Atheists and religious fundamentalists are similarly wired.

[hashtag46]

Religious fundamentalists believe in a personal God who has a clear and specific plan for the world and the people in it.
Atheists believe in the order and structure provided by Science.
Both are very concrete and categorical in their beliefs, they don't accept grey areas and can be equally judgmental of those who think differently.

Western neoliberal commodifying society is dominated by the left brained.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Religious fundamentalists believe in a personal God who has a clear and specific plan for the world and the people in it.
Atheists believe in the order and structure provided by Science.
Both are very concrete and categorical in their beliefs, they don't accept grey areas and can be equally judgmental of those who think differently.

Western neoliberal commodifying society is dominated by the left brained.

Educated Atheists belief in the lack of order in Chaos and that the Science dictates that there must be both instances of instability and stability. Science provides no structure, it has to be discerned and subsequently defined by the language of mathematics. They also have no problem with the overly religious because they do not assign value judgements to belief systems.

 

[hashtag46]

Educated Atheists belief in the lack of order in Chaos and that the Science dictates that there must be both instances of instability and stability. Science provides no structure, it has to be discerned and subsequently defined by the language of mathematics. They also have no problem with the overly religious because they do not assign value judgements to belief systems.

I used the word 'atheists' just for brevity of the thread title.

I wish there was a better terminology to differentiate those that I was referring to (the Sam Harris /Richard Dawkins types) from the more intuitive atheists that you described.

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

I would have gone with Fundamentalist Atheists...





They say God doesn't exist, something they cannot prove. I say that chaos theory says that we have to exist, therefore god or gnostic are not necessary for the creation of life. Life is going to occur in points of stability.

 

[Ishmael]

I would have gone with Fundamentalist Atheists...





They say God doesn't exist, something they cannot prove. I say that chaos theory says that we have to exist, therefore god or gnostic are not necessary for the creation of life. Life is going to occur in points of stability.

Religious Atheists. Those that go out and evangelize their non-beliefs and are intolerant of anyone with ANY traditional religious beliefs. In their own right they're as bad as the jihadists.

Ishmael

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

Religious Atheists. Those that go out and evangelize their non-beliefs and are intolerant of anyone with ANY traditional religious beliefs. In their own right they're as bad as the jihadists.

Ishmael

I agree 100%.


They give Atheism bad street cred...

 

[hashtag46]

There's that aspect too, about extremists on both sides: be they fundamentalistic religious people or the "new atheists" as they are often called. They are the most concrete and prone to black and white thinking.
But as to those who fall in the middle, the moderate atheists and Christians: There are some who approach religion or atheism in a predominantly analytical, practical way. I feel that some (especially anglo- saxon) western cultures encourage this type of thinking.

This guy's (Britain’s Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks) ideas are interesting. Of course I think the part about right versus left writing is bollocks, but the other part makes sense:




https://patrickcox.wordpress.com/20...ligion-translated-into-a-left-brain-language/

"Sacks: Christianity was a right brain religion translated into a left brain language. [This] has a huge bearing on how the Bible has been understood."

Most of the Old Testament was written in Ancient Hebrew. It is a right brain language because to understand the meaning of any word, you have to understand the total context in which it occurs.
- And the religion encompassed those two ways of thinking: the metaphysical and the analytical. For many centuries – until the Enlightenment—the prevailing view in Europe was that religion and science were part of the same thing.

Ancient Greek was the first language ever to be written from left to right, which activates the left brain. You don’t need to understand the total context here. You derive meaning word by word, in small components.
- The emergence of the world’s first left brain language also coincided with the first instances of “left brain thinking”: the philosophy of Aristotle, Epicurus and other Greek scholars. This atomistic, evidence-based approach to interpreting the world eventually led to modern-day science.

Judaism and Christianity began as right brain religions, based on that Ancient Hebrew way of thinking. But early in its evolution, Christianity took a turn. The word of Christianity—the Old Testament—was translated into Greek (and the New Testament was written in Greek)."

 

[dolf]

Lack of faith isn't the same as absolute faith, unless you're trying to offend people. Dawkins is an arsehole, and would be an arsehole whatever he believed. There are arsehole atheists and arsehole religious types, because they're human and humanity is awash with arseholes.

 

[BotanyBoy]

I would have gone with Fundamentalist Atheists...

"Militant Atheist" is a good one too.

They say God doesn't exist,

No they say there is no evidence for "God" as described in any of the religious doctrines.

And they are right with an OVERWHELMING pile of empirical evidence supporting them.

Religious Atheists. Those that go out and evangelize their non-beliefs and are intolerant of anyone with ANY traditional religious beliefs. In their own right they're as bad as the jihadists.

Ishmael

How in the fuck do you figure they are anything remotely close to the jihadists?

