HannahHitler:
I really appreciate your 'consine' I will change.

In fact by next year, I would have changed completely, I promise. Keep praying for me brother, so the change can be permanent. God bless you.

That was almost convincing . I'm also very consined for you Hannah and your generations to come. Shame I'm not in Naija otherwise I would meet you in person and pray for you so that you may change faster (after you show me the best spots in town).

Niflheim:
@op,


True atheist? So then what is a fake atheist? We must always repeat it to you guys ad nauseam et ad infinitum..................................................ATHEISM IS SIMPLY THE POSITION THAT GODS DO NOT EXIST!!! END OF STORY!!!

I am an atheist and I don't agree with this. I simply lack belief. Meaning gods could well exist but at this present time based on information available to me, I don't believe it. Saying God does not exist is for me claiming to know something no one really knows.

kaboninc:


Seun hates even the concept of a God. I don't believe in the existence of a God either. But from all atheist I've come to know, a majority of them have this strong hatred on even the existence of a God.

It is one thing to agree and disagree and it is another thing to express your hatred over anything....real or imagined.

I never quite got why you can't hate an imaginary character. I really hate the late ramsay Bolton from the TV series game of thrones. Quite a despicable character and no gruesome death was bad enough for him.

I was going to play but I can't come up with a proper argument why a God Must necessarily exist.

naijadeyhia:



So you admit that Atheists views like yours are irrational Since you find those of Deists to be Rational?

What is this logic? It's just an understandable position. Doesn't mean it's the only one. I don't argue with Deists either. It certainly doesn't seem like anything is interfering with the laws of nature as far as we Deists and atheists can see. Where we differ is that they say someone must have jump started all this nature while I refuse to jump to conclusions.

GrizzlyBear:


I honestly don't fancy these labels. I am just a curious human being who values knowledge and truth, and who is constantly caliberating his logical metric and moral scruples to precisely detect religious, philosophical and epistemological bullshit.

I don't like being an atheist either. It's a label that frankly sucks. Firstly most people routinely ignore the agnostic atheist position which is "l don't know if there is a God or not but I don't believe" as most assume atheism to be the explicit rejection of God, which it is not necessarily. I feel my position is being misrepresented under the umbrella of atheism. Not to mention the negative almost satanist connotation the term seems to imply. So I don't normally present myself as an atheist in real life. I'm generally non religious or secular humanist and such. However whether or not I like the term or i agree with what other atheists do or say the fact is I don't believe in any God and so by definition I am an atheist. It's just a fact.

Edenoscar:

someone please tell winner01 that atheist dont hate God

Mmm i dont know. Im not annoyed with him per se but personally i dont like him. In the same way i dont like the late Ramsey Bolton in the popular series Game of Thrones.

.

winner01:
Now I wanna imagine myself spending each day of my life, calling santa all sorts of hateful names just to pass accross a message to my nephew, of course I will need to have my brain checked. We don't quickly notice it but this is what the atheists do all of their days. What else could motivate one to spend his/her days cursing and spewing hate comments against obviously non-existent superheroes such as superman, batman and co. just to pass a point to someone if not a serious conviction of their existence, and hate for them.

Are there any laws restricting my existence because of belief in Santa or Batman such as anti gay law? Is my life physically in danger should I profess in a public place my opinion that any of these heroes are imaginary and these laws are evil? Once you can grasp this difference you will understand why your above comparison is invalid.

Lucario007:

I'm not exactly an atheist because I feel it would be presumptuous of me to suppose with my limited knowledge that there is no greater force in the universe beyond my understanding.

I agree with this. I presume nothing. And yet i am an atheist. An agnostic atheist. Do you positively accept or believe in the existence of God? I.e. if your answer to the question "do you believe God exists" is anything other than yes then you are an atheist under a different name. You can call yourself agnostic, freethinker etc. The term atheist often carries a lot of unecessary baggage but really an atheist need not necessarily reject the possibility of a creator. Thats for a subset of atheists called strong atheists.

Lucario007:

And to the Atheists:

1.Do you simply dismiss the possibility of the Religious Gods and miracles, or do you feel that there is absolutely no possibility of the existence of any form of supernatural force in the vastness of the universe?

As I mentioned before I dont dismiss the possibility of anything. A supernatural force or a personal god may well exist. But any extraordinary claim requires extraordinary evidence. In the absence of such evidence to me everything man says about such a creator is merely a myth.

