Learning to become an Atheist
- Thread starter Bishadi
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By simply not accepting the supernatural claims of theists and then not accepting the label of atheist.
And then use your thinking to discover your beliefs .
Yes use logic and reason to find out what it fits .
The child can be either Atheist or theist because when questioning the dilemma of who created whom; the child later in life can be persuaded in any direction .
An Atheist does not believe in God ( creator ) and this is from the definition of the world itself .
That paper seems to be more about the process of congnitive evaluation.
those looks real technical
these could perhaps be expanded to assist the little guys like me
Translation:
* Valuing truth.
* Understanding why people believe.
* Understanding what motivates people.
I'm not sure what you mean, isn't social behavior natural? Think about it this way: bugs bunny, mother nature, father time, the grim reaper,... see the pattern? This is something that all humans do, they place human qualities on things that aren't human.
Are humans not natural? Other social animals that don't have written rules or institutions are limited from doing so by cognitive abilities and resources; however, many still do have rules and and support structure.
Human nature is to collect energy and persist with our particular genetic adaptations. Belief is a survival adaptation. If we believe what our parents say then we are more likely to avoid danger. If we believe what the group believes then we have common ground, cooperative behavior, and resource sharing.
That can be the case; however, those same people won't have a clear definition of 'truth' either.
Correct. They would say "I value this because it makes me feel [happiness/comefort/satisfaction/purposeful/justified/etc.]".
Have you ever heard questions like these?:
"What is the meaning of life?"
"What is the purpose of the universe?"
"Which is better, red or black?"
These are subjective questions seeking a objective answers. If you pay close attention, you will hear people asking similar questions on a daily basis. All humans do this (no exceptions).
You should pray to Krishna instead, it's a much better God. (According to your God, it's your obligation to kill me now)
No it's not. Nothing human is natural. We don't code our things (language, law, rules, rituals, logic, belief systems etc.) according to nature. Anything related to our animal feature (bodily or mentally) can have a natural background. But they are by definition non-human elements.
Nope.
So you seriously compare 30 thousand years of learned art, literature, technology, science, morality, justice, engineering with what animals use in their daily life actions. Is that so? What structure do animals support? Tax office or sex shops? Maybe they have a bureaucracy. Get serious please...
These are not the definition of "human nature", merely a part of functional elements of human universe. Define "human nature" please. Is it Hitler like or Chaplin like. Which one correctly represent human nature, Einstein or Darwin, Gandhi or Martin Luther King, Stalin or Mc Carthy, Rita Hayworth or Freddy Mercury? What is human nature?
I mostly hear answers...
If your adjectives happen to be "meaning, purpose, or better", they will always be subjective. However if you switch them with "mechanism, rules, or functional/efficient" respectively, then you would enter the area of objectivity.
What will happen if I pay close attention; will the mechanisms of subjective and objective intertwine each other?
All humans do fart as well (no exceptions).
No bible. Learning how to think critically probably helps. So does having an interest in religion.
It's probable, given that most people's parents follow some kind of religion to some degree or other, and teach that religion to their children.
What I think is very common is that atheists have an interest in religion. That causes them to question it, to investigate different forms of religion, and so on, rather than blindly accepting one religion without every really thinking about it.
I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding of what people are deeming as "natural" here.
If you're using "natural" as the opposite of "man-made" then fair enough - by default anything man does is "man-made" and thus not "natural".
But this is rather a specific and confusing usage of the term "natural".
As is usage that confuses "natural" with "normal".
Your example Hitler - he was clearly not "normal" - but he was natural.
"Natural" to me, and probably to most of scientific persuasion, is anything that is governed by the laws / physics / nature of the universe.
Since humans are governed by those very laws, physics and nature, humans ARE natural - and everything we do is natural.
To claim them as not natural would surely be to assign them the label of "unnatural" or "supernatural"?
He was not.
I don't know your planet, but here humans are governed by government rules.
No, simply human; or "artificial"...
superstring01
Moderator
Perhaps born with the propensity. I mean, I was born gay, and it pretty much started there. . . for me.
As a child, I grew up as a Christian, a very conservative christian. I considered myself an avid believer. Really, the only thing that drove me away from Christianity was the fact that I was gay. Were it not for the incompatibility of my "lifestyle" with the Lutheran-cum-Baptist-cum-Assemby Of God that I was, I probably would have continued in my course as some bible thumping parrot.
In time, I was eventually forced to resolve those differences. At first, I did so by becoming a Christian denomination that accepted gays (United Church of Christ), but by that time I had become so disillusioned with the notion of worshiping a deity that I started wondering what the hell it was all for. Out of some odd coincidence, I picked up Charles Pellegrino's book, "Return To Sodom and Gomorrah" (where he describes his own adventures through the middle east as a non-believer), which--for the first time--made me think it would be okay to be an atheist. That some horrible thing wouldn't happen. That, by letting go of fairy tales and accepting science and rational thought, I'd be okay. And since about that time, I've come to not just believe in science. I've come to see all the fallacies and ridiculousness of believing in gods, demons, devils, heaven and hell, not because those things are wrong, but because they are patently made up just to control people's lives.
What good, overall, has REALLY come from the great monotheistic beliefs in the west? Or the polytheistic beliefs in the east? Little, I would suspect, beyond--say--Angkor Wat, Notra Dame, and a few others.
~String
if you know krishna, it can be mirrored like a born god (a jesus as christ, kind of believing)
there are stories of the guy (krishna) having 16,000 gopis (wives/girlfiends) and if any many can handle that, he almost a god.
that is pretty direct truth
ie.... and since most knowledge is taught, then what 'god(s)' exists unless described by mankind?
the kid is born; learning that food is required to stop the hunger pains, and clothes keep em warm but never sees or knows the magic of creation unless told that it's....... 'the belief'.
kind of neat we ALL have CHOICE; to think all by ourselves.
seem the crunchy cat has a nice hold on the concept; just be honest (with yourself).
kind of like 'be aware' of evalutating; within ourselves
Translation:
* Valuing truth.
* Understanding why people believe.
* Understanding what motivates people.
valuing truth................... (that should be an indicator on the stock exchange)
to let us all know how the world is turning
In fact, that concept of "valuing news", could make for a fine website to address media bias. Kind of like a media watch dog.
Your prayers will open the door to the devil. God and the devil come together you don't get one without the other.
Your prayers are hereby quarantined. You can have the devil all to yourself.
blasphemer!
imagine, if all the kids putting on belts for a measily 72, knew the krishna (style) god, could handle 16000......
do you think the kama sutra was to keep tract of the 'how to do it' ....by a 'god'............
I guess that's why India and Pakistan are such great friends.