The way it’s phrased, though, it might be confusing to someone who believes that atheism is “believing that there absolutely are no gods”.
Might have been better to say “Because there’s no good reason to believe in a god”.
I just nit picked 100% of his entry.
Art Vandelaysays
I don’t know Diego…have you heard about this 72 virgin thing?
catnip67says
Is that: a 72 year old virgin? Cos that doesn’t seem so attractive afterall.
redpandasays
I don’t know Diego…have you heard about this 72 virgin thing?
Nobody ever thinks of this from the virgin’s perspectives. Congrats, you’re in heaven! As a reward for saving your purity, you get to be a faceless sex slave in some guy’s giant harem. Forever.
jimmauchsays
So simple — so true!
RahXephon231says
@redpanda
Nobody ever thinks of this from the virgin’s perspectives. Congrats, you’re in heaven! As a reward for saving your purity, you get to be a faceless sex slave in some guy’s giant harem. Forever.
I’ve always wondered about this. Are the virgins supposed to be the souls of people who used to be alive? If that’s the case, then yeah, it’s slavery. Or are they supposed to be angels of some kind?
I dunno. It makes no sense to me for the same reason Hell makes no sense, or Heaven in general. Pleasure and pain are both sensations and/or emotions that are fundamentally biochemical and neurological. Pain in particular only serves a mortal purpose as a damage detection and location system. I always had trouble grokking the idea that in Hell, I would still feel pain without a physical body, or if I had a physical body, how pain would be meaningful to me without the threat of death. I’ve often thought that the idea of “eternal torture” is pointless because if Hell is a fraction as bad as the fundies like to say, I think every dead person’s mind would just shatter after a very short amount of time.
Um, yeah, but I’m not going to become everything for which there is no reason not to be it. I might have no reason not to be Canadian, but I’d probably want a reason to become one before I attempted to become Canadian.
I did have reasons to be non-theist, mostly in order not to fool myself, or at least not to be too open to useless nonsense. And that’s why I finally gave up some sloppy thinking that I’d privileged for a time.
Here’s the shortest from the original “Why I Am An Atheist” campaign in 1903:
Because of the immutable law of cause and effect. There is no room for gods or devils.
OVERTON H. STONE
(Signed O.H. Stone)
Baring, Washington
Mr. Stone was a 44-year-old railway conductor.
carliesays
Perfect.
RahXephon231says
@Rey Fox
Misconceptions 3 through 5 were things I already knew about, 2 was something that never really came up in my mind, and 1 was the one I was asking about.
So I guess I’m doing better than the guys she meets at Atheist Meetups (which is pretty much the same reason I stopped going: the one near me was massively dominated by douchey, libertarian-y men).
abb3wsays
Free crackers?
OK, it’s not a good reason, and probably not a good enough reason, but it’s a reason.
Still, succinct.
kreativekaossays
RahXephon @ #7:
As per your post: ‘Pain in particular only serves a mortal purpose as a damage detection and location system.’
Just a quick thought on pain/pleasure. P & P certainly are our physiological/bio-chemical messenger systems communicating things to our brains about various state of our bodies (as you mentioned, damage, disease, etc.), and the surrounding environment (cold, heat, physical dangers).
It seems that our P & P also ends up serving a social/moral component (unfortunately), as they can be used as a device for social/political control and direction (i.e., threatening persons or populations with pain or death if they don’t do the bidding power, or promising benefits (‘pleasure’) if they act accordingly). It’s interesting to see the scope of its use,…from individuals, corporate control, governmental control, ( and last but not least, RELIGIOUS control).
kreativekaossays
‘Because there is NO reason TO NOT be IT.’ [emphasis mine, KK]
Diego Rosato
Italy
NO reason TO NOT be ATHEIST = NO reason TO be RELIGIOUS. [KK]
PCTTP. Med school lingo. Precise, concise, and to the point.
Well put.
