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Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?


To: Solon who wrote (64830)1/13/2015 1:48:58 AM
From: Solon  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 69300
 
Question:

How can I be an atheist? What does it take for a person to become an atheist? Is there a secret handshake or something?

Response
:

So, do you want to be an atheist? Do you really want to be able to call yourself an atheist instead of a theist? If so, then this is the place to come: here you can learn the simple and easy procedure for becoming an atheist. If you read this advice, you'll learn what it takes to be an atheist and thus perhaps if you also have what it takes to be an atheist. Few people seem to understand what being an atheist is all about and thus what becoming an atheist entails. It isn't that hard, though.

Here are the steps necessary to become an atheist:

Step One: don't believe in any gods.

That's it, there are no steps two, three, or four. All you have to do is not believe in the existence of any gods. None of the following are steps in becoming an atheist:

There are lots of things which people imagine are part of being an atheist, but definitely aren't. Atheism is nothing more or less than the absence of belief in gods. There are only two options available for everyone: either a belief in the existence of some sort of god is present, or no such belief is present. That exhausts all the logical possibilities. This means that everyone is either a theist or an atheist. There is no "middle ground" where a belief in the existence of some god is a "little bit" there or a "little bit" absent. It's either there or its not.

How you arrive at not believing in any gods may be difficult. For many people, religion and theism have played such central roles in their lives and families that abandoning these things may appear impossible. It may require a great deal of study, research, and contemplation. Many people don't have the time or inclination. Others may be afraid of what they could find if they start.
What you do after you arrive at not believing in any gods may also be difficult. You don't have to do anything more to be an atheist, but this doesn't mean that there is nothing at all left to do. You will have to decide whether you inform others about this and, if so, how you present it. Many people may start treating you differently simply because you don't believe in their gods anymore. You may have to be concerned about whether knowledge of your atheism will lead to discrimination against you at work, for example.

Being an atheist is easy — all that it requires is not believing in any gods. Existing as an atheist, though, isn’t always easy because so many people think so poorly of atheists. In more secular societies where lots of people are atheists, existing as an atheist will be easier because there is less pressure telling them that being an atheist is immoral, unpatriotic, or dangerous. In more religious societies, the increased pressure will make existing as an atheist very difficult for some.



To: Solon who wrote (64830)1/13/2015 2:02:04 AM
From: Greg or e1 Recommendation

Recommended By
Brumar89

  Read Replies (1) | Respond to of 69300
 
You don't scoff at all supernatural revelations, just the Christian one.

10 Things Science cannot do
“I don’t believe in anything that is not physical–I only believe what science tells me is true,” is what a student of mine told me as he came into my office in the Spring of 2013. For this post, I will address ten things we cannot learn from science alone.

The view called naturalism, (also called scientism or materialism) holds that nothing but the physical world exists. This view is false on many accounts. See my article on on the issue here where I address the problems of this atheistic worldview (you can also listen to the talk I gave on itunes here.) But for now, are there 10 things we cannot learn or glen from science alone.

Science (derived from Latin scientia, meaning ‘knowledge’) is a way of looking at and researching the world. I am not nocking science or scientific research! It is a wonderful gift of God to make sense of creation and that we have used and are using use to make our world a better place.

But science alone does not tell us everything. For now, I will list ten things we cannot do with science alone.

  1. Logical truths: These must be accepted as foundational presuppositions in order for us to engage in any scientific study, so we clearly can’t use science to prove logic. In fact it is the other way around. We need logic to make sense of science. My wife cannot be pregnant and not pregnant at the same time and same sense. A truth cannot be false at the same time as it is true. If all mothers are women, than every mother we meet must of necessity be a woman. There is no escape from this. These are logical truths that science relies upon.
  2. Metaphysical truths: Some truths about the nature of the world (such as whether or not the external world is what we think it is, our free will and our personhood) cannot be determined through the use of the hard sciences. Your personal identity, your sense of self and personhood is not found in your DNA alone.
  3. Moral and ethical truths: Science cannot tell us what is morally virtuous or vile. It tells us what “is.” But it does not tell us what “ought to be” (related to moral judgments). Science can tell you who died, how he died and what way he was killed. But it cannot tell you if he was murdered–it cannot tell you if it was wrong to kill him. Sam Harris and many others tried but failed to do this.
  4. Aesthetic truths: Science cannot help us to determine or judge what is beautiful or what is ugly. Although the Golden Ratio comes close.
  5. Mathematical truths: We cannot why we know with 100% certainty that the next time we multiply 100 X 100 the answer will always be 10,000 . The Pythagorean theorem and other principles help us to understand science . These are mathematical laws that we cannot know will work using science alone. In fact we need math to make sense of science, not the other way around
  6. Conscious truths: Scientific analysis can never tell us what “what it is like” to experience love or hate or betrayal. MRI or CAT scans of our brains will not produce data on this. This is private and personal knowledge that cannot be gained by a scientist. Look up Qualia. It is the nature of experience itself that does not lend itself to a scientific third person analysis. By the way, the idea “I cannot believe anything that is non-physical,” is itself a non-physical thing! This is what we call a contradictory statement.
  7. Literary truths. We cannot know by science alone that Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Fin was a more interesting character than Homer’s Agamemnon. Literary truths require analysis, but not the same kind that rocks or comets do.
  8. Scientific physical Laws: There are laws and equations built in the very foundation of the universe, such as, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, the strong force, the weak force and gravity—which most cosmologists tell us were present in the singularity over 13 billion years ago. These are what make science work, but science alone cannot explain them.
  9. Forgiveness and peace. Study all you want, and you will not be one step closer to finding forgiveness or peace for your sins and the people you hurt with biology or chemistry alone.
  10. Purpose and hope. You cannot find the purpose of all of life, and your life in particular with scientific analysis. Scientific research can confirm that lives with purpose are more lasting, but it does not tell us what that purpose is.
What do you think? Are there other areas where science cannot go?

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

-William Shakespeare, “Hamlet”, Act 1 scene 5G