Matt Dillahunty And The Atheist Experience

Discussion in 'Agnosticism and Atheism' started by fraggle_rock, Apr 18, 2015.

  1. Mr.Writer

    Mr.Writer Senior Member

    Messages:
    14,286
    Likes Received:
    643
    Which god?

    Have you "regarded" Poseidon lately?



    The issue there is a fetishization of money, an overvaluing of personal profit. It is not a problem of science; the very same problem afflicts religion, and any other endeavor where humans congregate and are in competition.

    Remember that science is a way to arrive at knowledge about the world. Any problem that you think of that is outside the scope of ways of knowing, is not a problem with science. It might be a problem with humans, with individual scientists, with individual governments, with the idea of government in general, etc, but science is an epistemology.
     
    themnax likes this.
  2. Irminsul

    Irminsul Valkyrie

    Messages:
    62
    Likes Received:
    105
    Of course I do.

    Although I call him Ægir. :)
     
  3. Okiefreak

    Okiefreak Senior Member

    Messages:
    11,079
    Likes Received:
    4,937
    I've noticed that with atheists too.
     
  4. Okiefreak

    Okiefreak Senior Member

    Messages:
    11,079
    Likes Received:
    4,937
    Listen to yourself. Your "personal savior"? Sounds like you haven't quite emancipated yourself from the worship of false gods. If this guy is "the best kind of atheist", I'd hate to see the worst! He's really a cookie cutter product who uses the same pat phrases and tired arguments we here so often from Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, et al., or the ones on this Forum. Nobody but a true believer would listen to the hectoring tone and the exaggerated rhetoric and say this is my "personal savior". He claims superior insight into "reality", apparently because he thinks, like any fanatic, that his views are true while all others are false. He berates the poor woman for endorsing a deity who supports "human sacrifice", "slavery", and "wars of extermination".by making an unfounded assumption that any believer in God must believe in the most extreme form of Judeo-Christian biblical literalism. And he tries to practice pop psychiatry without a license by attributing to her "the desire to feel special". He comes across like an atheist Dr. Phil. So what motivates him? A desire to feel superior and to bully women because they hold beliefs that are silly? Just because you've found atheism doesn't mean you need to abandon critical thought!
     
  5. heeh2

    heeh2 Senior Member

    Messages:
    2,118
    Likes Received:
    30
    Christianity is the name of a message.

    Atheism is the name of a message.

    Everyone understands messages differently.

    It's easier to think about different explanations like they are pictures with signatures on them. Christianity has its own ways of expressing artistic elements and is thus signed by the artist "Christian".
     
  6. Gangster19

    Gangster19 Members

    Messages:
    125
    Likes Received:
    114
    I never cared much for him. Strikes me as a creep. I'm an atheist. He's got that creep vibe ya know? Looks like he might be a funny uncle or something. A perv. Little weird. strange. a bit on the old creepola side. But I guess he's...nah he's creepy.
     
  7. FemdomFilmFan

    FemdomFilmFan Members

    Messages:
    103
    Likes Received:
    78
    OK. Why bump a thread that's over 5 years old?
     
  8. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ Ancient Mariner Administrator

    Messages:
    13,420
    Likes Received:
    17,970
    Well that's exactly what Irminsul does in real life, is it not?
     
  9. ~Zen~

    ~Zen~ Ancient Mariner Administrator

    Messages:
    13,420
    Likes Received:
    17,970
    Bumping old threads is fun. This place is vast. Lots of knowledge to be shared from these older posts and threads.
     
    MeAgain and FemdomFilmFan like this.
  10. Gangster19

    Gangster19 Members

    Messages:
    125
    Likes Received:
    114
    Because I wanted to express myself. Unlike some people, I don't look at these threads and go "OH! Thats over 5 years old!! Ohmy goodness me!! Can't say anything about that can we?
     
    ZenKarma likes this.
  11. Tishomingo

    Tishomingo Members

    Messages:
    4,985
    Likes Received:
    5,682
    Oldies but goodies. I actually think it's an interesting take on one of the reasons some people believe in God: the idea that without God, there is nobody to hold the bad guys accountable. This is the dilemma that tortured Doestoevsky, who has Ivan Karamazov say in The Brothers Karamazov, '" if there is no God, everything is permitted." Doestoevsky, however, doesn't exactly put this forward as a proof of God's existence. On watching the video again, I basically agree with Matt Dilahunty. I don't see him as any creepier than lots of folks I know (which may say something about me and my associates) And contrary to Okiefreak (myself in a prior manifestation), Matt doesn't seem to me now to be particularly angry, although like many atheists, he tends to equate God with fundamentalist Christian doctrines. Dilahunty is right in pointing out that even if bad people would go unpunished if there were no God, that doesn't logically mean there is one.

