Difference between revisions of "Atheism"

Revision as of 22:30, August 17, 2007

Atheism is for smart people who know that dinosaurs existed and not for f-ing retards who think that people can walk on water and turn H2O into wine.

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+Atheism is for smart people who know that dinosaurs existed and not for f-ing retards who think that people can walk on water and turn H2O into wine.
-'''Atheism''', as defined by the ''Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy'' and the ''Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy'', is the denial of the existence of any [[God]].<ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/</ref><ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1998</ref>
-== Biblical Statements Regarding Atheism ==
-[[Image:134t.gif|thumb|150px|left|The psalmist [[David]] wrote: "The fool has said in his heart, "There is no God."]]
-The writers of the Bible considered the existence of God to be self-evident and [[Moses]] simply wrote: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." ([[Genesis]] 1:1). <ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/Home/Area/AnswersBook/existence1.asp</ref>
-Accordingly, the psalmist [[David]] wrote the following:
-"The fool has said in his heart, 'There is no God.'" - [[Psalm]] 14:1 ([[King James Bible|KJV]])
-The psalmist David also stated that "The The heavens declare the glory of God..." - Psalm 19:1
-The Apostle Paul wrote to the Romans that the creation testifies to the existence of God when he wrote the following:
-"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse..." - Romans 1:20 (KJV)
-==Criticism==
-===Atheism is Illogical===
-Proponents of atheism, most notably atheist debaters,  have been attempting to dilute the definition of atheism to a mere lack of belief there is a God or gods.<ref>http://www.thedivineconspiracy.org/athart3.htm</ref> This definition, however, is not in accordance with how encyclopedias of philosophy define atheism which state that atheism is a denial of the existence of God or gods.<ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/atheism-agnosticism/</ref><ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1998</ref>
-One of the reasons why some proponents of atheism have been attempting to dilute the definition of the term atheism is to shift the burden of proof since atheism is inherently a illogical position.
-[[Image:Image-S070812.jpg|thumb|175px|right|[[D. James Kennedy]]]]
-Dr. [[D. James Kennedy]] wrote the following regarding the illogicalness of atheism:
-{{cquote|Atheism is what is called a "[[universal negative]]." One of the laws of logic is that you can't prove a universal negative....You would have to examine every part of the universe....
-By the way, you would have to be very, very fast because, who knows, this God, these angels....may be very, very fast, and just after you get somewhere, they may have left for another part of the universe.
-This means that you would have to be [[omnipresent]]. You would also have to know everything about every part of the universe, so you would be [[omniscient]]. Then, just at the point when you proved that there was no God, you would also have proven that you were one.<ref>http://www.kennedycommentary.org/default.asp?pg=topicmessage&id=1419</ref>}}
-Atheists would respond to this line of argument by simply pointing out that in the debate over whether something does or does not exist, in the absence of any scientific proof one way or the other, the burden of proof would lie with the person arguing for existence. Simply claiming that you know god exists carries no weight--in the words of founding father and Deist Thomas Paine, writing in the ''Age of Reason'', “ ... it is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and consequently they are not obliged to believe it.”
-===Tenuousness of Atheism===
-[[Image:Sartre1.gif|thumb|150px|right|[[Jean-Paul Sartre]]]]
-Atheism seems to be very tenuous in some of its more notable adherents. For example, [[Jean-Paul Sartre]] was one of the leading atheist of the 20th Century.  Yet Jean-Paul Sartre made this candid confession:
-{{cquote|As for me, I don’t see myself as so much dust that has appeared in the world but as a being that was expected, prefigured, called forth. In short, as a being that could, it seems, come only from a creator; and this idea of a creating hand that created me refers me back to God. Naturally this is not a clear, exact idea that I set in motion every time I think of myself. It contradicts many of my other ideas; but it is there, floating vaguely. And when I think of myself I often think rather in this way, for wont of being able to think otherwise.<ref>http://www.johnankerberg.org/Articles/apologetics/AP0702W4.htm</ref>}}
