On 12/05/2016 21:15, Mayayana wrote:
| That second thing is wrong. At atheist DOES NOT have a belief in a god
| or gods. SOME may have a belief that there is no god or gods, but that
| is not the definition of atheist.
|
Look it up in the dictionary. a-theist. Agnostic
or non-theist would be someone who doesn't adopt
a belief. Atheists believe no god exists. If you talk
to atheists they'll often wiggle around, saying they're
openminded, if only theists can prove the existence
of their god. But generally atheists are defining that
god as a personal god -- an 80-foot-tall man with a
long beard living in the sky. So what they're really
saying is that they're intelligent and religious people
are idiots. They're oblivious to any more sophisticated
version of religion/spirituality.

| BTW, "religion" does not really have anything to do with a god or gods.
| It's a way to keep people together. The word is often misused.
|

It can be all sorts of things. There is no god
in Buddhism, but that's considered a religion.
The Scientologists could be considered to have
a religion. The Mormons are arguably the first
New Age cult, but now present as an established
religion.
A way to keep people together would be debt,
clubs, tribes, sexual attraction, common interests,
etc. The dictionary, and most people, would
define a religion as some kind of guiding system
of morals and social rules, with a spiritual
orientation, that may or may not involve gods
or deities. Again, look it up in the dictionary.

In the US most people would define religion as
belief in the Christian god, and atheism as denial
of the Christian god. But that's why I touched on
that issue in my posts. Religion is different things
to different people. Spirituality is different things
to different people. How does the Christianity of
Thomas Merton compare to that of Billy Graham?
Probably not much common ground there. So if
someone says they're atheist or religious they really
need to define that *for them*. In my experience,
atheists are scientific materialists who view all
religion/spirituality as being dumb, literal belief in
a cosmic daddy figure. They then pat themselves
on the back for believing in science, which they
regard as a rational belief. They're anti-religious
in a very condescending way, but mostly they're
just ignorant.


You've just accused half of America as being ignorant.
A bold and "condescending" claim.

"Religion is dying out in America: Just 18% of people 60 and younger
attend church and less than 50% believe in God"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencete...#ixzz48VpYgRjb





--
Bod