NationStates

And if there were a God, I think it very unlikely that He would have such an uneasy vanity as to be offended by those who doubt His existence.
-Bertrand Russell

There may have been threads on Atheism before, but we shall attempt to make this one last! To that end, this thread shall attempt to be a ground for atheists, agnostics, apatheists from across all of NationStates, but of course, theists are welcome as well. As lack of belief has no unifying philosophy, there will be, by default, a larger range of acceptable topics than in the other Discussion Threads. This is not r/atheism, by the way. Pointing out the problems of religion is fine. Calling religious people baby eaters or immoral is not. Excessive circlejerking will be frowned upon.

Please leave all fedoras on the hat rack, and burn all strawmen upon entry.

Possible discussion topics may include but are not limited to:

The History of Atheism or agnosticism.
Your personal experiences as a nonbeliever.
Morality and how it connects to a deity (or in most of our cases, lack thereof.
Lack of belief and sociopolitical issues related to it.
Philosophical conundrums.
Questions about atheism or agnosticism.
The relationship between theism and atheism.

Reading Recommendations

---

-Letters from the Earth, Mark Twain.
-God is Not Great, Richard Dawkins.
-Why I am Not a Christian, Bertrand Russell
-Any Religious Text, Assorted Authors
-The Moral Landscape, Sam Harris
-The Kalama Sutra, Buddha. (Yes, Seriously.)
-Age of Reason, Thomas Paine
-Beyond Good And Evil, Friedrich Nietzsche
-Gay Science, Friedrich Nietzsche
-The Anti-Christ, Friedrich Nietzsche
-On the Genealogy of Morality, Friedrich Nietzsche
-What I Believe, Bertrand Russell
-Guide to the Bible, Isaac Asimov


With that out of the way, let the inevitable flame wars commence!

It begins...

Needs more poll. A thread like this is not complete without a poll.

Nakena wrote:Needs more poll. A thread like this is not complete without a poll.

“What colour is your fedora?”

Nakena wrote:Needs more poll. A thread like this is not complete without a poll.

Agreed. The people demand a poll.

Nakena wrote:Needs more poll. A thread like this is not complete without a poll.

…I don’t know how.

Kowani wrote:

Nakena wrote:Needs more poll. A thread like this is not complete without a poll.

…I don’t know how.

Just edit the OP, it's located somewhere in the bottom if I remember it correctly.

Kowani wrote:

Nakena wrote:Needs more poll. A thread like this is not complete without a poll.

…I don’t know how.

Oh noooooo.

It’s right below the textbox.

Samudera Darussalam wrote:

Kowani wrote:…I don’t know how.

Just edit the OP, it's located somewhere in the bottom if I remember it correctly.

Found it!

Kowani wrote:

Samudera Darussalam wrote:Just edit the OP, it's located somewhere in the bottom if I remember it correctly.

Found it!

Noice

What’s an anti-theist? Is it just anti-religion?

Pacomia wrote:What’s an anti-theist? Is it just anti-religion?

Basically an atheist who wants to wipe out religion.

The Islands of Versilia wrote:

Pacomia wrote:What’s an anti-theist? Is it just anti-religion?

Basically an atheist who wants to wipe out religion.

Oooo, that’s borderline.

The Islands of Versilia wrote:

Pacomia wrote:What’s an anti-theist? Is it just anti-religion?

Basically an atheist who wants to wipe out religion.

Bingo.

Should I:

A: sleep
B: stay on the atheism thread until 2 am

The Islands of Versilia wrote:Apatheist (leaning atheist) smoothly slides in.

Welcome aboard!

Pacomia wrote:Should I:

A: sleep
B: stay on the atheism thread until 2 am

Sleep is for the weak!

Pacomia wrote:Should I:

A: sleep
B: stay on the atheism thread until 2 am

It will probably take longer than until 2 AM that stuff gets heated. Or maybe not.

Pacomia wrote:

The Islands of Versilia wrote:Basically an atheist who wants to wipe out religion.

Oooo, that’s borderline.

The USSR was kind of anti-theist, at least occasionally I recall. Demolishing churches, stripping church power, intimidating clergymen, all that stuff. I might be wrong on some things, though.

I used to be an agnostic, which to be fair is probably better than atheism, but I just can’t see any way that God or supernatural things could exist, at least the way most religions see it.

The Islands of Versilia wrote:

Pacomia wrote:Oooo, that’s borderline.

The USSR was kind of anti-theist, at least occasionally I recall. Demolishing churches, stripping church power, intimidating clergymen, all that stuff. I might be wrong on some things, though.

Hence why Communist is a poll option.

Pacomia wrote:I used to be an agnostic, which to be fair is probably better than atheism, but I just can’t see any way that God or supernatural things could exist, at least the way most religions see it.

Yeah, I understand what you mean. Awhile ago I was the edgy anti-theist, hard atheist kind of person but nowadays I just really don’t care, the existence of a deity or deity-like figure never had any effect on my life, so why would it now? I still don’t consider it possible, hence leaning towards atheism.

The Islands of Versilia wrote:

Pacomia wrote:I used to be an agnostic, which to be fair is probably better than atheism, but I just can’t see any way that God or supernatural things could exist, at least the way most religions see it.

Yeah, I understand what you mean. Awhile ago I was the edgy anti-theist, hard atheist kind of person but nowadays I just really don’t care, the existence of a deity or deity-like figure never had any effect on my life, so why would it now? I still don’t consider it possible, hence leaning towards atheism.

For me, that’s actually reversed. I actually now feel an urge to shout “Bullshit” whenever anyone talks about their religion. That’s how bad it’s gotten. I’ve yet to actually do it, but god the urge is strong.

Nakena wrote:

Pacomia wrote:Should I:

A: sleep
B: stay on the atheism thread until 2 am

It will probably take longer than until 2 AM that stuff gets heated. Or maybe not.

Well, Pac and I live on the West Coast, so 2AM for us is when most people are either asleep or doing stuff.

No Maltheist or Misotheist ? While those are not atheists, they usually get along splendidly with anti-theists