Atheist & Agnostic Family

[Profesco]

Richard Dawkins and Cardinal George Pell answer questions about religion's truth and benefit to the world. <-- (link)

At one point in this Q&A, Cardinal Pell starts to mention that he and some other clergymen were preparing some boys for communion or altaer service or something, and he no sooner gets out the "we were preparing the altar boys" than the audience starts to alternately laugh and boo. Then he tries to finish the sentence again, and the same thing happens. The moderator had to step in to make the audience let him finish his thought.

I don't think laughter at the goings-on between Catholic priests and altar boys is appropriate, but I suppose there's some ironic dark humor in Pell's choice of language. =/

[AzukanAsimbu]

Richard Dawkins and Cardinal George Pell answer questions about religion's truth and benefit to the world. <-- (link)

At one point in this Q&A, Cardinal Pell starts to mention that he and some other clergymen were preparing some boys for communion or altaer service or something, and he no sooner gets out the "we were preparing the altar boys" than the audience starts to alternately laugh and boo. Then he tries to finish the sentence again, and the same thing happens. The moderator had to step in to make the audience let him finish his thought.

I don't think laughter at the goings-on between Catholic priests and altar boys is appropriate, but I suppose there's some ironic dark humor in Pell's choice of language. =/

I really hate it when people try to blame Hitler and Stalin on atheism..... It just gets tedious to explain after while...

[EeveeSkitty]

Hello all. Agnostic Atheist here. I do not think that there is a god, however, I acknowledge the possibility of one existing. To me, I think the reason why is because it seems unnecessary(Occam's Razor). Even if there was a god, the chance that we 'imagined' them exactly right is not high. Since we cannot prove the existence of a god, we must assume that all infinite variations and imaginings of god are equally 'likely'. To give an example, say a that you lose a dollar coin and discover a hole in your pocket. It's possible that somebody stole the dollar, or even that it was an invisible alien who stole it, because metal is very rare on their planet. But it's also possible that you lost it. There isn't any way to prove that it wasn't an alien, but it probably was just you that lost the coin. Feel free to argue against my opinion, I'm open to discussion.

[7 tyranitars]

I really hate it when people try to blame Hitler and Stalin on atheism..... It just gets tedious to explain after while...

Hitler was a Roman Catholic

The Church was and is a mighty powerblock, and Stalin being so paranoid for revolts and attempts to overthrow him he made it illegal.


Welcome Eeveskitty.

[Mr.Pokeman]

Hitler was a Roman Catholic

I wouldn't call him a Catholic, considering that he rejected the Church's power and teachings, and then made up his own beliefs.

[7 tyranitars]

I wouldn't call him a Catholic, considering that he rejected the Church's power and teachings, and then made up his own beliefs.

You're right, he was raised roman catholic but then formed his own view on Christianity called "positive christianity", however what his religion was shouldn't really matter. As extremists in Europe have usualy been from either the extreme left (communism) or extreme right (national socialism.)

[AzukanAsimbu]

Hello all. Agnostic Atheist here. I do not think that there is a god, however, I acknowledge the possibility of one existing. To me, I think the reason why is because it seems unnecessary(Occam's Razor). Even if there was a god, the chance that we 'imagined' them exactly right is not high. Since we cannot prove the existence of a god, we must assume that all infinite variations and imaginings of god are equally 'likely'. To give an example, say a that you lose a dollar coin and discover a hole in your pocket. It's possible that somebody stole the dollar, or even that it was an invisible alien who stole it, because metal is very rare on their planet. But it's also possible that you lost it. There isn't any way to prove that it wasn't an alien, but it probably was just you that lost the coin. Feel free to argue against my opinion, I'm open to discussion.

Actually the existence of an all-powerful creator deity can be disproven because it is a contradictory premise.

And welcome to the fold ^-^

[pkmnswampmaster]

I would like to join please, this seems like my right club and the info on the first post was very interesting.

[AzukanAsimbu]

I would like to join please, this seems like my right club and the info on the first post was very interesting.

Welcome aboard

[celestial phantom]

Muwhahahaha slowly we are gaining more people in this club once again to become a powerhouse that will blindly cause people to follow our views. We are luring them to make them feel what they want...wait a sec whoops wrong ideas here. Just kidding it's nice seeing that the club is gaining some new faces. Especially with the fact that we have the guide to determine what kind of agnostic/atheist you maybe. I can't wait for more diversified views of the worldly views of all the different members we seem to be getting.

[AzukanAsimbu]

New Topic:

Are Atheists, Secularists, and Agnostics more knowledgable about religions?

[pkmnswampmaster]

Hey everyone thanks for the warm welcome, Newbie question: Do we have some xat or forums for thsi club?

New Topic:

Are Atheists, Secularists, and Agnostics more knowledgable about religions?

Oh about this most of the time yes, I mean sometimes I get into an argument with someone that doesn't respects that I'm an ateist and use "hole" or contradictions in the bible cous that's what they always use as their argument "cous the bible says so", Wehn I talk to other ateist people and by some reason we get talk about our arguments with christians we all agree that we know that little book more than they do.

