Hey… wait a minute…
Of course, I know of no atheists who feel this way.
With that out of the way, I’ll just sit here in my smugness and make fun of the grammatical errors.
(via My Confined Space)
[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]
Atheism: Isn’t It Wonderful?
Posted by Hemant Mehta in Uncategorized on November 19th, 2007 | 29 Comments29 Responses
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I think it’s a joke, right?
Who made that image, and why?
that sounds like a certain poster on my blog, who argued the ‘transcendental argument’ implied the only absolute moral comes from god. Therefore implying all non-religious people have no morals and also no right to discuss the right or wrong of a particular moral stance.
oops re-post
I certainly don’t believe that if I can get away with it, then “it must me okay” (I also don’t believe it must BE okay, but that’s beside the point).
Where do you FIND this stuff?
My Confined Space shows several comments about this that are bizarre and idiotic, and several seem completely contrived, probably written by the same person as sock puppets. The post is attributed to someone called Diabetus, and clicking on that leads to a collection of ludicrous anti-feminist articles. Nothing about atheism or anti-atheism.
Alice in Wonderland on LSD.
While this image is the extreme charicature of a few misinformed people’s stereotypes, I don’t see the point of posting it here without a context, an author or any apparent purpose.
To be fair, richard, Daniel Hoffman basically argues the same thing in this thread:
That’s basically the same argument, minus the creative spelling.
we can do better to refute this. for EVERY bad thing mentioned in that image i can easily think (or a quick search can find out) multiple cases where religious people or, even better, religious authorities judged them ok and GOT away with it BECAUSE of their “religious status”.
i’ll provide some examples.
kidnapping:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgardo_Mortara
drugs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entheogen
tax evasion:
http://www.wantedinrome.com/news/news.php?id_n=3574
theft:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Marcinkus
torture:
http://ncrcafe.org/node/1373
pedophilia: well… you get the point…
My response to that is this: Darwin’s Dagger: This May Not Be Fair
One only has to read the papers to know that such crimes are very common among the religious majority. Sad, but true that their religion doesn’t help them avoid committing such crimes.
I had a JW call at my door. After a bit of discussion I asked if his god believed in a higher power than itself. No, he said, as his god was “top”. There was nothing above his god, so he was forced to agree that his god didn’t get his morals from a higher authority, and didn’t get them from a book either. So, I said, we call people who don’t believe in a higher authority than themselves, and that don’t get their morals from a book, Atheists. I said if Atheism is good enough for god, then it’s good enough for me. That flummoxed him.
I had a comment for this sign until I read Graeme’s comment.
I am so using that.
Indeed any proposed god lacks a moral authority external to itself, and must, by definition be an Atheist.
That’s the problem with gods. They’re logical absurdities, and hence, when used, they also lead to more absurdities. They’re the classic example of proof (or disproof) by contradiction.
I do enjoy the popular argument that the system of moral judgement stems from a God who said “hey, everyone is sinning so much, here’s an easy way for everyone to be forgiven regardless of the sins themselves – ‘fact, it’s going to be such a moral victory that I’m going to kill my own son to do it!”
Clearly, you can derive a wealth of morality from what seems to effectively be an unconditional forgiveness. I’d be more inclined to believe the religions which suggest actual consequences for amoral actions, but the one above is the big one.
@Graeme – that was awesome. I need to remember that.
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever read. Guess they haven’t read the Bible. Lot’s daughters got him drunk, had sex with him, and then became pregnant with their father’s babies. They got away with it. Let’s not forget the Israelites how sacked a city and kept the virgins for themselves. They got away with it, because God told them to do it.
So, um… shouldn’t that read “Theism: what they saidin between. Isn’t it wonderful?”
Siamang,
Yes I know.
and I’ve been ignoring him because his sophomoric arguments have more holes than a window screen and I just don’t have the patience to engage this woefully misinformed uh, person. Fortunately Greta Christina and Gary Charbonneau are doing a masterful job of dismantling his edifice to ignorance.
As I have said before, when stereotype-laden believers such as he describe all the awful things people would do if they didn’t have the big policeman in the sky threatening them with hell fire, they’re just giving us a candid look at their own lack of character. That’s how they would behave. That’s their immature level of moral development, and they have no idea that others can operate from much higher levels. Never mind that reality does not support their stereotypes of atheists. Reality is not what they rely on for their beliefs anyway. They use warm, cozy feelings. They get a warm, cozy feeling from loving God and they get a warm, cozy feeling from hating atheists. I find their beliefs about atheists far more bizarre than their beliefs about God.
