"Christianity is not a religion"

[Drachen]

If a disbelief in god is unlike a null hypothesis in the sense it's something I need to prove, then it's also something that I "believe" in. I'm just using their logic.

I get what you are saying, and I get that you believe as I believe and are just trying to play devil's advocate, but my point is that no matter how much they believe that their logic should be used, logic dictates that it is a null hypothesis.

[RandomGuy]

Believing in nothing <> being apathetic, but either way, atheists have THE BELIEF god doesn't exist.

That is a common misperception.

Better:

Atheism is simply the default logical position.

X is not true, until X is proven true.

"God exists" is not true, until God is proven to exist.

One would need a lot more evidence to really make the claim "God does not exist" with real certainty.

While we may never quite get there, from everything we know about the universe, nothing we have found so far indicates that some sort of God would be required to explain it.

If there were such a being, and it wanted itself to be known to us, I'm pretty sure it could do better than the silly storybooks of human religions.

[RandomGuy]

.. (double post)

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

Thanks for the lecture about default position/null hypotheses

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

I get what you are saying, and I get that you believe as I believe and are just trying to play devil's advocate, but my point is that no matter how much they believe that their logic should be used, logic dictates that it is a null hypothesis.

My point is that they apply backwards logic when it benefits them but apply actual logic in other situations. Basically, they're a hypocritical, intellectually dishonest group of people.

[RandomGuy]

My point is that they apply backwards logic when it benefits them but apply actual logic in other situations. Basically, they're a hypocritical, intellectually dishonest group of people.

What backwards logic?

If you are going to try and say that atheism is the belief that God doesn't exist, you are simply distorting what atheists think, and how they think it.

This is called a strawman logical fallacy, by the way, i.e. when you ignore a persons actual assertions, then subs ute your own opinion in place of their assertion, and fight that distortion.

Not sure if you are doing it on purpose, or out of ignorance at this point.

As an atheist I will certainly not claim that there is no God. I lack the evidence to support that.

[RandomGuy]

If a disbelief in god is unlike a null hypothesis in the sense it's something I need to prove, then it's also something that I "believe" in. I'm just using their logic.

Again, not quite exactly true.

Many atheists have varying opinions about whether a God exists and to what degree. That is a matter of personal opinion, like anything. The uniting factor though is the general consensus that the evidence is just not there.

I myself am in the vaguely agnostic camp. While I suppose it is possible, I haven't seen anything that indicates such a being.

I am certain, however, that God/whatever is not the God of the Christian bible, or any other religion that I am aware of at the moment. "you better be right" is the usual rejoinder to that, but the same could be said about every religion on the planet, and if that were the case, then 80%-99% of humanity is ed anyway.

It takes zero belief at all not to think something is real when you have no evidence to support its existance.

God, Bigfoot, alien abductions, tooth fairies, magic prophets and so forth all fall into the category of having the burden of proof. Atheism does not.

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

My god your reading comprehension skills are terrible. You should read the full context of the conversation next time.

[ploto]

Who said they are bothered by trees and lights?

The guy in the original video apparently is bothered by Christmas trees. If we put up a tree in December with lights and red balls and candy canes, isn't that pretty much going to be considered a Christmas tree, even though it really is not about Christmas?

The lights, likewise, are put up for Christmas, They are not put up in December by accident.

[TeyshaBlue]

The guy in the original video apparently is bothered by Christmas trees. If we put up a tree in December with lights and red balls and candy canes, isn't that pretty much going to be considered a Christmas tree, even though it really is not about Christmas?

The lights, likewise, are put up for Christmas, They are not put up in December by accident.

The guy in the video is disturbed by many things. Contextualization is not his friend.

[Blake]

The guy in the original video apparently is bothered by Christmas trees. If we put up a tree in December with lights and red balls and candy canes, isn't that pretty much going to be considered a Christmas tree, even though it really is not about Christmas?

The lights, likewise, are put up for Christmas, They are not put up in December by accident.

the guy in the video isn't bothered by the trees. He's bothered by the word Christmas being used by the government.

[ploto]

the guy in the video isn't bothered by the trees. He's bothered by the word Christmas being used by the government.

He specifically says that he has a problem with Christmas trees. Are you claiming that if the city puts up a bunch of trees in December with lights and balls and a star on top but does not call them Christmas trees, that he is fine with that?

[ploto]

Does it really bother christians to not see a christmas tree up in the park?

I really do not care what religious symbols are allowed to be put up in a park. If we allow the KKK to have rallies in the park, then can not some people put up a Christmas or Hanukkah display in that same park?