Rich Woodssays
@RahXephon231 #7:
I’ve often thought that the idea of “eternal torture” is pointless because if Hell is a fraction as bad as the fundies like to say, I think every dead person’s mind would just shatter after a very short amount of time.
I would guess that a sophistamacated theologian’s response might be that God immediately mends those shattered minds, because he loves us all so very much.
This is the best “Why I am an atheist” post so far because in only nine words Diego Rosato perfectly explained why theism should be thrown out.
The way it’s phrased, though, it might be confusing to someone who believes that atheism is “believing that there absolutely are no gods”.
Might have been better to say “Because there’s no good reason to believe in a god”.
I just nit picked 100% of his entry.
I don’t know Diego…have you heard about this 72 virgin thing?
Is that: a 72 year old virgin? Cos that doesn’t seem so attractive afterall.
Nobody ever thinks of this from the virgin’s perspectives. Congrats, you’re in heaven! As a reward for saving your purity, you get to be a faceless sex slave in some guy’s giant harem. Forever.
So simple — so true!
@redpanda
I’ve always wondered about this. Are the virgins supposed to be the souls of people who used to be alive? If that’s the case, then yeah, it’s slavery. Or are they supposed to be angels of some kind?
I dunno. It makes no sense to me for the same reason Hell makes no sense, or Heaven in general. Pleasure and pain are both sensations and/or emotions that are fundamentally biochemical and neurological. Pain in particular only serves a mortal purpose as a damage detection and location system. I always had trouble grokking the idea that in Hell, I would still feel pain without a physical body, or if I had a physical body, how pain would be meaningful to me without the threat of death. I’ve often thought that the idea of “eternal torture” is pointless because if Hell is a fraction as bad as the fundies like to say, I think every dead person’s mind would just shatter after a very short amount of time.
Um, yeah, but I’m not going to become everything for which there is no reason not to be it. I might have no reason not to be Canadian, but I’d probably want a reason to become one before I attempted to become Canadian.
I did have reasons to be non-theist, mostly in order not to fool myself, or at least not to be too open to useless nonsense. And that’s why I finally gave up some sloppy thinking that I’d privileged for a time.
Glen Davidson
Before anyone starts talking about the virgins, go here.
Here’s the shortest from the original “Why I Am An Atheist” campaign in 1903:
Mr. Stone was a 44-year-old railway conductor.
Perfect.
@Rey Fox
Misconceptions 3 through 5 were things I already knew about, 2 was something that never really came up in my mind, and 1 was the one I was asking about.
So I guess I’m doing better than the guys she meets at Atheist Meetups (which is pretty much the same reason I stopped going: the one near me was massively dominated by douchey, libertarian-y men).
Free crackers?
OK, it’s not a good reason, and probably not a good enough reason, but it’s a reason.
Still, succinct.
RahXephon @ #7:
As per your post: ‘Pain in particular only serves a mortal purpose as a damage detection and location system.’
Just a quick thought on pain/pleasure. P & P certainly are our physiological/bio-chemical messenger systems communicating things to our brains about various state of our bodies (as you mentioned, damage, disease, etc.), and the surrounding environment (cold, heat, physical dangers).
It seems that our P & P also ends up serving a social/moral component (unfortunately), as they can be used as a device for social/political control and direction (i.e., threatening persons or populations with pain or death if they don’t do the bidding power, or promising benefits (‘pleasure’) if they act accordingly). It’s interesting to see the scope of its use,…from individuals, corporate control, governmental control, ( and last but not least, RELIGIOUS control).
‘Because there is NO reason TO NOT be IT.’ [emphasis mine, KK]
Diego Rosato
Italy
NO reason TO NOT be ATHEIST = NO reason TO be RELIGIOUS. [KK]
Diego,
PCTTP. Med school lingo. Precise, concise, and to the point.
Well put.
@RahXephon231 #7:
I would guess that a sophistamacated theologian’s response might be that God immediately mends those shattered minds, because he loves us all so very much.
Perfect
Amen!