Re: Recumbents dorky - think again

Sheldon Brown wrote:
I wrote:

Balderdash. It is a mistake to try to equate atheism with religion,
since atheism is the _absence_ of religion.

Frank Krygowski replied:

<Sigh> The point is, atheism often has had the very same downsides
that you attribute to [any?] religious belief, and has had them to a
much greater degree. But it doesn't generate the same condemnation
or mockery from you.

The 9/11 murderers committed their crime in the name of Allah.
Monotheistic religion was their motivation.

No, hatred of the West was their motivation. A complete /distortion/ of a
monotheistic religion was their justification (or rationalization).

{SNIP}

IOW, like it or not, there are plenty of atheists who take it as a
matter of faith!

That makes no sense to me.

An atheist has faith (believes) that there is no God. Others (and not just
"religious people") have faith (believe) that there is. Until the
Apocalypse, perhaps, neither side can /prove/ it's right.

{SNIP}

.... ... (lost text) that you saw fit to mock all
religious people with the phrase "silly supernatural myths." Even
those like, say, the Amish, or Buddhists, or pacifist nuns, who have
not the least relationship to the action of a dozen terrorists.

I never meant to imply that all or even a large minority of
monotheists were allied with terrorism. Many of them are very fine
people who do a lot of good, despite their erroneous beliefs.

You left off "in my opinion". Who are you (Universal You) to say their
beliefs are "erroneous" just because you don't share them? Sounds sort of
like the judgmental arrogance usually associated (often wrongly) to the very
people you're dismissing!

However, all of the terrorists I know of that are currently active
claim to be motivated by their monotheistic faith. They believe they
are doing the "will of god."

Again, you're mistaking motivation with tortured justification.

{SNIP}

I believe strongly in religious freedom, wish we had it in the U.S.A.!

Who's forcing you to believe something? Who's preventing you from believing
something?

Realize there is a possibility you are
wrong. Recognize that there will necessarily be debates, but treat
others with respect, not mockery.

I definitely respect others

Doesn't sound like it. You sound judgmental and self-righteous, the very
things you attribute to.... well, you get it.

but that doesn't mean that I have to
respect the mythologies they have been brainwashed into believing.

There you go again. You're blatantly /disrepecting/ others' beliefs or
values even though they have absolutely no effect on you whatsoever (except
in imaginations and/or on blogs). What's wrong with Live and Let Live?!?

Sheldon "Realist" Brown
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
+
I think there's something very evil about faith, where faith means

believing in something in the absence of evidence, and actually

taking pride in believing in something in the absence of evidence.

-Richard Dawkins

+----------------------------------------------------------------------

Bill "not a church-goer but not in the least threatened by those who do" S.

"Atheism is the strange /belief/ (italic added) that the Universe means
nothing and is rushing nowhere" -- not sure who (and it's misquoted anyway).


.

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