Religions - Your Opinion

[Jin]

I never expected this from you, Jin. First of all, it is insulting to compare atheism to a belief in a deity. We don't have prayer meetings, after all. Secondly, who are you specifically referring to? Are you suggesting that people that say there is no God and religions are fictional are trolling? It is as much trolling as saying there is a God is trolling an atheist. Unless you are referring to someone else and I missed it.

I'm not comparing atheism to a belief in a deity except that they are both viewpoints. And look around you. Think of all the threads that have been made in ID or in GC. A healthy majority either start or end up being anti-religious, troll fests, which is why, I've always assumed, you often find yourself defending religion, even though you're an atheist, because a stupid argument is a stupid argument. It's not as bad as it used to be now that the BOD are gone, but with the exception of one or two religious nuts that usually go as fast as they come, the flame wars in these threads are started by those who are bitter towards religion. Perhaps it's because they have something to prove, who knows. But no, I wasn't implying that saying "I don't believe in God" is trolling. What I'm saying is that more often than not, you'll see "You believe in God? You're stupid." (albeit with worse grammar) far more often than you'll see, "You don't believe in God? You're stupid."

And I hate to say it, but there is unintentional humor in a young adult following an Eastern religion touting the trendiness of atheism. Nothing is trendier for middle to upper class white kids then Eastern religions. Sure, Taoism isn't as trendy as Buddhism, but you are in the ballpark.

There's no need to beat around the bush. Check the date of that post in which I said I was a Daoist. I wouldn't call myself that these days. It wasn't that I was trying to be trendy so much as a silly attempt to label myself as something. People are stupid and I'm no exception. I genuinely believe in various Daoist principles, but I most certainly jumped the gun there when I called myself a Daoist. Trial and error is better than observation in my opinion.

[Walter Sobchak]

I'm not comparing atheism to a belief in a deity except that they are both viewpoints. And look around you. Think of all the threads that have been made in ID or in GC. A healthy majority either start or end up being anti-religious, troll fests, which is why, I've always assumed, you often find yourself defending religion, even though you're an atheist, because a stupid argument is a stupid argument. It's not as bad as it used to be now that the BOD are gone, but with the exception of one or two religious nuts that usually go as fast as they come, the flame wars in these threads are started by those who are bitter towards religion. Perhaps it's because they have something to prove, who knows. But no, I wasn't implying that saying "I don't believe in God" is trolling. What I'm saying is that more often than not, you'll see "You believe in God? You're stupid." (albeit with worse grammar) far more often than you'll see, "You don't believe in God? You're stupid."

Sure, you are right. We both spent most of our time defending a religion we weren't members of. While no one could accuse me of being a Christian apologist, I am never going to sit here and say that Christianity is the cause of all the worlds problems, like the BoD used to.

I think I need to clarify something about my atheism. While I don't believe in a God, I don't deny the possibility of his or her existence. I know that might sound like nonsense, but it makes sense to me. I don't think my Dolphins are going to win next week, but I know they can. If I really wanted to classify my atheism, I would say its a lack in the belief of deities that are most often peddled around. But if anyone calls that agnosticism, I will kill them.

There's no need to beat around the bush. Check the date of that post in which I said I was a Daoist. I wouldn't call myself that these days. It wasn't that I was trying to be trendy so much as a silly attempt to label myself as something. People are stupid and I'm no exception. I genuinely believe in various Daoist principles, but I most certainly jumped the gun there when I called myself a Daoist. Trial and error is better than observation in my opinion.

Good to have you back, then. A healthy understanding of all religions will lead to an adoption of some principles from each, except for maybe Scientology. For the record, though, I wasn't making the claim that you were being trendy. I respect your intelligence too much for that. I just found it odd that you would say atheism is trendier than agnosticism.

See Jin, this is why I love you. I almost called you a trendwhore, and you respond like an adult. Now I understand fully the points you were trying to make, instead of you using terms that are better fit for Greek theater than an internet message board.