I’ve noticed that few people who claim to be skeptics are general skeptical; they are skeptical only of the things that they don’t already have faith in.
By the way, I’ve always wondered if Catholic dotrine specifies support for statism. I know they pay lip service to “social justice”. I’ve never seen any positions on taxes.
I do know that catholic doctrine is designed to allow many political positions as long as such positions are not against the ethical doctrines defined by the church. So you could be anti-state & catholic as long as you still support the ethics underlying social justice.
You can be a libertarian, not a libertine.
Your question is a bit vague since ‘catholic doctrine’ is whatever the rulers of the church say it is.
However the historical record clearly shows that the catholic church and the state have been sides of the same coin since roughly 380 and probably a bit before that.
Also, from a philosophical point of view it’s clear that the catholic church is a totalitarian organization whose purpose is to enslave and destroy the minds of its subjects. That is by the way the reason why freedom and revealed religion (fraud) don’t mesh.
The catholic church collects them.
Well you can’t consider a tithe a tax, at least in 21st century USA. But agreed, the catholic church of the middle ages basically was a state.
From what I understand, tithes are voluntary and taxes are not. Or maybe I misunderstood what you are saying here.
Joe, I’m with you. Religious people are often dumb and happy. We atheists can coexist with them.
If they can delude themselves into being sure they will live forever, good for them.
As long as they don’t get too crazy about it…
Quote PirateRothbard:“Joe, I’m with you. Religious people are often dumb and happy. We atheists can coexist with them.”
Lol with this type of attitude you’re on the same level as the religious people you mock. If I were to make generalizations like you then I’d say from my experience athiests are even bigger zealots about not wanting anyone to believe in God than religious people are about wanting people to believe. But if most of us here agree regarding libertarian principles, then why create friction like the OP wants to, I agree with you there.
This is the way I see it: the militant atheists are almost never aware of the major philosophical issues regarding the question at hand. They don’t know the arguments in favor of theism, the argument against theism, the problems resolved by theism, ect. Many of them are simply close-minded intellectual infants who like to belittle those around them by placing themselves on imaginary intellectual pedestals. Their arguments are essentially appeals to emotion which get quick and cheap laughs from other close-minded intellectual infants (you see this sort of thing on Bill Maher’s show all the time; promoting drug usage, belittling theism (which he doesn’t understand) and socialist propaganda are all big crowd pleasers).
That’s one part, the second part of my explanation is that many so-called theists are entirely ignorant of their own position, or they merely pay lip-service to theism. They’re not unlike the tea-partiers who hold up signs saying “don’t let the government take away my medicare.” Thus, you get an environment of anti-intellectual theists and atheists “debating” nonsense without ever raising substantive positions. It’s not unlike the current political environment in the U.S., where you have know-nothing liberal’s debating know-nothing conservatives about nothing.
Dude who said anything about mocking.
Several studies have correlated intelligence with atheism. However, I’m not implying all religious people are stupid.
So calling religious people dumb and happy is fair generalization between two atheists.
You’re the outlier.
Haha, your mamma’s an outlier.
Quote PirateRothbard: "Dude who said anything about mocking.
Several studies have correlated intelligence with atheism. However, I’m not implying all religious people are stupid.
So calling religious people dumb and happy is fair generalization between two atheists."
lol now you’re just being silly. You know what you’re doing.
“I’d say from my experience athiests are even bigger zealots about not wanting anyone to believe in God”
It’s an interesting question, I think you may not realize how many atheists are out there because so many just keep it under wraps. I’d suspect if this could be studied, atheists would come out more tolerant than theists but who knows. The visible, vocal atheists are definitely not tolerant, nobody has ever accused Dawkins of being warm and fuzzy towards religious people.
Like I said, no disrespect. I think religion brings people meaning to their lives, I think religion can be wonderful for those who can rationalize that kind of thing.
Case in point.
Quote PirateRothbard:“It’s an interesting question, I think you may not realize how many atheists are out there because so many just keep it under wraps. I’d suspect if this could be studied, atheists would come out more tolerant than theists but who knows. The visible, vocal atheists are definitely not tolerant, nobody has ever accused Dawkins of being warm and fuzzy towards religious people.”
Well for me, living in New York City I haven’t found anyone afraid to tell me what their beliefs are regarding religion. Most are those that reject the “traditional” style rules that come from religious institutions but still maintain they believe in a God. But the vocal atheists I’ve met are for the most part- NEW athiests that recently rejected their family’s faith(roughly 18-23 years old or so), so their ego gets inflated when they believe they found the truth and they think “How can everyone else be so stupid as to still believe that fairy tale junk? I HAVE to prove to them that theres no God”. But I attribute that to just being young and wanting to feel in control. They have a generally condescending attitude towards those who are religious- whereas the religious zealots seem to be coming from a place of concern where they must save those people who disbelieve(I haven’t encountered any of those “God hates fags you’ll all burn in hell” types over here yet)
. lol I don’t see the point of making a study for something like this to find out if athiests are more tolerant or if theists are more tolerant. What would it accomplish except to have a “GOTCHA!” moment where you say “A ha! This study says you’re a complete jerk and intolerant, we need less of you”.
Most (or a lot) of athiest probably don’t actually read into various religions and belief systems. They lump all religion into one basket and think because they believe in a source not on Earth, it’s child’s play. Yet, whether it’s Christianity or Ásatru, they probably don’t know the actual philosophy and beliefs behind various religions. They don’t realize that when it comes to a lot of religions it’s more of a cultural (or tribal) persuasion. That cultures are built on these beliefs and philosopies. I don’t think the athiest realizes how many people have their culture and nation built around a theist belief. I’m sure the athiest will claim all these people are ignorant with no evidence to why they are.
Well you can’t consider a tithe a tax, at least in 21st century USA. But agreed, the catholic church of the middle ages basically was a state.
Pretty much nothing in the middle ages was a state, much less the Universal Church in Rome.
I wish I could rate the replies in posts…
By the way, I’m stealing this. You’ve typed out things that are pretty much similar to my ideas.