Atheist Sunday Assembly goes worldwide, the future is bright for non-believers

the sometimes rampant opposition to this idea is most interesting.

seeing as so many are opposed to it i kinda feel like i actually should attend now, despite my ambivilance

Originally posted by jjkenobi
Hahaha. The atheists want to meet and fellowship with like minded people. How cute. And ironic. Would it be possible to make Atheism more like a religion?

You would have to add the instructed spiritual thought and unprovable invisible supreme entity/s to make that the case.
Loving the desperation to make a shared lack of belief a religion, that is rather cute in itself

Originally posted by skalla
the sometimes rampant opposition to this idea is most interesting.

seeing as so many are opposed to it i kinda feel like i actually should attend now, despite my ambivilance

I know, it is mildy amusing to say the least
The funniest bit is that nowhere is the Sunday Assembly opposing religion in itself, just offering a place for the non believers to hook up and share some social contact, with interesting discussions and a wider community minded outlook.

reply to post by grainofsand


Atheism is the ultimate expression of pride and arrogance. I find this just as comical as the extreme religion mindset it just the other end of the spectrum.

Ask one simple question:

Is it possible for God to exist?
What is your simple answer? Yes or No?

How you answer the above question can very quickly expose the heart of the matter.

To each his own and all that...If you answer no to the question then please do tell us what's out there in the rest of the universe and beyond the world that human eyes can even see because you must know coming to the conclusion there is no creator, so please .. do tell!

Originally posted by jjkenobi
Hahaha. The atheists want to meet and fellowship with like minded people. How cute. And ironic. Would it be possible to make Atheism more like a religion?

If that's all you require to meet the definition of religion, then almost every hobby ever is a religion. ATS is a religion. Everyone is religious and therefore the term loses all meaning. That's useful.

Religion as being referred to here requires worship of a supreme being or higher power, or intelligence.

reply to post by skalla


What if a ghost suddenly appears midst the Atheist Sunday gathering??? Then again God does not appear in Sunday masses for the believers as well???

Just throwing this out there for laughs...

Originally posted by firegoggles

Atheism is the ultimate expression of pride and arrogance.

Is it possible for God to exist?
What is your simple answer? Yes or No?

The correct answer is "define God". Which God? What are his properties? How can you meaningfully speak of the possible existence of a being who has not been properly defined?

Is it possible for BNJHGHGVJH to exist?
What is your simple answer? Yes or No?

If we accept that "God" means, simply "A higher power who is the creator of this Universe", then I would reply "Yes, it is possible he exists". At the same time, I would still call myself an atheist because atheism is simply the lack of belief in God.

A better question would be:

Do you believe that God (a higher power who is the creator of this Universe) exists?
What is your simple answer? Yes or No?

If your answer is not "Yes", then you are an atheist, whether you are sure or not, or you have no idea. Any answer but "Yes" means you fit the definition of atheist, because you lack belief in it.

Deny ignorance, learn what atheism really means before attacking it so ignorantly.

Originally posted by firegoggles
reply to post by grainofsand

 

Atheism is the ultimate expression of pride and arrogance. I find this just as comical as the extreme religion mindset it just the other end of the spectrum.

Ask one simple question:

Is it possible for God to exist?
What is your simple answer? Yes or No?

How you answer the above question can very quickly expose the heart of the matter.

To each his own and all that...If you answer no to the question then please do tell us what's out there in the rest of the universe and beyond the world that human eyes can even see because you must know coming to the conclusion there is no creator, so please .. do tell!

It is possible for Zeus, Thor, Jesus or [insert any gods] to exist, of course. I have seen nothing in my life to draw me towards thinking that way so I do not believe they ever have. I do not state it is impossible, just that I will not blindly believe something which has no supporting evidence whatsoever. You call it arrogance, I call it rational thinking.

I do not see that your question provides anything to support the claims of any gods existing, and as long as I say I've seen nothing to convince me, I do not see the arrogance you assert is on my part.

reply to post by firegoggles


demanding a simple yes or no answer reveals the weakness of an argument

your approach fell apart right there, and i would not even class myself an athiest

Originally posted by humphreysjim

Originally posted by interupt42

However, science tells us everything (including the physical world as you say) is about reactions or a cause and effect. Therefore, What existed before any existence of anything? That is why I'm agnostic , because I can't fully use science to explain the creation of something out of nothing which goes against our laws of science. Me being an agnostic has nothing to do with fear , especially since I don't believe in any religion.

Newton's First Law of Motion states that a body at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force acts on it . So what was the initial force that caused everything?

Those are scientific laws of our Universe. Whatever existed prior to our Universe was not our Universe, and therefore not subject to the laws of our Universe. The Big Bang does not goes against the science of our Universe, because there was no Universe. No Universe, no laws. It's quite simple, I think.

In a nutshell, whatever state existed pre-Big Bang was not subject to the laws of our Universe!

edit on 12-3-2013 by humphreysjim because: (no reason given)

As you state "whatever state existed pre-Big Bang was not subject to the laws of our Universe".
Therefore, our understanding of the universe does not apply beyond pre-Bang, its unknown. So who is to say that a higher being does or doesn't exist.

We can make an educated guess as to whether higher beings exist or don't exist, but its just a guess or at best a theory. With what we know and our tool set we can't say with 100% certainty that a higher power doesn't exist , otherwise, it would be a scientific fact and their wouldn't be any debate on the matter.

