Ask an atheist (the second coming)

[Ziggy Stardust]

1. Who is your favorite Atheist? Mine is Douglas Adams.

Good one, certainly amongst my favourites. Mine's Stephen Fry.

2. Were you always an Atheist or did you start to become one at some point? If the latter, details would be cool.

Reluctantly I was always one.

3. Does being an Atheist make you sad that you will cease to exist after you die, or happy because you can do things strict religious people couldn't do, and not have to worry about punishment after you die?

Yeah, I think the 100 year max age sucks. I'd like at least twice that. But the afterlife doesn't appeal to me at all. Eternity is a frightening concept. And I think I'm too old to see the cure for ageing. About the punishment, I'm happy to worry more about punishment when I'm alive. Much more important. Off the things I can do that religious people can't, I can't think of any serious one's. What would I be able to do that religious people can't?

 

[Lillefix]

The fact that Richard Dawkins, Douglas Adams and Stephen Fry are/were Apple fanboys drag them a bit down imo. But they are/were good guys anyway. We can't all be perfect.

 

[caketastydelish]

Good one, certainly amongst my favourites. Mine's Stephen Fry.
Reluctantly I was always one.
Yeah, I think the 100 year max age sucks. I'd like at least twice that. But the afterlife doesn't appeal to me at all. Eternity is a frightening concept. And I think I'm too old to see the cure for ageing. About the punishment, I'm happy to worry more about punishment when I'm alive. Much more important. Off the things I can do that religious people can't, I can't think of any serious one's. What would I be able to do that religious people can't?

Embarrassing example: religious people sometimes believe that you shouldn't have sex before marriage, or that you should never gamble, or drink.

 

[caketastydelish]

The fact that Richard Dawkins, Douglas Adams and Stephen Fry are/were Apple fanboys drag them a bit down imo. But they are/were good guys anyway. We can't all be perfect.

I use a Mac and love it. But none the less, why does it matter? He's famous for being a writer, not because of the computer he used. I believe his first Hitch-hiker book wasn't even written on a Mac, it was written on a type-writer.

I don't know about you, but I couldn't care less about the personal lives of celebrities. When they start talking about "this musician married that actress" I change the channel. If someone is a good musician, I listen to their music and that's it. If someone is good at acting I'll see their movie (supposing the plot is also good) and that's it.

But that's just me.

 

[Winner]

Why European looking? He was from the middle east, he'd look a bit darker than that.

So what? The way he's being portrayed here is totally European-looking. White guy with long brown slightly curly hair, goatee, usually also blue eyes. This stereotype is what I picture in my mind when someone says "Jesus".

The fact that Richard Dawkins, Douglas Adams and Stephen Fry are/were Apple fanboys drag them a bit down imo. But they are/were good guys anyway. We can't all be perfect.

Damn, my opinion of Dawkins and Fry just went down a little...

 

[warpus]

So, now the Abrahamic God is polytheistic?

How does one think the brain can survive after death?

If anything, what does survive after death?

No, but trinity, etc. Who else would you expect to see after you die, but Jesus? Makes sense to me - he was the only part of the trinity to regularly expose himself to mortals. The holy spirit was all invisible and stuff, and the father part of the trinity was all "look at me and die!". So Jesus greeting you in heaven makes sense. He was the part of the trinity that was human for a while, after all.

 

[warpus]

So what? The way he's being portrayed here is totally European-looking. White guy with long brown slightly curly hair, goatee, usually also blue eyes. This stereotype is what I picture in my mind when someone says "Jesus".

Yeah, but if he exists, he won't look like that, he'll look like the guy Yoshua (or whatever his name was) who actually existed and was inspiration for the Jesus legend.

The blue eyes, blonde hair, was a later addition, I believe. Jesus did not actually look like that (if he existed, etc.)

 

[Moss]

What do you believe the intentions were of the writers of the Gospels (I'll go with those specifically) in writing those accounts of Jesus's life?

 

[_random_]

The Bible is to Judaism as the Iliad is to Greek culture. It isn't really historic, but is based on historical things, and has loads of stories.

I don't think the comparison is accurate though. It might apply to Exodus or parts of Genesis, but Kings and Chronicles would be more comparable to Herodotus, and there are many other genres thrown in there.

