Sir Anthony Hopkins: I couldn’t be an atheist

spidergoat said:
The constitution without separation of church and state would be... England.
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Actually if you think about it, if America or England for that matter actually followed the churches teachings to the letter it would be vastly different. Especially for Gays. The fact that Gays have rights is a clue that the church isn't heavily involved in matters of the state. I don't know about England and how they deal with certain issues, though.

Imagine if the 10 commandments and all the sins in the bible were the law of the land. That'd be interesting.
 
I live in a country with a state church (Lutheran). It's much more secular than the US. I don't really understand why we don't have seperation. I guess they want to keep the churches as museums. Some of them have very nice paintings and other art stuff.
 
Its really the last 5 commandments that are secular.

Look at number TWO: 'You shall not make for yourself a carved image--any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.'
 
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The 30 Commandments From the 3 Tablets

1. Thou shalt have no strange gods or singing idols before Me, for I will be jealous of them.

2. Thou shalt not ever take the surname of thy Lord thy God [Dammit] in vain.

3. Remember thou to keep holy the Sabbath Day, and thus not even lift up a finger or do wholly the laundry.

4. Humor thy father and thy mother — never tell them where you’ve been!

5. Thou shalt not kill, except outlaws and in-laws.

6. Thou shalt not admit adultery.

7. Thou shalt not steal, except for office supplies and sundries from restaurants.

8. Thou shalt not bare falsies.

9. Covet Heavenly bodies and make love to thy neighbor.

10. Ever covet thy own ass — tie it to a tree.

11. Do one to others before they can do one to you.

12. I work in mysterious (crazy and insane) ways.

13. Don’t try to walk on water except during a very cold winter.

14. Fun is sin’s evil twin outside of the Sin-a-God.

15. You can have free will, but only if it matches My will.

16. Do not lie in court — let your lawyer do it for you!

17. Thou shalt only one spouse—this is called monotony! More than one spouse is called spice.

18. You are ever at fault for the sins of your ancestors.

19. Tell Me how darn great I am — or be tortured and burned in Hell forever.

20. I think I goofed — I made you in My own image!

21. Heaven is a wild place — you can do whatever you want!

22. You may commit horrible sins if you repent them.

23. I fully expect children not to touch something when I tell them not to.

24. I shall murder all mankind again anytime that I choose, but, not by flood, for I’ve promised not to, but by Earthquake!

25. Preferential treatment is given to those who beg, grovel, and ask for favors to get ahead of others.

26. I use My higher level intelligence to throw tantrums and have emotional outbursts!

27. We have had the last supper — no more free meals.

28. I crap on the just and the unjust alike.

29. If someone kisses your ass, then turn the other cheek.

30. I am in your heart — in your mind — and in your end.
 
Mind Over Matter said:
Sir Anthony Hopkins told the Catholic Herald more than a month ago that he "couldn’t live with" the certainty of being an atheist.
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And that is the first mistake. Nobody said ever an atheist has to be certain. An atheist can have as much doubt as he/she wants, but still choose to be a non believer.

So if Mr . Hopkins next time want to do philosphy, he should take a logic class first.

Oh yes, and why is his opinion more important than yours or mine???
 
spidergoat said:
The constitution without separation of church and state would be... England.
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While it is slightly annoying we have a state religion and no official separation of Church and State the UK is a lot more irreligious than the US. You might have conditions like "No religious test shall ever be needed for public office" but how many people could get elected if they were openly atheist? Not many.

I didn't even realise our deputy Prime Minister is an atheist until after our elections last year. If we'd been in the US it would have been plastered everywhere by the opposition about how he's not a 'godly man' and the insinuation would be therefore not moral (which is bullshit).

The UK might be religious on paper and the US might be secular on paper but the reverse is very much the case in practical reality.
 
Anthony Hopkins couldn't be an atheist. No surprise, I've seen him 'act', he's always himself, no surprise he can't get inside someone else's mindset.

But anyway, he's stuffing a straw man. Atheists aren't 'certain', but does that mean he's indulging in Pascal's Wager, if he is uncertain?
 
And yet the reality is as long as things stay the same (barring any visitations) the farthest any human can go towards "Atheism" is Agnosticism. Less dost profess something they do not know.

Well ipof, "Atheism" is very much like being a fundamentalist. You can claim anyhting you want though. Hell i can make up my own religion...peeps be doin it often and of course i would be either delusional or a LIAR.
 
We can be reasonably sure that atheism is true. I will assume there are no Gods until evidence suggests this absurd claim has any basis in fact.
 
spidergoat said:
We can be reasonably sure that atheism is true. I will assume there are no Gods until evidence suggests this absurd claim has any basis in fact.
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But I don't think there can be any evidence of a god, because no one can define the term. It's impossible to be anything other than an atheist.
 
spidergoat said:
We can be reasonably sure that atheism is true. I will assume there are no Gods until evidence suggests this absurd claim has any basis in fact.
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LOL...look at what you are saying and see that atheism, by definition, is a fallacy.

Atheists are atheist due to proclamation of disbelief in relgions that are known here on Earth.

If i dont believe in a specific religion am i an atheist?

If i dont believe in every known religion on this planet am i an atheist?

Look at the words from your post that i highlighted. See this is where atheism loses credibility because everything in there points to agnosticism.

If aliens seeded the planet...we call them aliens because they are from another planet, wouldnt they be at least godlike?

If off earht inhabitants can manufacture living, organic, soft bodied beings with intellgence and perhaps even high intelligence would they be godlike?

And notice i sadi "if' which means i am not in any way stating these thing can or do occur.
 
Advanced aliens may appear godlike, but they would not be gods, they would be natural. If your concept of god claims to circumvent nature and the laws of physics, then it's not a reasonable proposition, it's absurd. One cannot believe in it because it can't be defined.
 
John99 said:
If i dont believe in a specific religion am i an atheist?
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According to those who do believe in that religion, yes.

It's the believer who defines the atheist.

IF (there is but one "God" and you do not believe in mine);
THEN you are an atheist;
ENDIF;
 
Spidergoat,

You are going be the standards organised religions have set for "God" but those standards are not all there is becuase many have there own impression of what a god or the only god would be like or is. They can even be a part of organised religion but not go by every detail of that religion.

Advanced aliens may appear godlike, but they would not be gods, they would be natural.
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Depends on how advanced they are and the natural part i really dont understand what you are saying there.

If your concept of god claims to circumvent nature and the laws of physics, then it's not a reasonable proposition, it's absurd. One cannot believe in it because it can't be defined.
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That is a mistake because we dont know all the laws of physics although we may do know a lot but i have to say what we view as supernatural may be very natural.


gmilam said:
According to those who do believe in that religion, yes.

It's the believer who defines the atheist.

IF (there is but one "God" and you do not believe in mine);
THEN you are an atheist;
ENDIF;
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Actually atheism is the claim no gods exist at all...with no disclaimers or "if".
 
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