Atheists on the offensive?

[Whickerman]

Atheists are starting an advertising campaign to alert the public to the fact that there may not be a god.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7813812.stm

My question is this. I am not a god botherer, in fact I'm pretty much as far from that as you can get, but when did atheism becom proselytizing? Why spend �140,000 promoting your beliefs if your beliefs are that everyone else is wrong? Surely by definition that's fundamentalism, and therefore defeats the point of atheism? Or am I completely at 6s and 7s here?

[BertiWooster]

I've listened to Prof Richard Dawkins views on the existence of 'god' .
There can be no mistaking his opinion .

However , just suppose that he is wrong afterall , what do you suppose his mitigating argument would be if he found himself at the pearly gates , and is told - ' you cant come in here mate'

How about - ' I was only making sure that you didn't have a problem with overcrowding , St Peter , Sir '

Would that work on you , if you were the omnipotent one ?

[keyplus90]

First of all this is not a new advertisement and has been on buses once before just recently. I liked it because after all what I always believed and a good number of people denied on R & S, is becoming a reality. Atheism is a belief as well, just like people believe in different gods of different shape and size the atheists believe that there is no god. Fine by me, and personally I do not have a problem with that.

But one thing I always find amusing that all the atheist think or I should say they believe that they are the only ones with knowledge. So in other words all the other people who have knowledge and are not atheists are not human. And we do know that we are not the first people with knowledge and wisdom if we look into the history of mankind, I wonder if all of them were atheists too.

[naomi24]

Clanad, Gently, of course, but here goes. I can walk past the Brussels sprouts freezer in the supermarket - I am not obliged to buy them and eat them . Similarly, I can walk past a church or a mosque and ignore what's going on there. Nevertheless, unlike the (delicious) Brussels sprout, religion's roots reach out far beyond buildings, and encroach upon all our lives. In that we don't have a choice. And quite honestly, I think, using that analogy, the same applies in the USA. As Supernick says, the chances of a self-professed atheist becoming Prime Minister or President are, at the moment, pretty remote.

By the way, Quinlad, the law on blasphemy, has, I believe, been repealed.

[Drisgirl]

My son prescribed to this ages ago and they received so much money they are able to take it to all the major cities.

Think the fundamental issue is that we atheists are sick of 'God' being rammed down our throats so its just an alternative view to all the 'God' fearing people.

Thats all i can say on the subject as i'm not religious but thought I would just put in my tuppence worth from someone who is sick of the world revolving around 'religion' and that obviously includes wars and terrorism.

[jno]

I've been around a long time and nobody's ever rammed religiion down my throat. I agree faith schools should not be state-supported, though. Would they offer an extra subsidy to doctors who only treated Christians?

[Drisgirl]

Want to try living in Scotland then if you havent ever had religion rammed down your throat.

[jno]

well, England's the place that actually has bishops in the government, Drisgirl... sorta like Iran. In fact, though you sometimes see an ad for Pentecostalists or something in the tube stations in London, there isn't really a lot of public Christianity around down south. I sometimes get people at the door wanting to talk about God to me; I decline with a smile and they say thanks with a smile. But that's about it, and it doesn't amount to much. Different for you Wee Frees, I expect.

[terambulan]

Where do they get the finance as athiests dont meet or have communal centres like conventional religions?

[jno]

they don't meet, terambulan, they conspire...

[zxyvixy]

im not religious so i shall keep out of this one.

[terambulan]

Its a way to break fundamentalists indoctrinating young minds and turning our youths into robots doing their bidding.

[jake-the-peg]

No No No No No!

This is one of the big lies about athiesm - that it is a belief like any other religion.

It is not.

For a viewpoint to be rational it must be capable of being proved wrong - the true athiest will accept the possibility that he might be wrong.

It is a matter of percentages. An athiest like myself might work on the basis of say one in a billion that God exists.

That hardly qualifies you as agnostic!

However the religious believer does not accept the possibility that God does not exist.

[rov1200]

Birdie you are bringing time into the equation and is one dimension we don't understand. If you suggest there must have been a start somewhere this could equally apply to the big bang and what existed before it took place. Move forward in time to the single celled organism, where did this come from.
Time could be circular with no beginning and no end. Humans are now capable of reproducing lesser life forms than ourselves but we will never surpass our own body design. This was designed by something superior.

[brionon]

Your attempt to make Atheism a Religion is laughable but an understandable mistake of the Weak-mind. Another reason for NOT using silly Greek words instead of English. I'm a non-believer.

[keyplus90]

Birdie � Who designed the designer? Is a rogue argument. The short response to that is a simple "why?" The long one goes something like this: the question "Who made God?"only makes sense if one assumes that the Divine nature is subject to a kind of inverted evolutionary process by which the complex is preceded by the still more complex, but why on earth should we assume this?

But for me the one who designed the designer is God and I do not have to look for him as I know he exists and I am also aware of the factthat my abilities are limited to prove or disprove his existence. Now you try and look for him and do let me know if you have any success. However before embarking on a mission such as this and be the first one in the history of mankind, why don�t you first try your abilities on simple tasks. For example, try sneezing without closing your eyes, or try lifting your both legs up in the open air without holding onto anything. These might again be out of human reach, so in that case try running 100 meters in 9.69 seconds like another human (Usain Bolt) has already done . I am sure you won�t be able to do that either.