Lucario007:

A.If you do feel so, what makes you so certain, that as a mere human with limited intelligence and lifespan, you can claim that there is no supernatural force in existence when you will live for less than a fraction of the time the earth has been in existence?

See above.

Lucario007:

2.Why do most of you treat theists as though they are mentally incompetent, and simply cannot understand to let them believe what they wish to believe?

I dont think they are mentally incomptent. In fact they are some of the smartest minds around. Like most of us were, they have simply been brainwashed from an early age to live in an altenate reality. A bubble of delusion where for instance they are morally justified to own other humans as slaves because their book condones it. Its necessary to rebuke these ridiculous beliefs at every turn in order to reduce the number of victims in the next generation who blindly follow their holy book of choice rather than think critically. Just letting this delusion to fester and pollute generation after generation is not the best solution. Now not everyone needs to be a militant atheist but theists shouldnt expect to be left to continue to impact all members of society without any opposition.

Lucario007:

3.And lastly, most atheists claim that the theory of intelligent design is wrong, if so, then why can we not explain the discovery of overwhelmingly beautiful works of art naturally occurring such as the uniqueness of a Snowflake's shape and the arts of a butterfly's wings? Do you truly believe such beautiful works can occur naturally or by accident?

We have seen so many things naturally beautiful and complex for example a rainbow. But it has a well known scientific origin which conforms to the laws of nature as we currently understand it. You can look at nature with awe but theres no need to be so overwhelmed by its complexity and beauty that we jump to conclusions about supernatural reasons for their existence.

Strawman:
Nothing you type on Nairaland will alter anybody's religious beliefs even in the slightest.

Just saying...

Not true. I have witnessed many people transition on NL.

Joshthefirst:
Because something exists, something must have always existed. Something is causeless. This is a very basic logical inference for the entity of God based on the nature of our universe. This is not me trying to fill in any ediot gaps. Its me logically acknowledging the presence of a transcendent being based on consistent logical thinking. Simple..

I dont quite follow how in your consistent logical thinking "something" in the first sentence suddenly became God "a transcendent being". There's a leap in there that sounds more like faith rather than logic. Unless, god is being used strictly in the pantheist sense.

asalimpo:

I didnt make any false claims.
You deduced that going by what I defined religion by that everybody has religion.
That's true. Because everybody has life.
Religion is tied to life. And provides the framework for answering life questions on spiritual matters and even non spiritual matters.
I said, formal religions have these frameworks and philosophies pre made. So adherents simply subscribe
and use them. Easy.
Atheists, also have their own framework and guides. Many atheists follow a pre made framework, provided
by other evangelical atheists. e.g popular vocal atheists, e.g on youtube , in the scientific community.
While others have to create their own guidebooks.
It doesnt matter. The frameworks have to constructed and used as scaffolds for building a life with.

Everybody answers the question of religion. Every single person.
So everybody has religion.

I stated the false claims you made about atheism and you have not countered any. Everybody has a religion because everyone has an opinion does not make atheism a religion.

asalimpo:

Atheism or Atheists answer the question all sane living people answer and came to a conclusion.
They define what constitutes morality and have a 'framework' for distinguishing morality.
and so on... not true, where is the atheist bible where you can find this universal definition? The opinion of some on the topic does not represent atheism
How is this different from what other religious people do?
The difference is that the source to the atheist/intellectual atheist can be arbitrary and internal
while adherents of defined religions have those answers and frameworks pre-frabricated and handed to them.
Everybody has religion because everybody has life. And everybody answers these questions.
What you may say is Atheists dont believe in any diety.
But that is answering a spiritual question - "Who is God/Is there a supreme being?"atheism does not answer this question. Atheism in its basic form deals with belief but it does not claim to know if there is god. belief and knowledge are 2 different things
Atheists say "Slavery is bad ... (and accuse the Bible God of it) " - that is a question of morality. fabrication. where has atheism said this?
They have a philosophy for defining morality . What is good , what is evil? more fabrication
That's a religious question .
Is there life after death? - a spiritual question . (all religions answer this. So those atheism)
Framework for establishing what is true - (christians : the bible , Atheists: science/physically verifiable evidence) again this is fabrication - each atheist has their own approach - trusting science is one but it is not a prerequisite to be an atheist
So you see that all the properties and questions of religion are posed and answered by atheists and every human being on the planet.

