Is Atheism a Religion?

[JessP]

Hey Dan..... And anyone else here.
And God bless Jess. And BEAUTIFUL magenta! Wish I had your knowledge.
Hope I can chime in with 2-cents.
I think it was Ravi Zacharius I heard say,
(he may have been quoting someone else?)
But he said, 'In some cultures they love their neighbor,
In some cultures they eat them, ... Do you have a preference?'
Making a point about cultural/moral relativism.
Is killing, cooking and eating your neighbor
A worse choice than caring, loving and helping them
If there is no God? Why or why not?

Btw, perhaps Jess might like Ravi's ministry.
I'm not making an endorsement...I haven't checked him out
in a long time myself, which I should...
The title, 'Let My People Think', says it all what he's about...
thinking about God, Life, Scripture in a deep way, something Jess
seems to be into, (as we all should). Think I'll pay them a long overdue
visit myself...I got some great insight from them long ago, and have
kind of gotten away from those challenges to the mind,
a sometimes forgotten place where we are ALSO called
to love the Lord our God (with).
Sometimes it seems my heart and
mind are at battle with each other,
but God says we are to love Him and each other
with ALL our heart AND ALL our mind together, not taking turns, lol.
Thx to you ppl and this thread for the encouragement in that direction.

That's an interesting point about killing your neighbor/loving helping them. Personally I would say there is no absolute morality behind any decision I make. Circumstances I am in change my answer. Ideally I would say no, I think that it causes suffering and makes the world a worse place. What if those Neighbors were doing things to harm others and my family I might possibly change my answer.

If it is a case of where my morality comes from I think it is how I was raised the culture I live in. I am a product of my history, my biology, my society.

I believe ( kind of like the Buddhist view) that people simply want a happy life and to avoid suffering. Avoid suffering of themselves but also others. Killing someone would be traumatic for me and for those I have killed.

Therefore killing someone is the worse choice because it makes life worse. If everyone behaves that way it make society more dangerous. our actions have consequences that impact on us. So there are many reasons why I view it as a worse choice.

Compassion for example, why be compassionate? Because it makes the world a nicer place to live. It makes me happier it makes others happier.

Why do you think that there is moral relativism? Do you think that if you discovered that there was no god you would start going and killing people? Is it the thought of God the only thing that stops you doing bad things?

I will checkout Ravi's ministry It sounds interesting.

I am really excited to talk more about these things sydlit. Thanks for your thoughtful post.

 

[Asher_Shafer]

I think it is a religion, infact you might have come across this "It takes more faith to be an atheist than a christian!" (as said, to believe that everything came from nothing).. goes on to breaking down what 'nothing' really means.. was it aristotle or socrates who said, " 'Nothing' is what rocks dream about".. anyways... If i say "I don't believe in God", its the same as saying "I believe God doesn't exist" i don't see a difference in the meaning of those two statements.. one way or the other thats their faith.

 

[sydlit]

That's an interesting point about killing your neighbor/loving helping them. Personally I would say there is no absolute morality behind any decision I make. Circumstances I am in change my answer. Ideally I would say no, I think that it causes suffering and makes the world a worse place. What if those Neighbors were doing things to harm others and my family I might possibly change my answer.

If it is a case of where my morality comes from I think it is how I was raised the culture I live in. I am a product of my history, my biology, my society.

I believe ( kind of like the Buddhist view) that people simply want a happy life and to avoid suffering. Avoid suffering of themselves but also others. Killing someone would be traumatic for me and for those I have killed.

Therefore killing someone is the worse choice because it makes life worse. If everyone behaves that way it make society more dangerous. our actions have consequences that impact on us. So there are many reasons why I view it as a worse choice.

Compassion for example, why be compassionate? Because it makes the world a nicer place to live. It makes me happier it makes others happier.

Why do you think that there is moral relativism? Do you think that if you discovered that there was no god you would start going and killing people? Is it the thought of God the only thing that stops you doing bad things?

I will checkout Ravi's ministry It sounds interesting.

I am really excited to talk more about these things sydlit. Thanks for your thoughtful post.

