The Dangers of Militant Atheism (and Christianity). Are there any?

I am an agnostic who once believed in God. Today, I am sitting in the "I don't know" seat, and am quite happy about it. I have more peace today than I ever have. One thing I have struggled with is why Christians think they know for certain that there is a God and why atheists know for certain that there isn't. I found this pretty good article that can be applied to both sides. I'd like to hear some thoughts about it. Thanks!



http://www.pacoahlgren.com/blog/the-dangers-of-militant-atheism/

 

Agostics and skeptics are some of the most highly ethical and loving people on earth.

It was Israeli atheists, agnostics and skeptics who led in supporting Operation Solomon and Operation Moses where the Falasha Jews of Ethiopia were air lifted to Israel.

To see Caucasians grabbing people with black skin to make them citizens of their country....... to some degree restores faith in there being hope for humanity!

Agnostics seem to do a better job of applying the teachings of Rabbi Jesus/ Yeshua as well as Rabbi Nachman:
...........

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Nachman_of_Breslov

 

Obligatory: atheism isn't the knowledge that a god doesn't exist. It's the lack of belief in a god. You can be both agnostic and an atheist, just like you can be agnostic and a theist. The percentage of atheists who say that gods definitely do not exist is very small.

 

My reaction to the thread title is that there may be dangers in most anything militant, outside of libertarianism - small L of course. But then as with any action the dangers or benefits would depend on intent, and their reuslts.

At this point in my spirituality I'm not concerned with one's atheism or christianity, or other state of mind. For each, that being their plight to bear. But then those are human thoughts and actions, a point in the timeline of any given individual.

Absent any victimization, as long as there are lessons to be learned and karma justified it should result in a growth experience.

 

Good point!!!!

Even Richard Dawkins Ph. D. made it clear that he cannot rule out the possibility of life evolving on other planets..... developing advanced technology.... travelling to earth and assisting in evolution!

In a sense... the definition of god/ God needs to be put in terms of eleven or 26 higher dimensions of space- time as explained by String Theory!

 

Militant obligatory atheism is dogma.

I am reminded of the words of Jacob Bronowski

http://behindthehedge.wordpress.com...l-view-of-jacob-bronowskis-the-ascent-of-man/

 

Militant atheism exists where militant theism can be found.
It always takes two to tango.

Reason says that some people need to believe and some other people do not , for as long as this remains personal who cares?
If you bring your theism in public life i will bring my atheism and there will be conflict , if we both keep our existential beliefs at home the world will be a better place for all.

 

Wow!!!!!!!!!

This is... in my opinion anyway.... one of the most well thought out replies that I have ever read on any discussion forum but........

..... I am convinced that Ms. Hillary Clinton is my great, great, great, great granddaughter from one or more of my probable past lives.... and I am deeply offended by your statement that the Democratic Party would be scratching bottom to choose her as their candidate for the office of POTUS!

 

The first part of your response is so true!!!

Yes... militant theism would tend to breed militant atheism!

I do believe though that there is a way to address our existential beliefs in a form that can make the world a better place.........… an understanding of the case that can be presented for universal salvation in some form....... helps us to do this.....

...

http://www.near-death.com/andreason.html#a04h

 

Thank you for clarifying. I have come across atheists that argue passionately that God does not exist. However, just like all Christians are not alike, not all atheists are alike.

 

I feel that it becomes personal when people try to convert others who don't believe what they believe. This act of conversion becomes dangerous when the non-believer is made to feel guilty or shameful for what they believe or don't believe. I grew up thinking that if I didn't believe in Jesus Christ, I would go to hell, especially since I wasn't ignorant to his teachings. The idea of burning in hell terrified me to no end. Honestly, looking back, I would say that the ideas taught are borderline psychologically abusive. I still deal with the fear today of questioning that God exists.

 

I personally took it as a compliment when one atheist asserted that my version of a Creator evolving...… and learning over infinite time in the past....... could in fact be classified as a branch of "atheism!" I guess this is because a God/Creator who learns and gets better at creating............… does not fit the traditional idea of God!!??


http://www.christianforums.com/t7648510/

Are you open to idea of the Creator learning, experimenting and in a way evolving?