[celestial phantom]

Hmm... I don't know about knowledgable about religion, but I think we can say that we look deeper into their side and they look deeper into our side. Therefore among the many misconceptions I can say we have a more general idea about religion. Where as, religious folk may have a more general idea about atheism. All due to the fact we both look at both sides faults and find the cracks where the defending side finds all the positives really. I think of it more as we are just able to dissect religion and base reason on it.

[SoulSilverMstr411]

Bananas are genuinely the best example of intelligent design I've ever seen. Yes alligators are badass but were they designed for maximum consumption efficiancy? Probably not.

On a related note, I can hardly wait to see how many Biblefags take offence to my siggy. XD

[AzukanAsimbu]

To answer my own question, it depends on the person. For instance, Abrahamic theists. Some theists are very knowledgable about their doctrine, but they might tend to cherry-pick the happy,fuzzy,warm,comforting things out from the bloodthirsty, barbaric, destructive, harmful parts, or just simply ignore it. But I would say a large number of theists have not read their doctrine or been exposed to all parts of it. many have only heard the fuzzy happy things from their preachers or their Sunday school.

Typically, atheists, with a skeptical and critiqual eye, will read the doctrines for the sake of learning about it to show the contradictions in the character of God, and the lack of evidence for most, if not all, of the claims made in the Bible. I would also say that Atheists do tend to focus on the barbarism of the Bible, but the reason for that, as an atheist myself, is also to point out the contradictions in the character of God.

[Darato]

Mr. Pokemon watch what you post in here if you chose to so we don't have a repeat of the last club.

Welcome to the club EeveeSkitty and pkmnswampmaster

Are Atheists, Secularists, and Agnostics more knowledgable about religions?

It really depends on how you look at it. Many of them study all kinds, where as many people in a religion only spend the time study their own, so they could know more about it, even more so the small facts about it.

L.F.D.

[AzukanAsimbu]

Mr. Pokemon watch what you post in here if you chose to so we don't have a repeat of the last club.

Welcome to the club EeveeSkitty and pkmnswampmaster

Are Atheists, Secularists, and Agnostics more knowledgable about religions?

It really depends on how you look at it. Many of them study all kinds, where as many people in a religion only spend the time study their own, so they could know more about it, even more so the small facts about it.

L.F.D.

Good point, but has anyone here ever argued with anyone other than a Abrahamic theist? Other than deists

[Roaring Apathy]

Sup bros. So any requirements to join the club?

I'm a new member, though I'm definitely not new to the forum scene, especially on serebii. Used to be a major forum goer until I started hating them and camped at 4chan. Though recently 4chan has been...less than entertaining so I figured I might as well try to recall what it was about forums that I liked at the time.

Are Atheists, Secularists, and Agnostics more knowledgable about religions?

There are intelligient people, extremists and dumb ***'s on either end of the spectrum, but generally speaking I've seen that non believers tend to be more knowledgable, probably because they tend to study the bible and other abrahamic texts to fully understand and articulate what it is they don't agree about it.

I'm an atheist myself, and generally don't really care about whether or not the bible has any goodness or wrongness to it, all that matters to me is the scientific method and whether or not there's proof or evidence as to whether or not god exists. As of right now there Isn't, so I draw upon russels tea pot and just ignore it altogether. Because really, using a hypothetical scenario, It's like having a discussion as to whether or not drinking leprechaun blood to grant immortality is morally right or wrong if you're not even sure a leprechaun exists in the first place.

[Darato]

We welcome anyone as long as you follow the rules.

Welcome

L.F.D.

[Roaring Apathy]

Sounds good. Rules are generally 1. serebii's rules and 2. respect beliefs correct?

I think ill fit right in.

[AzukanAsimbu]

I throughly enjoy your avatar as well. Welcome aboard

[Profesco]

New Topic:

Are Atheists, Secularists, and Agnostics more knowledgable about religions?

Well there was that buzz about the study of exactly this question, whose results did indicate that atheists knew more about religion than did those who identified as believers. It was a while ago and I don't remember exactly what the terms of the study were, though. In any case, there were legitimate criticisms of the results (off the top of my head I'd wonder if it had anything to do with the results of studies that find that atheists are far and away in general more and better educated than the faithful [which itself is suspect when you consider how much greater the population of the faithful is than that of atheists anyway, among other social factors]), so I wouldn't generalize them anyway.

Going completely off assumption, I'd wager that there are more faithful who dedicate their entire lives to knowing everything about their religion inside and out than there are atheists who do the same. But I'd also wager that there are way more faithful who have studied their own religion only superficially/socially than there are atheists who have studied it seriously (for Christianity, at least, and again largely due to the relative sizes of each population - and this is a very shaky assumption here, so not one I'd commit to).

[Roaring Apathy]

I throughly enjoy your avatar as well. Welcome aboard

Thanks i guess, though it was provided by the site. I wanted to use a pic of sora from the recent 3ds kingdom hearts game, but then I remembered that serebii is an avatar nazi.

The pic of sora in question is is in my profile, check it out if you want.

[7 tyranitars]

Only mods can use their own cool avatars *glares at profesco*

[Moonlight Amaryllis]

...so this is where you go if you don't believe in God? Or am I wrong?