Atheists - God Bless Them! NJC

[vince]

It would be only an exercise in defining precisely some words that you use here to find much disagreement from me. I have no problems with atheists, non-believers, skeptics, or agnostics, and in fact learn much from them. And enjoy them often far more than the pious. We certainly cannot live with expecting a god, any god, to be a deus ex machina who is going to pull our chestnuts out of the fire. As Bonhoeffer wrote (pastor, theologian, plotter in the assassination attempt, and killed by the Nazis), we live in a world come up age, a world that in which we have found religion to be empty and it impossible to believe in the old ways anymore, which were probably all cultural conditioning anyway. And we must take responsibility for our lives, our decisions, our choices, and quit blaming things on a god.

Feurbach is well respected in the theologians that I value most. The fact that you fall on the different side of the God fence than I fall is merely happenstance, not a statement about anything such as one is right and one is wrong. I respect highly atheists and a local atheist in our community once wrote in the newspaper that I "wasn't bad" for a pastor, something I took as high praise.
Atheism is a legitimate response to the question of God.

And for Anne, my response to your question: Faith is not be a matter of agreeing to a series of statements, agreeing to a set of intellectual propositions, some or many or all of which may be questionable to a thinking person. Faith is about living as if every other person is equal and worthy and doing what one can for the sake of others. And other than the word "faith" are people of faith and atheists that far apart, or just one word apart? As a person of faith, I can expound on that living in terms of God, Christ, the Spirit - and a person without faith, or more positively, a person who sees things without faith being a consideration, and likewise expound on that living.

Who is right and who is wrong? That is NOT the question. The question is what works, what makes sense of life and answers the questions, for each person in the reality of their own lives.

Sara, celebrate your atheism for it is a very legitimate choice faced with all that we can see and observe in this world. Not my choice, but my choice is for me only, not be imposed on you. You made the choice that is right for you and that is how it should be.

Vince
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:

I'm beginning to get worried here: am I really the only atheist on the list?? Colin, I know you're no fan of organized religion, but you believe in a higher power. I don't, or at least I'm agnostic regarding that. I wouldn't want to say that everything we see is all that exists. But I also find a belief in god (in any traditional sense) as basically superstition.

I believe in the maxim of Feuerbach: "For god to be everything, man must be nothing".

We should trust ourselves and our own judgement and sort out life on this earth by ourselves, with no help from gods, real or imagined.