I always find it amusing that theists try to tag atheists with descriptive terms of their own kind when insulting them.
No, it's because it's a cheap and easy way to attack the opposition. Compare the people involved. Religious extremists: The Taliban. Atheist extremists: Authors and biologists. Doesn't really tally, does it?
Remember what Volters said:"If God didn't exist, we'd have to invent her". How profoundly true.Sorry, "Her".
Total, total non-sequitor. The Taliban are a bad example of religious extremism. They're not far different to the current rulers of many of the surrounding Islamic countries and most of their actions have been driven by greed and power, not religion. Extremism is relative by it's very nature. I didn't say they were exactly alike, either. They are comparable however in their disdain for those who don't agree with them, twisting of facts and inability to understand the fragility of their own beliefs.
Atheists don't have beliefs, YV. There's only one thing that they agree on as a group and that's a lack of belief in a god or gods. The standard atheist outlook, if there is one, is merely that nobody has proved the existence of a deity, so there's no good reason to believe in them, at the moment. I'm not sure why so many people are threatened by that.
As an Atheist myself, though I joined the #prayformuamba trend on Twitter. My definition of praying basically means that I'm "hoping" he pulls through. Has nothing to do with God.
The being that Moslems refer to as Allah or the Jews refer to as Jehovah is exactly the same being that Christians refer to as God
Some very interesting points!! A couple I'd like to add: Judaism, Christianity (non-Trinitarian), and Islam all are essentially Abrahamic faiths, and as such, theirs is the God of Abraham, and the same God (Trinitarian Christians believe Jesus is a part of God and that kinda of distinguishes him from the way the others see God), therefore not all Religions "create" their own, three of the biggest in the world all have the same. Almost all major "religions," from the Inca's to Christians, and beyond, have some form of a worldwide flood story in their beliefs somewhere. I find it pretty interesting that such an abstract idea just happens to appear so frequently in so many diverse places if it never happened. We've got very much off the topic of this thread, and likely onto more dangerous territory. So far people have been, in the large part, very tolerant of each others beliefs, and I'd like to say thanks to everyone for proving there are a lot of smart and articulate people on this board
So the Taliban were brought up, if atheists want to go there, then let's do it...The biggest mass murdering leaders in recent history have been ATHEIST RULERS, that of Stalin, and Mao, they killed far more people than the Taliban could ever dream off, let's not forget it was atheist Russia that even led to a group like the Taliban, the Soviets went into Afghanistan, installed a puppet Communist regime, murdered over a million Afghans, and that's what started the major chain of events that sent Afghanistan into a spiral of violence and eventually to a group like the Taliban popping up.
Stalin and Mao didn't kill because of atheism though, did they? Hitler, on the other hand, claimed to be driven by his Catholicism. Stalin studied to become a priest and then founded his own religion with himself at the head of it, essentially.
You picked up on the extremism aspect so lets not go for the "standard" view. Atheists say there's no proof for God but as anyone religious will tell you, you are the proof. Religion, like most things is very complicated so don't read too much into the short sentence answers I've given you. Anyway, I'm going to call it a night. I think the mods might close this by morning but if not we can continue in the afternoon once I've consulted my rabbi
The lies that have been spread about great Socialist leaders such as comrades Stalin and Mao are nothing more than Western Imperialist Propaganda
