Poll of the Day > lOoK aT mE! iM a AtHiEsT!

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I'll reiterate. Atheism comes from a position of ignorance. Atheists lack understanding of our world and need to be educated

Krazy_Kirby posted...

^
you don't need religion for morals.
lots of religion also teach bad morals anyway...

True, but that wasnt my point. Religion does provide a space and time to think about what good/moral behavior would be (with others) which is something that doesnt really happen elsewhere. Religions are also right much more than theyre wrong about moral behavior: the problem is that the things they are wrong about (and the sects that are authoritarian/often wrong) get all of the attention.

oh i thought he was slinja

OhhhJa posted...

So I'll reiterate. Atheism comes from a position of ignorance. Atheists lack understanding of our world and need to be educated

Theists are the ones making positive claims about reality which can't be proven, not atheists.

wpot posted...

True, but that wasnt my point. Religion does provide a space and time to think about what good/moral behavior would be (with others) which is something that doesnt really happen elsewhere. Religions are also right much more than theyre wrong about moral behavior: the problem is that the things they are wrong about (and the sects that are authoritarian/often wrong) get all of the attention.

Which is why secular churches have kind of become a thing (or were a few years ago, I'm not sure where they stand now). The basic concept of "get together with a bunch of people to consider and discuss how to be better people" is inherently pretty appealing and beneficial, but a lot of people don't like getting that through the lens of personifying morality as a deity or dealing with the aggressive guilt tripping, manipulation, and other harmful behaviours found in many organized religions. To that end, you get churches popping up that satisfy that need while avoiding the less appealing stuff.

Of course, the deity aspect aside, there isn't actually a shortage of congregations that don't do anything particularly objectionable or harmful. A lot of the parent organizations are pretty bad (the Vatican being perhaps the most notorious), but even within them, there are plenty of individual congregations that are perfectly pleasant and healthy to be a part of.

May the Flying Spaghetti Monster lay his noodly appendages upon you, ramen.

adjl posted...

Which is why secular churches have kind of become a thing (or were a few years ago, I'm not sure where they stand now). The basic concept of "get together with a bunch of people to consider and discuss how to be better people" is inherently pretty appealing and beneficial, but a lot of people don't like getting that through the lens of personifying morality as a deity or dealing with the aggressive guilt tripping, manipulation, and other harmful behaviours found in many organized religions. To that end, you get churches popping up that satisfy that need while avoiding the less appealing stuff.

Of course, the deity aspect aside, there isn't actually a shortage of congregations that don't do anything particularly objectionable or harmful. A lot of the parent organizations are pretty bad (the Vatican being perhaps the most notorious), but even within them, there are plenty of individual congregations that are perfectly pleasant and healthy to be a part of.

Agreed!