Religion

Have you renounced them all in favor of agnostic atheism yet?

zzzzzz

topic thats done to death

  On 1/6/2014 at 5:11 AM, Zeffolia said:

Have you renounced them all in favor of agnostic atheism yet?

People should believe whatever they see fit to believe. What's important--I think--is for beliefs to be challenged.

When I have an ill-grounded belief, I trust the people around me to point it out. For instance, if I believe that Elvis is still alive and he visits me in the night, then I would not want the people around me to simply 'respect my beliefs.'

My mother believes that she talks to dead people, and also that she cures people's health issues just by thinking about them. And she will continue to believe these things because she surrounds herself with people who will never challenge those beliefs (mainly because she surrounds herself with people who believe the same things).

So it's not about just renouncing your beliefs because someone else said you should, it's about making sure your beliefs can withstand scrutiny, internally and externally.

Beliefs.

X-files

Religion and politics subforum pls

Haven't renounced anything, agnostic atheism has always been my default position, even before I knew what it was called.

I believe in poopism

  On 1/6/2014 at 7:23 AM, azatoth said:

Haven't renounced anything, agnostic atheism has always been my default position, even before I knew what it was called.

I think it's the default position, isn't it? You can't actively believe something until you have a reason to which would make agnostic atheism chronologically the default, no?

Hey look, in the similar topics there's a thread with the exact same title! That's funny.

/sarcasm

Yeah am an atheist, but lately I've been telling people I'm agnostic if they ask because it's harder to argue with that and sometimes you just don't want to get into the discussion

I'm pretty convinced that there's nothing beyond, and that actually reality doesn't even fully exist - there's no real division between nothingness and somethingness, but that's almost impossible to imagine, so our minds fill the blankness with stuff

  On 1/6/2014 at 7:30 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 1/6/2014 at 7:23 AM, azatoth said:

Haven't renounced anything, agnostic atheism has always been my default position, even before I knew what it was called.

I think it's the default position, isn't it? You can't actively believe something until you have a reason to which would make agnostic atheism chronologically the default, no?

 

It is, but isn't for many people. Some get brought up with a religion and never really question it or even observe it for that matter, so they are sort of agnostic atheists too.

Wonder what it's like for career theologians who realize the truth

Must suck

  On 1/6/2014 at 8:02 AM, Zeffolia said:

Wonder what it's like for career theologians who realize the truth

 

Must suck

Huh?

If there's a theologian somewhere with the truth, he/she should share it with the rest of us.

more like relolgion amirite

edit: relelgion?

I believe in what's hip to believe in at the time. Right now it's

  On 1/6/2014 at 8:02 AM, Zeffolia said:

Wonder what it's like for career theologians who realize the truth

 

Must suck

I am sure there are theologians who are not believers, there is a lot you can study within the discipline of theology that leaves the question of truth untouched. That said, I think theology is silly and shouldn't be a discipline in universities. The non-confessional stuff could as well be taught withing the realm of comparative religion.

There was some talk in Finland if one can work as a priest if he/she does not believe in God because there were priests like that.

"It's only a job!"

Also I just recently watched the entire Father Ted series. Lolled at this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HPL0BaOa-8

  On 1/6/2014 at 11:03 AM, mokz said:

There was some talk in Finland if one can work as a priest if he/she does not believe in God because there were priests like that.

 

"It's only a job!"

It wouldn't surprise me in the least if there would be atheist priests, especially here in Finland. They just need to say the right things in their sermons and be a sympathetic ear for those in the congregation. Can do that without believing in the fairy tales.

  On 1/6/2014 at 5:46 AM, LimpyLoo said:

 

  On 1/6/2014 at 5:11 AM, Zeffolia said:

Have you renounced them all in favor of agnostic atheism yet?

 

People should believe whatever they see fit to believe. What's important--I think--is for beliefs to be challenged.

 

When I have an ill-grounded belief, I trust the people around me to point it out. For instance, if I believe that Elvis is still alive and he visits me in the night, then I would not want the people around me to simply 'respect my beliefs.'

 

My mother believes that she talks to dead people, and also that she cures people's health issues just by thinking about them. And she will continue to believe these things because she surrounds herself with people who will never challenge those beliefs (mainly because she surrounds herself with people who believe the same things).

 

So it's not about just renouncing your beliefs because someone else said you should, it's about making sure your beliefs can withstand scrutiny, internally and externally.

 

Beliefs.

 

Good post

  On 1/6/2014 at 7:23 AM, azatoth said:

Haven't renounced anything, agnostic atheism has always been my default position, even before I knew what it was called.

Ditto. Although, I am still learning and practising Buddhist teachings. I don't understand how that's classed as religion though, more a self help technique if anything.

I was going to talk about atheist clergy members. I bet there's quite a bit more than we think, especially if they've been doing it for a while. They might join a seminary when they're 19 or something, all bright eyed and naive about the special place in the world they have chosen. But all of that slowly erodes the more they move up in the heirarchy. The mindess institutional bullshit gets to them at one point or another and they become disillusioned with the idea of being a preist. Nothing divine about a bunch of stuffy old men concerned with mostly political shit. They might ask themselves, "why did I have to sacrifice so much for this beauraucratic bullshit system? All I wanted to do is help people become closer to god." But what role does any kind of god play in this fucking mindless institution? The system has hijacked their personal lives and the loss of sense of control they experience will frustrate them to a breaking point. Some preists might try to regain that sense of control by molesting little boys and wtf church you suck

  On 1/6/2014 at 2:54 PM, westhead said:

 

  On 1/6/2014 at 7:23 AM, azatoth said:

Haven't renounced anything, agnostic atheism has always been my default position, even before I knew what it was called.

Ditto. Although, I am still learning and practising Buddhist teachings. I don't understand how that's classed as religion though, more a self help technique if anything.

 

That's a very Western way of looking at Buddhism. If you stripped all the superfluous things from Christianity and Islam, you would also get something like a self-help/philosophy of life kind of thing.