-[[Image:darwin.jpg|thumb|150px|left|[[Charles Darwin]]]]
-[[Charles Darwin]] wrote in his private notebooks that he was a [[materialism|materialist]] which is a type of atheist.<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1877</ref><ref>American Scientist May 1977:323</ref>  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states the following:
-{{cquote|In 1885, the Duke of Argyll recounted a conversation he had had with Charles Darwin the year before Darwin's death:
-In the course of that conversation I said to Mr. Darwin, with reference to some of his own remarkable works on the Fertilisation of [[Orchid]]s, and upon The [[Earthworm]]s, and various other observations he made of the wonderful contrivances for certain purposes in nature—I said it was impossible to look at these without seeing that they were the effect and the expression of Mind. I shall never forget Mr. Darwin's answer. He looked at me very hard and said, “Well, that often comes over me with overwhelming force; but at other times,” and he shook his head vaguely, adding, “it seems to go away.”(Argyll 1885, 244] <ref>http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/teleological-arguments/notes.html</ref>}}
-===Atheists in America Are Generally Less Charitable===
-[[Image:112006top.jpg|thumb|Atheists in America generally give significantly less to charity than [[theism|theist]] Americans.]]
-The [[Barna Group]] found the following in regards to atheist population in America and charitable giving:
-{{cquote|The typical no-faith American donated just $200 in 2006, which is more than seven times less than the amount contributed by the prototypical active-faith adult ($1500). Even when church-based giving is subtracted from the equation, active-faith adults donated twice as many dollars last year as did atheists and agnostics. In fact, while just 7% of active-faith adults failed to contribute any personal funds in 2006, that compares with 22% among the no-faith adults.<ref>http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdateNarrow&BarnaUpdateID=272</ref>}}
-In 2003, Arthur C. Brooks wrote in ''Policy Review'' the following:
-{{cquote|The differences in charity between secular and religious people are dramatic. Religious people are 25 percentage points more likely than secularists to donate money (91 percent to 66 percent) and 23 points more likely to volunteer time (67 percent to 44 percent). And, consistent with the findings of other writers, these data show that practicing a religion is more important than the actual religion itself in predicting charitable behavior. For example, among those who attend worship services regularly, 92 percent of Protestants give charitably, compared with 91 percent of Catholics, 91 percent of Jews, and 89 percent from other religions.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3647/is_200310/ai_n9340592/pg_2 Policy Review,  Oct-Dec 2003  by Brooks, Arthur C]</ref>}}
-ABC News reported the following:
-{{cquote|...the single biggest predictor of whether someone will be charitable is their religious participation.
-Religious people are more likely to give to charity, and when they give, they give more money: four times as much. And Arthur Brooks told me that giving goes beyond their own religious organization:
-"Actually, the truth is that they're giving to more than their churches," he says. "The religious Americans are more likely to give to every kind of cause and charity, including explicitly non-religious charities."<ref>http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Story?id=2682730&page=2</ref>}}
-===Atheism and Immoral Views===
-The Barna Group found that atheists/agnostics in America were more likely than theists in America to look upon the following behaviors as morally acceptable: illegal drug use; getting drunk; having a sexual relationship with someone of the opposite sex to whom you are not married; having an [[abortion]]; living with someone of the opposite sex without being married; using profanity; gambling;  looking at pictures of nudity or explicit sexual behavior; and engaging in [[homosexuality]]/[[bisexuality]].<ref>http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=152</ref>
-===Atheism and the Existence of Evil===
-Atheists state that the existence of evil is a problem for [[theism]] which holds to a good and powerful God.<ref>http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/evil.html</ref> [[Theodicy]] is the branch of study in theology and philosophy that defends the goodness of God despite the existence of evil.<ref>http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861719540/theodicy.html</ref> In traditional Christianity and Judaism the book of Job is used to explain the existence of evil.<ref>http://apologetics.com/default.jsp?bodycontent=/articles/doctrinal_apologetics/bowman-job.html</ref>  In recent times [[Christian apologetics|Christian apologists]] often cite [[Alvin Plantinga]]'s free will defense in regards to the existence of evil. <ref>http://www.xenos.org/essays/evilpo.htm</ref><ref>http://www3.baylor.edu/~Scott_Moore/handouts/free_will_defense.html</ref> The work of [[St. Augustine]] is also cited in regards to theodicy. <ref>http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5124</ref>
