How atheists became the most colossally smug and annoying people on the planet

otherone said:
No. Atheists make no claim as to the purpose of the universe.
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Yes they do. They say that it is not the creation of a superhuman personal being and is thus purposeless.

otherone said:
Atheists have no "set of beliefs", except one.
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First of all, one belief is a set of beliefs.

Second of all, that's ridiculous anyway. Nobody has only one belief. Everybody has a set of many beliefs. If you're an atheist, then your belief that there is no god is merely one belief within a much larger set of beliefs that you have.

Atheism isn't itself a whole religion. But its a tenet that belongs to whatever the religion is of anyone who has that belief.

otherone said:
What you claim as the 'religion" of atheism, is not dependent on the idea that there is a creator god.
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Right. It's dependent on the idea that there is not one.

otherone said:
Finally, there are no "practices" generally agreed upon by atheists.
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Do all atheists have one huge set of generally agreed upon practices? No. Neither do all theists. But subgroups of atheists have their own sets of practices.

The Buddhists have theirs. The Humanists have theirs. The Objectivists have theirs. The Dawkinsists have theirs. And so on.

Even if your religion is so small that you're the only one in the world who belongs to it, there's still some set of beliefs and practices that you, as the entirety of adherents to your religion, have.
 
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otherone said:
No. Atheists make no claim as to the purpose of the universe. Atheists have no "set of beliefs", except one. What you claim as the 'religion" of atheism, is not dependent on the idea that there is a creator god. Finally, there are no "practices" generally agreed upon by atheists.
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That "one" governing belief informs every other belief in your worldview.
 
Sola_Fide said:
That "one" governing belief informs every other belief in your worldview.
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I don't believe that.

Granted, if they were consistent it would. But it's logically impossible for them to be consistent.

Every single atheist has tons of beliefs that are completely incompatible with atheism. They can't help it. They're made in God's image.
 
erowe1 said:
No, they believe it doesn't have one.

Therefore, they have a belief concerning the purpose of the universe.
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I'm not sure they believe the Universe does or does not have a purpose. Another way to put it is many might think the question itself is an absurdity like asking if a Mountain was put some place for a purpose.
 
erowe1 said:
Atheism isn't itself a whole religion. But its a tenet that belongs to whatever the religion is of anyone who has that belief.
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Thank you. Atheism is not a religion. As for your next statement, if you wish to conflate "religion" and "world view", that's up to you...but that is only your opinion...or "religion", as you put it.
 
Atheists Document Their Dogma

VIDEODROME said:
At a glance, that looks like some website's Humanist philosophy. I'm not totally sure, because I've never read that.

But if I identify as Atheist, and this guy wrote a bunch of words on the internets calling it a Manifesto, is it to be assumed I share their "beliefs"? :confused:
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I posted those to show otherone that there are atheists out there who acknowledge a set of beliefs about their "non-belief," as it were. He may not agree with those manifestos, but they still serve as evidences that atheists have chartered their beliefs in an effort of consensus against belief in God.
 
erowe1 said:
No, they believe it doesn't have one.

Therefore, they have a belief concerning the purpose of the universe.
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I think most don't believe it does (or perhaps have never pondered the question)

But are there some atheists that believe the universe does have some kind of "purpose"? There are so many type of atheistic worldviews so I'm not familiar with all of them.
 
otherone said:
Thank you. Atheism is not a religion. As for your next statement, if you wish to conflate "religion" and "world view", that's up to you...but that is only your opinion...or "religion", as you put it.
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Atheism is religious.
 
matt0611 said:
I think most don't believe it does (or perhaps have never pondered the question)

But are there some atheists that believe the universe does have some kind of "purpose"? There are so many type of atheistic worldviews so I'm not familiar with all of them.
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Good point.

But going back to the definition of religion. Whether somebody thinks the universe does have a purpose, or thinks it doesn't, both of those are beliefs concerning the purpose of the universe.
 
erowe1 said:
Good point.

But going back to the definition of religion. Whether somebody thinks the universe does have a purpose, or thinks it doesn't, both of those are beliefs concerning the purpose of the universe.
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Yeah, I would agree with that.
 
Ploytheism, monotheism, henotheism, pantheism, panentheism, atheism, agnosticism, etc.

None of these are the names of religions. They are tenets of religions. Whichever of those things any person is, that is one aspect of their religion, at least according to the definitions that have been given in this thread.

But every thinking person, including atheists, has a religion, as defined by these definitions.
 
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VIDEODROME said:
I'm not sure they believe the Universe does or does not have a purpose. Another way to put it is many might think the question itself is an absurdity like asking if a Mountain was put some place for a purpose.
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Good point.

But the belief that the question of the purpose of universe is an absurdity is also a belief concerning the purpose of the universe. It still fits in the definition.

Atheists may not all agree about all of their beliefs. But they all do have religions, according to the definitions OtherOne offered.
 
VIDEODROME said:
So basically not being religious is a type of religion.


I need a drink.
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No.

Imagine a three-dimensional cartesian space. Let the x and y axes represent the combination of religious beliefs that any person has, and let the z-axis represent how devout they are in those beliefs. In this graph, a person's location on the x-y plane is their religion. Their height above that plane in the z-direction is how religious they are. No matter what their religion is, they can have any measure of religiosity.

There may be some atheists out there whose beliefs are not very important to them. If that's the case, they would qualify as not-very-religious atheists.

But I haven't met many atheists like that. Most atheists I meet are extremely religious. They cling to their tenets zealously, and with a blatant fideism that exceeds the fundamentalists of any other religion. No amount of reason or evidence will shake them from what they have chosen to devote their lives to by a grand leap of blind faith. Their level of religiosity can be seen in how viscerally they react against having it pointed out to them.
 
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I might call that being devout I guess lol. Or clinging to an Ethos they identify with.
 
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