Why Do So Many Have Such a Poor Understanding of What Atheism Actually Is? (Page 2)
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Atheism, taking the prefix and the word theist together means opposed to theism. This implies belief in the existence of something to be opposed to. Nontheist is what you are looking for. It’s kind of like saying feminists want equality instead of female superiority, when egalitarian is the word for people who want equality.
Opposed is anti. “A” just means not.
@OddBeMe Yes, you're right. The A in atheism means "without". Without theism. It doesn't mean being opposed to theism.
Question I've always wanted to ask an atheist is if the uni/multiverse natural state is chaos what's imposing order over it? I've also thought what do they seek in their lives? Oblivion?
This isn’t my question but I thought I’d help out.
1) do astrophysicists say the universe’s natural state is chaos?
2) we only have one universe to measure (one galaxy at that) so can’t say what the odds are
3) we seek happiness. Sam Harris writes about well-being as universal goal. We don’t like taking the Bible for granted, tbh.
@OddBeMe I couldn't care less for the Bible once knings got a hold of it. To better answer your question = ignorance (lack of knowledge) is rampant in all of us in particular areas.
sure, and thinking there has to be an "imposing order" over the universe is just ignorance.
@OddBeMe thats your opinion & thankfully opinions are like assholes, everyone has one :p
Backed up by actual definitions of the words. But ok…
@OddBeMe science is based on observation. Entropy exists. Something is imposing order over it & to me that's God. I made the attempt to find something in easy to understand terms incase your brain hurts too much from big words:p
Well, chaos theory will have to suffice as I can't post links till xper of 3:/
Chaos theory is all about a system's sensitivity to initial conditions, and how such sensitivity tends to have a disproportionate effect upon that system's subsequent evolution. Our universe is "ordered" from our perspective because the human mind has an inherent facility for finding patterns within that universe (i. e. the laws of nature), but overall there is disorder to a very large extent, and over the coming aeons such disorder will only increase (due to the ever-increasing level of entropy). There is no need for something or someone to "impose" anything, that hypothesis is totally redundant.
So your god is entropy? Can’t ever get a straight answer fm religionists about what their god is. They just beat around the bush pointing to everything they don’t understand.
@OddBeMe Are you responding to me or Adronicus? I don't see entropy as a "god"; that would be silly.
All religionists.
@OddBeMe I see order & truth as God. I've seen the power of both in my life, I'll leave off by saying I have my own opinion on things just like everyone else. People are free to accept or reject whatever. I do see order & I do believe that it's being imposed but thats just my opinion.
Fair enough. But I guess in answer to your OQ…. atheists don’t make those leaps.
Many people get confused between agnostic and atheist. An agnostic isn't sure if a god exists, while an atheist is certain there is no god.
Ignorance and fear, I believe. People often are afraid of trying to grasp a concept that they are afraid of, or they just don't care to try and understand at all. Quite sad, really.
You said it is not a a belief but in the definition it says atheism is a simple lack of belief and God or God.., confusing to someone.
Because you guys finished making it up like 20 years ago
Actually it is religious people that felt a need that not being religious needed a special name. Being not religious is the natural state of life, we are born without a religion and we have to be indoctrinated into one.
If you lived on an island, Jesus isn't going to fucking come down and teach you Christianity because all of it is fucking fake.
@Juxtapose that's an interesting logic. I can only remember people who really wanted everyone around them to know that they were atheist as my introduction to it.
I'm not really a fan of knocking idiologies but the amount of hubris and snarky, pedantic attitudes people have towards really sticking it to everyone they don't believe in anything and then using such offensively poorly thought out arguments and presenting them as if they have the same value as passages which have offered timeless wisdom and insight into the world. Many have been proven right time and time again.
How many years did you spend studying about religion? How many years spent studying the history of religion and how they have all changed over time?
I like you man. I don't want you to think I mean this as an attack but this topic is way more complicated than a scenerio like that and yes, people who live on islands are religious too.
I mean you could probably write a whole book on just the topic alone of how humans tend to inherently understand just a little about spirituality.
I'll answer this paragraph by paragraph for the sake of simplicity.
I don't think being an atheist is special but of course on the internet you are going to encounter people very militant in their beliefs. In real life that has just not been the case, both atheists and theists have been pretty accepting of differences and didn't want to make a big deal out of it in my life.
The Bible is a horrific book with a lot of horrors inflicted upon people and if even half of it is true then Yahweh is the worst villain that you could ever imagine. Religion does not have my respect, people do. If I am friends with a religious person I will be nice to the person, but it is never for the sake of their awful religion. And what has the Bible proved exactly?
