The Problem with Science as a Substitute

[Warthaug]

Science alone contains no ethics.

Strange then, that I spend weeks every year sitting in on, and facing ethics boards. Staffed entirely by scientists. Science is full of ethics, unless your in psychology, but then again psychology isn't really a science anyways...

Bryan

 

[Warthaug]

You just need to understand that atheism is actually a form of religion in an of itself

Not by the standard definition, which is "A religion is a set of beliefs and practises, often centred upon specific supernatural and moral claims" (wikipedia, britannica and a few others all have more or less the same thing).

Atheists have only one unifying belief - that god(s) does not exist. Aside from that there is no unifying set of beliefs or practises that unite us - some are secular humanists, some are militants, nihilists, nietzscheans, and some just are...

by being a personal choice not to follow any religion.

You are aware that people can believe in god, and not follow a specific religion? Because, by your definition above, they'd be atheists.

Athiesm is not rejection of a religion, or religion in general. It is simply a disbelief in the existence of god(s). Outside of that there is no unifying charateristic. Some are raised that way, and have no faith to reject...

Bryan

 

[redacted]

I consider myself an atheist, even though I don't believe I can disprove God, as I see God as being completely unnecessary for the world around me. The existence of human kind is explained fairly adequately by science (with the exception of the original formation of life on Earth - but I expect this to be answered in my lifetime).

Yes, but I think you will agree that many (perhaps a majority) of humans believe in a God or Gods of some form and credit that God with various feats. I suspect there is something about the human psyche that receives satisfaction and benefit through such beliefs. I believe it is mostly a good thing until it leads to gross self deception. And when that deception brings harm to others, it has clearly becomes a bad thing.

 

[AXL72]

ohhh gosh goodly...we are only at post #33 and I can feel the pressure cookers in all of us rising in pressure on this continued topic.

 

[AXL72]

Sure, I'll share.

When you die....

Thanks, noboundaries.


I decided not to quote the whole post. Just wanted to say thanks.

 

[vshearer]

........I'd knew I'd had an encounter with a higher presence and that in our human state we are absolutely incapable of conceiving of God's nature. Unconditional love is as close as we can get and it doesn't matter whether you believe in God or not. If you can feel love, you've touched an atom of God.

Bingo.

I didn't die but reached a point of emptiness that allowed me to experience this. Not despair, not emotional hurt. Those are selfish conditions. Just pointless emptiness of my "soul".

 

[Sas]

Yes, but I think you will agree that many (perhaps a majority) of humans believe in a God or Gods of some form and credit that God with various feats. I suspect there is something about the human psyche that receives satisfaction and benefit through such beliefs. I believe it is mostly a good thing until it leads to gross self deception. And when that deception brings harm to others, it has clearly becomes a bad thing.

I agree with the majority of your post. Perhaps there was an evolutionary benefit to believing in God/supernatural powers in the past and that explains its prevalence today?* However, I don't believe it is either good or bad that this kind of belief is common actually, it inspires some people to be wonderful people and others to be evil and intolerant.

Edit*: I found this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_psychology_of_religion. Interested in people's thoughts on this.

 

[deco_martini]

nereas successfully trolls this topic once more......

 

[Twistedarts]

am i the only one that believes in the force?
(jedi in training)

 

[ekremer]

am i the only one that believes in the force?
(jedi in training)

Nope there are others
Jedi census phenomenon - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia