From all the news, Atheists including Dawkins are going wild with celebration over Red China’s huge PR victory at the Olympics!
Only Atheism is allowed in China, people registering to protest get tricked into arrest and condemned to re-education camps without trials.
China got it all and made no concessions to the olympic committee or the world!
a victory for anti-democracy is a victory for atheism!!!
Could you provide a source that suggests any of that is true. I’d be interested to read a quote from Dawkins to that effect.
Oh, and what position have you been offered by the McCain campaign?
why mccain?
do you think he’s the only christian running for president?
the only fan of democracy?
billy
Wow, did Billy finally discover Rush?
I’m not celebrating, and no one I would want to associate with is either…I don’t see any proof in any case.
That doesn’t mean that some religions don’t make me feel sick, however.
Several do.
Man, it’s amazing how you atheists stick together and back each other up, despite the awful human rights record you have.
you’re saying china doesn’t make you sick, with all their anti-democracy? Is that the only way you people can try to ban religion?
Billy, he just said the opposite.
I know you like to stir the pot and all, but you’re getting dangerously close to trolling.
Good old Billy: ironically, the subtle irony is always so subtle it’s easily overlooked.
…
Although I do believe that it would be beneficial to mankind if all religions were no longer taken seriously and everyone turned Atheist, I must say this isn’t the way to go about it. Although I’m an atheist, I am also quite a pacifist and although I believe their goal is just, it is just not okay to use such methods in order to achieve a goal, unless used as a last resort. In this case, even if all else fails such methods shouldn’t be used as it would cause more harm than good because the goal of global atheism(or at least throughout China) isn’t important enough for such action.
I think I share the same opinion as the majority of atheists on here…
Agree.
exactly. you all agree with the ends China has achieved, ie., no religion. you just have different methods in mind for achieving these ends.
I’m an atheist. This is a conclusion I’ve reached after a lot of reading and a lot of thinking over a period of decades, and something I regard as important. I emphasise that to contrast with the some atheists who use the word (or the word “agnostic”) either because they don’t really believe in anything and have never really thought about; or who only say it to shock and annoy religious believers.
From this position, I believe that religion does a lot of harm, but it also does a lot of good. I don’t think being an atheist makes you a good or a bad person, and I don’t think you can say someone is good or bad on the basis of their religious belief either.
I have a problem with the effect that organised religion has on the way that societies work.
However, it is not the religion that “the masses” appear to need so much as “certainty”. Most people want an easy answer they can file away, rather than having to think about things every day.
This is the impulse that gives rise not only to “religious communities” (whole suburbs, cities or states where, coincidentally, everyone reaches the same basic cosmological conclusons) as well as to racism, nationalism, communism and so on.
Banning religion and replacing it with a compulsory code of behaviour and belief in a central authority is not a big step forward! It’s like rebranding French fries as freedom fries.
I don’t think that anyone with a sincere and well thought out atheist world view would applaud any of the various comminist states for the way they have tried to exclude religion by replacing it with something so similar.
In my ideal world, religion would gradually fade away and be replaced with a widespread commitment to freedom of thought and universal personal responsibility. I shan’t hold my breath, though.
I agree with that. I’m a Christian who dislikes organized religion. Organizations such as the Catholic Church, southern Baptist convention, etc… have been made by people not God. Because we are all sinful our errors, biases, sins, and flaws will all be present and often amplified in such organizations.
If china really wants to get rid of Christianity they are going about it all wrong. Historically Christianity thrives under persecution. Underground churches often have the most fervent zealots. China may be helping strengthen belief.
Nothing stops the spread of Christianity like apathy from believers and non-believers alike.
If you did that, would you really need to be called athiests anymore? Like, if everyone went to the fact their is no god to believe in, why group up and say it doesnt exist? That kinda seems like it would portray a chance of god and religion. If there was no god and no religion, I wouldnt call myself an athiest, there wouldnt need to be labels like that.
Im not sure about organized religion. Ive seen it work, and seen it do more bad than good. Theres so many variables with it.
Anyways, I dont think Billy could ever be a troll. I like his imput in these forums, and even when they dont make sense, push buttons, and all of that, I think everyone else likes them too.
The real trolls are bad though, but in my mind, Billy is far from their level.
though a stubborn atheist myself I have no such wish.
I just would like people to recognise that to face a complex world “paths” are of some help: but one must have the humility to face the fact that this is a trick that helps us reduce complexity and it is not “Truth”!
Hence different religious (and non religous people) could agree on issues not on myths, images, artificial constructs with deep cultural roots. I respect cultural inheritance but do not like to have it imposed as Truth and only path to virtue.
(in fact zealots try to hide the fact that they are unsure of their belief!)
Actually I felt quite healthy in China and the food was great too!
i was gonna make a smart response. but the top sentence is typical of my experience of christians talking about their “faith”. Their arguments make little sense.
Of course they weren’t made by god! Christians follow stuff in the bible and that wasn’t written by god either…
Not all Christians follow much of the Bible. The Bible is a collection of books of different ages.
Few Christians, if any, believe that God wrote the Bible.
So that’s a bit of a straw man you’re attacking there, Brendan.
I am not a religionist, by a long way, but I acknowledge the important point being made by a religious person who says that churches are made by man, not by God.
Religious believers generally believe in a higher spiritual power. They often believe that this power inspired either one or more prophets, or one or more books. They often believe that truth and wisdom can be found by studying the sayings of the prophets or reading the books.
But most religious believers are not so naive as to be unaware that “The Word” in whatever form is a powerful tool that can be abused and distorted to reinforce the positions of those in political or economic power.
I think that religious believers are very wrong about something that is very important, but I do not believe that they are stupid.
do you have a problenm with that? atheists follow stuff in books that weren’t written by god either.
You think that, despite evidence to the contrary which you can find right here on the Unicyclist.Com. or you’re saying your fellow atheists here hae not thought out their position…
When people go to the trouble to found their whole form of government on atheism, it’s hard to believe it isn’t well thought out.
Why is it you don’t think that anyone with a sincere and well thought out atheist world view would applaud any of the various comminist states for the way they have tried to exclude religion by replacing it with something so similar? Is that unethical in atheism? is freedom of religion essential to atheism?
Nothing is essential to atheism. Atheism by definition makes no positive claims.
What I’m curious about, however, is whether or not you’ve found a source for your OP yet?
yes?..no?..I thought not.