⌛ Can anyone direct me to an atheist group

simouny, I think you introduced an interesting thread. I happen to believe in God but I don't believe my son does; he was here a couple of weeks ago and probably would have joined you for some smb's. Actually, in a mostly Catholic area like this you sort of came out of the closet and at first may have shocked a few folks. Hope you meet some like thinking folks. Peace

 

Seems I may have been wrong! I will watch and read with interest!

Jack P.:o

 

Believe it or not!

From my experience in Philippines most people are believers in a religion, and there are several. When I as a believer meet other believers we very seldom discuss what we believe in or even discuss which church we belong to. So I think my question to you is; when an atheist meet another atheist what do they talk about? Do they discuss how it is to be an atheist or a non beliver, and how wrong it is for others to belive in God? To me the only difference between you and me is that I believe in God and you don't. When I meet someone we can have great conversation regardless of what we believe in.
Final Q; do you get along with atheists better than the believers, and are there any benefits being an atheist?

Would appreciate your points on this subject.

Thanks
Benjamin

 

Of course we are almost the same in that we don't believe God exists in probabilistic terms. We can just set aside the divide and focus on the commons.

 

It is a great subject but one that needs to be put in a another thread as I would always point out that this thread is for the purpose of finding out if there are atheist group in DC

On the other hand. I can't begin to tell you how weird these questions are for me personally. Because the whole reason for my first question of whether there are atheist group in DC is to have those questions you invoke come to experience. Hence, I will surely tell you that I have yet to truly encounter a staunch atheist in Dgte. I would tell you however that my atheism stems from a long and gradual disbelief in the existence of God and made more prominent by authors like Clarke, Dawkins, Sagan and others. Sorry to say my experience with atheist groups are limited to the on line community.

 

Nice to hear that pat.

I would love to have smb's with him. hehe. I was introduced to catholicism myself and my parents have kept the same but more liberated views. It would be nice to exchange experiences. :D

 

Very true!

As a comedian once said, "I tried not believing in the law of gravity, and found out, after falling down some stairs, that it doesn't work." :D

 

It is NOT a Belief system.....

Is Atheism a Belief?
Author: David Nicholls

It is reasonably common for religious persons and others to class Atheists as those that have a "belief" system. It is taken for granted that the Atheist's "belief" system is somewhat different from a "belief" in the supernatural and sundry. Proponents of such loose use of the language would wish to bring Atheists down to their level of accepting un-evidenced dogma. They then "reason" that it is far better to have a "belief" in that which has some perceived beneficial or "moral" good than that which is "godless" and therefore immoral. How very wrong, incorrect and opposite to the truth is that thought.

The Macquarie Encyclopedic Dictionary definition of "belief" is:

1. that which is believed; an accepted opinion.
2. conviction of the truth or reality of a thing, based upon grounds insufficient to afford positive knowledge:

Most other Dictionaries tender similar definitions.

Those definitions are basically saying that a "belief" is not formed by critical scientific investigation but by emotions, feelings and unsubstantiated opinion.

As a child I can hold a "belief" that the Tooth Fairy and Santa Claus are real characters. I can have a "belief" that Unicorns exist and that Ghosts and Goblins etc. are also real.

As an adult I can hold a "belief" that any one of the numerous gods purported, do actually exist, and that humans have an immortal "soul". Some even have a "belief" in UFO's, the power of crystals and a myriad of other unproven paranormal activity.

Atheists do not accept that any of the above imaginary creatures or powers do exist as no scientific evidence is extant in support of those propositions. This is not a "belief", it is just lack of scientific evidence in their support.

The word "belief" has been incorporated as part of the religious language of ethereal nonsense with a design to confuse the faithful. Certain words have been with humanity since the beginning of time and have been refined in use to fool the unwary. "Belief" is one of them.

If religion was not evolutionary driven, with its majority acceptance "seen" as a herd benefit, then the word would not exist in its present form but would simply be a word or phrase that states that we do not know.

That which we do not know is our ignorance and seen in that light, a "belief" in the supernatural etc. is giving ignorance far greater credibility than reasoned thinking should permit.

Many so-called examples of our "beliefs" are thrown at the Atheist, but none come anywhere near being good explanations. For example, we have a "belief" the Sun will come up tomorrow. Forgotten, so it seems, is that by example of the Sun coming up every day for billions of years hence, shows a pattern that cannot be denied that it will come up again tomorrow. "Belief" has nothing to do with it.

Another is since we do not fully understand how electricity works, we somehow have a "belief" in the workings of electricity. It may not be fully understood but it is accepted that if a toaster is connected to it, the bread will cook. Again and so on and so forth, "belief" has naught to do with it.

If religions and such could do likewise and show by previous experience or experiment that some part of future action could be predicted, it would then no longer be a "belief" system.

If "belief" in the super-natural had some kind of quantifiable substance to it, then it would escape the realms of our acceptance of ignorance as a way of explaining the world.

The religious and others have a "belief" that ignorance is superior to empirical knowledge.

Atheist see no credible empirical or scientific evidence for the super-natural and therefore reject the notion as one only originating from our ignorance.

There is absolutely no similarity between the Atheist philosophical stance in life and that of the religious. Atheists accept only facts, whereas the religious et al find no need for them.

 

I can't believe anyone would question the existence of an invisible man that lives up in the clouds somewhere watching everything that everybody does.