Is Athiesm a Religion?

[outhouse]

I was about to agree except for the last sentence. You believe people who's brains are hardwired differently then yours are diseased or deranged?

Its not about different beliefs.

It is about how one refuses reality and favors mythology. And he placed it into context quite clearly.

Do you or do you not agree fanaticism and fundamentalism is not a positive attribute to any society?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

It just feels that it should.

Sorry, I know that you will not like such an answer, but honestly that is the one I have to offer.

No, I actually appreciate the honesty.

 

[outhouse]

I will readily admit that I am not well aware of those studies, much less their quality.

But I have met enough people who show a vocation towards theism to believe that there is something to that. Perhaps not very much, but apparently something.

Exactly

As I have stated, there are no current credible studies or evidence that suggest theism is our default position.


Are babies born theist? yes or no?

 

[LuisDantas]

Exactly

As I have stated, there are no current credible studies or evidence that suggest theism is our default position.


Are babies born theist? yes or no?

Obviously not, but I don't think that is quite what Sunstone or Willamena were saying either.

Sunstone seems to be supporting (and I guess I provisionally agree) that many or most people are in effect "doomed" to become theists from birth. And Willamena has issues with our understanding of how naturally wide the concept of implicit atheism should be.

Neither translates into saying (as Muslims seem to) that people are literally born theistic.

 

[Nakosis]

Which factually makes them an implicit atheist.

Wiki
This would categorize as implicit atheists those adults who have never heard of the concept of deities, and those adults who have not given the idea any real consideration.

So you don't consider yourself an implicit atheist?

 

[LuisDantas]

So you don't consider yourself an implicit atheist?

Implicit atheism is arguably lost for good after a certain age (not sure which age exactly) for people like us who are born in societies that teach us about deities left and right.

 

[outhouse]

Sunstone seems to be supporting (and I guess I provisionally agree) that many or most people are in effect "doomed" to become theists from birth. .

Agreed.

But, you could take that same baby and place it in a atheist family. And odds are that baby will become an atheist.

It only changes a 100% success rate.

 

[outhouse]

So you don't consider yourself an implicit atheist?

No I was a theist before education and knowledge showed me exactly how man created all deities to date.

My daughter however is an implicit atheist. She has never been a theist, and never believed in a deity.

 

[ArtieE]

Sunstone seems to be supporting (and I guess I provisionally agree) that many or most people are in effect "doomed" to become theists from birth. And Willamena has issues with our understanding of how naturally wide the concept of implicit atheism should be.

Neither translates into saying (as Muslims seem to) that people are literally born theistic.

Every Child is Born Muslim

 

[outhouse]

And Willamena has issues with our understanding of how naturally wide the concept of implicit atheism should be.

.

Which I claim as religious fanaticism, as the definition is posted and is quite clear.

She kept the last definition thread going over this, in an inane attempt to not accept the current state of education and knowledge.

 

[Willamena]

Precisely. So until you are exposed to theism you are per definition not theist. Atheist.

The definition of atheism is disbelief or lack of belief in god or gods.

 

[LuisDantas]

The definition of atheism is disbelief or lack of belief in god or gods.

We actually agree with that; we just don't acknowledge as legit your understanding of what that means.

 

[Willamena]

Which I claim as religious fanaticism, as the definition is posted and is quite clear.

She kept the last definition thread going over this, in an inane attempt to not accept the current state of education and knowledge.

By "current state of education and knowledge," you mean the previous states were stupid?

 

[Willamena]

Okay. Let's look at it this way. A glass represents a person. Theism represents a fluid. Atheism represents a lack of fluid.

That's a poetic image. Even there, atheism is something.

 

[ArtieE]

The definition of atheism is disbelief or lack of belief in god or gods.

Quite. Atheism (weak implicit atheism) is lack of belief, strong atheism is disbelief.

 

[Willamena]

"Something exists that it is worth calling / thinking of as a deity of some kind."

Excuse me a moment, I have to figure out this multiple quoting.

 

[LuisDantas]

Excuse me a moment, I have to figure out this multiple quoting.

You asked me for the definition of theism, IIRC. That is it.

 

[Willamena]

Atheism is taught too.

Sometimes. But it is not clear to me that it isn't also inherent to at least some people before they are presented to the idea of belief in God. See my post #160 in this thread.

One cannot believe in an idea until they exposed to it. That goes for the negation of belief, too.

You don't believe or disbelieve without something to believe or disbelieve in: a proposition.

To which I mean that the negation is no less than the idea learned and negated.

To which you replied, in regard to inherent atheism...

I don't think so. Atheism is a passive stance, at least in its original form.

And that it is a stance about...

"Something exists that it is worth calling / thinking of as a deity of some kind."

That passive stance, like the belief it represents, has a proposition: "Something exists that it is worth calling / thinking of as a deity of some kind" that is learned. It is all learned--there is nothing inherent about any stance, belief or view.

 

[LuisDantas]

That, it seems, we just won't agree on. Atheism is inherent far as I can tell, until and unless specifically countered.

 

[Robert.Evans]

Again, what's your point? To say "atheist tortured and killed people" is to say relatively little. In fact, borscht lovers tortured and killed people as well, ad did humus lovers.

Are you perhaps truing to suggest that "atheist tortured and killed people" as a consequence of their atheism? If so, watching you attempt to justify the claim should be more than a little entertaining.

are you trying to say that about religion?
I think you will find it is human nature if so.