Atheist don't contribute?

B

Bishadi

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I read that somewhere.

Something to the effect, that atheists have not contributed to the knowledge of mankind, for a long time.

Not sure who it was, but i have ONE name to mention

Confucius.

Any others, that folks can think of?

Any share what good, that man shared and how the philosophies are some of the greatest achievements that are still currently observed more so, than any single contributer of such, ON THE EARTH?

wonder if his nick name was "shorty"
 
Bishadi said:
I read that somewhere.

Something to the effect, that atheists have not contributed to the knowledge of mankind, for a long time.

Not sure who it was, but i have ONE name to mention

Confucius.

Any others, that folks can think of?
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It depends on your definition of "atheist" and the types of contributiuons that we think "should" count. Many scientists are atheists. Einstein had a vaguely religious sense that there was some overarching order or force to the universe, but did not believe in an personalized deity, making him an atheist by most definitions.

Ayn Rand was definitely decried for her atheism by conservatives (who largely ignore that today, focusing on the pro-free-market aspects of her objectivism. Douglas Adams was also an atheist, as were Clarence Darrow, John Stuart Mill, David Hume, Paul Dirac, Albert Camus and Thor Heyerdahl. I also recently read that Ricky Gervais and Hugh Laurie are both atheists.
 
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Bishadi said:
I read that somewhere.

Something to the effect, that atheists have not contributed to the knowledge of mankind, for a long time.
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Hogwash...........

Carl Sagan published more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was author, co-author, or editor of more than 20 books. In his works, he frequently advocated skeptical inquiry, secular humanism, and the scientific method.

For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring. - Carl Sagan

If we long to believe that the stars rise and set for us, that we are the reason there is a Universe, does science do us a disservice in deflating our conceits? - Carl Sagan
 
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Bishadi said:
atheists have not contributed to the knowledge of mankind, for a long time.
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Those who claim that has one or more of these assumptions in his/her psyche:

1. Atheists are not human.
2. Only acceptable knowledge can come from non-atheists; so whatever atheists find are not valid knowledge of mankind.
3. Apart from religious history, there is no history of mankind. That is to say, human species have not been evolving for millions of years, the guys who controlled the fire, invented pottery, axes, clothing, etc. were also religious, and humans did not spread to the rest of the world from Africa around 100 thousand year ago, and so on and so for...
4. If anyone makes any contribution to human knowledge must have some level of "belief" in a deity.
5. 10 thousand or so years of deistic religions history is the single longest knowledge accumulation ever experienced by human species.
6. I can twist anything I like as long as it helps to advertise my fantasies.
 
spidergoat said:
Carl Sagan wasn't an atheist, although many scientists are.
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Okay, you're right. However, Sagan didn't believe in a creator.

From Wikipedia,
Religious stance and social concerns
Sagan wrote frequently about religion and the relationship between religion and science, expressing his skepticism about the conventional conceptualization of God as a sapient being. For example:

Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow. Others—for example Baruch Spinoza and Albert Einstein—considered God to be essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence of physical laws. - Carl Sagan

Sagan, however, denied that he was an atheist: "An atheist has to know a lot more than I know." In reply to a question in 1996 about his religious beliefs, Sagan answered, "I'm agnostic."
 
Well, Bishadi, this should put to death any rumors about atheist not contributing. :D

From Wikipedia, - List of nontheists
Nontheists, or non-theists, are people who do not believe in deities. They are defined in contradistinction with theists.
The term atheist, in its broadest sense, is synonymous with nontheist. However, atheism has a variety of definitions and typologies; nontheism may be used as a more encompassing term, or to avoid connoting antireligion and other views.

Category:Atheists
who have expressed being an atheist,
and of whom it is known how they define their atheism.

Atheist philosophers, Paul Kurtz, Karl Marx, Paul Edwards
 
Pandaemoni said:
Ayn Rand was definitely decried for her atheism by conservatives (who largely ignore that today, focusing on the pro-free-market aspects of her objectivism).
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and what exactly did ayn rand contribute, apart from a comically naive interpretation of kant and nietzsche?
 
Bishadi said:
I read that somewhere.

Something to the effect, that atheists have not contributed to the knowledge of mankind, for a long time.

Not sure who it was, but i have ONE name to mention

Confucius.
Click to expand...

What makes you think Confucius was an atheist?
 
We'll never know. In a predominantly theist world it would be folly to declare one's atheism especially if your life might depend on it, or continued funding.
 
John Lennon
Douglas Adams
Richard Dawkins
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Woody Allen
Robert Altman
Jorge Amado
David Attenborough
Noël Coward
Marquis de Sade
Marlene Dietrich
Turan Dursun
Emma Thompson
Diego Rivera
Salman Rushdie
Arthur Schopenhauer
David Suzuki
Richard Strauss
Taslima Nasrin
Oscar Niemeyer
Friedrich Nietzsche
George Orwell
Terry Pratchett

Just a few people whose presence on the Earth has made it a more interesting place. They all are or were atheists

Religion is the thing that’s screwing up the world!
 
Why? Because we want to read minds rather than books?

Confucius was a theist, its Confucianism which is godless.

Not his fault, he tried to stress the importance of worship and ritual and declared that he was in awe of the spirits
 
Confucius says: "There are three things of which the supreme man stands in awe. He stands in awe of the will of God, he stands in awe of great sages and of the inspired words which have been uttered by such men"

The references to t'ien in Confucianism are references to the Chinese God Shang Ti.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangdi
 
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S.A.M. said:
Confucius says: "There are three things of which the supreme man stands in awe. He stands in awe of the will of God, he stands in awe of great sages and of the inspired words which have been uttered by such men"
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Those awe inspiring words needs one of these.....:rolleyes: There is no way you can tell if he was being facetious. Atheists say similar things every day with a sprinkling of sarcasm. I'm in awe of your words Sam.:D
 
PsychoticEpisode said:
Those awe inspiring words needs one of these.....:rolleyes: There is no way you can tell if he was being facetious. Atheists say similar things every day with a sprinkling of sarcasm. I'm in awe of your words Sam.:D
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The dumb notions are usually by westerners "interpreting" eastern religions. If he was being facetious with this, why not consider Confucianism as a joke?:rolleyes:

The books he compiled in his lifetime, were the first references to Shang Ti in Chinese history.
 
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