Basically, A person claiming that a GOD exist is just as silly as a person claiming GOD doesn't exist. I tend to believe in the latter one, but I can't say with 100% certainty that a GOD doesn't exist. I can say its improbable, but I can't say for a fact that a higher being doesn't exist.

reply to post by grainofsand


indeed, as someone who reads like most teenagers masturbate.. i can honestly say that norse mythology makes more sense than christian mythology.

reply to post by interupt42


Atheism is not about "claiming God does not exist". Again, learn the definition. We do not know whether a higher power created the Universe or not, but without any actual evidence one did, we have no actual reason to believe in one.

If we have no good reason to believe in God, the only position to take is to lack belief in God, which is exactly what atheism is. Your post is a perfect argument in favour of atheism, you're simply confused about definitions.

You do realize that agnostics are atheists by definition too, right?

Originally posted by interupt42

Basically, A person claiming that a GOD exist is just as silly as a person claiming GOD doesn't exist. I tend to believe in the latter one, but I can't say with 100% certainty that a GOD doesn't exist.

Pretty much the same as the way I see things.
Now, if I was down the beach one day and the sea parted with some supernatural entity floating between the angry waves then I'd probably reconsider. Until such time I have to say I don't believe any of it.
And that's without going down the road of discussing the various conflicting religious beliefs found around the world.

The problem I see here with this never ending arguments between the "believers" and the "non-believers" is the tendency to prove wrong contradicting ideologies...

Has one not considered that each of the ideas represented can be a part of a larger picture??? Or are we too afraid to wander past our comfort zones???

Peace

Theism = "I believe in God"
Atheism = "I do not believe in God"

Gnosticism = "Knowledge"
Agnosticism = "Lack of Knoweldge"

Both theists and atheists can be agnostics.

What we really have is:

Gnostic Theist: I KNOW there is a God
Agnostic Theist: I don't have absolute knowledge, but I believe there is a God
Gnostic Atheist: I KNOW there is no God
Agnostic Atheist: I don't know for sure there is no God, but I don't see any reason to believe in one either

Most religious people are quick to equate atheism with "Gnostic Atheism" because it's easy to attack. It's clearly a silly and untenable position. However, the reality is that the vast majority of atheists are Agnostic Atheists.

Sadly, the majority of theists appear to be of the Gnostic Theist type, which is what makes religion so frustrating and indeed, dangerous.

There is actually one other position I have encountered, and that is the type of atheist who says there is no meaningful and consistent defintion of God, so it is impossible to even answer the question of whether one believes or not. These people are generally very annoying and argumentative, in my experience.

I hope this helps. This should be clarified before every thread that mentions atheism, in my opinion.

I'm a deist and I think this church of atheism stuff is just ridiculous. It's like a lack of religion makes you crave a religion. It's stupid. Why not just go to a party?

we may as well worship nuclear bombs or tornados because of their might. or return to sun worship, religions are little else when closely examined.

believing in gods is one thing (and i kind of do - godS i say, as someone who studies myths and scriptures i believe in them but it does not mean i think that they are real or even exist, or exist as generally defined or understanded etc- thats another story though).

but....actually going so far as worshipping them and believing we know what they want and that we should build our lives around them??? go ahead if you want, but tread on my ability to do what i want and expect consequences

Originally posted by firegoggles
reply to post by grainofsand

 

Atheism is the ultimate expression of pride and arrogance. I find this just as comical as the extreme religion mindset it just the other end of the spectrum.

Ask one simple question:

Is it possible for God to exist?
What is your simple answer? Yes or No?

How you answer the above question can very quickly expose the heart of the matter.

To each his own and all that...If you answer no to the question then please do tell us what's out there in the rest of the universe and beyond the world that human eyes can even see because you must know coming to the conclusion there is no creator, so please .. do tell!

edit on 3/12/2013 by firegoggles because: (no reason given)

No.

We haven't found anything which is a true Wonder - unexplainable and contra every theory which are proven.

IF there were, for example, were someone on earth who could wave his hands and 5.000 cups of water would turn into wine while all the world and all the scientists and all their instruments were watching - that would be some kind of wonder.

You see, it is not easy to find something which would be a true wonder - sure, blablabla, every living being is a wonder, a nice flower under a blue sky is a wonder, yaddayadda. Those are everyday miracles. Explainable.


IF there were a true Wonder, we might have to think about someone who is able to circumvent the laws of physic which even dictate the life of huge stars or small virii. Until that occurs, there is no need for some god.

Moral? Moral, you say? Weeeeeell, I could point to some churches and tell you about immoral things done in them by people which should know exactly what happens by their own job's manual to those doing those sins.

Obviously, moral is not needed to be a very religious person. And having a lot of morale doesn't make you religious.

reply to post by InnerPeace2012


well that's a whole different can of worms to open up! too many options on that one to go in to really

Originally posted by Wide-Eyes
I'm a deist and I think this church of atheism stuff is just ridiculous. It's like a lack of religion makes you crave a religion. It's stupid. Why not just go to a party?

It isn't a church and isn't claimed to be. I thought most of the reasoned replies in this thread would have made that clear.

*I've got to do stuff in the 'real' world for a bit now, so if there are lots of replies to deal with on my return, please accept my apologies in advance if anyone is missed out. Sometimes a general response is more useful to a thread.
Cheers for the interesting debate so far though folks