The Atheist Experience [Broadcasting Show]

I try not to, lol. I don't believe that believers have a mental handicap, it is a very normal instinct to be wary and fear the unknown. All animals do. I just think our consciousness should make us aware of the irrational nature of our attempts to address that fear by likening the cosmos to something that gives us comfort: an intergalactic father figure.

This.

We are supposed to represent the absence of belief, period. So a person's beliefs are irrelevant, because the concept of belief itself is alien. It is just something some people do that is irrational which we must accept and tolerate just like people who do other irrational things. Don't judge it, just recognize that they do, and go about our business.

Agreed.

You rang? Lmao

Thanks, Beasty

With all due respect, I couldn't disagree more. "Dogma is the official system of belief or doctrine held by a religion, or a particular group or organization.[1] It serves as part of the primary basis of an ideology or belief system, and it cannot be changed or discarded without affecting the very system's paradigm, or the ideology itself."

Dogma is this dogged (no pun intended) insistence that there is no god, and the need to tell the world the same, when we cannot empirically demonstrate it and show it. That is proselytizing based on belief, or faith. I am an atheist because no logical discourse nor empirical method can demonstrate such existence or non-existence. Because neither logic nor scientific method can demonstrate the as yet unknowable, belief in such is irrelevant to me.

 

Pretty well actually, bro. Thanks for asking. And you?

 

So to you unless there is definable proof things dont exist?

 

Unless it can be logically deduced or empirically demonstrated, I cannot perceive it.

 

Interrsting pov
I cant personappy dismiss anything because one thought always persists. Before our current technology how would one describe radiowaves and ultraviolet light or the electromagnetic field yet all these things exisited whether we chose to believe or not. I dont know if their is intergalatic father figure as you put it but maybe a grand creator. Maybe its not whether God exists or not but maybe our idea of him/her/it has to change.

 

Much like personality/character/souls. Intangibles, yet they possess a strong metaphysical presence.

 

You're right. If something is deduced or demonstrated, then it's not a question of belief. It is then knowledge. That was kind of what I was getting at in an earlier comment with the whole issue of proselytizing atheism. It's a metaphysical absolute at issue and, as such, is currently unprovable and cannot be rationally deduced. Human knowledge may at some point be able to definitively show that it does or does not exist. It could simply be the (not to sound all Golden Era hip-hop here) 'universal mathematics' that holds it all together; the underlying equation and relationship of forces that makes things work - the quantum mechanics, if you will. But what we can reasonably deduce that it is not is this: a male consciousness in space that orders human affairs, punishes individuals and created a singular factual reality that somehow, miraculously, every culture manages to see totally differently, despite its unitary origin.

That's an interesting idea as well. I cannot deduce that I have a soul or even a personality beyond how I interact among others in a physical way as a result of cumulative experience. But I would be very interested in finding out if there are any essential traits which somehow remain among my constituent elements once I am reabsorbed into other organisms via my molecules. Logic would indicate not, but I would love to see it demonstrated one way or the other.

 

Interestingly enough we all agree on the positive things. I also find it incredibly interesting that nearly all cultures believe in spirits and souls. There is something that survives perceived death. Atheists would call this ridiculous since there is no proof. Once your dead your dead nothing remains its all superstition. It very well could be I don't pretend to know but I am willing to explore the idea without bias. Like Bliss said personal things like personality exist but for what purpose. What evolutionary purpose does it serve? Why even dream or be inspired? Why desire anything beyond the basic function to survive?
Maybe these are the traits of higher thinking organisms and we don't know since we have no other basis of comparison but it does make one wonder.

 

I don't think anything survives beyond electrons/protons/neutrons, but if someone can demonstrate it, I'm all for expanding human knowledge. To me, the mere truism that matter is neither destroyed nor created but simply changes form is sufficient. So the elements of my decomposing corpse will nourish other organisms and continue. I do not think that some 'essence' of me will remain. But again, if scientifically shown, it will be evident, 'believing' in it won't be an option.

 

I know when my strong-personality brother passed, I asked..what happened to his persona?

I could see his body, but where did his soul go? Since it had no literal physical entity, I wondered was it still present? Was it reconstituted? Did it dissipate, like smoke? I was 17 then, but like you, I still don't know what happened to it or where it went.

 

One more thing...
Since we are actually millions of molecules floating in one spot and not actual solid matter - yet we appear to be to the naked eye - could God be so enlarged that God's molecular matter is too vast for our human eyes. Not being able to see the forest from the trees, so to speak. I hope that I'm making sense, lol. Like, God is so grand, we cannot step back far enough to see him, yet we are surrounded/enveloped by his powerful molecular presence.

 

Here are my thoughts: I'm on the fence with this one. I think that people should have the RIGHT to believe in whatever they choose and to express those beliefs freely(they have that right and I respect it), however that doesn't mean I have to like, agree, and/or respect your beliefs and/or the belief system itself. Nor should they be immune to any sort of criticism whatsoever. If we shouldn't do that, then we shouldn't criticize the likes of Al Qaeda and the Westboro Baptist Church. Honestly. maybe it's because of my some what dislike/disdain for religion. lol Hell, I don't think atheism, logic, science, and reason shouldn't be immune criticism either(I'd be hypocritical if I thought otherwise). As a matter of fact I welcome it. There are times when I thought whether or not the whole "live and let live thing is really the way to go. Would it be better or worse? I really don't know.

Maybe Penn Jillete said it best:
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Maybe it is that simple or maybe the very electromagnetic fields that surround us that hold electrical impulses like our thoughts and personality move somewhere else like the dial of radio switching between frequencies. There's no denying that the body is absorbed back into the earth but those electrical impulses always made me wonder.

 

Its not about not respecting belief in terms of Westboro and Al Qada its more about the actions associated with those beliefs. Same with atheists. Its not that I don't respect their beliefs I just don't need some condescending asshole with an ego trying to tell me how ridiculous my beliefs are. Keep that limousine shit to yourself. This goes for all ideology from politics to religion. If what you believe is the truth you don't have to defend it so hard.

 

I don't think I have a soul, but I'm always open to being proven wrong.

 

You make it seem like we're holding a gun to your head. Believe what you will. So status quos can't be challenged.It seems like you're saying that ideologies can't be challenged because you don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or your feelings hurt. Yet I see you do it here on a daily basis. So according to you, anyone who vocalizes a difference of belief and/or ideology is a condescending asshole? Did you even watch the video I posted?