timothy1027
Technology Advocate! :-)
Atheists seem to just give up, before they even start thinking. This must prevent them from burning up calories from mental gymnastics! 
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Atheists (humorous) :-)
- Thread starter timothy1027
- Start date
You must have been very busy - talking to each and every one as to why they became atheists.Atheists seem to just give up, before they even start thinking. This must prevent them from burning up calories from mental gymnastics!
timothy1027
Technology Advocate! :-)
I NEVER hear them talk. It's like they are all members of SECRET societies!You must have been very busy - talking to each and every one as to why they became atheists.
I suspect - apart from those here who are willing to discuss their beliefs and non-beliefs - that most just aren't trying to sell their atheism that much (apart from the Four Horsemen) and just trying to live a life as they see fit. And often anything coming from them will be as responses to actions, behaviours, or beliefs from the religious - with much of this being harmful, in their view.I NEVER hear them talk. It's like they are all members of SECRET societies!
Atheists seem to just give up, before they even start thinking. This must prevent them from burning up calories from mental gymnastics!
At 132 lbs and 5ft 10, I'm an atheist who cannot afford to burb calories so is you are brave enough to talk i will happily respond.
I NEVER hear them talk. It's like they are all members of SECRET societies!
Perhaps that religious cotton wool in your ears is restricting your hearing.
mikkel_the_dane
My own religion
Atheists seem to just give up, before they even start thinking. This must prevent them from burning up calories from mental gymnastics!
Well, as a functional atheist, yet relgious I have spent around 25 years thinking about thinking and other aspects of how the world works in practice.
timothy1027
Technology Advocate! :-)
I am no longer "religious."
I am a 63-year-old agnostic theist who is in the process of deconstructing from Christianity.
I have recently concluded the following: Blind faith is a SCAM, the Bible is an ancient book of mythology that is manipulative, contains gas lighting and was written by anonymous people. MUCH of Scripture appears to be anonymous people trying to rationalize their beliefs, which were NOT based on any verifiable evidence. The Bible is NOT an accurate history book. It is a carefully amalgamated book of facts, fictions, contradictions, evidence-free claims, convoluted ambiguity, manipulations & superstitions.
My statements are based on my lifetime of critical thinking, education, exploration, and experience with religion including (9 years of) Bible studies, sermons & prayer. Many thousands of people worldwide agree with me on this. I've also recently seen relevant performances from "parkergetajob" debates (236.3K followers), streamed live on TikTok & the late comedian/philosopher George Carlin. Tim Barber updated 7/18/23.
mikkel_the_dane
My own religion
timothy1027
Technology Advocate! :-)
I am perfectly willing to talk to smart outspoken atheists, they just seem to be drown out by all the LOUDMOUTH religious folk.
I am a 63-year-old agnostic theist who is in the process of deconstructing from Christianity.
I have recently concluded the following: Blind faith is a SCAM, the Bible is an ancient book of mythology that is manipulative, contains gas lighting and was written by anonymous people. MUCH of Scripture appears to be anonymous people trying to rationalize their beliefs, which were NOT based on any verifiable evidence. The Bible is NOT an accurate history book. It is a carefully amalgamated book of facts, fictions, contradictions, evidence-free claims, convoluted ambiguity, manipulations & superstitions.
My statements are based on my lifetime of critical thinking, education, exploration, and experience with religion including (9 years of) Bible studies, sermons & prayer. Many thousands of people worldwide agree with me on this. I've also recently seen relevant performances from "parkergetajob" debates (236.3K followers), streamed live on TikTok & the late comedian/philosopher George Carlin. Tim Barber updated 7/18/23.
timothy1027
Technology Advocate! :-)
"My statements are based on my lifetime of critical thinking, education, exploration, and experience with religion including (9 years of) Bible studies, sermons & prayer..."
The only thing I am lacking at this point is date-stamped video recordings!
Good to meet you, perhaps i should have said theistic cotton wool to cover all bases
mikkel_the_dane
My own religion
"My statements are based on my lifetime of critical thinking, education, exploration, and experience with religion including (9 years of) Bible studies, sermons & prayer..."
