Absolutely Marsha, The same point from the other perspective. Clearly there is no atheism without theism. No reason for a stated opposite, to something that doesn't exist, just the opportunity to say what you / we do actually believe in ... positively - quality, nature, humanity, whatever ...
The commenter wants to disagree with Sacks, (the western disease, preferring disagreement) but is effectively agreeing. The final point is disingenuous. OK so we atheists do not need theist faiths to be at war with each other to to justify being atheist, but there is no point claiming to be atheist if we don't see a problem with theism, and even "our own beliefs" are not worth stating unless there is signficant disagreement. Scientific beliefs for example exist explicitly to be disgreed with - that's the point. When Sacks says people of different beliefs should seek ways to cooperate rather than fight, I don't think he's limiting beliefs to theistic religious beliefs. I firmly believe ripe bananas are generally yellowy but I can't see much point saying it. Strong beliefs, lightly held. Ian On 6/14/07, MarshaV <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Ian, > > This is interesting. (url below) > > > June 14, 2007 > > Atheists' beliefs > > Sir, Jonathan Sacks thinks that atheism is a "form of protest"; that > when the great religions are in serious conflict with each other, > people turn to atheism because they feel that religion has failed > them (Credo, June 9). > > This casts atheism in a very negative light, as the offshoot of > religious friction. If this is true, then atheism only exists as a > rejection of religion and you can't have atheism without also having religion. > > But atheists see it the other way round. For us, the issue is not why > people lose their faith; it is why people take up faith in the first > place. We can get along quite well without the comforts and > explanations of religion and we find it mystifying why anyone else > should need them. We certainly do not need destructive clashes > between the faiths to engender our beliefs. > > http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/debate/letters/article1928986.ece > > > > > > > moq_discuss mailing list > Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. > http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org > Archives: > http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ > http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/ > moq_discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org.uk/pipermail/moq_discuss_archive/
