What can I say boomer? … “Yep!”
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Neither stated or implied that one needn’t take care with one’s claims in ANY circumstance, mate. I am For the very last time, just as you stated that Australia is a very secular nation and even gave an anecdote, I stated that the same cannot be said of Africa. Australia is also a big place, you also made a generalization but you don’t see me crawling up ur ass to prove it. You are from there, therefore I can be courteous enough to take your word for it without making it such a big deal.
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That 15% is mostly the white population, perhaps I should have specified, I meant in the context of indigenous africans like myself. White south aricans are mostly of Dutch ancestry
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This article, if anything reveals just how much of a big deal it is, to come out as atheist in this part of the world which has been my point from the very beginning. I am going through pretty much the same thing.
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One sentence in an article about one person’s journey into atheism hardly counts as rigorous in terms of statistics. They are not even cited or corroborated in the article.
Atheists are mostly White and middle class all over the world. Nothing new here. They are also mostly male. Education and Atheism go together like Ignorance, poverty and religion. It is not that the ignorant and impoverished are ignorant and impoverished. It’'s that religions target the ignorant and impoverisheshed and use them to guilt people who are not ignorant nor impoverished into donating money to the religions so the religions can dole out money and benefits as they line their own pockets and get rich. Nothing new in anything you have asserted.
3 percent of Black Americans described themselves as “atheist” or “agnostic.” By comparison, about 26 percent of Americans from among all racial and ethnic groups describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular. (It gets better… " The in-depth survey of 8,660 Black Americans found that 94 percent of Black adults who described their religious affiliation as “nothing in particular” still say they believe in God or a higher power. Sixty-percent of respondents who said they don’t identify with a specific religion noted they pray at least a few times each month.” Religion is a huge part of the black communities in the USA and coming out much more difficult than for the average white male.
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I haven’t thought a lot of the usage of “God” and “Bible” so far. But you are right, using “god” and “bible” is a good way to show disrespect. I will no longer give this imaginary supreme being and the book of lies and fairy tales a special honour by using capitalisation. I am going to use “god” and “bible” from now on, too!
Who considers the Abrahamic religions to be more than cults? I noticed you capitalized Zeus, Osiris and Krishna. Would you do the same for Vishnu, Buddha and Zoroaster? ZING --------------------------------->
Probably the couple of billion believers, the odd dictionary and me.
My position is that the virtually universal human urge to the divine probably has or had evolutionary value. Still universal today because imo, religions meet some important needs. Cults meet the urgent needs to be loved and to be rich of those who invent them …
The question seems to be moot.
Theists generally don’t like it.
It seems being forced to respect a deity you don’t believe in is ok though, ironic. I respect someone’s right to believe whatever they want, but I cannot be forced to respect the belief itself.
In theory it isn’t. I consider the right to give offence crucial to free speech. We have anti hate speech laws in my country and I do not support them.
I will defend me views on the matter here. However I tend to be a bit more accommodating at the personal level, such as talking with my late, devoutly catholic mother. Her baptist Pastor friend was fair game if mum wasn’t there.
Never allowing a contradictory thought pass unvoiced is not being assertive, it’s being an insensitive cunt, imo.
I am aware that theists might see the usage of “god” as an insult. But I agree with you that forcing respect for a theistic view over respect for an atheistic view is not really what I understand as freedom of speech. When quoting a theist speaker, I 'm O. K. with “God”. But whenever I speak for myself, I choose to make a statement by using “god”.
I just reference my buddy Jesus, his father - Daddy-0, and their dead dog Spooky!
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I have an atheist friend who always uses Jeebus rather than Jesus.
Why?
On any given day, atheism simply doesn’t come up here.
Why make any effort to remind oneself and others that one is an atheist? If I lived in a country which persecutes atheists I’d lie through my teeth and go through whatever motions I needed to to have a peaceful life. Cowardly? Couldn’t care less. The days of being willing to die for an idea are long gone for me.
ADDENDUM; After having thought about this for a bit, I can’t actually remember a time when I was willing to die for an idea or belief.
The motto of my battalion was “DUTY FIRST”. Fuck that, not dying for morally bankrupt political expedience. The motivation of everyone I knew in the army was “Don’t let your mates down” .
To those who say “better to die as a lion than live as a sheep”, I say Baaaaaaa.
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I don’t even have to go that far. “god” and “bible” are just common nouns that identify with imaginary creatures and a book with a very spotty record. They are not worthy of any respect, while many theists want traffic to stop whenever anyone whispers “GOD”.
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Some would say that all of these are just names from different cultures for the same God?
Not necessarily. If you asked each practitioner to offer a detailed definition of their own personal god, I am quite confident they would all differ.
Monotheism does not imply there is just one god.
Are you saying this? Can you demonstrate any objective evidence for the claim?
Are you asking a question or are you making a statement?
The abrahamic religions (some 3-4000 years old, or thereabouts) are mere newborn babies compared to the religious and spiritual traditions of e.g. the aboriginal australians, who entered the continent some 50-60000 years ago (or maybe even more). This means at the very least 46000 years of separation of ideas and independent development of thoughts, natural philosophy, creation myths, cultural history, and traditions. Any cultural diffusion between Australia and the Middle East in the meantime would have to be filtered through entire (sub)continents of stone age cultures. Same god/gods/spirits? Well, I think you can safely assume I am unconvinced.
(*) apart from the fact that they are both religions
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As far as I am concerned, ‘god’ is a job title, not a proper name. Therefore, I always use ‘god’ lower case.
Yahweh, Vishnu, Zeus are names for specific gods, so they get capitalized.
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