On Tue, 20 Jul 1999 00:17:37 GMT, peppermill at my-deja.com wrote:
>In article <Pine.GSO.3.95.iB1.0.990719143222.763D-
>100000 at halifax.chebucto.ns.ca>,
> "M. McLeod" <mycloud at chebucto.ns.ca> wrote:
<snip>
>>I think any atheist
>> who gets into thinking about creation, etc., etc. is not a true
>>atheist.
One can believe in magic and many other implausible ideas
and still be an atheist so long as no belief is held in a god.
>> Possibly that person would be an agnostic. I firmly think to have an
>> atheist ng is silly as what's the point. In an agnostic thread various
>> viewpoints can be given and the same would be true for any religious
>> thread.
Nonsense. Many people are atheists and want to find out if others
find the dominating beliefs in god to be silly. Atheists (at least
where I live) are a minority and its a good thing for us to be able
to discuss these issues.
It seems to me that it would be silly for agnostics to have a
newsgroup as the only requirement to be an agnostic is that
you don't think the existence of god can be proven. If that's the
case, what's the point of debate?
>> MM...a reasonable guy
>>>> On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, Malcolm McMahon wrote:
>>>> > On Sun, 18 Jul 1999 21:46:52 -0300, "M. McLeod"
><mycloud at chebucto.ns.ca>
>> > wrote:
>> >
>> > >I missed that "atheism is a faith" bit the first time I looked.
>Can't
>> > >agree with you there. To have faith it has to be in something and
>an
>> > >atheist believes in nothing.
>> >
>> > Nobody "believes in nothing". Atheist believe in a material universe
>> > which is either eternal or arrose through "natural causes" (whatever
>> > that means in the context). They believe in Occam's Razor.
>> >
>> > What is a religion? I'd say a set of beliefs about the origins of
>the
>> > universe, who's running the show, what happens when we die.
>Atheists can
>> > make positive statements about all these questions.
To be an atheist you *only* have to have no belief in a god.
You can believe in many other things both plausible and
implausible.
Saying that all atheists are religious because many appreciate
science or hold a wide variety of beliefs is like saying that
a plumber is a communist.
A plumber may be a communist. Its even possible that many
plumbers are communists. But just because some or many
plumbers are communists doesn't mean that if one is a plumber
one is automatically a communist.
Many atheists may have many different views, but the only
thing they have in common is that none of them believe in
a god.
Michael Stanley
Atheist at large
To email me, remove the Z's from my
email address. I put them there to
avoid junk mail.