The only thing I am lacking at this point is date-stamped video recordings!
Yeah, on ignore on you go.
timothy1027
Technology Advocate! :-)
What is your worldview?
I don't particularly have one, I don't consider philosophy to be enough to base my understanding of the world on. However, for my own part i think the people i know we are all different.
OK.... Could you expand on that?Atheists seem to just give up, before they even start thinking. This must prevent them from burning up calories from mental gymnastics!
It seems to me that atheists often do more thinking than theists, who are handed belief systems on silver platters, so have no need to think about things. In fact, their religions often discourage them from questioning the narrative.
Sometimes.
That's certainly what happened to me during my angstheist phase. But my experiences are hardly representative of all atheists and I wouldn't characterize what I was doing back then as "mental gymnastics." Nah, it was simple ignorance combined with category error - finding the one religion I was being raised in stupid, and then condemning all other religion as stupid as well without actually investigating in depth. Thus "gave up" on the topic and didn't bother thinking about it beyond "religion [Christianity] is stupid" and "God is stupid."
That's certainly what happened to me during my angstheist phase. But my experiences are hardly representative of all atheists and I wouldn't characterize what I was doing back then as "mental gymnastics." Nah, it was simple ignorance combined with category error - finding the one religion I was being raised in stupid, and then condemning all other religion as stupid as well without actually investigating in depth. Thus "gave up" on the topic and didn't bother thinking about it beyond "religion [Christianity] is stupid" and "God is stupid."
I'm old enough not to be that interested in debating about my beliefs or lack of them. I didn't have any particular 'education' as to religious belief (for which I thank my parents) apart from what was imparted during schooling and that was easily ignored given that it was about as boring as much else at school. I had suspicions as to religions not being what they presented themselves to be when I discovered there were so many different beliefs - probably during my last year of primary school. During my teenage years I had more of an interest in philosophy and psychology, along with science, and basically became an atheist from such times. I have ended up as an agnostic atheist, given that I believe we cannot know if there was and is some creative force (or whatever) behind the existence of the universe.
Heyo
Veteran Member
I do like to exercise my brain but mental gymnastics isn't that high up on my list.Atheists seem to just give up, before they even start thinking. This must prevent them from burning up calories from mental gymnastics!
wellwisher
Well-Known Member
I look at religion and even mythology in a way, that allows me to bridge these to science. For example, although the ancient sky was modeled with planet and constellations in the images of Gods, the ancient astronomers could still use this empirical system to make accurate predictions of eclipses, asteroids, path of planets as a function of the time of the year. Something was on the ball, even if their theory was not up to modern standards.
In a way, this is similar to statistical science and math that uses a black box. Neither gods to explain planets or a black box fill with the odds of dice and cards, is very rational. But the observations and empirical correlation can still be useful. Neither are fully rational, but both have/had practice value.
I like to reverse engineer the ideas of the past, since although they lacked modern theory, these people were still good data collectors and could correlate, using their own versions of a black box; whims of the gods. The baby could still be clean, if I could learn how to interpret and bridge the past to the present.
I remember there was a time when I was learning about collective human symbolism as a hobby. I was a Chemical Engineer, by trade, and in my spare time, I enjoyed learning about middle Age Alchemy which was the precursor of modern chemistry. They invented extraction and distillation even though their theory was odd by modern standards. We still use many of their inventions and many of their reactions still stand the test of time, all without knowing about the atom and quantum theory.
As a synchronicity, I was given a development project, at that time, that require I extend the best available technology for removing mercury from water, to meet EPA standards 10 years in the future. There was nothing in the literature, since this was not yet done. So I decided to see if the alchemist symbolism I was learning could help me catch the elusive mercurial serpent, which was a main character in Alchemy; Quicksilver.
In alchemy thinking, like attracted like, instead of opposites attract. They thought more in the terms of birds of a feather flock together, instead of positive and negative attract. Since Mercury was viewed as the mercurial serpent, which was often associated with Satan, the symbolism suggested that I needed the chemicals symbolic of the things of hell, to help me lure and secure the elusive quicksilver. What came to mind was the sulfur fires of hell and the atom iron who was connected to Mars, the god of war; war is hell.
