What the hell, let's all get at least a little bit sanctimonious, even last century, and see who can come up with good definition of religion. Does it have to have clerics or monks to qualify? What about temples or other places of worship? Written works? What if the religion has none of those things unless say, you stretch the meaning of words a little? After all, isn't a human body meant to be a temple? What if there is some perceivable organisation with members, maybe it has a bank account, say it prints newsletters, do these qualify as written works if they contain some kind of advice about "practice", for instance, or poetry or words to some song, or anything that might be labelled liturgical?
Raw With Love Charles Bukowski little dark girl with kind eyes when it comes time to use the knife I won't flinch and I won't blame you, as I drive along the shore alone as the palms wave, the ugly heavy palms, as the living does not arrive as the dead do not leave, I won't blame you, instead I will remember the kisses our lips raw with love and how you gave me everything you had and how I offered you what was left of me, and I will remember your small room the feel of you the light in the window your records your books our morning coffee our noons our nights our bodies spilled together sleeping the tiny flowing currents immediate and forever your leg my leg your arm my arm your smile and the warmth of you who made me laugh again. little dark girl with kind eyes you have no knife. the knife is mine and I won't use it yet.
I am glad that you are around . You are checking my spelling and my foul English . I am sure with time and keeping you in mind I will improve. Thanks
No, I wouldn't say that... to do so would be an appeal to popularity rather than necessarily the truth.
And you think an atheist can't be assure of themself??? Atheists are just as capable of wanting to improve themself "morally and charitably", simply because they want to, for their society, for their fellow man, because they work on the principle that they wish to treat people the way they would like to be treated. To think that such as you claim is exclusive to believers is laughable. Okay, the claimed source of that assurance etc might be different but that just raises the notion that believers only do things because they want to please/serve the God they believe in - i.e. selfish reasons - rather than purely for the act itself.
Friend , I better stop. The post went off the track . Let the atheist continue their testimony won why and what lead to atheism. ( No different testimony as in protestant church what lead the believer to Christ.)
I went the opposite direction; I wasn't raised around religion, and was quite the vociferious atheist back in the day. I came to polytheism on my own, partly due to personal experiences, and practise my own religion and spirituality, though it is part of an identifiable tradition. But I still have a great deal of respect for atheists and atheism, and agnostics and agnosticism. It's a completely rational approach, and it's sensible for someone to take that stance. In fact, I'm more favourable towards atheism than I am towards blind fideism. I'd rather people try to find out for themselves and take an empirical-rational approach. Just because I've 'found out for myself' doesn't mean I think people should adopt my beliefs; my experiences and their experiences a re completely different ballgames.
I'm a third-generation atheist. I never heard of gods and prayers until I was seven. A little boy in my class started telling me about this fellow named "God" who lives in the sky and can see everything we do and punish us if we don't do it properly. I thought it was just one of those wonderful silly stories children made up and I laughed appreciatively... after all, it was a very good story! But he didn't seem to appreciate my laughter. When I got home that afternoon I told my mother about it. She told me that a lot of children believe that story. I said, "But you told me the truth about Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny a year ago. When are these children going to be told the truth by their parents? It will be really embarrassing when they're in the third or fourth grade and still believe in silly little babies' stories!" For some reason this made Momma very sad and it took her a while to respond. Finally she had to tell me the truth: that many grownups believe in these silly little babies's stories. They never tell their children the truth, because they were never taught the truth themselves. I said, "But I figured out the truth about the Tooth Fairy all by myself. If you hadn't explained Santa Claus, I would have realized that it was a silly story eventually. Don't these people eventually recognize a fairy tale, even if no one explains it?" She almost started to cry then. She said that people live their whole lives believing in fairy tales. And that, my friend, is when I became a cynic.
How does attributing reality to a known and defined entity called "God" equate to accepting reality as an infinite mystery I can never comprehend and must only learn to live with? God is a belief in something particular. A concept I expect reality to conform to. Mystery is simply acknowledging the source of experience as beyond me in every sense. It is the difference between a value and a variable.
Yeah, I suppose that's what most people believe about the big G word. Hmm. How about, reality really isn't what you expect? How about, the problem is the expecting, i.e. expectation itself? I don't follow how a source of experience can be beyond you, unless you mean you don't understand how your senses work. I think you're actually saying you acknowledge that your expectations are what makes the difference. What you want is the mystery rather than the expectation, I mean.
From Timojin Post #20: The definition of an atheist is quite clear. An atheist believes that no god exists. It implies that almost all religions involve erroneous beliefs.
That tells me, the atheist is the final answer. He knows the future, Well I don't believe the atheist have the answer. We human don't have the knowledge how life started, we even don't know how our brain works, we even don't way and the process of aging. So what does that tells me about the knowledge of atheists . It definitely puts them in a group of charlatans
Do we have to do this again? Most atheists would say not that they believe that no god exists, but that they do not believe that any god exists. A subtle distinction, but one that many feel is important. Compare these statements: "I believe that car is not red. It is definitely some other colour - perhaps yellow." "I do not believe that car is red. I'm not sure exactly what colour it is, but I don't think it's red (but I could possibly be wrong)."
To say I have a belief that god does not exist is to affirmatively state a belief. To say I do not believe god exists is to state the absence of belief. A subtle but vital distinction.
