Lack of belief in gods.

[Curious George]

Here are four different positions:

- "Smoking makes everything smell awful."
- "I'm fine with the smell of smoking, but the health effects are too much."
- "I'd love to smoke, but I can't afford it."
- "Smoking? I have no idea what that is."

If I tell you "Brian's a non-smoker", which of these positions would you infer that Brian has taken?

Smoking makes everything smell awful.
I like to smoke.
I would quit if they weren't so addictive.
Smoking causes no harm.
The harm smoking does cause won't happen to me.

If I tell you Brian is a smoker which of those positions would you infer he had?

Your line of reason is faulty. That Brian is a smoker tells you Brian smokes. That is a position. That Brian is a non smoker tells you that Brian does not smoke. That is a position.

 

[Thief]

Conversations with you need no help from me to be confused.

so we agree?......atheism is a declaration

 

[Thief]

What he is saying is simple and easy to understand.

and yet.....

 

[Jeremiahcp]

and yet.....

And yet what? You gonna tell the man how he thinks? As if you know his own thoughts better than he does.

 

[Thief]

And yet what? You gonna tell the man how he thinks? As if you know his own thoughts better than he does.

He displays his method.....
and you do so as well

 

[Willamena]

The term "atheist" has no less value than the term "non-smoker"... another term that tells you nothing about what a person's position is, but only what they don't do.

The point is that non-smoker is a position, just as atheist is. You can trivialize the effort of all those people who went to through the process of eliminating cigarettes by putting them on a par with people who have never picked up a cigarette, but that's on you.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

He displays his method.....
and you do so as well

And because you read some of his posts you think you know the man's mind better than he does?

 

[Thief]

And because you read some post you think you know the man's mind better than he does? That is one giant ego you have there.

and with this most recent of yours.....
have you not done the same?

ego?

 

[Jeremiahcp]

and with this most recent of yours.....
have you not done the same?

ego?

I am am not trying to tell you what you believe.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

If someone says they lack a belief in gods, whose place is it to tell them otherwise? You can't read their mind and you can't force them to believe in the same manner you do.

 

[Thief]

If someone says they lack a belief in gods, whose place is it to tell them otherwise? You can't read their mind and you can't force them to believe in the same manner you do.

and the label is applied accordingly

 

[Jeremiahcp]

Well I guess none of this really matters in the scope of things. I mean it is not like any of this is real anyways.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

and the label is applied accordingly

Ah I see, so your game is just semantics.

 

[Thief]

Well I guess none of this really matters in the scope of things. I mean it is not like any of this is real anyways.

and we get to say it again.....as we stand before God and heaven

that you don't believe now........ doesn't mean it won't happen

 

[Jeremiahcp]

and we get to say it again.....as we stand before God and heaven

that you don't believe now........ doesn't mean it won't happen

If I die and find out there is an afterlife I am gonna kill myself.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

so we agree?......atheism is a declaration

Heck no.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

The point is that non-smoker is a position, just as atheist is.

The exact opposite, in fact. Neither are positions.

You can trivialize the effort of all those people who went to through the process of eliminating cigarettes by putting them on a par with people who have never picked up a cigarette, but that's on you.

No, that's what you're doing.

If someone's a non-smoker, you don't know what their position is; you only know that whatever their position is, it doesn't involve smoking. If you want to find out their position, you need to delve deeper.

 

[Willamena]

No, that's what you're doing.

If someone's a non-smoker, you don't know what their position is; you only know that whatever their position is, it doesn't involve smoking. If you want to find out their position, you need to delve deeper.

If they've gone through the effort of eliminating cigarette smoking from their lives, for whatever reason, then their position is against cigarette smoking.

That's why we can't include people who have never picked up a cigarette, not without trivializing the first group, the real non-smokers.

 

[Jeremiahcp]

What I want to know is why is this so important for some believers?

If they've gone through the effort of eliminating cigarette smoking from their lives, for whatever reason, then their position is against cigarette smoking.

That's why we can't include people who have never picked up a cigarette, not without trivializing the first group, the real non-smokers.

You are assuming their position is against cigarette smoking, as far as you know they like smoking but they stopped because their spouse asked them to or for a number of different reasons.

 

[Willamena]

What I want to know is why is this so important for some believers?

I wouldn't know.

You are assuming their position is against cigarette smoking, as far as you know they like smoking but they stopped because their spouse asked them to or for a number of different reasons.

That they invest in their spouses opinion that they shouldn't smoke is to be against smoking.

I'm never, in my life, going to defend the right of infants or innocents to smoke.