Atheism

vibe666 · 04-05-2009 10:50pm

O'Coonassa wrote: »

I see, but since science has no answers regarding our origin other than that one mental sentence it seems that there is a gap in the knowledge and into this gap leaps faith. As I say I had at the start of this thread the impression that agnosticism was the lack of belief position, wheras atheism was the active disbelief. Thanks to sink and others I can see that the positions are not as black and white as I had originally perceived them to be.

lol, now i don't know any more! :pac:

johnnyskeleton · 04-05-2009 11:02pm

O'Coonassa wrote: »

I've had it cynically explained to me as the belief that there was nothing, and nothing acted upon that nothingness, and then for an unknown reason it exploded into everything; then for no good reason other than sheer random chance bits of everything rearranged themselves into bits that could make more of themselves and then they turned into apes who thought they knew about nearly everything.

Is that fair?

Atheism is the absence of religious belief. Each indiviual atheist is entitled to have their own views on the origins of the universe, provided they don't start with an old greybearded man with a toolbox and a jam sandwich industriously creating everything then sitting back for a breather (such is my understanding of Chirstian belief at any rate).

pH · 05-05-2009 12:38am

O'Coonassa wrote: »

Is that fair?

Overheal · 05-05-2009 1:58am

O'Coonassa wrote: »

I've had it cynically explained to me as the belief that there was nothing, and nothing acted upon that nothingness, and then for an unknown reason it exploded into everything; then for no good reason other than sheer random chance bits of everything rearranged themselves into bits that could make more of themselves and then they turned into apes who thought they knew about nearly everything.

Is that fair?

About as fair as the idea that a God/Gods suddenly Shyte out of nothing. Oh, and that they were humanoid.

Big Bang or God. Take your pick. Either is at the end of the day just a fancy way to plug the gap in a tormenting infinite loop of thought relating to the origin of everything.

Get caught in that loop long enough and your brain will explode or you will commit suicide, Ive become convinced.

Goduznt Xzst · 05-05-2009 11:59am

O'Coonassa wrote: »

Is that fair?

An easier way to think of Atheism/Agnosticism is how relevant the individual finds Gods existence. Atheists will largely not say that a God can't exist or that they know it doesn't exist, but rather it's existence has no relevance to Humans.

The agnostic thinks the concept of God has some relevance. The Atheist does not. Both camps are (or at least should be) equal in that they cannot say if a or the God exists.

But most Atheists would say that if such a God exists, we don't know anything about it, and the humans that claim they do are either liars or deluded or both.

seamus · 05-05-2009 12:07pm

O'Coonassa wrote: »

No. I just wanted to see if Atheists felt if that was a fair description of their position.

You're making the mistake of assuming that all atheists have the same position. Atheism isn't a religion. You can take it that atheism is defined as having no belief in any God. That's it. There is nothing more to the atheist "position". Sure, you'll find groups of atheists who share a similar position (such as Buddhists), but to add anything onto "no God" and claim it as the atheist "position" is a fundamental mistake. They will all have their own opinions on how, why and when.

O'Coonassa · 05-05-2009 1:57pm

seamus wrote: »

Atheism isn't a religion.

Indeed I see that now, I had thought it to be a more uniform belief system than it actually is, what threw me perhaps is the inclusion of this forum in the Religion & Spirituality section.