Atheists more Intelligent

[Doc Dutch]

I've only seen maybe one or two Xtians here who truly represent Christ. The rest are pompous false prophet blowhards.



Many non-human species also mourn their dead. This wonderful book was an assigned text in one of my classes. But I read it just for the pleasure of this knowledge.

https://www.amazon.com/When-Elephant.../dp/0385314280

On the forums? Absolutely. IRL? Not even close. I know a lot of good people who are sincerely doing their best to walk the walk.

[Doc Dutch]

Atheism is more than that. It's a belief based doctrine putting science and self as God. Its existence is finite in being there to try to discredit all other faiths. What you describe would be just living your life carefree without needing to create a named doctrine to discredit others. Just being a human being that doesn't give a flying fuck about believing or not believing. There is no way to prove or disprove God, an afterlife, or a lot of that stuff. It doesn't stop them from trying and Atheists can be as curmudgeonly and bigoted as many in other faiths or belief structures

Some do, no doubt. However, that's not a universal or even a common description in my experience.

Most don't care and move on. They live according to the ethics and laws of the land. Nothing wrong with that.

[Blackwater Lunchbreak]

Thanks! Hope you'll be at the party tonight. Bring your own mask and mead and join us!

I have a six foot long tongue.

[Stretch]

There is no logical or rational reason to exist that your God exists but if your God does exist your God is clearly a fuck up look around you

You look with limited vision with physical eyes and emotions.
A believer has the Holy Spirit to teach us and reveal God to us.
"We are IN this world, but not OF it."
We don't expect you understand spiritual matters because you don't have the ability.
God has the answers. If we (or YOU) had all the answers, then we would all BE God. We don't and we are not.

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Cor:2 14

[Trumpet]

You look with limited vision with physical eyes and emotions.
A believer has the Holy Spirit to teach us and reveal God to us.
"We are IN this world, but not OF it."
We don't expect you understand spiritual matters because you don't have the ability.
God has the answers. If we (or YOU) had all the answers, then we would all BE God. We don't and we are not.

The natural man does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God. For they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.
1Cor:2 14

OMG

[Stretch]

According to reputable polling, the most highly educated people in the country come from the religious groups Jews, Anglicans, Hindus, Episcopalians, Unitarians, Buddhists, Presbyterians, United Church of Christ. With athesists and agnostics coming in 9th and 10th place respectively.

Bringing up the rear, in the dumb ass category, are the southern evangelicals and fundamentalists

https://www.justplainpolitics.com/sh...68#post2575568

Intelligence does not equal wisdom.

[Doc Dutch]

Again though, atheism is not a belief system or a faith. It's the absence of those things.

I don't know whether or not there is a creator that put this existence into existence. I think this most nearly describes my personal beliefs: "It's like dark matter and dark energy. Neither have been proved to exist yet the results of their existence are documented." I believe -- not KNOW but believe -- that there is more to just our meat space physical existence. Something spiritual transcends and survives the death of the physical corpus, I believe. Do we meet again on "the other side"? If so do we recognize each other? I do not know. I can only go by my own personal experiences with these matters. I also believe that if my beliefs are true, they are true for all living beings, not just homo sapiens and our forebears.

That's an area of thought that is interesting to me. What is the next step in our evolution? A lateral move such as just moving as an individual from one plane of existence to another isn't much of a change. Moving from individuality to becoming one with the entire Universe seems to be a much more important step in our growth; to die and lose all individuality. Not a loss of individuality like a bee in a hive, but to become part of an overmind that includes our Universe.

Arthur C. Clarke's "Childhood's End" touched on that idea as well as several other science fiction authors including, to some extent, Douglas Adams. One of his ways was "So long and thanks for all the fish!".

https://sites.google.com/site/h2g2th...Index/d/919377

[Jack]

Problem is you can't DEAL with it afterword according to what the Bible says! Great thing is God gave you free will to decide!

Yeah. Free Will ... to choose which philosophy you want to follow. I'm good with Epicurus. (Pursuit of Happiness, like in the Constitution)

"He taught that the root of all human neurosis is death denial and the tendency for human beings to assume that death will be horrific and painful, which he claimed causes unnecessary anxiety, selfish self-protective behaviors, and hypocrisy. According to Epicurus, death is the end of both the body and the soul and therefore should not be feared".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicurus

The Bible was written by Goat-Herders and Mystics, Epicurus had a Group of Thinkers, 'the Garden'. (See the difference?)

"Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher and sage who founded Epicureanism, a highly influential school of philosophy. He was born on the Greek island of Samos to Athenian parents. Influenced by Democritus, Aristippus, Pyrrho, and possibly the Cynics, he turned against the Platonism of his day and established his own school, known as "the Garden", in Athens.Wikipedia"

[PostmodernProphet]

look around you. if god exists he either has a sick sense of humor or is a fuck up

dude, God didn't fuck things up......the demmycrats did.....

[PostmodernProphet]

Why? You believe you're a soulless ambulatory meat computer of no more value than the sum of your basic components.

wait, I can agree that he is, right?.....

[PostmodernProphet]

you are confusing educated and intelligent, they are different

and you are neither....

[PostmodernProphet]

sin no more.

there's the rub......

[Doc Dutch]

wait, I can agree that he is, right?.....

LOL. You could, but he dodged the question like a Democrat running from a whorehouse raid.

[ThatOwlWoman]

Atheism is more than that. It's a belief based doctrine putting science and self as God. Its existence is finite in being there to try to discredit all other faiths. What you describe would be just living your life carefree without needing to create a named doctrine to discredit others. Just being a human being that doesn't give a flying fuck about believing or not believing. There is no way to prove or disprove God, an afterlife, or a lot of that stuff. It doesn't stop them from trying and Atheists can be as curmudgeonly and bigoted as many in other faiths or belief structures

I do agree with that last. There are definitely militant, pushy atheists just as there are militant pushy ppl of religious faith.

Otherwise, atheists -- at least the ones I know -- live their lives unconcerned about questions of god, angels, afterlives, souls. They do not worship science or self, but they do understand that science and technology are real aspects of our first-world existences. I would not call that "belief," though. "Belief" insinuates that the believer thinks that something unseen and/or unproven is real. For instance, I know that the planet is a globe, not a flat surface. There is plenty of proof. I know that there is an Eifel tower even though I have not personally seen it. I know that engineering principles keep the bridge up that I drove over going into town, and that the highway is curved and banked on those same principles even though I've never studied them. I don't worship those principles; I merely acknowledge their existence. Although I'm not atheist myself, I can assure you that the vast majority of them are decent ethical people who really don't care what you or I or anyone else chooses to adopt as their faith. They simply prefer to be left out of it.

[ThatOwlWoman]

On the forums? Absolutely. IRL? Not even close. I know a lot of good people who are sincerely doing their best to walk the walk.

Same here. Some are even Xtians. :~)