I try to reply quickly...real busy...will get back in full later, I hope.
Buddhism doesn't ultimately have a diff between happiness and suffering.
I wasn't referring to a personal choice, so much as a societal standard, but
if it's relative to personal choice apart from a God-given morality, there would be chaos only.
What if one persons happiness is derived from causing you to suffer, say, from hitting you with a hammer? (strictly hypothetical, as you're very sweet and I would never wish that to happen), but as such...who are you to deny that other persons happiness, do you see what I mean? One persons trying to fulfill their own happiness by hitting you with a hammer, and you're trying to fulfill your own happiness by trying to stop them. Someone's bound to lose their happiness, (probly the one without the hammer).
It seems there has to be an objective moral standard
for what's right or wrong, apart from individuals own
personal determination of what makes them happy.
Outside of man stands The Living God.
Ouside of man's will is God's moral absoluteness,
without which mankind falls into moral decay,
anarchy, chaos. Without God, man is left to his own devices.
Perhaps we're seeing the results
of that in today's headline news.
Now before someone proposes the arguement
that most of the worlds harms are being done
in the name of god or some religion.....
that's a diff arguement...That doesn't make the case for
the non-existence of God, it's just a matter of who He is,
which is the true God, can He be known,
and can we know His will for man.

The good news is that He CAN be known,
in the Person of The Lord Jesus Christ,
Who loves us and gave Himself FOR us,
and I hope to continue this in another post, but
I gotta go. I don't know much, but God is real,
Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life,
He loves us, and it's God's desire for us to be saved
and have eternal life in a relationship with Him
through the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for our sins,
rose from the grave, and is God-blessed forever. Amen
(and in case anyone is wondering, yes, I have my
own stuggles and battles and weaknesses and sins,
doubts, fears, etc., and I have a lot to learn, but just
because I 'mess it up'...alot...doesn't make the
above statement any less true.
Yes, JESUS LOVES YOU.

 

[Dan_473]

:O Hey Dan come on you don’t really want to end our conversation!

no, I don't want to end it... I'm just saying that there wouldn't be a point to it... in a pointless universe, nothing can have a point...

We don’t have any absolute rules to follow therefore we need to work out our own rules and own values and give meaning to the way we live.

why do you say we need to? why do we need to do anything?

Personally I believe in trying to be the best person I can be and helping others to do the same. You could ask why bother. Because it makes me happy.

suppose someone else finds happiness and meaning in their life by killing someone you love... is their system equally valid? just as "good"?

Part of deciding what a good life is, is talking to people discussing things learning what other think and believe and why.

well, wouldn't a good life be whatever one decides it to be regardless of what knowledge one has?

I am interested to know why you do believe in God?

I believe in God because I found rest for my soul... like in my signature...

What do you think of my above view? Can you see any reasons why it does not make sense to you?

it does make sense to me in that it's logical... I don't think it's a good way to live...

suppose one seeks happiness... in my experience, humans are happiest when they have a goal larger than themselves to work towards...

imo, this is why many atheists become humanists... they want to believe that helping humans is somehow inherently good... even if they deny that anything is inherently good...

 

[Dan_473]

I am a product of my history, my biology, my society.

and maybe even a simpler way to put it... you (and everybody else) are simply an object... a collection of atoms, particles... your behaviour is simply the product of the collisions of molecules.

 

[SwordoftheSpirit1]

Yes it is a religion , but what does answering that question benefit a Christian forum?

 

[SwordoftheSpirit1]

Richard Dawkins , chris hitchens, Sam Harris, bill maher , Stephen hawking
All and many others are evangelists for their faith.

 

[TAT]

Atheism is a religion like bald is a hair color.
In other words, no.
The only reason we are this organized, and stuff like that, is because we think there are too (removed inappropriate language) many believers.
It's also because atheists are often frowned upon, and atheist children might even get disowned.
We also think, that organized religion is affecting the world in a bad way (see: History).
Religion can also make people closed-minded and deny things that don't match up with their scripture.
Please don't take this as an attack on you, because these things ARE true.
I'm not saying that because you are religious, you are a bad person.

And I would call Atheism an "Organized movement" myself.

 

[CS1]

Yes they are a religion IN MHO

 

[CS1]

Atheism is a religion like bald is a hair color.
In other words, no.
The only reason we are this organized, and stuff like that, is because we think there are too (removed inappropriate language) many believers.
It's also because atheists are often frowned upon, and atheist children might even get disowned.
We also think, that organized religion is affecting the world in a bad way (see: History).
Religion can also make people closed-minded and deny things that don't match up with their scripture.
Please don't take this as an attack on you, because these things ARE true.
I'm not saying that because you are religious, you are a bad person.

And I would call Atheism an "Organized movement" myself.

FYI TAT this is the post you used the inappropriate word