Why Atheism Is A Religion

If people do not want these religious people around their deathbed it is a problem when they are there against the dying person's will. Same if it would for example be a door to door salesman The problem is not what they are trying to do, the problem is the dying person does not want these strangers to be there in his last moments in the first place. It's that simple. It has nothing to do with the prayer.

Where people were going wrong (as I am reading it at least) is the exact reason for discontent. China seems to assume it is because those people are there to give their religious perspective on death or to pray for those people. While actually it may very well be ( and this is how itseems like it to me) that most atheists in this situation would not primarily have a problem with the prayer, but with the unwanted and unasked for presence of these people.
If the prayer would be done in another place nothing would trouble the dying atheist at all. The whole humiiation issue is non existent if the wishes of the dying person in regards to who attends at his deathbed are respected (which they should be).
If the dying person has any wishes in regards to prayers of religious people (that he is not included in any prayer because he doesn't believe), lets take his parents for example, and those prayers are not done in his presence there still is no problem, and no humiliation. We could make a problem of it, like hey those parents are disrespecting their son's last wish! But there really is no problem there on itself if the dying person is not bothered by it.

 

Lol! Exactly.

All kidding aside now. Look...,i know a lot about death losing many I love. When I die, I hope I am alone like both of my parents were and not a spectator sport.
If people are around, I don't care if they are religious or not , as long as they love me.
I respect the people going places that pray for others though , that they don't even know.
I respect anyone who practices what they preach 100 percent.

 

Good response in the first paragraph.

You lost me on the second one and it doesn't answer my question. You said this..

On that part, I am not following how you arrive at the conclusion that ChinaCat had the first thing in mind, here are some direct quotes from him that suggest the latter.

 

I edited it! I'm out of time for the moment. Hope I can clarify/expand later

Right, that's basically what I want to say too. The problem is not that they pray for others who don't believe. The problem is if they would bother the person themselves with it against their will, esp. in their last moments on earth. That would be nasty. Not the praying.

Wow... I don't think you do. Nor should you. Some people preach really weird stuff that is not really worthy of respect when acted upon

 

Yeah, right.
My mind only went to good stuff in my last post.

 

I think that's actually why there are many pointless conflicts in threads like these. Such statements are often made from a person's subjective stance and then jumped upon by everyone who sees it from another perspective (which makes the other person feel butthurt, or return the denigrating comment or just take an overly fanatic approach)
If we would all grant eachother the right to make a mistake or 2, or just reconstruct a sentence to make a point come better across, and of course if we would all take the effort of making a remark as accurate as possible the first time we could have much better discussions. People are instead immediatly assuming and projecting the motive and all kinds of things on a person, have to make low comments or make fun of the other person for considering something different (some people claim they only disrespect ideas, not people, but seem to act differently). What I am saying here seems to be often interpreted as criticism is bad mkay but that's not what I am saying at all. I am saying if a person is serious about their criticism why not leave out the denigrating aspects (so that the other person can react and comment purely on the criticism and not as often happens gets pissed off about the so called witty wording). This is also the main reason why every thread ends in the same nasty dribble. Not because the criticism is so good, but how it is brought across and people seem out to try to annoy eachother (this is in no way exclusive to a particular side as you can all see too).
It is clear the biggest problem regarding religious people and atheists on this forum is not that one beliefs in something ludicrous and the other is right. The biggest problem is how they regard eachother, how much they dislike eachother because of that (often fixed) perspective, and how much respect they give eachother when trying to share thoughts (too less).

 

I like people who like me. Pretty simple....

 

It is easy to like people who are similar like yourself But we don't have to like every other person of course. It would be nice if we could tolerate them, or ideally accept them (I accept sometimes tolerance is the best we can ask for ). Understanding helps a lot with that.

Some people in the religion & philosophy subforum are not busy with trying to understand the other person. They mainly try to figure out what the other person believes so they can laugh about it and ridicule it. Now, I can enjoy such a joke as well at times. No problemo. But if those believers then say welll that's not why I was sharing my thoughts and beliefs here they get accused of not being able to deal with criticism Seems not entirely accurate

 

Well, i am certainly not going to like someone who is forever trying to misplace-replace me, compete with me for nothing, insult me and try to make me feel like shit......anything else I can pretty much tolerate.

 

Being able to tolerate people you don't like and can't fully accept is a great trait. It's more worthwile to be intolerant of certain actions and practices instead of people as a whole or some ideas (which is what is happening between intolerant believers and nonbelievers).

 

well, i am not going to kill anyone or wish them harm...that is tolerance...but I can wish they leave me alone.

 

Why should I or anyone want anyone around them that hurts them or wants to?

or ridicules them?

 

I think it's more to do with the hodgepodge of education levels, understanding of the topics, rhetoric and discourse. Also the forum format doesn't lend itself all that well to cycling turns and what not, where a few people can go on and on about something while others of us may be at work or commitments and then need to catch up on the previous pages.

Posting on mobile accurately with autocorrect is a damn near Herculean task.

 

Acting overly "educational" about it isn't very healthy either. It's easy to get caught up in the "sophistication" of the astute educated mind and miss the essence of the topics. You don't need to have a Ph.D education to realize how much Atheism mirrors Religion.

 

LOL!
Your last sentence.
Yes, it is!

 

The op uses an article about a billboard sponsored by an atheist organization sourced by foxnews, which you probably don't even need a high school education to realize is a dubious source, to make the argument that it is "missionary work." I find that about as persuasive as calling alcohol companies religions and missionaries due to advertising and in fact if it were a new poster I might have even thought this was a trolling thread.

 

What does it being on Fox News have to do with anything? American Atheists exists with or without Fox News.

How is encouraging people to not go to Church and sponsoring it by your own Atheist organization NOT missionary work? Just don't go to Church if you don't want to. Absolutely zero need to make a billboard about it.

Here's a question, do Atheists ​really ​need to make a billboard to convince ​other Atheists ​to not go to Church? Or does that not make a whole lot of sense? So if the billboard isn't aimed at other Atheists, then who is it aimed for?

 

hmm that's funny because last time I checked, Placebo's have been known to work.

 

IT means death.

You are completely answering the question of why Atheism is a Religion when you ask "how is that different than a Religious person not wanting an Atheist to give them a lecture at the side of their deathbed?"

EXACTLY. Bingo. THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE.​ Only people stuck to their RELIGIONS ​would get upset by someone giving them their ideology.

What ideology, you ask? Atheisms' ideology.

 

I know! Because it's completely highlighting how exactly the same that Atheism and Religion are!