To make a long story short, what came out of the Alchemy symbolism, in light of my modern science mind, was a modified anion exchange resin that I saturated with sulfide, to make it a cation exchange resin coated in sulfide. I then reacted this with ferric ions or iron +3, which is a reactive form of iron. Now the resin surface was full of iron+3 sulfide.
The mercury in water I was trying to secure, was in the form of mercury oxide, based on lab analysis. This was a curveball. My trap for mercury would use the ferric ion (Mars) to lure oxide side of the mercury oxide to form an iron-oxide-mercury transient state, then the mercury would react with the sulfide of the iron, and attach to the ion exchange resin, releasing the iron oxide; rust.
I was able to capture quicksilver to parts per trillion; devil beware. I even wrote a paper that was publish using an alchemy symbolism introduction and a science and engineering analysis. This led to confusion due to my weird introduction to give credit where credit was due, and my quick turnover, since it only took three weeks to complete and demonstrate. After that I was called the mercury man. I still see value in the symbolic past. You only need to learn how to translate it to the modern to make it useful even today.
In a way, this is similar to statistical science and math that uses a black box. Neither gods to explain planets or a black box fill with the odds of dice and cards, is very rational. But the observations and empirical correlation can still be useful. Neither are fully rational, but both have/had practice value.
I like to reverse engineer the ideas of the past, since although they lacked modern theory, these people were still good data collectors and could correlate, using their own versions of a black box; whims of the gods. The baby could still be clean, if I could learn how to interpret and bridge the past to the present.
I remember there was a time when I was learning about collective human symbolism as a hobby. I was a Chemical Engineer, by trade, and in my spare time, I enjoyed learning about middle Age Alchemy which was the precursor of modern chemistry. They invented extraction and distillation even though their theory was odd by modern standards. We still use many of their inventions and many of their reactions still stand the test of time, all without knowing about the atom and quantum theory.
As a synchronicity, I was given a development project, at that time, that require I extend the best available technology for removing mercury from water, to meet EPA standards 10 years in the future. There was nothing in the literature, since this was not yet done. So I decided to see if the alchemist symbolism I was learning could help me catch the elusive mercurial serpent, which was a main character in Alchemy; Quicksilver.
In alchemy thinking, like attracted like, instead of opposites attract. They thought more in the terms of birds of a feather flock together, instead of positive and negative attract. Since Mercury was viewed as the mercurial serpent, which was often associated with Satan, the symbolism suggested that I needed the chemicals symbolic of the things of hell, to help me lure and secure the elusive quicksilver. What came to mind was the sulfur fires of hell and the atom iron who was connected to Mars, the god of war; war is hell.
To make a long story short, what came out of the Alchemy symbolism, in light of my modern science mind, was a modified anion exchange resin that I saturated with sulfide, to make it a cation exchange resin coated in sulfide. I then reacted this with ferric ions or iron +3, which is a reactive form of iron. Now the resin surface was full of iron+3 sulfide.
The mercury in water I was trying to secure, was in the form of mercury oxide, based on lab analysis. This was a curveball. My trap for mercury would use the ferric ion (Mars) to lure oxide side of the mercury oxide to form an iron-oxide-mercury transient state, then the mercury would react with the sulfide of the iron, and attach to the ion exchange resin, releasing the iron oxide; rust.
I was able to capture quicksilver to parts per trillion; devil beware. I even wrote a paper that was publish using an alchemy symbolism introduction and a science and engineering analysis. This led to confusion due to my weird introduction to give credit where credit was due, and my quick turnover, since it only took three weeks to complete and demonstrate. After that I was called the mercury man. I still see value in the symbolic past. You only need to learn how to translate it to the modern to make it useful even today.
Heyo
Veteran Member
There are smart outspoken atheists here on RF but if you want to talk to really intelligent people, try talking to Agnostics.
(jk;-)