• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Why do so many who identify as Atheists support Big Government?

Page 2 - Seeking answers? Join the AnandTech community: where nearly half-a-million members share solutions and discuss the latest tech.
I have yet to meet ANYONE in my life who supported this strawman "big government".

When you hear this leveled at some segment of society by a righty you can easily assume the right-winger are just projecting like usual. Scratch the surface of a "small government" conservative and surprise surprise, they are on the take! Imagine that? How DOES this work righties? LOL


When are you children going to come back to the big kids table of the USA and stop listening to your little fairyland of right-wing media? Get a clue people, you sound like a bunch of isolated hicks who dont know your head from your ass about life. Leave that cultural pig sty of a small town sometime, learn about life and you would realize that people all want the same things just like you in life. Sucks having to share a country with a bunch of freaking trogylytes.
 
bfdd

First of all, "big government" is almost a meaningless term. If you think not, define the threshold where government is considered big by some verifiable metric. Number of employees? Dollars spent? Dollars collected? Number of laws on the books? The federal government will always look big to some extent if we expect it to do its job.

I believe that atheists are responsible for developing their own morality since they don't have holy men to tell them what it is. I think that most base it on some concept like the Golden Rule and do a good job of it. Treat others like you would like to be treated; leave people alone that do you no harm even if you disagree with what they are doing; advocate a safe and happy life for everyone who wishes to live in harmony; etc.. I guess that kind of morality fits right in with being a progressive.

The federal government has the necessary task of keeping the various States from doing bad things to their people. They have in the past, are trying today, and will in the future. When I joined the military, I took an oath to defend the United States, not Ohio.

Funny how so many that scream "American exceptionalism" all of the time seem to have a first loyalty to a State.

And "atheism is a religion" makes you sound mentally challenged.
 
Bowfinger said:
Nice deflection, but it doesn't change the fact your OP is a straw man.



ROFL! Yeah, right. You just play one on AT?
Click to expand...

Uh... play what? A conservative? Maybe to you, but you don't know jack shit about me and those are labels you use to throw on others. I don't identify as such, so I am not such. You can call me bfdd, this is the label I gave myself and the only label in which I go by on these forums.


Also, Comrade you're right I didn't really specify anything specific about "big government", but I was just using the general thought of it. Which is government in which oversees some or all of our day to day lives. A government which is supposed to watch over us. These things to me seem a lot like the concept of "God", just expressed differently due to some peoples beliefs. I was wondering why this is. This imaginary entity that will save us at our lowest.
 
Last edited:
bfdd said:
I'm kind of curious to this. I am not religious at all, I don't identify with Atheism or Atheists due to my believing it is just another religion. Though I was thinking. Why do they want to substitute so hard the "fake" God for one of their own creation? Some giant entity that is all powerful and will take care of everything, yet will be constructed of man? Please... Silly mortals.
Click to expand...

Lol? You're an atheist whether you believe you are one or not and the rest of your post is just inane. Ops premise that he can change who he is just by saying he's not despite his actions otherwise is hilarious.
 
AyashiKaibutsu said:
Lol? You're an atheist whether you believe you are one or not and the rest of your post is just inane. Ops premise that he can change who he is just by saying he's not despite his actions otherwise is hilarious.
Click to expand...

Being an atheist would require me to have faith that there is no God and there is nothing afterwards. I would be required to "know" this. I can't truly know this as it is an unanswerable question, currently, so I refer to it as faith because that's all it is. You have faith in something different than a Christian or a Buddhist or whatever other labels people use to label their shared belief systems. I don't believe in anything, this includes the absence and presence of a "God" or "Gods".
 
bfdd said:
Uh... play what? A conservative? Maybe to you, but you don't know jack shit about me and those are labels you use to throw on others. I don't identify as such, so I am not such. You can call me bfdd, this is the label I gave myself and the only label in which I go by on these forums.


Also, Comrade you're right I didn't really specify anything specific about "big government", but I was just using the general thought of it. Which is government in which oversees some or all of our day to day lives. A government which is supposed to watch over us. These things to me seem a lot like the concept of "God", just expressed differently due to some peoples beliefs. I was wondering why this is. This imaginary entity that will save us at our lowest.
Click to expand...
Here's a hint. I don't care what you do or don't call yourself. Actions speak louder than words. Regardless, the fact remains your OP was a straw man. I pointed that out by parodying it. You can dodge that 'til you're blue in the face, but it changes nothing.
 
Bowfinger said:
Here's a hint. I don't care what you do or don't call yourself. Actions speak louder than words. Regardless, the fact remains your OP was a straw man. I pointed that out by parodying it. You can dodge that 'til you're blue in the face, but it changes nothing.
Click to expand...