You make a lot of false claims here. Atheism does not answer any of these questions. Individual people answer these questions each in their own way. And if to answer these questions means to have a religion then every single person on the planet is following their own personal individual religion. If that's your definition, then fine. Atheists do not share any common ideology, or framework. There is no atheist manifesto on what morality is. Each atheist is free to define morality in their own way and still be an atheist. Each atheist can reject every single doctrine by another atheist and still be an atheist. Every atheist can disagree with every single thing that comes out of Dawkings mouth and still be an atheist. Only ONE thing unites atheists: lack of belief.
"Who is God/Is there a supreme being?" Each atheist has their own view. Some say impossible. Others say I dont know. Yet other say its possible but I just dont believe. How can you claim atheist say "Slavery is bad" - where are you getting that from? There is no authoritative source that represents all atheists like a bible. So basically you are generalizing because of what some atheists have said. Some atheist say slavery is bad, others say its just survival for the fittest. You dont have to believe slavery is bad to be an atheist.

There is no common religious, spiritual, moral question that unites atheist apart from a lack of believe in a god.
Is there life after death? As an atheist my answer is who the feck knows? Everyone who knows is too dead to feedback. Another will say...impossible. Another will say yes, through reincarnation. Atheism in itself answers nothing. There is no set of beliefs, values, and practices based on the teachings of a spiritual leader or holy book as is requisite of religions.

asalimpo:


How is atheism not a religion - a framework for regulating life and a source of spiritual answers.

That's adding unnecessary irrelevant baggage to atheism. Atheism is not a "framework" and its certain not a source of spiritual anything.
Atheist have necessarily only 1 thing in common: Lack of belief in god. Nothing else is relevant.

Zikdik:

Atheism can alternatively be defined as a lack of religion. I don't understand how a lack of something can be a kind of that thing. Is baldness an hair colour?

dont you know?
"not playing sports" is a kind of sports
and "not collecting stamps" is my favorite hobby

Iszboy:
So friend, why will you suffer for all eternity because of a moment of sinful pleasure? Why will you spend zillions of years in hellfire because of a lie you just told for just two seconds?

Very valid question my friend. Very valid. When you find out why anyone deserves to be punished so severely for such trivialities let me know.
And these are the acts of a supposedly GOOD, LOVING and JUST father.

analice107
I think if you believe in witchcraft you will see witchcraft, if you don't believe it, you don't see it and you concentrate on understanding the natural phenomenon behind any seemingly mysterious event.

When some people watch TB Joshua, they see possessed people rolling around. I see normal unfortunate people driven into a hysterical frenzy thinking they are possessed. The human imagination is truly amazing, the sheer number of beliefs out there is a clear testament to that.

In your story you witnessed, not heard about, but actually witnessed just one potential mystical event: the disappearance and reappearance of the money. If I were in that situation I would concentrate on finding when and how the girl took the money. I would focus all my energy on getting to the bottom of that and not believe anything about it disappearing by just looking at it. I would spend hours, days on quizzing the girl if required. Because I will not readily accept any magic story.

The rest of the tale is great imagination, a distraction with no evidence whatsoever. She may have well attended an induction ceremony, did that make her become an actual witch? She could have dreamt up attending this ceremony or that she was flying, but does that mean she actually flew anywhere? She could be 'choked', just like how on TB Joshua people are 'possesed'. The girl may even believe what she is saying because she has heard/thinks that is what witches do after being inducted, and you just believe what the girl is saying because you believe in witchery, but just like my TB Joshua case, none of that makes it so. As far as I can tell you didn't even bother digging deeper to how that money disappeared because you were already convinced in your mind by the witchcraft story. Basically, back to my first point if you believe in witchcraft you will see witchcraft.

See, we may not agree about all of this because we just see these things differently based on our perspectives. But I am yet to experience a single case of witchcraft or a convincing supernatural occurrence, and stories like this do very little to help. People always fly, turn into snakes etc etc, but they are always second hand accounts. Nobody ever sees first hand the flying or the transformation. Maybe my time will come to witness a convincing magical event, but I am not holding my breath. My psychology is already wired to reject this notion first, and find concrete physical evidence before accepting anything magical.

I would say as a society we need to be far less ready to accept these kind of tales and readily label people as witches based on random accusations or second hand accounts.

Richirich713:


Eternal but not intelligent?

