douchebag atheists

You've lost me there. I thought you were trying to define (or redefine) what is a God, and then it is a given that an atheist does not believe that this God exists.

 

Hey, Atheist!

Hey Hippie, what's up?

Do you believe in God?

um.. no. I'm an atheist.

Well, I believe nature is god. We are all one with the force and we subjectively experience different parts of one consciousness. THE UNIVERSE AND EVERYTHING IN IT IS GOD. Do you believe in the universe?

Yes, I believe in the universe. But, the universe doesn't magically become the same thing as god just because you like to drop acid and think about life in impractically abstract terms. Radically changing the widely accepted definition of the word "god" doesn't make me any less of an atheist. What you're doing is changing the criteria of being an atheist. If I agree to your new definition of "god" and "atheist", and admit that I'm not an atheist because I believe that nature exists, someone will go, "AH HA! SO YOU ADMIT THAT SOME KIND OF GOD MIGHT EXIST!".....and they won't be talking about nature or the universe. They will be talking about the generally accepted definition of the word, "god". If you're really this concerned about what everyone is labeled, here: For all practical purposes, I am an atheist and so are you.

It's totally fine to think abstractly. I'm not saying that what you believe is stupid and I'm not saying that you can't refer to the universe as god. I'm saying that once we start arguing about semantics, you need to start using words the same way everyone else does. Otherwise, we'll argue for a really long time about stupid shit that doesn't matter.

 

As a follow up..

If you decide that your cat is God, I can believe in the existence of your cat without believing that your cat is god.

 

look mate, i wasn't trying to trip anyone up with abstract logic and my argument (if you can call it that) certainly wasn't gonna end with "believing in the universe means believing in god, now i'll see you in church on sunday, yeah?", i was just using the example of spinozism to explore what atheism means to certain people.

 

much like if i called my pen god i would still be an atheist.

 

Haha, I didn't think that you were trying to trap anyone. This just isn't an uncommon discussion, and it almost never goes anywhere unless you find some common ground first.

Let's start out with defining god. Let's do it in the simplest and clearest way we can.

God is a conscious, supernatural being.

Are you ok with that definition?

 

thats the start and end, really.

 

Exactly.

I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of the population would agree with my definition. (different groups might add various attributes, like: creator, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal, etc. But I highly doubt that a significant number of people would say that god isn't conscious and supernatural.)

If you want to challenge an atheist with the actual ideas that go along with spinozism, please do. But arguing about labels is pointless.

 

just curious.how many of ye selfproclaimed atheists were brought up in a religious family ?

 

I was. Do you want every atheist here to answer you? You could start a poll.

 

I found the link . A member of that forum asked to see God while in there astral body . This is the post they made . http://www.astralpulse.com/forums/w..._experiences/i_asked_to_see_god-t38258.0.html
If you dont know what astral projection is http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_projection http://aznewage.com/aznewage.org/astral_travel.htm

 

I was not, my family is Christian but not religious

Sent from my XT907 using Tapatalk 2

 

thats their own perogative.like i said just curious.thank you.

 

thank you.mine too.

 

I worked for the church for ten years and went to good schools so they invested a fair bit in me.

There is no g-d that i can see but it doesn't stop me from living a good life.
Christian double standards piss me off.

The patter and endless quoting whilst they live farked lives is funny.

Just don't piss in my pocket ya carnts!

 

i was. but only CofE (religion for people who don't really wanna get involved lol)

 

never heard of that religious group ha! ha!

 

Thats ludicrous, calling yourself Christian labels you as an adherent to a religious doctrine.
The definition of christian is a belief in the holy trinity, and that Jesus Christ will return to earth as a savior for all that believe in him.

Wiki;

Thats about as religious as it gets.

 

theres another literal definition of the word christian! ,as in" humane human being"! my guess is he ment it in that context.as did I!