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Atheists and Atheism (Little Upsilon)

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Maxwell 'Danger' Powers (Little Upsilon)

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 19:27Link
Hi,

I am wondering how many people on this board/game would consider themselves atheist.

I have seen some other threads (such as 'Islam'), and I also wonder how many people here consider themselves believers in a given religion.

If you feel like it, reply with the name of your religion, or a few words that help to describe your beliefs (or lack thereof).

I, for instance, am a rational materialist atheist.
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The Goldern Khan (Fearless Blue)

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 19:49Link
I am a believer in something, what that something is I dont have a clue. I know I exist now and hope forever in some shape or form. Wishful thinking maybe, but the more science I learn the more wonderful this universe becomes in my eyes. A big bang and evolution just doesn't seem to cut it. Although I believe in evolution I think the dice are loaded.
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Zdeněk Pavlovský (Fearless Blue)

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 19:53Link
I can tell you this much.

Personally I consider atheism as any other theism.

As a side note: someone said that asking man about his God is like asking him about his woman.
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nix001 (Kebir Blue)

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 19:55Link
:)
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Blue Serpent

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 20:42Link
ism's are the virtue's of your ways.
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illuminatus

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 20:43Link
I guess I'd say that I'm agnostic atheist.

No one can prove that there is no God.

However, no one has proven that there is one.

Therefore I assume that there is not one.
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Orbiter (Little Upsilon)

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 21:11Link
Agnostics are the most frustrating, they will believe anything that you can prove to them, but you can not "prove," that god exists, other than the overwhelming wonder of creation... and the "force of the universe," for lack of a better way to express that.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" so to believe in God, you have to believe something that you can't prove, by definition.

Atheists, although they often claim to be logical in their approach, are often as passionate about their beliefs as a religious fanatic. And as such, many Atheists have converted to religion, after many frustrating attempts to disprove God, in general, and the Christian God in particular. C. S. Lewis is prime example of this.

You can probably tell from the above, that i'm of the christian faith. Although, not a very good example of a Christian, i must admit.
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Serpent (White Giant)

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 21:41Link
Many times the idea of 'faith' is misunderstood. What actually is faith? Is it some kind of 'feeling' that you have on a particular thing or idea? To have faith, is it a 'leap'? For example, I own a construction business and in my business it is common for a contractor to hire ppl and not pay them. If you started working for a contractor, no doubt you would be aware of this horrible practice and you would be cautious. You would no doubt wonder if the check you just received for your labor is gonna bounce. So you head to the bank to cash it ASAP. The money is there. Next paycheck, you still are skeptical, so you do the same thing. The money is there. You do this for a number of weeks each time your skepticisim diminishes, because the money is always there. Finally you get to the point where you no longer worry at all about the check being good, in fact you may wait a few days to even cash it. Why? Because you know that after 75-100 c
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Jojo the Hun (Fearless Blue)

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 23:30Link
I, a sim-citizen, am a sim-atheist. I deny that any sim-gods, such as the oft-mentioned "Jozi," exist. If "Jozi" really existed, why would he allow such suffering among us? To what end would he have created seals and attack boats? How could he have been so malicious as to have purposely tantalized us with remote depots? Why create a security council and then give it no real powers? It's all a cosmic joke. These things and more are simply evolutionary dead ends, not the products of a creative intelligence! Who does "Jozi" root for in a war?! It is simply irrational and childish to believe in any "Jozi."

Further, I deny that there is any special significance or divinity to his so-called messenger among us, Mr. Tom Willard. If he had any real channel to "Jozi," wouldn't he use his connection to make his countries the most powerful in every simworld? I say Tom is just another player, who knows a few tric
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Pope Samicus IX (Little Upsilon)

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 23:37Link
Blasphemer!

The Pinktator set us on the path of true rightousness.

The sacrifice of the non-believer to please Jozi our sim-creator.

May he strike you with earthquakes, a poor economy and worker shortages for your lack of faith.

Let us pray.

Oh mighty Tom bringer of the word. We humbly beseech your intercession to protect us from the wrath of the Sim God.


1001 1010 0001 1110 1011 1100 1111 0000 0100
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Jojo the Hun (Fearless Blue)

All worlds
13 Apr 2009 23:49Link
Hah, I'm still here! No earthquakes, no worker shortages. Your little black magic has no effect--just superstition and mumbo jumbo. There is no "jozi." The simworlds were not created, they have always been.
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Parsifal (Kebir Blue)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 00:10Link
i am a Christian existentialist. i believe that God is the "ground of our being"; that which we put our faith. God in a broader sense is "the way things are".
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Pathetic Sheep (White Giant)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 01:41Link
I try to avoid haggling about semantics but a thread titled Atheists and Atheism is asking for it.