HOWEVER
All that said, I am very suspicious of this “anti-atheist” image. I suspect that it was made simply to toss into a crowd of atheists to inflame them just for kicks. The author may not strongly hold those extreme views; he or she may just enjoy creating a fuss, and people here are obliging. Remember when Nixon deliberately flashed the “peace sign” to a crowd of anti-war protesters? (maybe you’re too young) He knew it would be far more infuriating than if he held up just one finger to them. He enjoyed provoking them.
This image is posted here without context or reference to the author or its purpose. Raging on and on about it may very well be falling into a sucker’s trap.
Nixon was a rat wasn’t he!
THEISM
Only doing nice things because you believe someone is going to kick your ass.
But weren’t the tax collectors in the bible the “bad guys” – doesn’t that mean tax evasion is sanctioned by the bible?
Why do some people link atheism with misdeeds? Ethics, goodness, joy, truth, etc., are not tied to whether one believes or disbelieves. When I was religious, I felt continually guilty because I couldn’t stop my sinning ways. Prayer did nothing for me. I had no method, no way to ‘think’ about what I professed as my religious beliefs; therefore, I went around in circles, wearing myself out with religious and pseudo-spiritual nonsense.
Throughout all those pseudo-religious years, my atheism grew. I simply do not believe in a divine nobodaddy. Some think they are moral or ethical simply because they’re religious, NOT SO. I didn’t much think about ethics as a religious person. I didn’t think I had to because I felt that I was ’saved.’ Religion does not make anyone ethical or good or right, nor does religion justify the destructive things that one does simply because one thinks that he or she has already earned a spot in heaven.
When I became an atheist, things became much clearer. Atheism freed me to critically think about things like ethics, concepts of truth, evil, the basis of belief, etc. Religion crushed my ability to think, enabled me to live a complete lie. In this sense, atheism proved to be more honest, more truthful than religion.
One thing which is funny with the whole standard moral argument: “If you do not get your moral principles from god, then you only have man made laws (which for some reason are of lesser worth)” is that the whole thing is based on the assumption that there in fact IS a god.
If there is no deity, (as I believe) then there is still just man made laws, but instead covered behind a religious cloak. I’m not turning into a deist just because my morals are based on man made laws. (I strongly think our moral principles are derived from evolution anyway).
That has to be irony right? No person could be that stupid.
Before reading this, remember I am no trying to force Atheism on to you, just trying to educate people who think this.
You seem to believe that Atheism is the lack of morality. It is not – it is simply the lack believing in one or more supernatural being. Would it surprise you to know that Lance Armstrong is a Atheist? Would it also surprise you to know that both Osama Bin Laden and Adolf Hitler were killing millions of innocent people in the name of God? Just think about it.
I’ve got my own caption for that: “Theism: Believing that humanity needs the paranoia of being constantly monitored and judged by an invisible man in the sky to maintain order and peace.”
Moral authority is provided by the laws of your country (and hopefully based on democratic principles). Religion is no longer necessary. Step out of the dark ages people.
be funny is a christian made that image becuse there are several instances in the bible where god ok’s rape, murder, child abuse, slavery, abortion and many other things. jesus himself even ok’s slavery and even says how hard you should beat him/her.
Whoever wrote that is a brainwashed idiot.
How about this?…
Christianity:
Believing that you can do all of the above stated crimes, ask for forgiveness, and get off the hook for all of them.
Isn’t it wonderful?
All money made by every religion would easily feed third world countries! It’s a viscous cycle!
‘having faith will help you through poverty’
NO! it’ll cause it! (well not cause it but help it continue)
keep the idea of religion alive, keep people pouring money into it, in the form of pilgrims, and donations etc, look at how rich the pope is! and other high figures in religion! but apparently there good people! they helping people! AS IF!
RELIGION IS EVIL!
hey I’m an atheist, I don’t believe in any of that stuff.. what in the name of jesus???
Just an add to what @Graeme said above about atheist god. I’d add that god is a scientist too, because he doesn’t have faith. He knows, and he knows because he has an evidence. Faith or believing doesn’t need to turn to be truth, but if you know something, if you have evidence, than it can’t turn out different, but true.
God is a scientist, not a believer. (-:
Whoever made this picture obviously dosnt know a thing about atheism. im atheist, and im just as law abiding (possably more- cuz im in the army) as your average christian, jew, muslum, budist, ext…
if i had to hazzard a guess id say this was the work of a catholic and christian. its simmilar to their tactics- spread lies about your oposition to discredit them.