Atheism in the Temple

I wanna make a list of all the Atheists on the board. Not so we can start a war, or get together for "Uber-arguments", I'm just curious. And no, I'm not going to explain why I'm Atheist in detail. Maybe later. But not now.

Anyway, I'm just curious. I'm pretty sure it's not just me.

How about we get a Staff member to change the title and just have this be a thread where every member who wants to says what religion they belong to?

For those of you who don't already know, I'm Christian. No assumptions or judgments, please. I enjoy religious debate, so feel free to hit me up on MSN for details.

Well, I lol'd.

Bible-thumper.

=D

I'm Atheist, and yeah, there are a few other people, but I'll let them name themselves out of respect or something.

I'm Atheist!

I am not Atheist, but I also don't remember being of any religion...
What does that makes me? >_>

I'm a Catholic.

And I must say, I have yet to see why Felix loves Catholic school-girl outfits.

I consider myself Aethist as I'm not tied to any religion. I'm technically Christian, but I've never once been coaxed by my family into it. >_>

Thugs roaming the area.

Deist probably. "I don't know at all, so I'll assume yes."

I'm an atheist. "I don't know at all, so I'll assume no."

Isn't that agnosticism, Chrono?

I guess because you're making an assumption, you're just over the gnostic line. But that's pretty close, both of you (Dhaos and Chrono), though on either sides of gnosticism (Theism or Atheism).

Deism is the Theism that is close to the line of Agnosticism, so I'd say that's probably Deism. But I wouldn't want to TELL you you're a Deist; that's something for YOU to decide.

Roman Catholic. Dunt like it, though. Maybe I should be Buddhist or something.

I've heard logical deductions that demonstrate the position of Agnosticism is actually atheism, so I just lump it in there. Basically a binary truth (god exists or doesn't) cannot be reasoned into some murky quantum "exists and not exists" at the same time.

Apparently, going back by etymology... it was coined by a ninteenth century atheist who wanted to rebrand it with a less polarizing word.

And yeah a hard Deist is of a mind that God created the universe and left it at that. Atheism is just applying Occam's Razor to that principle (natural processes created the universe until demonstrated otherwise). This is more supportable now that cosmology has posited some refutable hypotheses about how universes come into being. =P

Actually, atheism is more similar to Theism than to agnosticism.

Think of it this way, as a set of binary axises. The x axis is whether God exists or not, and the y axis is whether God can be known or not.

Agnostics are on the side of of the y axis where they believe that God cannot be known. Both Atheists and Theists are on the yes side: God can be known. Thus Agnosticism never crosses the x axis into the other section.

On the x axis we had whether god exists or not. Those who believe God can be known, and he doesn't exist are Atheists. Those who believe that God can be known, and DOES exist are Theists. Deists are somewhere in the Theist quadrant, but very close to the x axis, because they don't know (a trait of agnosticism) but they assume "Yes, God does exist."

Thus we have an image that looks like Atheism in one quadrant, Theism in another, and Agnosticism filling the other two, because Agnosticism DOESN'T CARE whether God exists or not, because Agnostics don't believe that it can be known (either ever or currently, based on various forms of agnosticism) that God exists.

Simplifying reality into a binary truth is really rather shallow when you think about it. All-or-nothing is a primitive view of the world, suitable only for primitive thinkers like rednecks, jihadists, and light switches.

Agnosticism is, in a sense, more respectable than either Christianity or Atheism. Then again, Atheism can mean various things, and an absolute denial of the divine is only one of them. Also, as my Dad once mentioned to me, "I see no reason why Christianity can't be an agnostic religion."

I should say, though, you're grossly misrepresenting agnosticism. "Exists and not exists[sic]" describes Schrodinger's cat, not the views of an agnostic person. Agnosticism is a very post-modernistic perspective that doesn't attempt to define reality in such strict (and inevitably incorrect) terms. It's not a matter of "God does or does not exist," it's "God may or may not exist, and I have no goddamn idea which it is."

I apologize for repeating what Gwee said. Bastard got here before me.

Best to class me as an atheist, though according to the last UK census I am a Jedi. =3 I am very proud of that.

Yeah no. Binary LOGIC is perfectly fine.

Binary MORALITY is completely insane and stupid.

I'm atheist. Although some would say I'm not because I have a set of beliefs, and really if I think about how I came to believe in them there's really no logical explanation for how it can come to be, but yeah, you can label me an atheist. Because I don't believe in a god, or that there can be anything god-like or deitic in nature.

Well, it is not like I "don't know anything", but I don't really give it much interest.

That said, I do not consider myself an Atheist.

Christian here. United Methodist specifically, but I don't really care much for the different denominations.

Touche. However, the point remains: agnosticism lies outside of that system, and its reasons are very valid.