"I guess more people...." I feel somewhat offended when I read that. I don't recall ever being asked about my religion by a new acquaintance. I have had established friends bring up religion. My usual reply is as here: "I'm a lifelong card carrying atheist, but I have all the respect in the world for genuine believers. If asked about 'genuine,' I explain my opinion of grifters who claim to be religious. Example: along with the grifter telephone calls we all get these days, there's an occasional religious grifter. Wife has a friend she met during her work time who invites us to special services at her church. I might add that we've had friends who participate on non Christian religions.
I've known people for years without knowing where, or if, they attended church anywhere. Sometimes it comes up, but that would depend on what the relationship is. I am a Christian but many of my closest relationships were not based on religion. If my relationships were based on shared religious beliefs, I wouldn't have any friends. I am an Anabaptist but I haven't lived near any other Anabaptists since the early 1980s, as far as I am aware. For that matter, I have served as an interim pastor for a Church of Christ congregation, and as a deacon in an American Baptist congregation, and I'm not either of those.
And I have many friends who are devout Hindi’s and they will tell you it’s a religion. To be true, ALL religions are steeped in philosophy hence the term, theosophy.
Just an FYI, the very reason this board exists is because of the many Atheists who would come into the Religion board in the middle of a conversation just to proclaim their anti-theist stance and why they believe the way they do. The only reason why I have personally made comments on this thread is the fact that you basically asked Christians to respond otherwise I stay away from this category entirely.
Gee, why your comment sounds "so defensive"? Yes, to me religion is a lie and those who chose to react aggressively towards me for saying so are not only very afraid people but enjoy to step on the 1st. Amendment.
So…..it is fine for you to call someone a liar for believing in religion, but it is trampling on your right to free speech if they get upset about you calling their beliefs lies ? This street goes both ways, you know. If you feel that you have the right to insult someone for their beliefs, then you should expect that they have the very same right to insult you back (should they be inclined ). Conversations actually go much better if no one insults the other person.
Yvonne, See, people' opinions and statements are not always perceived correctly. I never said the believers are liars but that religion -all- are. Big difference. Now, if we are going to talk about insults...please allow me to tell you that many believers have insulted me -no my way of thinking but my person- for being an Atheist. I have been called "ho, criminal, baby eater, ignorant prost...,degenerated, murderer and more....both in English and Spanish.
I might have replied: Oh, so you want to eat a few babies and do some other bad things, but you are afraid of God's reaction?
Going all the way to your first post, seems to me that the aggressor was you. Are you so insecure with your Personal stance that you have to challenge believers at every step of the way? So far as stepping on the first amendment: Do tell me how that is possible? Free speech is free speech. If I have a problem with someone exercising their right to free speech then I can choose to challenge them or walk away. Seems to me that you believe in YOUR right to free speech but negate another’s right to the same. And to be REALLY picky, the Bill of Rights declares that our rights are God given and since you have no belief in God then by extension have also personally negated the terms by which that right was legally ratified hence also negating that right. You want to have the same rights as I do but only on your own terms which is not even vaguely declared in the Constitution. The reason that Right is written that way is because it’s already known that anything mankind can grant can be taken away by mankind and it seems to me you’re trying very hard to do just that whilst enjoying that right only for yourself.
In all my years around a myriad of different beliefs, I have never once heard anyone crank down on an Atheist for being an Atheist in the manner you have described. Not once. The other Atheists who have been on board here have never said anything like you have described and the Atheists I have known have never said that they were persecuted in that manner. Seems to me that there’s another story going on that really doesn’t have anything to do with Atheism but of some other problem you have ascribed to and rationalized that is must be because you’re an Atheist. I have heard a lot of people called those names and I myself was called a baby killer but it didn’t have anything to do with a belief system.
A good friend from university, a philosopher, points out that you can't have theism without atheism. The implication is that both have been in place for some time and that each needs the other for various reasons.
It is good reasoning to assume that polar opposites appear in all substantial thought processes but in this case I think the logic doesn’t hold. Atheism does indeed Need Theism in order to exist but Theism only needs itself to exist because of it’s definitive value. A comparative study I read some years ago likened the debacle to a donut in that the donut needs no hole to exist. With or without a hole a donut is still a donut. On the other hand, a donut hole without any doubt needs the donut to be a donut hole. By the bye @Ralf Mannheim, Welcome to the SeniorsOnly Forum!
Are you implying Atheism is a consequence? Something like ""If the world didn't have criminals jails wouldn't have been invented."" ? See, to me -and to those who think alike- Atheism is COMMION SENSE.
You have written that contrary to Theists, Atheists do not try to convert people to their way of thinking. To directly posit your position as “common sense” (in bold letters no less) is indeed intended to force one to believe that anything other than your way of thinking is NOT common sense. In essence, you are attacking someone’s intellectual bearings which is contradictory to your earlier post. And yes, Atheism definitely IS a consequence of Theism since Atheism can’t exist without Theism.