Are Atheists Unsure And Worried?

[naomi24]

According to some of the religious people here, the reason atheists argue religion is because they ‘are not sure and are a bit worried’ (Keyplus’ words). Religion is an option available to all – atheists choose to reject it. What then, do those who say this think we are unsure or worried about? The question has been asked several times on different threads, but as far as I’m aware, no one has given their reasons for thinking that. Can someone please explain?

[naomi24]

Lightbulb, I don't try to criticise religion - I do criticise it.

[lightbulb247]

well done, than when we criticize atheists, please, do not take offence.

[emmie]

if people criticise me because of being an atheist i don't take offence, why would i.

[LazyGun]

@ Khandro

Like there was ever any doubt that you would be in agreement with the OP.

As for your butterflies argument - your logic circuits need an infusion of logic and reason, in much the same way your levity circuits need and injection of humour.

[naomi24]

Lightbulb, you will note that you are the one complaining about criticism. Atheists don't do that for the simple reason that they meet the claims of religion with rational refutations - something the religious are unable to counter - hence the constant objections to criticism.

[Octavius]

Thats what it all boils down to then, "we throw stones because you can't stop them"?

So you must be unsure whether they are hitting the mark or worried they'll hit someone else looking the other way.

[naomi24]

Octavius, we don't throw stones. We present facts.

//So you must be unsure whether they are hitting the mark or worried they'll hit someone else looking the other way. //

I must? Why's that then? I can't find an iota of sense in that.

[vetuste_ennemi]

Khandro, what meaning and value do you with your eclectic spirituality see in life (I include the butterfly and the tiger) that I as an atheist can't see?

[Khandro]

v_e; It's a bit like the "I've been rich and I've been poor, and rich is better" argument. (or maybe "my willy is bigger than your willy").
You don't expect me to give a full answer on here do you? Whaddya take me for, a fool?

[naomi24]

Khandro, if people don't know where you're coming from, it's no surprise they can't make sense of your posts.

[Hypognosis]

Sure I'm worried... about my plane making an emergency landing in a place like this...

http://wikiislam.net/wiki/Islamic_Law

and ending up saying (or doing) the wrong thing. Like that kid on the coffee stall making a jokey comment and being summarily executed (for insulting the prophet) by the very person who was trying to bully him into giving him a cup, for free.

I don't have a passport. Do they make any reference to a person's faith (or lack thereof) in a prominent place?

That wiki's page on Atheism is very short but gets across that atheism is "regarded by scholars as the worst form of disbelief".

[Khandro]

Atheism "regarded by scholars as the worst form of disbelief". well I can't see how disbelief can get much worse, and it is all rather unnecessary really, as Rod Liddle points out here;

[Hypognosis]

Hi Khandro,

I was pleased to see a nod towards punctuated equilibrium in that film (Professor Schwartz in part 5 or 6).

I recall the days of internet forums and Usenet and was in an engrossing dialogue with someone in a Science forum, who was trying to convince myself and other skeptical types that Punctuated Equilibrium was not some whacko pet theory but 'the next big thing' in the understanding of evolution.

However many times we started new threads, the debate became next to impossible because it kept getting gatecrashed and sidetracked by those who wished to lecture us about Creationism, ID and how much science offended their sensibilities. A single careless use of certain trigger words and up they'd pop.

I neither know nor care who 'started it', whether this was their retaliation for atheists and scientists wrecking their discussion groups or they were there because it was the logigal upshot of avoiding 'preaching to the converted'.

He closes the film with words to the effect that we all ought to agree that "there is a god, or not.... and leave it at at". I can't help agree with him but I know for sure that discussion of evolution among scientists on a public forum, without interruption by theists will remain impossible - like limpets, they just won't let go.

[Khandro]

For vetuste_ennemi.

The world is charged with the grandeur of God.

It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;

It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil

Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?

Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;

And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;

And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil

Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.


And for all this, nature is never spent;

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;

And though the last lights off the black West went

Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs--

Because the Holy Ghost over the bent

World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.


God's Grandeur[i [i]Gerard Manley Hopkins]

[vetuste_ennemi]

For Khandro:

I fled Him, down the nights and down the days;
I fled Him, down the arches of the years;
I fled Him, down the labyrinthine ways
Of my own mind; and in the mist of tears
I hid from Him, and under running laughter.
Up vistaed hopes I sped;
And shot, precipitated,
Adown Titanic glooms of chasmèd fears,
From those strong Feet that followed, followed after.
But with unhurrying chase,
And unperturbéd pace,
Deliberate speed, majestic instancy,
They beat—and a Voice beat
More instant than the Feet—
“All things betray thee, who betrayest Me."
...
Fancies as lost, I have stored for thee at home:
Rise, clasp My hand, and come!”
Halts by me that footfall:
Is my gloom, after all,
Shade of His hand, outstretched caressingly?
“Ah, fondest, blindest, weakest,
I am He Whom thou seekest!
Thou dravest love from thee, who dravest Me.”

Francis Thompson.

[vetuste_ennemi]

You assume too much, Khandro. More imagination if you please, sir.

[sandyRoe]

Myself when young did eagerly frequent
Doctor and Saint, and heard great Argument
About it and about: but evermore
Came out by the same Door as in I went.

[Khandro]

v_e; Thanks, no assumption on my behalf, what do you mean?

[Khandro]

vetuste_ennemi ; Do you think the poetry of a Hopkins or Thompson or, exempli gratia, the music and oratorio of Haydn and J.S.Bach, can have the same resonance, and create a similar depth of feeling and understanding, in an atheist as it might to a 'believer'?