How can you be a militant atheist?

[CgDs]

[Caskhades]

[I am ST]

CH,

Religious Jews, religious Hindus and (less so) religious Mormons are the richest groups in the US in terms of net worth. It's just the evangelicals who are poor as church mice. You know that, right?

It is secular rich NW Europe that's the anomaly, really. Probably best thought of as a peculiar Protestant sect, one that lost the god bit somewhere along the way.

[Torchwood]

[Tinker]

[CgDs]

[Tinker]

[CgDs]

[Tinker]

Well you can equip an RC Copter with video equipment. So people might have UAVs in that sense. But I doubt there will be raiders fielding Predators.

[Demon of Undoing]

How 'bout Predators on the field against The Raiders ?





Now that's football.

[Caskhades]

[CgDs]

[Tinker]

[~]

[Demon of Undoing]

Well , I'll just twist your tail with " there is no scriptural affirmation for a hell of eternal conscious torment for any human " , just as something to chew on until I gin up the Evangelic Thousand Monkey Apologetic Machine for a proper response.

Yes , this could indeed generate another side discussion ( or not ) , but I did want to throw that out there so you understand the " higher stakes" comment. I believe this life is all most will ever have. Making the question relate to some surmised afterlife ( I am unconvinced about any speculated quality to it ) puts off consequences and renders things too abstractly. It's more immediate than that , it's about the heaven and or hell one experiences daily.





PS ; Do you sometimes scream when you type ? I just get that impression every once in a while.

.

[~]

[ansuchin]

I will admit that I have difficulty following and comprehending much of the discussion here. Coming from a Buddhist perspective, the issue of the actual existence of God has never been of concern to me personally, so I have always found the arguments concerning this issue challenging to appreciate. I am not an atheist or a theist. I simply do not know.

Speaking only for myself, I would find adherence to either point of view as a hindrance and distraction to the clarity I believe necessary for my own spiritual practise. But that is my own understanding, and it has also been traditional since the ancient Mauryan times of King Ashoka for Buddhists to approach the views of others in these matters with careful listening and with a basic respect. I therefore have no desire to disabuse anyone of their favoured understandings here. Nevertheless, I will add a few thoughts though for what they maybe worth.

I believe that Kant came to an important conclusion in A Critique of Pure Reason, that "The greatest and perhaps the sole use of all philosophy of pure reason is therefore only negative; since it serves not as an organon for the extension but as a discipline for the limitation of pure reason, and, instead of discovering truth, has only the modest merit of guarding against error."

This indispensable faculty that allows us to appreciate our errors makes these reasoning capabilities essential for guarding the integrity of methodology in scientific and mathematical investigations. Reason, however, remains confined within the modest goal of guarding against the errors of fallacy and lack of evidence. Reason is not a system of belief or of understanding, it is only a tool of our assorted assumptions and world views, religious or secular.

If one believes that our strange, short, and challenging passages through life can be navigated solely by our necessary vigilance for our errors, I am afraid that there is really nothing I will be able to offer you. Nevertheless, while our capacity of reason has the indispensable ability to keep us honest and to prevent our flights into wishful thinking, do you believe that reasoning activities are quite sufficient to live in a meaningful way? If not, what else may be required to face the demands of being human?

I am not simply referring to intense and challenging conditions. Extreme circumstances of facing violence, illness, and poverty are, in my experience, not necessarily the seeds of a "religious" point of view as much as demanding attention to the immediate requirements for food, shelter, medical care, or safety from outlaws as the circumstances require. Such experiences have immediate demands that supersede metaphysical and religious reflection even though some may find such meditations supportive during their trials.

Still, for atheist, theist, or agnostic, the question remains. How is the courage to live, to face the inevitable challenges of loss, illness, and death derived? Are the glib and pusillanimous justifications for passive resignation and cynicism our only rational response? More importantly, how do we secure the selfless bravery to honestly face those times when we can no longer vainly ignore and obfuscate with our intellects our fundamental failures, confusions, fears, and inadequacies that are perennially human?

[CgDs]

[Torchwood]

[Caskhades]

[Tinker]

[Caskhades]

[Tinker]

[Caskhades]

[Caskhades]