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| Thread: Why Is Atheism So Prevalent In Online Communities |  This thread is pages long: 1 2 3 4 5 · «PREV |
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Peacemaker
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Peacemaker = double entendre
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posted May 21, 2003 07:40 PM |
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Nice answer Lews! 
Any suggestios on a good book by this chap Feuerbach would be welcome...??? (I am not yet familiar with him)
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I have menopause and a handgun. Any questions?
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Lews_Therin
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted May 21, 2003 08:06 PM |
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Thank you Peacemaker .
Hmm, Iīve read Feuerbach in school, back then he had the strongest arguments for me to reconsider and change my protestant belief at the age of 17/18. But thatīs 10 years ago, and I donīt remember what the bookīs title was.
Feuerbach basically argued that god is a projection of humanīs wishes. Man wants to be good, knowing, powerful and long-living. God is all-good, all-knowing, almighty and immortal. Godīs perfection is a projection of humanīs imperfection.
I must correct myself, Feuerbachīs essence is not just "man created god", but more precisely, in analogy to the bible, "man created god in his image".
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Mercy_Severity
Adventuring Hero
answer seeker
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posted May 22, 2003 01:55 AM |
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Quote:
Those who make pizza are truly more akin to the divine than to the mortal. Those who make pan pizzas waste perfectly good oxygen by existing.
hahaha you are a wise man, ive never heard anything more profound then that, props bort , by the way did you get that name from the simpsons where bart wants something from the gift shop that has ur name on it and they didnt have bart but they had bort?
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bort
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Discarded foreskin of morality
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posted May 22, 2003 03:51 AM |
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Quote:
by the way did you get that name from the simpsons where bart wants something from the gift shop that has ur name on it and they didnt have bart but they had bort?
Congrats. You and Cat are the only ones to figure that out. (Well, the first ones to tell me that they figured it out.)
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Drive by posting.
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goodpig
Adventuring Hero
The King of Pork!!!
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posted May 23, 2003 03:21 AM |
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YO!
Wow what an interesting topic...
I am a Christian (I'm Wesleyan denomination)
And to tell you the truth this is one of the first boards that have made good points both ways on this topic.
But anyway about the topic at hand I don't know why there is so many atheists around but they are all over the message boards I go to. But unlike at this board whenever you ask for a legit rational logical debate about religion there you either get flamed or they make a post so idiotic it is laughable. About Conservative Republicans.... I agree with you about the abortion but about the guns.... if you take away all the guns you empower the criminals because the criminals usually buy the guns from the black market anyway so you are just enfeebling the citizens.
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Qui n'a plus qu'un moment a vivre N'a plus rien a dissimuler.
Atys
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Conan
Responsible
Supreme Hero
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posted September 14, 2005 05:29 PM |
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interesting topic.
Interesting to see the subject is still active today aswell! In many threads in Other Side we talk about Atheism and now with our good fellow USAtheist, it is even more present!
He talked about atheism in the "are the religions guilty" thread and I find it ties nicely into this one.
I think people define themselves more atheist today because more and more people notice what religion is about. Making a bald assertion, I would say that religion appeals to less people than it use too, it does not hold the same iron grip it used to back in the day everyone would tell you that you are going to hell if you don't beleive. Although I still get that by some people... 
In fact, I think atheism appeals to more people nowadays and that religion, in more advanced cultures is taking a back seat to the development of society. Frankly, I find it was holding it back so much in the past that I'm happy it's taking this back seat approach.
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Your life as it has been is over. From this time forward, you will service.... us. - Star Trek TNG
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Jebus
Promising
Supreme Hero
TheJester akaJeebs akaJebfoo
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posted September 14, 2005 06:24 PM |
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Quote:
Interesting to see the subject is still active today aswell! In many threads in Other Side we talk about In fact, I think atheism appeals to more people nowadays and that religion, in more advanced cultures is taking a back seat to the development of society. Frankly, I find it was holding it back so much in the past that I'm happy it's taking this back seat approach.
(Ironically your advanced culture seems to be taking a steady dive now that religion is on the back burner...)
However the thread is about atheists in online communities so....
I think it's because most of the "iron grip" religions
discourage the sin of "technological advances" therefore the only ones with PCs are the ones who don't care
(or in this case don't have) souls!!
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"You went over my helmet??"
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Consis
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Of Ruby
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posted September 14, 2005 06:59 PM |
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Edited By: Consis on 14 Sep 2005
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I'll Take A Crack At Those Eggs
Hmm . . .
"Why is atheism so prevalent in online communities?" The question presents its very own dilemma. In order to ask this question, a person would've had to visit every 'online community'. I don't know if that's possible. I'd wager that it isn't possible for any single person or even a group of persons.
Now assuming you miraculously visited every community and found that most were atheistic in nature, I might suspect that there are many factors involved in answering the question posed.
