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How do you atheists cope of the thought of dying into nothingness
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Post by
kattib
Well im an agnostic atheist myself, I dont believe in god and I acknowledge that its impossible to prove a universal negative
I never can play devil's advocate on religion debates, I just cant put in the effort haha
Post by
Adamsm
That is an ignorant comment based on the belief that the dark ages were caused by the Catholic Church which is completely false if anything the Catholic Church fueled the arts during the rennaissance through the building of Cathedrals and patronage on great artists such as Michaelangelo.
The Dark ages was caused by the innevitable fall of the Roman Empire and the invasion of Europe by the raiders such as Atila the Huns Golden Horde.
Maybe the Dark Ages weren't..... but the Crusades sure were.
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184848
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375923
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229054
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184848
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Post by
cheezedood21
Something I was just wondering:
I've heard talk here, saying something along the lines of 'live your life to the fullest, as you only have this life.' Well, what if 'living my life to the fullest' meant becoming a serial killer? I have
never
understood that phrase.
Post by
Thror
Heh. Rational thought and wisdom have always been the greatest enemies of religion. In the prehistoric times, people had no idea about science. They did not know why the sun rises, they did not know what creates fire, they did not know why the Nile floods the land regularly every year. This lack of knowledge forced us to think up gods, ghosts, mystical beings that stand behind the natural processes that we do not understand. Since different religions spawned all across the prehistoric world, i think it is safe to assume that making up gods is the basic trait of humanity.
Even in the past, you had intelligent people, and you had stupid people. Since education was not common, the latter formed a majority. The smart ones found a way to control the stupid ones. Religion. People were not afraid of people. People were afraid of gods. A smart man could figure out, that if he asks people to bring food to the shrine, to make it rain, he can come to a lot of food easilly, without moving his finger... and it rained eventually, no matter what. If it took longer before the rains started, he could just say "you are not sacrificing enough" or "your sins are the reason to all this". Once the rains started, the people were like oooh the gods have listened to our prayers. And the priest ends up well fed.
Take the story of Moses and the Hebrews he freed from the ancient Egypt. Perfect example of a wise man using religion to control the simpler folks. Now forget about stuff like raining bread, and creating chasms in the sea. The creation of the Ten Commandments is the interesting part. Imagine traveling with a huge crowd of simple folk, who were slaves of the Egyptian empire, and are suddenly set free. You know where i am getting? A hint. Imagine that there are men AND women. Guess how safe did those women sleep. Chances are pretty good, that a crowd of freed hebrew slaves was rather low on morale, and had a bunch of thieves, rapists, and murderers mixed in. And then, Moses goes into the mountains all by himself, and brings some impressive rocks with carved laws, which were given by the god himself. The laws permitted stealing, murdering, raping. The people were afraid of the god, because they were threatened by eternal suffering in hell. And Moses practically used their beliefs to force them to obey his will. It is good that Moses as no bad guy, so his will was actually the right way to go.
But the evolution of christianity in the past really shows us how bad things can get. Power hungry AND wise people can use religion as a tool, and easilly became corrupted. You had christians confiscating gold, books and pieces of art all around the europe (not even mentioning plundering the middle east). You have had the inquisition, murderers and torturers, who were killing anyone who would try to openly turn people from the religious beliefs. The Christian religion became immensely rich, because of their greed and corruption. Gladly, those things are matters of past now, mostly.
What do we have now? We have evolved, we know why the sun rises, and how magnets work. The Christian religion is not the most popular thing in the world currently, because it does not appeal to the young and intelligent. It does try to appeal to us by questioning our morale, it has became more of an ethical codex with a prayer here and there, rather than pure blind fanatical belief. Many young people are practically indoctrinated by their parents, risen to believe in the god, never having another choice, and that keeps the christian religion running. There is also a lot of fanatics, i have one in my family, who still go around and spread the religion in a very aggressive manner (even if they word it nicely, they still threaten you to burn in hell if you do not listen).
So, yeah. There. After-life is just another lie made up by the people that pulled the strings millenia ago, a lie that has persisted until the present days, and since it pretty much did not evolve at all during the ages, the idea of an after-life starts looking really just like silly and naive imaginations today.
Also. WHAT THE HELL, ETERNAL AFTER-LIFE IN HEAVEN? WITH BUTTSECKS NOT ALLOWED? NO WAY. Id get bored fast. I bet my favorite books would not be allowed in heaven either.
I enjoyed typing this post :]
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229054
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Post by
607995
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184848
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Post by
cheezedood21
Something I was just wondering:
I've heard talk here, saying something along the lines of 'live your life to the fullest, as you only have this life.' Well, what if 'living my life to the fullest' meant becoming a serial killer? I have
never
understood that phrase.
That was me, unless someone else said it, too.
Something I was just wondering:
I've heard talk here, saying something along the lines of 'live your life to the fullest, as you only have this life.' Well, what if 'living my life to the fullest' meant becoming a serial killer? I have
never
understood that phrase.
I for one always saw it as something in the lines of ''don't be held back by foolish things when you really want to do something but please don't become a serial killer, shrinks need their money''.
That's what I meant, basically. No need to interpret it so literally. :P
My statement is also directed at all the 'be all you can be' talk. These just seem like empty statements to me.
edit: @Ivokk: I see.
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375923
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607995
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Post by
cheezedood21
I have a hard time getting my point across, sometimes. That's why I try to stay away from this type of discussion. T_TI do have that problem as well; you are not alone. :)
Post by
184848
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375923
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Post by
TheMediator
Religious people seem to always be in denial that an underlying social structure would exist without it. It kinda takes away from the whole "we're the arbiters of morality"-- living your life to the fullest in that manner will put you in death row, and deservedly.
Indeed. Religious people aren't driven by morality, they're driven by a corrupt sense of rationality. The only reason they act a certain way is because they're fearful of divine retribution, not because they believe it is the right thing to do. That's why it is so easy for the religious to become extremists - once they believe they won't be punished for killing, they will kill.
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229054
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610875
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