Dawkins can be a dick about some things ("mild rape", etc), but I've only ever seen him be courteous to his opponents even in the face of overwhelming stupidity. He's blunt, sure, but he's never rude.

I think if there was a well funded organisation that was dedicated to promoting complete and utter bullshit that was contrary to my life's work, I would probably have less patience with religious nutter than Dawkins.

Besides, we NEED an attack dog. Just because he does an unpleasant job doesn't mean the job doesn't need doing. He's responsible for raising the visibility of atheism globally and that can only be a good thing IMO.

Because it provides far more than atheism. Not to you, obviously.

People go to look for answers and only religion can answer all of the really big questions.

Atheism provides no answers, only more questions.

But every path can have value, so stick with yours and we'll agree not to bother one another.

Because you didn't take the time to read, allow me to inform you, the video and following discussion had absolutely nothing to do with atheism.

Yep, I thought that might be the video. If I remember, he identifies as an agnostic, and then goes on to describe his views, which conform to what I would call weak atheism ("don't believe there is a god, would be nice if there was").

Either way, it has nothing to do with the completely valid points he makes in this video.

This is probably the video @billpayer is referring to, and he has a point, not that it makes the points made in this video any less true.

http://videosift.com/video/David-Mitchell-on-Atheism

problem is, you ask every religion if they think they are "an interpretation" and they would angrily tell you NO, WE ARE TELLING YOU THE TRUTH!!

so you've got a gajillion different "interpretations" that mostly conflict and all declare themselves to be "THE TRUTH!"

And you wonder why people are so angry, all the theists have their own personal interpretation of a deity that conflicts with everyone else's interpretation which then incites conflict.

gee, wonder why atheism and agnosticism have grown so sharply in recent years. People are tired of the bullshit of imaginary sky deities that grant wishes and favor one political party over another.

if you can't prove that these claims of deities then you've got nothing and it's far better to rely on things that can be demonstrated in reality than some ancient bronze-age text(s).

Atheism 2.0 - TED talk by Alain de Botton has been added as a related post - related requested by Trancecoach on that post.

all this time and the idiot still doesn't understand the basic concept of what atheism is. Lantern and Bob are Dumb and Dumber


...or top and bottom...whatever works but I'm pretty sure bob is the catcher.

#1 request for next version of VideoSift. Quotes made by people I've ignored should be ignored too.

I don't see why I should be forced to read the inane ramblings of a religious nutcase demagogue since he apparently hasn't a objective cell in his brain and refuses to read anything out side of his narrow, myopic worldview.

Personally, I don't think Shinyblurry believes a damn thing he says. He's just here to troll people and make them angry. Just like the lame, disgusting trolls everywhere else. It's sad really. He makes a strong case for atheism.

God uses the weak things of this world to shame the strong. The accolades of the world do not enhance or diminish the presentation of the truth. God will use it because He uses all things for those good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

I'm still waiting for your reply here:

http://videosift.com/video/The-Incoherence-of-Atheism#comment-1720373

Atheism is not the reverse of theism....it is the lack of theism. It's not a belief in no god, it's a lack of belief in a god. I understand that's a difficult concept for some.
Agnosticism is lack of certainty (or admission that certitude is impossible) in what you believe, Gnosticism is absolute certitude in your (unknowable)belief.
Personal 'revelation' by god is not real evidence and is far from proof, even for the one receiving the 'personal revelation'.
Why does the 'all powerful, benevolent god' hate amputees? Not once in history has anyone ever had an arm re-grow thanks to their belief in/worship of god (or any other reason). I've never heard a serious answer to that question.

I wasn't raised in a religious home so I never had that aspect in my life of seeking comfort from the idea of God. I believed that we were products of random chance, although the real love and connection I felt to people and this reality did not feel that way. Essentially, though, I had resigned myself to the fact of my future death, and that eventually no one would ever remember or care that I even existed.

I was an agnostic towards the idea of God at that point. Atheism to me was the other extreme from theism, and I believed that the rational standpoint was agnosticism. If you did not have equal skepticism towards either side, I felt you were being intellectually dishonest. You could sum it up in a simple statement, that everything, including the fact that anything exists at all, is equally unlikely. To try to get that fact to point towards or away from a God in my opinion just showed bias.