I always thought the virgins thing was a part of Islam and not Christianity?

Technically, but the image originated with some Imams, not in the Koran, and is only accepted as literal by a small minority of Muslims.
@Atheists:
Who's your favorite Christian saint?

 

[caketastydelish]

I don't think the comparison is accurate though. It might apply to Exodus or parts of Genesis, but Kings and Chronicles would be more comparable to Herodotus, and there are many other genres thrown in there.

Technically, but the image originated with some Imams, not in the Koran, and is only accepted as literal by a small minority of Muslims.
@Atheists:
Who's your favorite Christian saint?

So if you're saying it was made by Islamic Imams, it still would have nothing to do with Christianity. Just because it isn't in the Koran doesn't mean it has to do with Christians.

 

[_random_]

So if you're saying it was made by Islamic Imams, it still would have nothing to do with Christianity. Just because it isn't in the Koran doesn't mean it has to do with Christians.

Of course, but V wasn't asking specifically about the Christian God to begin with. Just thought I'd clarify that point.

 

[Lillefix]

Q from Random: Who's your favorite Christian saint?

Saint George. He's the guy with the dragon and he looks cool(don't know much about him). And Jeanne d'Arc of course. Everything but crying virgins who see Mary in an apple.

edit: Paradigmshifter

 

[ParadigmShifter]

Everyone knows St. Stephen is the best saint. He was the first one to be stoned.

 

[erez87]

1. I don't have a favorite atheists. They are all awesome. But if I'll be forced at gun shot to choose one, probably Richard Dawkins, since I like my Biology rough and in your face.

2. I was a believer most of my life. First I lost faith in religion, and later in god. Scientific Skepticism filled up the lost stuff.

3. Nop. After I die, I won't care about anything, since I won't be, and so I have no fear of that time or sadness towards it. I do wish to live VERY LONG life, but that's a wish that may or may not come true. Makes no difference to me while I'm dead if it didn't “Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo”

 

[erez87]

I don't think the comparison is accurate though. It might apply to Exodus or parts of Genesis, but Kings and Chronicles would be more comparable to Herodotus, and there are many other genres thrown in there.
Who's your favorite Christian saint?

The Torah than. The rest is pointless anyway...

 

[timtofly]

Everyone knows St. Stephen is the best saint. He was the first one to be stoned.

Only because Jesus abstained.

 

[peter grimes]

How does one think the brain can survive after death?

If anything, what does survive after death?

The brain doesn't survive after death. Nor does any other part of our body. However, genes do. As long as you have a living relative on this earth a small part of you continues. And since all humans are related to eachother if you go back far enough, then it could be reasonably argued that part of me will live on as long as there is another living human.

For that matter, every single cell I was born with is already dead. Those cells died within my first post-partum decade. The material that currently makes up my body has been recycled through the biosphere several billion times before it came to rest with me. But it's not really accurate to say 'rest', since it will leave my body in a matter of years.

Being alive is not like a stone sculpture that only changes as the rains erode it, particle by particle, year upon year, until it's a shadow of it's original self. Being alive is a continual process of recycling of molecules and matter. We're a pattern of matter, not a static thing. When we die the pattern ceases to propagate. Nothing more.

When we die the brain ceases to function, the kidneys stop, the lymph nodes stop - it all stops. Nothing more. There is nothing of the living pattern after that final stop.

Unless you consider the genetic legacy we all hold, and some of us pass on. But even the pattern of those of us who don't pass it on continues to propagate in the bodies of those to whom we are related. Which brings me back to my first point. Circle of life, get it? ;-)

 

[_random_]

The Torah than. The rest is pointless anyway...

Most of the Torah is legal rather than narrative though.

 

[MantaRevan]

Never clicked on the previous thread, so just a simple question: what's the purpose of having a "ask an atheist" thread on a forum where 60-80% of members are atheists?

And this is why civilization(or maybe civ fanatics) is so awesome.

 

[warpus]

Who's your favorite Christian saint?

John Paul II (he's a saint already, right?)

He helped fight communism, and while I disagree with some things he's done, I don't really know much about many other saints, so I'm going with Johnny.