Attention Atheists.

Chaos, you obviously haven't met alot of people, then. Go outside more.

This post has been edited by Mrs. Aforcer on Jul 23 2008, 03:32 PM

You admit to generalizing yet continue to state it as a fact for each and every Christian. You may as well not say "Im generalizing" at all because it really doesn't change a thing about your post.

I'm sorry, but that's not the only thing a Christian is taught. If they were only taught that, then they'd be extremely ignorant to what's going on in the very neighborhood around them.

A lot of those people at church camps go to public schools, where they're taught opposite viewpoints from what Christianity teaches, and they still choose to believe in God. I know you're generalizing, but you are being extremely unfair.

(Note: A few of my christian friends have parents who are avid atheists. How do you explain this?)

Well, I live in the South, and a good majority of parents do that here. I know there are plenty who don't, but whatever.

And usually, they aren't taught evolution(etc.) until middle school or later, when the religious beliefs are firmly ingrained in their minds. Other times, the teachers who teach that openly critisize it in front of their young students, such as TWO of my sister's teachers (in two different grades). That is the kind of thing I'm talking about. As for the atheist parents with Christian kids, they may want to fit in with other friends or they don't like their parents and so choose to be different, or both. That may not be the case, but I've heard of it.


And I put "GENERALIZATION" there so no one would jump on my back about it.

This post has been edited by Pip Bernadotte on Jul 23 2008, 03:38 PM

The reason why he says that about all Christians is because the only one's he has met/ viewed on television are like that.

Of course I have. But that wasn't a source that said "DON'T QUESTION ANYTHING."

It was a source that said "QUESTION EVERYTHING. QUESTION WHAT I'M SAYING RIGHT NOW."

I said it's a small detail because it really wasn't a big part of my post/point. I didn't say "i'm an atheist" all over the place, and I understand what they both are. I just consider myself an atheist rather than being agnostic, that's all, whether it's technically right or not. I don't believe in God at the moment, so I consider myself an atheist. If I change my mind, I'll consider myself to be a Christian or whatever other religion I decide to follow. It's a preference of terms thing, really, technically correct or not.

But that's just it, that's why they're jumping on you is because it's a generalization... Kinda like someone saying that generally all Asians are bad drivers. Even though it's a generalization, it's still racism.

Ah, righto, then. My apologies for the misunderstanding.

Also, about the atheist vs agnostic argument.

Look at the word "Atheist". The prefix "a" means the absence of. A Theist is someone who believes in a god or gods. If you don't believe in a God, you're an Atheist. If you're not sure if you do or not, you still don't completely believe in one. So you're still an atheist.

An agnostic is basically just a euphemism for atheist.

All atheists know that they can never be ABSOLUTELY sure that there's no God. It's impossible to know. What we CAN guess is the likelihood of a God existing, which is almost negligible.

But someone who considers it a 50/50 would still be an atheist, as they don't practice any religion.

This post has been edited by ChaosEmerl on Jul 23 2008, 03:44 PM

Well, see, the fact that I realize that not all Christians, etc. are like that is what I meant. But a very good majority of the ones that I know (of) are like that. But, I know that they're not ALL like that, and so I point out when I'm generalizing.

The problem with your "Generalizing" is you state the generalization as fact essentially. Pointing out that you realize it's generalizing doesn't make it any better.


I can't go around saying "All Americans are stupid (I'm generalizing) They're all really dumb" and not expect to have people "jump on my back" for it.

No worries, sorry if I didn't really make sense.

The concept of generalization has broad application in many related disciplines, sometimes having a specialized context-specific meaning.
For any two related concepts, A and B; A is considered a generalization of concept B if and only if:

every instance of concept B is also an instance of concept A; and
there are instances of concept A which are not instances of concept B.

The etymology of a word is not the only thing that defines it. The roots of a word provide the general idea of it's meaning, but even so, sometimes the actual definition may be slightly different than "the literal translation," if you will. Instead of citing your fancy Latin roots, why don't you just get a dictionary?

agnostic n. 1. a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human knowledge is limited to experience. [...]

atheist n. a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings.

One's unsure, while the other is confidently in denial. Also, you don't have to "practice" a religion to accept that it could be the possible one truth. Argument debunked.

This post has been edited by Mrs. Aforcer on Jul 23 2008, 03:47 PM

Well, I see your point, but I just didn't want people going around "OH, thats generalizing, therefore no one does that at all", which I have seen people do in debates on this site (on both sides).

@ Saberie: Isn't that a little backwards?

This post has been edited by Pip Bernadotte on Jul 23 2008, 03:49 PM

In the end, it comes down to what you want to call yourself. If you feel confident enough to be opposed and hated by the fanatics of just about every religion in the world, call yourself an atheist. If you'd rather sit on the fence and suck on your thumb, call yourself an agnostic. It really doesn't matter, because in the end, you still don't practice any religion, and you live your life normally.

I call myself agnostic, but that isn't the reason why. It has to do with my beliefs, which are more agnostic than atheist.

To clarify my previous post:

I know that not all Southerners are Christian, therefore making this logic void.

That's not true either. If you're going to get into personal attacks, I could just as easily say atheist people are lazy *******s that are too close-minded to study religion and instead just selfishly deny it all, while agnostics actually make a conscience effort to study other religions and learn about every theory and idea before making a decision on what is right. It has nothing to do with "confidence" or "being hated," it's just a difference in beliefs. Plenty of people oppose agnostics too. And on that note, alot of the "hatred" directed at atheists is self-created or brought upon by actions the atheist commits that have nothing to do with their religion or lack there of.

Stop trying to be edgy and a victim of society. It just makes you look uneducated and immature.

This post has been edited by Mrs. Aforcer on Jul 23 2008, 03:55 PM