I changed my mind when I began to have supernatural experiences. This didn't make me a theist, but it did open my eyes to the idea that there was a spiritual reality. It was in pursuing that spirituality that I received revelation that an all powerful, benevolent God does exist. After this, I became a Christian and was born again, and transformed into a new person.

So, what I would say is, there is no evidence of God beyond personal revelation by God. This is by design because God requires us to seek Him by faith. He is seeking those who will worship Him in Spirit and in truth. If you want to know whether there is a God or not, you must seek Him with all of your heart. Seek Him while it is still called today, because today is the day of salvation.

Jeremiah 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

I think you are incorrect in your assumption about "science". True scientists admit that they KNOW nothing, but have overwhelming evidence for one hypothesis or another. The claim that there "is no god" is not scientific. The claim that all evidence points towards the conclusion that there is no god is scientific. The claim that there is no need for god in order to explain the universe is also scientific.
Science does not "attack" the unknown, it investigates hypotheses and attempts to verify or prove them wrong. (investigation of the veracity of a religion is considered an attack by believers, but it isn't one) So far every hypothesis arguing for the existence of god(s) has proven false, and many hypotheses for alternative explanations that don't require god(s) have proven correct. Again, when the score is 1000000-0, you can call the game in my opinion...but to be 100% honest you have to leave open the tiny .00000000000000.......000001% possibility that the other team scores 1000001 points after you leave (but that kind of incredible claim requires credible incontrovertible proof, not just the teams claim it happened).
As pointed out above, atheism and agnosticism are answers to two different questions. If you believe in god(s) you are a theist, if you don't you are atheist. If you don't KNOW there is/are god(s) you are agnostic, if you do KNOW there is/are god(s) you are gnostic (the only one I think is outright wrong, because it's impossible to KNOW the unknowable, so all gnostics are dishonest, at least with themselves and more often with all others). It's about a distinction between beliefs and knowledge.

It reminds me of a great quote from my dad..."Truth is an idea in the mind of a crazy person....but you don't need to know the 'truth' in order to not lie."

here's the thing that convinced me that I wasn't an agnostic anymore.

I am not opposed to the idea of a creator.

I *am* opposed to every single depiction of a creator that humanity has come up with so far. petty, fear-based, eternal punishment for finite crimes, constant inconsistencies in their rules, ok with slavery, and absolutely shitty morals.

Sure..individual people have a personal vision of a much more...humane and moral creator that represents a much better view of a creator. But those ideas don't get any real traction in the public scene. It's always the hateful creator, the vengeful creator, The creator that somehow plays favorites and cures cancer and other diseases but only for certain people, but has never once given an amputee their limb back. the creator that picks the winners of football teams, the creator that somehow hates how you think and behave even though he created you that way. The creator that somehow sides with one political party and not the other.

I don't know if there is a creator, and when it comes right down to it, no one does either. But what I do know is that there is absolutely no evidence of ANY religions' creator(s) And even if there were, many, if not all of these creators have created rules systems that are just demonstrably...bad or so full of holes.

So you could say I am agnostic, but that, at least to me, implies that both views have an equal footing...that somehow there is evidence for both, but you just haven't decided which is stronger.

Theists have made claims but have not provided any good evidence to support those claims. Atheism is not declaring that there is no creator, just that the theists haven't made their case. So it's pretty clear that even if you don't know if there is a creator, if you call bullshit on religion, you're an atheist, not an agnostic. Religion and whether or not a creator exists are TWO SEPARATE THINGS.

It just comes down to burden of proof and the common misconception that atheism is the declaration that there is no creator. You can't prove a negative on this scale Believing that there is absolutely no creator is anti-theism, not atheism.

OH OH, may I chime in??!!

I can't stand the arrogant asshole atheists most of all....Especially the ones who feel every three or four days l compelled to embed some tired spiel about atheism on a video aggregate as a platform for yet another thread on the subject of god/no-god, in order to pontificate and otherwise, show their ASS!

fucking assholes if ya really wanna know what their atheism has done for them....You simply shouldn't give children loaded guns when all they're gonna do is shove 'em up their own asses.

Assholes.
You Know Who You Are, and You Love Yourselves For It.