Life's greatest pleasure?

While some atheists can be quite annoying ( watch almost any video with Richard Dawkins ) I find it absurd to categorize 'atheism' as a religion based on the zeal with which it can be discussed. I mean hell, Brosse, if you are going to use that as a criteria, anyone visiting this forum could regard 'spanking' as a religion.

The assertion that atheism is a "belief system" has become popular among those looking for ammunition to use against them. You should do some research on the very deep and real prejudice and discrimination atheist experience if they dare to voice their position. A poll a few years back asked about the character of atheists and I believe they ended up ranked lower than child molesters.

Of course, if you watch FOX news, atheists are a powerful deep state lobby, looking to ban religion and eat babies for lunch. I'm an atheist and I haven't eaten a baby in years.

kdpierre

I am an atheist and I definitely have a belief system. I do not see the term "belief system" as being a pejorative. People should grasp reality in a systeamatic way. For, people need to integrate their knowledge in order to know things for sure.

kdpierre

What constitutes a 'religion' is not as clear cut as it used to be, and those whose lives are dominated by any single devotion can be said to 'religiously' follow it. It doesn't matter whether the devotion is to a celeb, football team, drugs, political party, alcohol, atheism or spanking. If it dominates your life and influences the way you live and behave, it is a religion.

Atheism is as much a religion as fundamentalist Catholicism, Judaism or Islam, when it reaches the point that an atheist holds in contempt anyone who does not share their views and is a member of an atheist chat group or organisation, and uses any opportunity to mock 'believers'.

Religion and Atheism can both be an addiction.

Brosse6

The basic question is not whether an individual is "devoted" to a certain kind of belief but whether his belief is rooted in faith or reason.

galt54

Rationalism and Reason are in themselves 'faiths and dogmas'.

Sorry, Brosse, but this is utter rubbish. "Faith - strong or unshakeable belief in something, without proof or evidence." "Dogma - a religious doctrine or system of doctrines proclaimed by ecclesiastic authority as true." "Reason - grounds for a belief." Source - Collins English Dictionary

Rationalism and Reason set their own benchmarks and procedures on how they define their own truths. Just like any religious group they have their own faiths in their systems and their own dogma of how it is preached.

It is no surprise that the Age of Reason is now coming to an end, as it is being undermined by its own post-modern logic. Humans are not rational creatures and no secular regime of either the Left or the Right has ever made humans totally conform.

Just because something appears rational or reasonable does not mean it is either true or just.

Some are, some aren't. Which side of the divide, I wonder, would you put yourself?

Some people try to be as rational as they can, but life and humanity are complex.

In many ways it our irrational aspects that are the most creative and often the most enjoyable. There are some decisions I make on a rational basis and other times where I do the irrational.

Rational cases can be made both for and against corporal punishment as a disciplinary methodology, but how rational is the desire to obtain pleasure from being soundly spanked? Or inflicting pain on others even if they desire you to do so?

Faith is belief in the absence of evidence. Reason is logic operating on perceptual evidence.

Faith is therefore arbitrary belief in an idea - "I believe it because I feel like it."

Belief based on reason is belief which is justified by the evidence.

Reason is a means to knowledge - whereas faith is not. I rest my case.