Faith in God is just a little different. “Faith = Evidence” in the teaching of the Bible.
Hebrews, KJV, 11:1
Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Your point is well taken, yes, contingent on the definition of ‘faith,’ we all have it. However; when it is used as an equivocation fallacy and used in place of ‘evidence,’ well… that’s where the apologetics begin.
This will require a “Siddartha Gautama Appreciation Thread” for those like Cog who know just about jack shit of Theravada Buddhism (the oldest lineage of existing Buddhism).
And another “Jesus Was a Buddhist” thread for Mahayana Buddhism (which is what Cog knows - and incidentally is a total perversion of and insult to the original Buddhist message).
Ratty ratty ratty… Everyone on the site can go back and read the boards. Do you have any idea at all how silly you sound; once again. Poor poor ratty.
This is the blessing of Athiesm without a belief in God you can create your own expectations yourself. Some could even though they don’t believe in God look at the expectations religions as a whole or the laws of the land place on their citizens and using that information conform your rule of conduct to me, for me however I consider that very limiting.
You see without a God all of sudden the whole notion of morals becomes a fallacy too. Pretty soon you start to realize how subjective morals are too. Good vs Evil is really subjective depending on the eyes of the beholder. As an atheist I see how flawed morals are in religion the act is evil but in another the act is good?
For my expectations I looked to many different philosophers and came with this simple rule. The pleasure principle, do things according to your Will. Many philosophers talked about this concept of doing things according to your will and the pleasure principle and it is an ingenious way to judge what is good for you or bad for you. Using the pleasure principle and what your Will tells you to do as your guidance we can eliminate the need to shape our behavior using morals, laws, or ethics. Simple it feels good to you and is pleasurable do it.
Laws are a fallacy too and very subjective. I see being a good law abiding citizen sometimes as evil if I feel those laws or evil. Using a countries laws to guide your morals I see as limiting and flawed: examples: In one state smoking marijuana is considered evil and cops stop you for having it, in another state it is considered good and can help heal you. Abortion is shunned in one state by the law and God fearing idiots want to hang a woman for having one, the lawmakers and policemen want to kill the woman for having an abortion. In another state a woman has the legal right to have an abortion and it is considered a good act and a healing process to have one. In some countries a woman according to the law gets stone to death if she gets caught cheating. You see sometimes I see being a good law abiding citizen can just turn you into a monster and the laws in some countries are designed to turn their citizens into monsters. It use to be in the south in the United States illegal for a black man to enter an all white restaurant…I see back then law abiding citizens kicking that black man out of their restaurant as monsters, a country’s law breeding it’s citizens to grow up to be monsters. You look at the history of the United States and what use to be considered evil and against the law a 100+ years ago vs now and you begin to realize how flawed laws are and the reliance on even a country’s laws to guide our moral behavior. I ignore laws, ignore religion, ignore ethics, ignore socially acceptable behavior.
The pleasure principle, do as your Will is my guide of what is expected.
I take it you mean this principle should hold for others as well, not only you. Thus, if someone else’s pleasure leads to your suffering, it is still OK?
Edit: For the record, this still records 9/10 on my troll-o-meter.
This guy is a Satinist; has no one figured that out yet. His rhetoric is directly from the Satanic Bible. Oh, in addition to being exceptionally Narcissistic.
First off - you’re capitalizing “Will”. Is it a god or something? So important it needs to stand out? Weird. Usually theists capitalize the objects of their worship.
Ted Bundy felt great and satisfied his will.
So do rapists. Child molesters certainly satisfy their “pleasure principle”. War criminals enjoy the terror they inflict on the “other”.
Your standard for is dangerous. People gain pleasure from all sorts of behaviours.
Ah… yes.
The initial inference of atheism equalling no morals and enabling a full flowering of narcissism…
Let’s be clear that sounds very much like Anton LaVey satanism. Heavy on narcissism and “self empowerment”. Lending well to megalomania.
Not satanism as the Satanic Temple views satanism. Encouraging altruism and social reform. Championing the fight for access to abortion and making it a religious ceremony. Encouraging public service, and community activism.
Does the Satanic Temple use Anton Levey’s Bible?
Satanic Temple, thought they call themselves satanists, do not believe in Satan or the supernatural. The Satanic Temple believes that religion can, and should, be divorced from superstition. As such, they do not promote a belief in Satan.
According to their website: “To embrace the name Satan is to embrace rational inquiry removed from supernaturalism and archaic tradition-based superstitions.”
“Satanists should actively work to hone critical thinking and exercise reasonable agnosticism in all things”
I think they just call themselves satanists because they are not Christian and of course anything not Christian is satan. Nothing at all Like Anton LeVey.
Exactly what I was pointing out, not so much for your sake but for others in the group who might not know the difference. The satanic temple struggles with separating itself, thanks to profiling and other non-educated group think propagandist supernatural good vs evil garbage.
I am a contributing member of the satanic temple, and yes we hold no supernatural beliefs. Unfortunately invoking the name of a christian boogeyman, and a general public who doesn’t know the difference between LaVey and the satanic temple, makes for a lot of snap judgments and violent misdirected rhetoric.
It’s unbelievable how many people think I own or have read the black bible, or satanic bible. Whatever everyone calls it. Just because I dress in black, listen to metal, and think every human being should be seen as equal and judged on their personal merits not their religious piety?
I am much more familiar with Mr. LeVey having grown up with an interest int he occult. I used to own a Satanic bible and reference it frequently,. however, some Christians onece broke into my office and burnmed my occult books in an office trash can. Why the smoke detectors did not go off is a slight mystery. The office did host a garden patio and the best guess is that the burning actually took place out in the open area of the patio. Anyway, I now rely on Google. As I live abroad, I am no longer collecting books. LOL - I say that as I look across a small selection of psychology books. Hmm? Some habbits are hard to break.
Christians burning books, why I have never heard of such an inclination within this species before, must be a one off thing. I mean burning bushes, people, crosses, pillars of fire… well maybe they do have an obsession with burning things.
I should have been more specific. It was probably a bunch of fake Christians that broke into my office, wrote ‘Jesus loves you,’ across the wall in
black spray paint, and burned my Bhagavad Gita, Encyclopedia of Religions, Zen Flesh Zen Bones, and my Satanic Bible while leaving 3 of the bibles that were
sitting right next to the rest of the occult books alone. My conclusion is that Jesus prevented the fake Christians from burning them.
After all, anyone can burn a book, but burning a bible is just one of those sins God hardwired into our bodies; not to do.
God saved the bibles and the fake Christians were really just doing God’s will. He would; never use real Christians to carry out such acts.
Tsk Tsk Tsk Grasshopper…you long ago alluded to the fact of a mischievous African Grey which had a propensity for shredding books…OBVIOUSLY god used that sort of innocent creature to try to steer you away from your wickedness
I never guessed that. I just concluded that he was pretty fucked up.
