Another fallacious myth about atheists theists think is that we speak in terms of absolutes, which is patently false. To understand why this is false, all the believer has to do is think about all the claims of others outside their own claim, and the rightful rejection of those claims. We don't have to think much about rejecting the claim that the sun is a god. The atheist simply discards prior data when it is known to be false.
How much time does the believe take when thinking about Thor making lightening? How much time does the believer think about Apollo being a real god? Discarding bad claims does not make us arrogant, anymore than saying the earth is not flat makes one arrogant.
The reality is that atheists are open minded, when proven data comes in we adapt. What we don't do is cling to something merely because we like it. It is merely being intellectually honest, like being a reff in the NFL watching a replay "This is what happened, and this is the call".
Not liking our message does not make us evil, anymore than finding out Santa is not real will cause doomsday. It just means your knowledge and intellect has matured.
Santa's not real... :-?
Another fallacy is that atheists are all open minded people. Some are, some aren't. The same holds true of theists. Belief in a god doesn't by default make anyone closed minded nor does it make them open minded.
Quote from: "josephpalazzo"Santa's not real... :-?
You didn't get the memo?
Quote from: "josephpalazzo"Santa's not real... :-?
THAT'S A GODDAMNED LIE! YOU TAKE THAT BACK RIGHT NOW! :cry:
The best way to view atheists is by grouping them by all the things they have in common, listed below:
- do not believe in gods
Some people don't believe in gods, but they believe in astrology, chiromancy or any similar things. Are they atheists?
Do they confirm to all the items on my list? Then yes, they are atheists. They merely serve as additional examples of why the list I gave is entirely complete.
Quote from: "Eugeny Anatolievich"Some people don't believe in gods.... Are they atheists?
You seem to have answered your own question there
Quote from: "Eugeny Anatolievich"Some people don't believe in gods, but they believe in astrology, chiromancy or any similar things. Are they atheists?
Since "atheist" by definition refers to god belief, unfortunately yes, atheists can believe this crap too. I have gotten into it with si fi wooers who claim Star Trek predicted the cell phone and believe that the transporter will be a future possibility.
They're only "unfortunately" a part of the group if you are intent on either changing the meaning of the word or trying to build atheists into an exclusive group of your own design.
Which are basically both bad things.
I think it has to do with the dismissal of their own cherished belief is seen as an attack on them personally. DarkMatter2525 did a YT vid on that (below).
[youtube:awkc01f2]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8ZMMuu7MU[/youtube:awkc01f2]
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Quote from: "josephpalazzo"Santa's not real... :-?
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Quote from: "Brian37"How much time does the believe take when thinking about Thor making lightening? How much time does the believer think about Apollo being a real god? Discarding bad claims does not make us arrogant, anymore than saying the earth is not flat makes one arrogant.
While Christians will dismiss Thor and Apollo in the blink of an eye, we might still strike some of them as arrogant, because we dismiss something they spend a great deal of time dwelling on. I say "dwelling" rather than "thinking" because thinking to me implies some sort of rational process. Dwelling can include things like pointless worry or spinning your wheels on circular reasoning, continually coming up with the same answer you've already decided on. Even using faulty logic, after one keeps coming up with the same answer, it still reinforces one's belief. Then atheists come along and ignore all that time and energy they have spent.
Quote from: "Plu"They're only "unfortunately" a part of the group if you are intent on either changing the meaning of the word or trying to build atheists into an exclusive group of your own design.
Which are basically both bad things.
"Atheist" is as exclusive to evolution our species as farting is. We can promote thinking and questioning which is good, but there would be no magic bullet for an ever lasting life in any case.
That doesn't mean that redefining the word is a good idea. The word already means something. Changing it like you seem to want to basically just means that the number of atheists will go down by a lot, because it suddenly doesn't apply to people anymore.
Changing the word doesn't change the people that previously held the label. It just makes life more difficult for no reason. We'd need a new word for the meaning of the current word 'atheist' and we'd probably be scrapping a perfectly valid word for whatever it is you're trying to change it to.
Quote from: "Eugeny Anatolievich"Some people don't believe in gods, but they believe in astrology, chiromancy or any similar things. Are they atheists?
Yes.
Astrology, chiromancy, etc aren't affiliated with deities.
As for the religious response, atheism is something they simply cannot comprehend. When I was a christian, I certainly couldn't.
Just back from see the movie Thor, kind of entertaining, very much enjoyed all those CGI special effects and it kind of drives home what category I would put the Bible in, it is in much the same genre as Marvel comics. Yahweh is no more plausible than Loki, Thor of Superman and Batman for that matter. Everyone likes a superhero in their imagination, even those goat herders in the early iron and bronze age Middle East.