Three reasons why it pays off to be an atheist, and one why it doesn't

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by greenberg, Nov 14, 2008.

  1. greenberg until the end of the world Registered Senior Member

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    Three reasons why it pays off to be an atheist, and one why it doesn't


    Three reasons why it pays off - well, at least it pays off in some ways - to be an atheist:


    1. It is ensured that an atheist will get at least some attention and compassion from theists. It isn't always a good kind of attention, but it is ensured. This way, an atheist will never be alone and will have someone to talk to most of the time. Isn't that sweet!

    2. It is ensured that an atheist will have only relatively easy spiritual tasks to do - beginner stuff, really. No practice of austerities required, no rigorous study regimen, no getting up at 3 AM, no absolute responsibility to be consistent in one's values, words and actions. All an atheist needs to do is show the slightest interest in God, even if it is just mockery - and God comes running to the atheist, reciprocating tenfold. Eezee-peezee.

    3. It is ensured that an atheist will not be faced with the demand of excellence. No answering to God and to those more spiritually advanced than oneself. No hardship and humiliation due to being a beginner and pretty much everyone else being more advanced than oneself. No hard work to get a good reputation. What a relief!


    Frankly, I sometimes miss being an atheist. I look at, say, Psychotic Episode and witness how much attention and care he is getting. I used to get that much too. Now I am practically a nobody - and unless I jump up and down frantically and scream, I don't even get noticed. I actually cried over this today.

    I have no doubt that it in fact pays off to be an atheist. It's not the best possible life, of course, because after some time, it gets boring, ridiculous and abusive to merely be the receiver of compassion (being in need of compassion does not make one an interesting communication partner); and because after some time, it begins to feel too immoral to be neatly curled up in one's cocoon; and because after some time, as age and illness in their various forms strike, pride isn't a valuable commodity anymore, but a burden.




    And here's why it doesn't pay off to be an atheist:


    Being atheist is a state that leads to its own negation and destruction. Perhaps not in one lifetime, perhaps you'll die an atheist. But wait until you get born again! Or again, and again, and again ... Sooner or later, your atheism is going to devour itself, it is in its nature to do so.
     
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  3. draqon Banned Banned

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    Through time, atheism and theism inderectly proportionally increase and decrease...and through time atheism gains and looses value and theism gains and looses value as well.
     
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  5. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    bullshit

    Atheism isn't the opposite of spiritual seeking, but a prerequisite.
     
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  7. draqon Banned Banned

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    If atheism is a prerequisite of spiritual seeking, than atheism is not spiritual seeking and so what is it than?
     
  8. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Atheism is giving up the idea that you know.
     
  9. draqon Banned Banned

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    reliterate that, please.
     
  10. greenberg until the end of the world Registered Senior Member

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    Leaving aside that this is a novel definition of atheism ...

    "Giving up the idea that you know" is also something that devours itself, even in the form of insanity.
     
  11. Baron Max Registered Senior Member

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    I believe the term for that is "agnostic", not atheism. An atheist says with conviction that god does not exist, yet he has no more proof than the opposite.

    Baron Max
     
  12. Mr. Hamtastic whackawhackado! Registered Senior Member

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    Spidergoat

    1. Atheism is giving up the idea that you know. LOL! Good one. Atheism is the inability to believe something without socially accepted proof. Anti-theism is denial, and repulsion, of theism.

    2. Atheism is not a prerequisite of spirtual seeking. Atheism is a lack of desire to do so.

    Draqon

    What did you call me? Keep your hands to yourself you cheeky monkey!

    Greenberg

    Dude! Seriously, If beating your brains in against the anti-theists is starting to make you think you are less than yourself, take a vacation! Go look up clips of Monty Python instead or something. Fuck these people. All of them. You can't save anyone if you can't save yourself. Rest up man. The irreligious will be here when you return.

    Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image!

     
  13. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    An atheist can leave everything behind. An agnostic is still attached to the idea that there could be a God, which is a spiritual version of cliff notes, a shortcut to avoid the real work of finding out what you are.
     
  14. greenberg until the end of the world Registered Senior Member

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    Oh, there was a misunderstanding.
    I basically said that when I was an atheist, I got more attention from theists than I do now, and that's what I was crying about. It wasn't a desperate oh-I-am-so-miserable kind of crying, though, although I was quite sad and angry for a while.

    Anyway, ON TOPIC!
     
  15. Enmos Valued Senior Member

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    Green, I'm sorry but your OP is nonsense.
     
  16. greenberg until the end of the world Registered Senior Member

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    Why are you sorry?
    Why is it nonsense?
     
  17. geeser Atheism:is non-prophet making Valued Senior Member

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    Please take the time to read the definitions supplied in this forum, before you make idiotic statements.
    Find them here. http://www.sciforums.com/showthread.php?t=26679
     
  18. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    Please explain how Buddhist monks don't practice austerity and discipline, how Buddha didn't seek spiritual enlightenment, how his enlightenment and that of all the others that followed depended on the idea of God.
     
  19. Balerion Banned Banned

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    There is no merit whatsoever to the OP. A sheltered point of view from a sheltered person.
     
  20. Medicine*Woman Jesus: Mythstory--Not History! Valued Senior Member

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    *************
    M*W: What bullshit. Your post is not worthy of replies.
     
  21. greenberg until the end of the world Registered Senior Member

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    And everytime you say such things, some theist somewhere quite likely prays to God to enlighten you ... and everytime this happens, the pressure on you to think about God is greater ...

    Atheism is a really interesting phenomenon: it makes atheist people think of God and it draws theists to them.
     
  22. spidergoat pubic diorama Valued Senior Member

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    It's not like I don't think about it. Religious people don't think much about it, they call that faith and consider it a virtue.
     
  23. greenberg until the end of the world Registered Senior Member

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    First of all, Mahayanists and Vajrayanists are not atheists in the proper sense of the word, for they worship deities.
    Theravadans are not proper atheists either, for a number of reasons: they acknowledge other Buddhist traditions who do worship deities; they do not make a point of calling themselves one or the other, as that would be an act of identification, while for atheists, it is typical to identify themselves as atheists; Theravadans also per definition do not make claims about the origin of the world and the workings of karma (AN 4.77), which makes their stance on a/theism moot, while atheists typically take a stance one way or the other; and at least some Theravadans think that God is merely an idea, a projection - so they do work with it, even if it is by relativizing and rejecting it. "God does not exist" is not a claim that Buddhists would wholeheartedly support.
     

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