We humans can learn and we are made in the image of God so.... 4 .............13.79%

God absolutely knew everything from eternity in the past and had zero need to learn.! 16 ..............55.17%

This is a new idea to me but is an improvement over extreme skepticism and atheism! 2 ..............6.90%

It is worthwhile to consider this theory if it can result in our kids being taught ID. ........ 3.45%

This idea is profoundly offensive to me! This is a blasphemy! 2......... 6.90%

This would seem to fit with String Theory, The Anthropic Principle and Cyclic Model of the Universe. 4 ...............................................................................13.79%

Voters: 29. You have already voted on this poll

 

I can't honestly say that I've ever met a "militant atheist" out here in the real world. Have you?

How many militant atheist do you know personally?

 

Thanx for the Wow!!!!!!

As for scraping the bottom... or top, 'At this point, what difference does it make?' It would be the visible bottom but almost impossible to see what lays below.

Sorry to hear about your being offended but per my 'Wowed' post above, your interpretation is your human reaction to your reality. I'm neither perp nor victim. By my view, unfortunately politics in the U.S. today is in a very sad state, to wit, one of my previous post for which you had some appreciation, regarding a proliferation of governments on the north American continent.

 

Wait a minute... So, you stated that God gets better at learning and creating. My understanding is that God is all-knowing and PERFECT. So, why would he/she/it need to evolve? And why would this being need to get better at anything? This is where it gets confusing. Nobody knows what's true. People who believe in God have a tendency to shift their beliefs based on what feels good to them or what is convenient. I actually heard someone say that they believed in a judging God and now their God is loving. It sounds to me like it's all in our imaginations. This is where I start to fade out...

 

Christians became confused about what Jesus has told them.

As The Christ, he personified Truth.
Truth IS the "mediator" into the Reality sane men must adjust.
Living in Reality is the savior of mankind. i

Truth, then, grants to men the knowledge about adopting to the environment and surviving forever as a species.

 

No wonder you dropped out.

God isn't a person.
He is Reality, itself,
His son is born in the wake of His unfolding and called Truth.

Truth exists as a history of Reality, which it images.
Truth is never wrong, and knows what has happened.

 

How do you know God is Reality? Where is the evidence? Do you think this Reality is objective or subjective? And why did you just refer to this thing in the possessive form of he -- implicating that this REALITY is in male form? And which God is the REAL God? Which religion is correct? Is it the God of Abraham? Thor? Again...this is where I fade...

 

I'm an athiest and it isn't about being sure that god doesn't exist but instead about being sure that it doesn't matter and of being absolutely sure that that all religions are the invention of man, We can be certain that religion is the invention of man as the evolution of religion can be traced from one to the next to the next regardless of virtually any religion we seek to investigate.

.

 

Agreed! Humans have been inventing religions forever..

In my research, I read that thousands of years ago, humans would seek answers to explain what was happening (example: thunder). Supposedly, this is where the idea of God was created to explain the "phenomenons" that were happening around them. Please correct me if this is wrong because I would really like to know the answer!

 

We found out that God = Reality when His son and image appeared as "Truth," in 32AD.

As our savior Christ told us that he was "The Truth,"... (John 14:6 "I am the Truth,... and the way and the life")

 

I still find it interestiong that some people still believe the writings of a rather insignificant Jewish cult, one of many at the time, from over 2,000 year ago that simply had a damn good marketing plan invented at some point after the death of the cult leader.

All we need remember that is if the earlier followers of Jesus had not expanded the religious cult to include the Romans (i.e. non-Jews) after the "death of Jesus" then Christianity would have disappeared like the other similar Jewish cults of the time. It was a brilliant marketing move by the early Christians and there is no disputing that simple fact.

 

Yes, that is all true.
Religion has managed to carry the Bible forward so men would consider religion and use that textbook.
But they all made up what they thought the Bible was saying, and called it their religion.

But God for man is Truth, because truth saves us from the dangers inherent in The Reality to which we must adapt or become extinct.

On the other hand, Truth existed long before Abraham was born, and has been available since the Big Bang beginning.

 

You are aware of the fact that Jesus never wrote down anything (apparently) and that we're not even sure who the actual authors are of the New Testament as people often used the names of others in writing letters to improve the "credibility" of the letters and not a single letter that became a part of the New Testament is claimed to have been from 32 AD?

Just curious about it because we also know that the Books of Moses weren't written by Moses but instead by someone else. The fact is that we really don't know who any of the authors were related to any of the Books of the Bible.

 

Yes,... true again.

Einstein was another great Jewish man, too.

The Jewish belief, that Reality is the almighty God men need bow down to makes sense.
By worshipping Truth as the mediator between his mind and the facts-of-life also makes sense when understood today,... even outside of religion.