I informally examine the world all the time and religion is an interesting topic so I remain regularly engaged with it. If you want to argue that only people with formal education can debate this topic then I'm going to preempt you and say shame on you.
Simplicity is beautiful and taking an example of people raised on an island completely separated from the rest of the world is a great example to test the veracity of religion. If a particular religion is really so true and evident around us then even people born completely separate from civilization will discover the religion entirely on their own through Revelations granted by the Lord Almighty in heaven.. so they say.
I would summate spirituality as the desperate flailings of humanity to have eternity and meaning in a transient and meaningless universe.
@Juxtapose @Juxtapose these are good questions that have very long answers. For starters, the island anology is a misleading one because everything you need to create a religion. You'd have to talk about how religion as we know it today began with philosophers who were essentially the first scientists. These philosophers were the roots for both religion and science. They believed things that eventually got us thinking about elements and atoms and the oneness of life.
After Thales many many very similar religions came to be and became the largest ones some turning organized and becoming at times in history, very powerful.
Religion predicted underwater volcanos (scientists vehemently stated they were impossible until deep diving submarines were invented), the second law of thermodynamics, and the nature of the "fabric" of reality technology is just now getting accurate enough to see for itself.
The point is, religion is based on the study of reality itself. In fact, it's arguably where it all started. As in before Greek mythology. So... Yea
And what is the difference between Atheism and Agnosticism?
How are you 100 percent sure that old gods are not real?
No, atheism is the belief that there is no god. If you just don't believe in any particular religion and profess to not know if there is a god or not, that is agnosticism.
They're stupid enough to believe in something completely fantastical and improbable with absolutely no evidence, what do you expect? They're not really running on a lot of brain power here!
Atheism is the belief that you're better than everyone because you don't believe in the flying spaghetti monster.
At least that's what I've noticed from my encounters my atheists
If everybody around you believed in the Easter Bunny wouldn't you find them kind of looney?
@Juxtapose I'm guessing you go around telling kids Santa clause isn't real too
Just cause your life sucks doesn't mean you have to make everyone else's life suck
I was actually really hurt when I found out my parents lied to me about Santa Claus and that is what started my skepticism. Since then I have question things a lot more than I did when I just took what my parents said at face value.
So yeah, at the right time it actually is a beautiful thing to tell children Santa Claus isn't real. When I found that out it sent me free!
*questioned
So you wouldn't find a bunch of people who believe in the Easter Bunny looney?
@Juxtapose I figured as much. that's always the case with all atheists, their childhoods sucked.
The fact that you let something as simple as Santa clause not being real change your whole being is laughably pathetic.
You must have had a boring childhood if the wonders of discovery never changed your perspective.
The only people who have a poor understanding of what atheism is are religious people. This should not come as a surprise to normal people.
Lol i didn't know, people didn't know what an atheist is. Feel bad for them
Why are you singling out men?
I still think it's a belief system, because you believe in something, even though you don't know.
Lord have mercy. Read the title to your own question.
"Why Do So Many Have Such a Poor Understanding of What Atheism Actually Is?"
I made a mistake and I'm not afraid to admit it. Just delete my entire post. My eyesight is not very good.
Because different dictionaries define it differently. In some it's a lack of belief, in others it's the belief that there is no God. In some agnostic is basically lack of belief.
No, they don't actually. Atheism is pretty much consistently defined. It's one of the few words in the English language where there actually is such consistency.
Encyclopedias of philosophy, also there's vids on Youtube citing all the dictionaries that define it as a belief. It's like 40+
It's as absurd as someone who doesn't believe in God saying why we can't go to heaven, why do we go to heaven?
I don't believe that anyone goes to a place called heaven, or hell.
no evil goes unpunished
Evil goes unpunished all the time.
they will go to hell
Hell isn't real, there is no "afterlife", and this is all there is. If you believe otherwise you're going to have to present reasons why you believe what you do.
If hell were a place to go and come back to earth. You would worship god 24/7. If you're right, nothing will happen to me. If I'm right you're going to hell. who is snowy I. prophets proclaimed. Because everything in this world has a reward.
Pascal's Wager. That's totally lame. Possibly the worst reason to believe in God.
The only people with the lack of understanding are theists, and they're some of the dumbest people on the planet. So do you really expect them to understand anything?
Unpopular opinion
There are very few Atheists in the world. People who say they are Atheists are just non-religious, which is not the same.
atheism is a religion
People hate Atheists. They also insist on conflating atheism and agnosticism.
Because it's the people throwing it out. Really they sound religious..
I’m just confused how you can be so sure that God does not exist
I'm as sure that Yahweh and Allah don't exist as I am sure that the tooth fairy doesn't exist.