Show me the mass murder and total butchering of people in the name of no god.....or just keep hiding in your iggy bunker.

 

[hashtag46]

Lack of faith isn't the same as absolute faith, unless you're trying to offend people. Dawkins is an arsehole, and would be an arsehole whatever he believed. There are arsehole atheists and arsehole religious types, because they're human and humanity is awash with arseholes.

True. I should have used another term like "radical or new atheists" to differentiate between the two.


My admiration for jewish culture stems from their approach to religion and life which I feel is much more spiritual than ours. (Of course there's the matter of zionists or the money grabbing ones among their midst, but that's a different topic).

Some proponents of Islam were probably trying to do the same. But in the case of islam, the marriage of religion and State led to the disaster that we see today in certain countries oppression of women and so forth.

ETA
Actually BB is right: I'll use the term "millitant atheist" because it encompasses exactly what's annoying about them.

 

[Sean]

Religious Atheists. Those that go out and evangelize their non-beliefs and are intolerant of anyone with ANY traditional religious beliefs. In their own right they're as bad as the jihadists.

Ishmael

When was the last time an atheist blew up a church because it was a church?

 

[Tryharder62]

No they say there is no evidence for "God" as described in any of the religious doctrines.

And they are right with an OVERWHELMING pile of empirical evidence supporting them.
.

This is a no brainer. There would be no empirical evident on God because God cannot be observed or experimented on. You forget a little thing called faith.

 

[BotanyBoy]

This is a no brainer. There would be no empirical evident on God because God cannot be observed or experimented on.

Thus the concept that god is a creation of man, not the other way around.

You forget a little thing called faith.

No I didn't, I just don't confuse it with facts.

 

[Libsam]

Ah, the cosmological argument, the chicken or the egg.

Who or what set things in motion?

Is God the name we gave to an incomprehensible primordial essence?

 

[Tryharder62]

Thus the concept that god is a creation of man, not the other way around.

A concept is just an idea. Many great scientists believed in God. I can quote more but this one should do it.

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” -Albert Einstein

 

[KingOrfeo]

Religious fundamentalists believe in a personal God who has a clear and specific plan for the world and the people in it.
Atheists believe in the order and structure provided by Science.

There is no equivalence between the uses of "believe" in those two sentences. The one group believes what they want to believe because they want to believe it; the other believes what facts and evidence tell them is so.

 

[BotanyBoy]

A concept is just an idea.

Exactly....do you have any evidence at all that God is any more than that?

Many great scientists believed in God.

That's not evidence of God.

I can quote more but this one should do it.

“Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind.” -Albert Einstein

Should do what?

 

[4est_4est_Gump]

This is why you don't discuss religion in a bar or at a family Thanksgiving...

 

[Liar]

I can't stand evangelical anything. Atheists included.

Evangelical religious folks I understand. They have a delusion and want to save me from their imagined lake of fire or somethimg equally nasty. So it's well meaning. Annoying as fuck, but well meaning.

Evangelical atheists? They don't want to save anyone from anything, except a little ignorance, often harmless on an individual level. They don't want to save my soul because they don't think anyone has one. And they're still annoying as fuck.

 

[Tryharder62]

Nook crash. Will try again later.

 

[dolf]

I can't stand evangelical anything. Atheists included.

Evangelical religious folks I understand. They have a delusion and want to save me from their imagined lake of fire or somethimg equally nasty. So it's well meaning. Annoying as fuck, but well meaning.

Evangelical atheists? They don't want to save anyone from anything, except a little ignorance, often harmless on an individual level. They don't want to save my soul because they don't think anyone has one. And they're still annoying as fuck.

This.

Trying to take away someone's comfort blanket, no matter how irational it seems to be to you, is a douche move.

But...

I think evangelical atheists are the predictable reaction to religion attempting to exert control over the masses, whether they follow that religion or not.

 

[Ishmael]

When was the last time an atheist blew up a church because it was a church?

Although I don't think explosives were used, would you care to talk about the Soviets and/or the Chi-Com pogroms?

Ishmael

 

[Tryharder62]

Exactly....do you have any evidence at all that God is any more than that?

No, but you don't have empirical evidence that there is not a God. He can't be measured or observed.

That's not evidence of God.

No, but neither is it evidence if some scientist believes there is no God after providing unrelated data.

Should do what?

OK. I was tired and in pain with my knee. That is my wow scientific quote that didn't appear so wow this morning!

 

[Tryharder62]

Athiests and Religious Fundamentalists may be similarly wired, but something completely different charges their batteries.

 

[Sean]

Although I don't think explosives were used, would you care to talk about the Soviets and/or the Chi-Com pogroms?

Ishmael

That was nothing to do with religion, it was about dictatorial regimes eliminating threats to their power.