Parodying what? You didn't parody shit. You just posted some toolish shit because you're a tool. I have no problem being called an idiot or my ideas being called stupid, but that's not what you did. I'm legitimately curious why so many people expound Atheist ideals while pushing things that seem end goaled to create a "God" on Earth for everyone to revel under, government.
 
bfdd said:
Parodying what? You didn't parody shit. You just posted some toolish shit because you're a tool. I have no problem being called an idiot or my ideas being called stupid, but that's not what you did. I'm legitimately curious why so many people expound Atheist ideals while pushing things that seem end goaled to create a "God" on Earth for everyone to revel under, government.
Click to expand...
Restating your straw man doesn't make it less of straw man. (And given your posting history, I certainly wouldn't be calling anyone else a tool.)


Edit: To be quite specific, since you may legitimately be a bit slow, I parodied your title. My initial response was a direct parody of your title. Think about it. It will come to you.
 
Last edited:
bfdd said:
Parodying what? You didn't parody shit. You just posted some toolish shit because you're a tool. I have no problem being called an idiot or my ideas being called stupid, but that's not what you did. I'm legitimately curious why so many people expound Atheist ideals while pushing things that seem end goaled to create a "God" on Earth for everyone to revel under, government.
Click to expand...

Because we're smart enough to realize there's no god, we're also smart enough to know that mankind still needs to be controlled by something lest his baser nature wreak havoc on the world and society.
 
Nebor said:
Because we're smart enough to realize there's no god, we're also smart enough to know that mankind still needs to be controlled by something lest his baser nature wreak havoc on the world and society.
Click to expand...

You want man to be controlled by the state.

We want man to be taught morals so he can control himself.
 
Bowfinger said:
Restating your straw man doesn't make it less of straw man. (And given your posting history, I certainly wouldn't be calling anyone else a tool.)


Edit: To be quite specific, since you may legitimately be a bit slow, I parodied your title. My initial response was a direct parody of your title. Think about it. It will come to you.
Click to expand...
You're right you did parody me, I was just being hostile because I get annoyed by the constant toolish nature of a majority of the people on this forum who won't have any sort of conversation on a subject, but would sooner jump to assumptions and throw around retarded limiting labels. I said I don't care if people call me a moron or my thoughts stupid. I say that shit about other people all the time and I'm not very good at being a hypocrite. I just wanted to throw it out there and have some conversation.
Nebor said:
Because we're smart enough to realize there's no god, we're also smart enough to know that mankind still needs to be controlled by something lest his baser nature wreak havoc on the world and society.
Click to expand...
So man wrecks havok on shit, so we need man to control other man? Or is this government entity not man now? I mean it's made by man and it is made by man. How can you be so sure that this "government" isn't part of our "baser nature to wreck havok"?
RedChief said:
You want man to be controlled by the state.

We want man to be taught morals so he can control himself.
Click to expand...
This is how I feel, though where they come from is a bit harder to decide upon.
 
bfdd

You're nuts about being an atheist. It requires no faith. I just dismiss assertions that have no basis in fact. Would you assert that you have faith that there are no Leprechauns? And that would be a belief system? Of course not.
 
bfdd said:
I'm kind of curious to this. I am not religious at all, I don't identify with Atheism or Atheists due to my believing it is just another religion. Though I was thinking. Why do they want to substitute so hard the "fake" God for one of their own creation? Some giant entity that is all powerful and will take care of everything, yet will be constructed of man? Please... Silly mortals.
Click to expand...

True atheist generally have a strong belief in personal liberty which grants with it the personal freedom (and responsibility) to dissent from religious views or governmental views of the majority which imposes itself onto others. Folks like Penn Jillette, Ayn Rand etc are atheist that hold true with the ideals that the collective (be it a church or government) should not have the right to decided for everyone else on matters of religion (or other issues) because in the end no one knows what is best for "everyone". They are atheists because simply being told there is a god is not enough and they require proof for its existence along with credible sound reasoning to follow the creeds of a religion over views/ideas based around sound and reasonable arguments. This also holds true with their views on big government and its authority. The view that the "central government knows what is best" because the majority says so and imposes their rule over those who object is not good enough for them and they require solid and sound reasoning before they can agree to goose step with the rest of the gaggle of geese.

Atheists who seek to replace the meddling of religion with the forced meddling of an all encompassing central government which behaves in the same intrusive manner as an over-bearing religion that asserts that it knows best to decide on matters for the individual are deluded fools who don't understand that the servitude to the state is no different then the servitude to a religion. Or worse they are just plain old emotional partisan hacks who aren't willing to break away from institutions of authority controlling their lives. In other words these people are picky and deluded about their security blankets they choose in life.
 
Last edited:
bfdd said:
Being an atheist would require me to have faith that there is no God and there is nothing afterwards. I would be required to "know" this. I can't truly know this as it is an unanswerable question, currently, so I refer to it as faith because that's all it is. You have faith in something different than a Christian or a Buddhist or whatever other labels people use to label their shared belief systems. I don't believe in anything, this includes the absence and presence of a "God" or "Gods".
Click to expand...

The level of faith required to believe is God is far, far greater than the level of "faith" required to believe there is no God. The two magnitudes are worlds apart. Acknowledging this before starting a troll thread would at least give you some semblance of (still small) credibility.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top