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Is Atheism a religion? If not, what is?



The old suicide argument. Here is the flaw in your thinking. You treat infinity like it is a concrete thing. It is not. It is a concept. The finite is a tangible thing. Infinity is just a concept. We could sit around getting high and philosophize that our universe is just a speck under the fingernail of a bigger organism. That organism could live without that speck. Oh well, life is pointless, I'll just kill myself.

Why does there have to be a higher purpose for our existence? Is your life so horrible that you want to die? If the finite life is pointless, and the infinite afterlife is so much greater, shouldn't it be the theists that want to kill themselves?

What if our purpose on earth is really lame. Say the planet earth just wanted plastic but couldn't produce it itself. What if our purpose is to provide the planet with plastic?:shock:


Talk about "the tree falling in the forrest and no one being there to hear it" run amok.
 
RealmOfThePureForms said:
Anyone who claims there is nothing after this life is doing the exact definition of Nihilism. They are denying all existence. Whether you want to admit this or not, it is true.
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It's not the least bit true. I can fully accept that I have a very finite existence and that the world and the universe will happily go on without me once I am dead.

I accept that what I percieve exists, and I accept that it has it's existence independent of my perception.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
I wrote a philosophical paper to challenge one of my atheist professors about nothingness and neither he or any of his colleagues could refute what I said.
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That doesn't say much for your professor, then.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
For an atheist that truly believes there is no after life of any kind, there is no purpose to being here.
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Not at all. The only purpose of life is to live.

This is just anthropocentrism. A need to feel that you have an important place in the universe, that the universe has a special purpose just for you.

Personally, I view it as extreme arrogance. You think that you are so special that there must be a special reason for you to exist.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
For those people, death is eternal and life is finite. Because the finite is followed by the infinite, then they never existed to begin with.
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Which makes the existence of the here and now all the more precious.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
Infinite non-existence is greater than finite existence. No atheist that truly believes this finite life is the only existence would be here right now. No, instead, they would have committed suicide the very moment they truly believed this.
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Quite the reverse. With the knowledge that this is all that there is, why would you think that someone would want to end it any sooner than necessary? It can give an even greater impetus to strive for a long life.


No, it doesn't. Just because something ends, that does not mean that it never existed. I have no problem with the knowledge that when my life ends, it is totally over.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
If you only live for a finite amount of time, and it is followed by an infinite amount of non-existence, you truly never existed at all.
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Not true. Like I said, I realize that existence is not predicated on perception. Existence is independent of it.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
Because no matter how many children you have, or how big of an impact you have on world history, one day, this finite universe will collapse. One day everything in this universe will be gone.
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I'm fine with that...

RealmOfThePureForms said:
Memory is all that defines who we are.
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No, our actions define who we are. Someone's memories of us is what we were.


You are welcome to that opinion. I know that existence is not dependent upon perception, so no matter how you try to tie it up semantically. I exist, therefore, from this point foreward in time, no matter what happens to me, I will have existed. Whether or not I have any perception at that point in time is irrelevent and doesn't change the fact that I did exist.


I would say that you feel that way because you feel a need for your life to have a specific purpose, and you're trying to project that on everyone else.

I don't have a problem with my existence ending when my life does. It doesn't bring me feelings of despair, fear or dread in any way.
 
I just addressed most of this, but there are a couple points here that i think really need to be addressed.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
A dead person is denying existence because they never knew they existed.
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You are saying that an inanimate object (the corpse) is capable of conscious thought (making the decision to deny something)?

Also, there is one very incorrect claim in there, the claim that "they never knew they existed". That is patently false.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
Because they lost this eternally there was never any value to it in the first place.
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Is a rose beautiful? Does the fact that it doesn't exist forever change that?

RealmOfThePureForms said:
If I go to a dead grave and make the statement "This person never knew the value of life" I am making an accurate statement.
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No, you are making a judgement about what the person knew while they were alive.


Yeah, right.

I have no problem with it.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
The thought of infinite nothingness is incomphrensible to any human being because it defies our very existence.
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No, the infinite is incomprehensible to people, period.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
It tells us that our existence never really happened because it denies us existence FOREVER.
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No, you are trying to use it as an argument that that is the case, but that is simply your perception of it.

RealmOfThePureForms said:
If you cannot understand this then please just say so. But do not sit there and say it isn't true just because it scares you and you don't want it to be true. There is no way to refute this arguement.
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I understand what you are trying to say, I just disagree with it wholeheartedly.

I have nothing even resembling the attitudes and beliefs that you are putting forth.
 
RealmOfThePureForms said:
For an atheist that truly believes there is no after life of any kind, there is no purpose to being here. For those people, death is eternal and life is finite. Because the finite is followed by the infinite, then they never existed to begin with.
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There is something truly pathetic about needing an invisible friend in the sky to make life worth living.

For the record (existing then not existing) is not the same as (never existing) .
 
independent_thinker2002 said:
What if our purpose on earth is really lame. Say the planet earth just wanted plastic but couldn't produce it itself. What if our purpose is to provide the planet with plastic?:shock:
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And silicone. There is an abundance being created. I reference the SI swimsuit issues and Pamela Sue Anderson, for example.
 
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