Serpent,

What you described is "belief". You believe that the check won't bounce next week. I believe the sun will set in a few minutes. Wikipedia does a good job with the definitions:

"Belief is the psychological state in which an individual holds a proposition or premise to be true."

"Faith is a belief in the truth of or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing, that is characteristically held without proof."

I have often heard American Christians use the terms interchangeably. In some cases that is confusion. Among evangelical and fundamentalist it often seams deliberate. All traditional Christian dogma, Orthodox, Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist, and Anabaptist agrees with Wikipedia. I have heard Americans acknowledge the different meanings and then claim that both are importa
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Parsifal (Kebir Blue)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 01:47Link
good clarifying points PS
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Serpent (White Giant)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 02:21Link
Mr. Pathetic Sheep

Of course you 'believe' that the sun will set. Why? It always has. There is no reason to believe that it wont.

But the definition of faith that you provided by wikipedia proves my point.
"Faith is a belief in the truth of or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing, that is characteristically held without proof."

Apply that to the illustration of the contractor with his employee's. I agree that belief and faith are not the same. But they are closely related. In fact faith most often comes from what you believe. And you believe things because you have knowledge of them. That is my arguement. Faith is not mysterious or magical. It comes from your knowledge and experience.

One religious book defines faith in a good way. It says that "faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities, though not beheld."

To me it woul
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Pope Samicus IX (Kebir Blue)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 02:44Link
Joziism

1. In the beginning Jozi was alone. And it was not good.

2. On the first day Jozi turned on the holy server and there was sim-life. And he was pleased.

3. On the second day it pleased Jozi to create Tom the Messenger to bring forth his word to the sim-world.

Convert to Joziism and repent of your sim-sins.

Death to the nonbelievers!
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Siva . (Little Upsilon)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 02:52Link
"The deity enters into philosophy through the perdurance of which we think at first as the approach to the active nature of the difference between Bring and beings. The difference constitutes the ground plan in the structure of the essence of metaphysics. The perdurance results in and gives Being as the generative ground. This ground itself needs to be properly accounted for by that for which it accounts, that is, by the causation through the supremely original matter - and that is the cause as casua sui. This is the right name for the god of philosophy. Man can neither pray nor sacrifice to this god. Before the causa sui, man can neither fall to his knees in awe nor can he play music and dance before this god.

"The god-less thinking which must abandon the god of philosophy, god as causa sui, is thus perhaps closer to the divine God. Here this means only: god-less thinking is more open to Him than onto-theo-logic would like to admit." <
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Siva . (Little Upsilon)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 02:52Link
Also, there is but One Jozi and Tom is his Messenger.
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jason (Little Upsilon)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 03:02Link
Joziism! Death to the nonbelievers!
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Martock (Little Upsilon)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 03:16Link
I'm an atheist and quite happy with it.
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Jojo the Hun (Fearless Blue)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 04:11Link
Heidegger! Page after page of the same stuff! It's like trying to learn a language by immersion, without a translating dictionary. Now Kierkegaard, a saint. Caputo seems interesting...is it stupid to ask whether he ever answers his question?

Btw you Joziites are just repeating your slogans because you can't prove his existence. He was made up by man to give comfort to the weak minded. There is no sim-good or sim-evil. Sim-behavior just is. Sim-morality is made by man in order to control the strong. The ubersimensch is coming and will relieve us of all this nonsense about "jozi," Tom, and so on.
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Pope Samicus IX (Kebir Blue)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 04:28Link
<!-Quote-!>Quote:

Tom Willard (Little Upsilon)
Friday, March 6, 2009 - 09:59 am Click here to edit this post We received a payment into our PO box recently and it does not include an account email address.<!-/Quote-!>



Behold the word.

Include your email address in a cash payment.

We thank Tom the Messenger for bringing us this pearl of wisdom.
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Parsifal (Kebir Blue)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 04:28Link
"It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and gazing up at the dark sky spangled with it's signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still."

Albert Camus--The Stranger

so, how does one embrace the benign indifference of the universe? How does one use their alloted time on this earth? Does one deny, live the superficial temporal life, grab hold of dogmas and creeds, or struggle to find significance in something lasting and transcendent? for some of us it's embracing the unknown and unknowable as an affirmation of both our courage to be, as well as our frailty but also the mystery of creation and all its possible realities. there are many ways that we do this--through loving relationships, through rea
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Siva . (Little Upsilon)

All worlds
14 Apr 2009 04:38Link
Meursault is an existential failure. He never crosses the either/or.