It has to be eternal and random?

I am not saying it is necessarily random because no one really knows.
The only thing we can rely on is the evidence. I don't see the evidence for intelligence. The evidence is pointing towards randomness.
Should intelligence unambiguously reveal itself, then that's what I will believe.

Whether existence/universe is intelligent or random is purely academic, as it doesn't in anyway impact my life. If we somehow establish it is intelligent then I will just philosophically shift from atheism to deism and carry on as usual. To get to theism will require evidence of a personal god.

Richirich713:


Atheists no longer hold to the view that the universe is eternal, that all change when the big bang arrived on the scene.

And yes its makes much more sense to say a intelligent eternal being created the world than to say "nothing" did it.

That's not true. Before the big bang there was something.The big bang was just the begining of an expansion process. It was not the begining of everything that exists. So as far as I am concerned existence or something existing could well be eternal.

malvisguy212:
Any atheists care to answer this questions!!

Do you want there to be a God? Why/why not? What would He be like if the answer is yes.

Yes, I wouldnt mind there to be a God. In principle it sounds great to have an ultimate cosmic being looking out for me. He would be loving and generous kind carefree. He wouldn't hurt anyone no matter what the person did. We'd talk and he would explain things to me in a way I can appreciate. He would be nothing like the judeo-christian God and he certainly wouldn't create a world with evil and suffering. But this is just wishful thinking, far from reality.

Public schools? Yes! at last.
But even as an atheist, I feel a private school should be able to do what they want as long as its not a criminal offense.
So no prayers even in a catholic/baptist school? In my opinion, if you don't like it don't go there.

The fine is ridiculous but on the other hand MTN deserves a fine.
These thieves give you a 1 month "free trial" for a service. Then the next month they send you a message that your free trial is over, Send "Unsubscribe" to x number by X date or you will be charged the MONTHLY subscription fee every month.
This is just monthly daylight robbery! What about all the people who didnt see the message or grandma that doesn't even use SMS. How will she unsubscribe from that rubbish that she never requested/subscribed to.
They just find new ways to steal money from people.

Have guys actually seen the twitter account in question?
She's clearly a raving lunatic. https://twitter.com/dinnyaphane?lang=en

I think even more critical than the lost pregnancy, as she will have many more, is her permanent disfigurement.

Dekatron:


@raayah :- well, away from BIBLE and RELIGION, I actually DON'T SUPPORT ABORTION ON A NORMAL DAY. Except for RAPE. . . . Its your responsibility, DO IT!! Why didnt you use protection or why did you let him enter without protection??
Na part of why I never jam kpekus o jare my sister. . . . . Abortion except for RAPE or SEXUAL ASSAULT(If possible) is BAD and without evidence of rape, doctors should NEVER ABORT. They should make that a law.

But in rape the deed is already done, you cant undo it. So why now allow the killing of an innocent child? Whether rape or not rape the motivation for the abortion is still due to UNWANTED BABY. So why the big distinction? Why not let the child live and give it away if not wanted.
Unless your issue with abortion has nothing to do with pro-life. It seems to be more about making a point to the mother.
What if she used protection but it broke/failed? Is abortion ok then?

johnydon22:


Do you mean you will torture your children with your enemy forever? YES or NO

That starlingslimnet guy is just dishonest. He has been twisting poeples words but even though so many people have asked him so mamy times on this thread see how he cannot answer his own simple question.

freecocoa:
Yes I am.

Its been really interesting watching your evolution from Christian to freethinker / agnostic to now labelling yourself as an atheist. It's a tough label to come to terms with initially but when you realise God is unknown and religion doesn't make sense there is no other option but to embrace it.

5minsmadness:

My point was atheists cannot view this work of art with the same awe a Christian would.

Awesome beauty atheists cannot appreciate. It appears you are just looking for a confrontation with this baseless statement.
The universe is just so majestic and awe inspiring to anyone who can contemplate its vastness and complexity. But you have decided to declare your sect to be at the top of the appreciation ladder.
Whatever makes you feel better.

winner01:
Atheists dont believe or disbelieve, its that simple, they dont care.

What you have described is apatheism not atheism.

Teempakguy:
I don't know at all. While I vehemently condemn the death penalty, I am at a loss of words to describe any other fitting punishment for them.

What they need is psychological treatment. But it appears their disease is incurable. So I would just lock them up and throw away the key.

Nobody knows