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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 7:45 pm
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So, you're an atheist. You don't believe in God. But since you don't believe in God, it follows that being an atheist is therefore the least defining element of your personality. If God does not exist, then to define your entire belief system by one statement of what you don't believe in seems... well, daft.
If you aren't a theist, then what are you? What do you care about? And what even is this 'God' that you claim not to believe in? Because it seems to me that there are lots of different meanings to the word.
Pantheism, for example. God is everything, God is existence. It doesn't seem at all logical to deny existence, since that would mean that the denial doesn't exist. I would argue that it's not sensible to use the word God to describe existence, but nonetheless, to that person, I'm a deist.
I define myself as a rationalist, not an atheist, because it means something. It means, 'I'm trying to be a rational person.' There is no implicit solidarity between atheists, or common set of beliefs or ethics. There is only lack thereof.
So, what are your ethics? What do you believe? In short, if you don't describe yourself as an atheist; what do you describe yourself as?
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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 9:32 pm
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Posted: Sun May 07, 2006 10:29 pm
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 12:24 am
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 1:32 am
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 1:53 am
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 2:03 am
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 5:15 am
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 8:32 am
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 8:45 am
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 9:57 am
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gigacannon Yeah, that's why I'm a rationalist. It's by definition the best thing to be. Rationalists seek to be enlightened and live in comfort whilst doing whatever they want with maximum efficiency. Enlightenment naturally is the path to understanding and hence knowledge, and with that knowledge everything else is obviously easier and done better. Rationalism is the path to learning and enlightenment, and anyone who seeks to learn for its own sake is a rationalist to a lesser or greater extent. All human achievement has been a result of humans acting in a rational manner. Rationalism is badass. I'm not proselytising, even though I don't think that's a bad thing. I'm just describing how much I love being rationalist.
I don't really know what I am.
I have never felt the presence of a God, never really even taken seriously the idea that there may be something 'above' humans- in 'heaven' or whatever. I have no need for a God in my life, and I'm happy living for the present, not the past or future (which is why I don't really learn from mistakes and have no idea of what to do when I'm older... so it's not all good).
Though I don't really like admiting it to people because it's hard to explain, and kind of wishy-washy, but I do believe in some sort of enlightenment- inspiration, of such, which will happen to me eventually. I suppose that's what keeps me motivated and keeps me going even through bad times.
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2006 2:55 pm
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 7:33 pm
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I am rationalist, as giga put it. I'm also anti-theist, meaning that I stomp out the embers of a religious brushfire whenever I can. Morally, I make my own morals, b***h. (Most of them are based on efficiency and comfort--more rationalism.) Politically, I'm radically socialist, meaning I want us all to pool our resources for the common good (good news: free staples of life, bad news: big taxes). The world is as it is, will be as it will, and I intend to have a bag of Doritos and an armchair when tomorrow comes around. That's me, in a nutshell.
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Posted: Tue May 09, 2006 8:26 pm
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Posted: Wed May 10, 2006 6:18 pm
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