1. What is the age of most people who visit online communities?
2. What is the culture of most people who visit online communities?
--->A. What is the majority religious preference of their current place of living or local birthplace?
--->B. Does the size of a person's family matter?
--->C. Does sex or race matter?
--->D. Does financial, political, or social standing matter?
--->E. Does nationality matter?
--->F. Do the affects of mood-altering substances matter?
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Roses Are Red And So Am I
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TitaniumAlloy
Honorable
Legendary Hero
Professional
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posted September 15, 2005 12:37 PM |
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Simple: because of the only thing that Buddha, God, Satan, Allah, Jesus, Zeus, the Kami Kaze and all the gods of Hindu have in common:
They all hate online communities.
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John says to live above hell.
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Jebus
Promising
Supreme Hero
TheJester akaJeebs akaJebfoo
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posted September 15, 2005 11:28 PM |
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Quote:
Simple: because of the only thing that Buddha, God, Satan, Allah, Jesus, Zeus, the Kami Kaze and all the gods of Hindu have in common:
They all hate online communities.
LMAO!!
(yeah didn't Jesus say something to the effect of
"love thy neighbour, unless it's online"?? )
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"You went over my helmet??"
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Wolfman
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Insomniac
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posted September 16, 2005 12:55 AM |
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Corinthians 9:12
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Khaelo
Honorable
Supreme Hero
Underwater
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posted September 16, 2005 09:31 AM |
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Are you referencing the first letter to the Corinthians, or the second?
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 Cleverly
disguised as a responsible adult
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Wolfman
Responsible
Supreme Hero
Insomniac
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posted September 16, 2005 02:49 PM |
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I was kidding. 
Anyway enough of the spam.
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USAtheist
Hired Hero
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posted September 17, 2005 11:29 AM |
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The perception that atheists are more common in online communities is just that...a perception. As Consis(most recently) and a few others have pointed out(in the first few pages of the thread), there are a HUGE number of variables that go into who posts at which communities.
In RL it is difficult to "spot" atheists. People expect that we are all running around with "I Hate God!" t-shirts and they usually have misconceptions of what atheism is. They tend to think it means "without religion"(false) or "against God" or "dogmatic certainty of the non-existence of God!", etc. To that end, an equally erroneous defintiion of "agnosticism" tends to pop up as well. People think that agnostic means "I am not sure" or "I am open minded about the possibility of God" whereas they think atheism is as I have detailed above.
In reality, most atheists are agonstics as well and vice versa. Huxlian agnsoticism applies to knowledge of God, not "belief". You can have no knowledge of God and still believe or not believe in his existence.
As someone else mentioned, it is a lot easier to come out of the closet online since you can maintain anonymity.
I am someone who has visited far more message boards where religious and philosophical debating occurs than I could possibly recount. I have at times spent more than 40 hours a week debating these issues and related issues(such as evolution vs. Creationism) and it is only at specific messge boards where atheists really have the stronger presence. AT Belief.net we are still outnumbered like fifty to one(at LEAST!). At the skeptic forums(www.skeptic.com and follow the links to the forums) atheists outnumbered theists by far.
Statistically, well educated people have a greater likelihood of being atheist but this does not mean that if you are atheist, you are more likely to be intelligent or educated. Trust me on this one...most of the people I have had to really tear into at B-net and such places were atheists(or maybe they were just posing as atheists...*shrug*). All I know is they were saying stupid things which goes a long way toward making theists think less of atheists in general and I tend not to care WHO is posting something nonsensical or dumb, be they theist or atheist, liberal or conservative.
Also wanted to briefly touch upon a side issue of American politics and atheism...
Yes, there are far more fundementalist wackos on the far right here than on the left. But for every "Jerry Falwell" type we have on the right, there is a vegan eco-terrorist, "dolphins-are-smarter-than-humans-and-JFK-was-killed-by-the-CIA-so FREE MUMIA!!" type on the left. Nonsense knows no politcal affiliation.
Also, the fastest growing segment of atheism are the conservatives. Right now it is estimated that up to 20% of American conservatives are atheists. Right now, America in general is around 14%-15% atheist.
We have a long way to go(and probably will drive ourselves to extinction before we get there!;D) but just ten to fifteen years ago we only made up around 5% of the population here.
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"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities." - Voltaire
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Lews_Therin
Promising
Famous Hero
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posted September 18, 2005 05:01 AM |
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A few days ago, Wiseman sent me an email, telling me that the author of my signature, "War is godīs way of teaching Americans geography." Author unknown., is in fact not unknown at all, itīs from Ambrose Bierce.
This put me into the moral obligation to log into Heroescommunity again and correct that part. But then I thought, if I am here anyway, I can as well dump the whole thing and replace it with a new one. With special dedication to the creator of this thread.
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