My, my seems theists still have a hard time discarding the notion that atheists are basically immoral critters. Why should I, an atheist, fear any consequences in the next life?
By the way Victor your link above doesn't work. I'm sorry, but I'm too tired right now [you know, from all those immoral activities I felt free to engage in today becasue I can take comfort in no consequenses in the after live :-) ] to try and put in a correct link.
No more immoral than anyone else, to be sure. The point of all this is to cancel the motivational arguments on all sides, and to argue that we can believe people who say that the don't want there to be a God.
I'm having a devilish time with the linkmaker on blogger.
At least you should get the right motiviations. I find it odd that theists assume that most atheists don't believe in God because they are afraid they may be punished for their sins in the afterlife or that they don't want there to be a God. I know you keep quoting from this one atheistic philosopher (his name escapes me at the moment) something to the effect that he wishes there were no God, but I think he's kind of strange to take that attitude.
Now it is true that I wish certain Gods didn't exist, like Mars the God of War or Zeus the Philnaderer or the Christian God. . But that is not the same as wishing there were no God.
The only comfort that I can personally attest to that I derive from my atheism is the conviction that my atheistic belief corresponds best to the evidence and experiences I've gathered in my lifetime. I would have to be intellectually dishonest to believe in a god at this point in my life.
Also, I do recognize that we all are fallible and do at times stray off whatever moral pathes we each try to walk down, but to assume one doesn't believe in a god because they want to shirk any possible consequences in the afterlife is a rather offensive charge. There probably are a few atheists who may feel something like that, but I think you do your efforts to keep the dialogue open between theists and atheists much harm by applying that motive to most atheists.
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"The same is true of atheistic belief. It is both comforting (because one need not fear any consequences of one’s actions beyond this life)..."
My, my seems theists still have a hard time discarding the notion that atheists are basically immoral critters. Why should I, an atheist, fear any consequences in the next life?
By the way Victor your link above doesn't work. I'm sorry, but I'm too tired right now [you know, from all those immoral activities I felt free to engage in today becasue I can take comfort in no consequenses in the after live :-) ] to try and put in a correct link.
fixed here
fixed here
No more immoral than anyone else, to be sure. The point of all this is to cancel the motivational arguments on all sides, and to argue that we can believe people who say that the don't want there to be a God.
I'm having a devilish time with the linkmaker on blogger.
At least you should get the right motiviations. I find it odd that theists assume that most atheists don't believe in God because they are afraid they may be punished for their sins in the afterlife or that they don't want there to be a God. I know you keep quoting from this one atheistic philosopher (his name escapes me at the moment) something to the effect that he wishes there were no God, but I think he's kind of strange to take that attitude.
Now it is true that I wish certain Gods didn't exist, like Mars the God of War or Zeus the Philnaderer or the Christian God. .
But that is not the same as wishing there were no God.
The only comfort that I can personally attest to that I derive from my atheism is the conviction that my atheistic belief corresponds best to the evidence and experiences I've gathered in my lifetime. I would have to be intellectually dishonest to believe in a god at this point in my life.
Also, I do recognize that we all are fallible and do at times stray off whatever moral pathes we each try to walk down, but to assume one doesn't believe in a god because they want to shirk any possible consequences in the afterlife is a rather offensive charge. There probably are a few atheists who may feel something like that, but I think you do your efforts to keep the dialogue open between theists and atheists much harm by applying that motive to most atheists.
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