    The lady was distressed about unpunished child molesters. So am I. But I follow Jesus' admonition to be mainly concerned with my own inventory in the sin department., and let others worry about their own. Of course I support strong laws against child molesters and other menaces to society, but the fact some might slip through the cracks and "get away with it" doesn't control my theology. I wouldn't want to be a child molestor or other lowlife even if I could get away with it. To me, its its own punishment. I can't imagine that such people lead happy, fulfilled lives--driven as they are by compulsion. Take pedophile priests. At some level, they must know that what they do is majorly wrong on three levels: Jesus said that people who harm children might as well have a millstone tied around their neck and drowned in the sea. And the fact that they are clergy given special trust by their flocks makes it even worse. And their actions bring scandal on the Church. People like that who disregard basic norms of decency often lead tortured lives unless they are sociopaths or psychopaths and in any case make society a more miserable place as a result of their existence. I can't imagine them leading happy, fulfilled meaningful lives with something so basic being seriously lacking.

    I've been influenced by the psychotherapist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl. I introduced my brother to Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning when he was dying of cancer, and he said it helped him. Frankl considers the quest for meaning to be the most basic human drive. In the Nazi concentration camp, those who handled the experience best were those who could still find some meaning in life, whether it was memories of happier times or a ray of sunlight shining through a crack in the wall. To Frankl, it was the thought of being reunited with his wife. Unbeknownst to him, she was already dead, but it kept him going. To me, the things that keep me going are my wife, my kids, my friends, nature, and God. Frankl acknowledges that the things that give meaning can vary from one person to another, but that some places where humans try to find meaning: wealth, status, power, and sensual indulgence, tend to be blind alleys. We have a choice as to how we live our lives and what kind of people we want to be. We can fritter our lives away in the pursuit of vanities (or as Christians and Muslims might put it metaphorically, in the pursuit of "false gods") or we can live in harmony with our neighbors and the natural world, which I think is the path to true happiness..Those who chose the former path are people I pity

    A statement that caught my eye in the OP was his definition of atheism as "the decision to put reason and responsibility over the comforts of faith." I think that would basically describe my views, as well, although I call myself a Christian. I know a lot of atheists and agnostics, and even belong to a group of freethinkers, and find they share the same ideals and moral values that I do: liberty, justice, beauty, truth, love and all the other intangible ideals that give our lives meaning and that people have been known to die for. I agree, in part, with John Dewey: that God is (among other things) the summation of human idealism, and also with Saint Justin Martyr that "those who live according to reason are Christians, even though they are accounted atheists." (I don't share this view with my atheist friends, lest they be insulted). One of my atheist friends likes to say that "atheist" describes what he doesn't believe in and "humanist" describes what he does believe in. I think secular humanist philosophies provide the basis for a code Saint Justin might approve of, although I think that they might be a bit "left brain" to inspire a majority of the population . Atheism is useful in stripping away some of the cant that's crept into religious belief, but I find in my religion support for the values that give meaning to my life.
     
  12. themnax

    themnax Senior Member

    Messages:
    27,694
    Likes Received:
    4,465
    bumping old threads also can diplace room for new thoughts. quotes are not expressions of what comes through ourselves, though they might seem like easy approximations.
    and please don't tell me there are no new thoughts. the unknown is as near to infinite as ever need be.

    its all possible, or close enough to might be, but it really really owes nothing to any one thing we tell each other.
     
  13. tommyhot

    tommyhot Member

    Messages:
    705
    Likes Received:
    94
    I'll start by saying that I am an atheist. Years ago Matt used to be very good. I enjoyed the show. Compare videos of him 10-15 years ago with today. The past few years he's become insufferable. He's become a prick. And he hardly let's his co-hosts talk, the show should only have ONE host now anyway. It's a shame so many of the old hosts left. They were great and far more tolerant than Matt.
     
    Tishomingo likes this.
  14. themnax

    themnax Senior Member

    Messages:
    27,694
    Likes Received:
    4,465
    my experiences are not based on personages. the most prevalent belief systems are.
    nothing has to not exist, and i do experience things that cannot be seen,
    but their connection to what can be seen and communicated is not any part of my every day doing so.
    if it is for someone else, that is fine for them, but i'd rather not be robbed of the solace i find in strange physical forms and their neutrality in terms of spirit.
     
  15. Scarecrow13

    Scarecrow13 Members

    Messages:
    336
    Likes Received:
    253
    Yes, whenever he encounters anything remotely challenging he throws a tantrum, tell the caller to shut up and hangs up. Granted he also does this when people are rambling on incoherently. I really haven't seen anything from him that isn't a recycled talking point.
     
    ~Zen~ likes this.

Share This Page

  1. This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
    Dismiss Notice