/20111201

Atheists are distrusted to roughly the same degree as rapists, according to a new University of British Columbia study exploring distaste for disbelievers.

The research, led by UBC psychology doctoral student Will Gervais, found distrust to be the central factor motivating antagonism toward atheists among the religious.

"Where there are religious majorities – that is, in most of the world – atheists are among the least trusted people," Gervais said in a release.

"With more than half a billion atheists worldwide, this prejudice has the potential to affect a substantial number of people."

Researchers believe the negative perception of atheists may stem from some people's understanding of morality; a 2002 Pew poll suggests nearly half of Americans believe morality is impossible without belief in god.

For one part of Gervais' six-part study, researchers compared views of atheists, homosexual men and the general population, noting that the first two groups are "often described as threatening to majority religious values and morality."

Both are explicitly denied membership to the Boy Scouts of America, the study adds.

A sample of 351 Americans between the ages of 18 and 82 were quizzed on their feelings for each group. Sixty-seven per cent or subjects were Christian while 14 per cent said they did not believe in god.

The results suggested anti-atheist prejudice was characterized by distrust, while anti-gay prejudice was characterized by disgust.

For another part of the study, 105 UBC students between the ages of 18 and 25 were presented with a description of an untrustworthy person – an "archetypal freerider" who committed selfish and illegal acts when he thought he could get away with it.

Subjects were more likely to find the description representative of atheists than Christians, Muslims, gay men, feminists or Jewish people. Only rapists were similarly distrusted.

"People did not significantly differentiate atheists from rapists," the study said.

Researchers hope the study, considered among the first to probe the psychology behind anti-atheist sentiments, will offer clues on how to combat the prejudice.

Study co-author Ara Norenzayan, a UBC associate professor, said it was motivated in part by a 2007 Gallup poll that found only 45 per cent of Americans would vote for a qualified atheist as president.

Atheists often see their disbelief as a private matter, but others may consider it "a public threat to cooperation and honesty," Norenzayan said in a release.

The UBC study, titled "Do You Believe in Atheists? Distrust is Central to Anti-Atheist Prejudice," appears in the current online issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

 

[TheVrolok]

Me


/thread

Me, too.

//thread.

 

[skyking]

Sportage, I read your post through and waited for you to declare it was an invasion from Lake Wobegon

Lake Wobegon, "the little town that time forgot and the decades cannot improve ... where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."