-===Atheism and Communism ===
-[[Karl Marx]] coined the saying "[Religion] is the opium of the people".<ref>http://www3.baylor.edu/~Scott_Moore/texts/Marx_Opium.html</ref>  Karl Marx also wrote: "Communism begins from the outset (Owen) with atheism; but atheism is at first far from being communism; indeed, that atheism is still mostly an abstraction."<ref>http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1844/manuscripts/comm.htm</ref>
-[[Vladimir Lenin]] similarly wrote: "A Marxist must be a materialist, i. e., an enemy of religion, but a dialectical materialist, i. e., one who treats the struggle against religion not in an abstract way, not on the basis of remote, purely theoretical, never varying preaching, but in a concrete way, on the basis of the class struggle which is going on in practice and is educating the masses more and better than anything else could."<ref>http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1909/may/13.htm</ref>
-===Atheism and Questions of Origins ===
-Atheism provides no useful input in regards to origins. [[Creationism|Creationist]] scientists state that the [[First Law of Thermodynamics|first law of thermodynamics]] and the [[Second Law of Thermodynamics|second law of thermodynamics]] argue against an eternal universe or a universe created by natural processes and argue for a universe created by [[God]]. <ref>http://godevidences.net/space/lawsofscience.php</ref> <ref>http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2329</ref> <ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/AstroPhysicalSciences14.html</ref> A majority of the most prominent and vocal defenders of the naturalistic evolutionary position since [[World War II]] have been atheists.<ref>Dr. [[Don Batten]], [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/737/ A ''Who’s Who'' of evolutionists] ''Creation'' 20(1):32
-December 1997.</ref><ref>[[Jonathan Sarfati]], Ph.D.,F.M., [http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3830 ''Refuting Evolution'', Chapter 1, Facts and Bias]</ref> [[Creationism|Creationist]] scientists also assert the [[theory of evolution]] is an inadequate explanation for the variety of life forms on earth.  <ref>http://www.icr.org/home/resources/resources_tracts_scientificcaseagainstevolution/</ref>
-== Atheist Population as a Percentage of Various Countries Populations==
-Specific research on atheists conducted in 2006 [http://www.harrisinteractive.com/news/allnewsbydate.asp?NewsID=1131 suggests] that the true proportion of atheists is 4% in the United States, 17% in Great Britain and 32% in France. In the United States, however, another 14% of the respondents identified themselves as agnostic indicating that 18% of the U.S. population do not ascribe to theistic views.<ref>In addition, 6% declined to say; and 3% indicated they were unsure of their beliefs.</ref>
-== American Population's View of Atheists ==
-Research in the American Sociological Review finds that atheists are the group that Americans least relate to for shared vision or want to have marry into their family.
-<ref>Edgell, Gerteis & Hartmann 2006</ref>
-{| class="wikitable"
-|-
-!
-! This Group Does Not At All Agree with My Vision of American Society:
-! I Would Disapprove if My Child Wanted to Marry a Member of This Group:
-|-
-| Atheist
-| 39.6%
-| 47.6%
-|-
-| Muslim
-| 26.3%
-| 33.5%
-|-
-| Homosexual
-| 22.6%
-| NA
-|-
-|Conservative Christian
-| 13.5%
-| 6.9%
-|-
-| Recent Immigrant
-| 12.5%
-| Not Asked
-|-
-| Hispanic
-| 7.6%
-| 18.5%
-|-
-| Jew
-| 7.4%
-| 11.8%
-|-
-| Asian American
-| 7.0%
-| 18.5%
-|-
-|African American
-| 4.6%
-| 27.2%
-|-
-| White American
-| 2.2%
-| 2.3%
-|}
-== Well Known Atheists ==
-Well-known atheists include Kurt Vonnegut, Isaac Asimov, [[Joseph Stalin]], [[Bertrand Russell]], [[Ayn Rand]], [[Richard Dawkins]], [[Douglas Adams]], [[Ernest Hemingway]], and [[David Hume]].
-==External Links==
-*[http://creationwiki.org/Decline_of_atheism Decline of Atheism -CreationWiki]
-*[http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_225_report_en.pdf European Commission report on Social values, Science and Technology, includes info on Religious beliefs]
-== Notes ==
-<small><references/></small>
-[[Category:Religion]]
-[[Category:Philosophy]]

Difference between revisions of "Atheism"

Revision as of 22:30, August 17, 2007

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