[DUNCANownsKOBE]

He specifically says that he has a problem with Christmas trees. Are you claiming that if the city puts up a bunch of trees in December with lights and balls and a star on top but does not call them Christmas trees, that he is fine with that?

If they're not called Christmas trees, he probably is fine with it.

lol demonizing atheists
lol friends with Angel_luv
lol looks like her bat stupid rubbed off on you

[BradLohaus]

Atheism will always exist long term as an anti-whatever, negative position. The west is living in an atheism bubble. "But it's been trending up for years!" It won't last. It's cultural suicide, by the definition of the former word. The cultural vacuum gets filled. Always.

[Jacob1983]

I'm sticking to my opinion. Believing that something does not exist is still a belief to me. If you simply did not care, you wouldn't have a hissy fit or a fest over the Nativity Scene.

[baseline bum]

How does Target keep passing you over for advancement?

[Halberto]

Atheism will always exist long term as an anti-whatever, negative position. The west is living in an atheism bubble. "But it's been trending up for years!" It won't last. It's cultural suicide, by the definition of the former word. The cultural vacuum gets filled. Always.

What an ignorant statement in multiple ways.

"The west is living in an atheism bubble." Japan and China have some of the largest number of athiests per capita in the world. Europe is also experiencing a boom in atheism. The US.... not so much. Christians are used to having things their way, and it shows as soon as someone wants to make things fair for everyone.

"The cultural vacuum gets filled. Always." Modern science pretty much throws a wrench in this. A person's perception of the world would change drastically if they were introduced to the technology we have today.

[DMC]

Silverman's arguments were fine until he started to complain about Christmas being a national holiday, which is totally ridiculous. Stuff like that does make atheists look stupid.

O'Reilly saying Christianity isn't a religion is also re ed.

Why? Why not have Ramadan as a national holiday? Argument from age of the practice doesn't make it a sound argument.

The only national holidays (federally recognized) should be those pertaining to non religious events. Christmas is a fairy tale either way, solstice or Christmas. Either way it's a group of ignorant people pretending for a day to care about a Jewish hippie so they can get cool stuff.

[DMC]

I'm sticking to my opinion. Believing that something does not exist is still a belief to me. If you simply did not care, you wouldn't have a hissy fit or a fest over the Nativity Scene.

Right, and bald is a hairstyle.

[DMC]

I really do not care what religious symbols are allowed to be put up in a park. If we allow the KKK to have rallies in the park, then can not some people put up a Christmas or Hanukkah display in that same park?

Sure, as long as they stay there with it.

Can Muslims put up a depiction of the towers coming down?

[DMC]

the guy in the video isn't bothered by the trees. He's bothered by the word Christmas being used by the government.

No, he's bothered by the fact that the holiday is about Christmas, not about it's original purpose, and that's fine as a majority practice but it violates the cons ution to have it federally recognized. Bill is just playing games of equivocation, changing terms to try to squeeze Christianity in as a "philosophy" instead of a religion. Shouldn't then these philosophies be taxed since they do not fall under the umbrella of religious organizations?

[BradLohaus]

"The west is living in an atheism bubble." Japan and China have some of the largest number of athiests per capita in the world. Europe is also experiencing a boom in atheism.

Asia isn't the west, and Asian religions are still religions. State atheism in the Soviet countries and China crushed/are crushing religion; in the grand scope of history that just happened. And if Christianity doesn't rise again in a few generations in Europe then Islam will be happy to fill that void. Give these things time; they take generations to playout.

The US.... not so much. Christians are used to having things their way, and it shows as soon as someone wants to make things fair for everyone.

Fairness/equality/diversity/and so on... the attempted secular subs ute for religion.

"The cultural vacuum gets filled. Always." Modern science pretty much throws a wrench in this. A person's perception of the world would change drastically if they were introduced to the technology we have today.

You could have said that thousands of years ago.

[baseline bum]

You could have said that thousands of years ago.

That's what is really sad; Islam completely destroyed the most technologically advanced society on Earth, and the area has regressed into the dark ages and never recovered. All started by a cleric who prosletyzed about math being evil the same way the Christian Taliban goes after evolution and the big bang theory.

[Halberto]

Asia isn't the west.

When you refer to an atheism "bubble", I get the impression you're saying it's concentrated in Western culture.

Fairness/equality/diversity/and so on... the attempted secular subs ute for religion.

You could have said that thousands of years ago.

Really? Electricity, radio waves, nuclear power, space travel, bioengineering ...etc. has been around for thousands of years?