Are you good without god? In other words, are you:
A. Doing fine without believing in deity?
B. Capable of being a good person as a nontheist?
Here is an informational video on Youtube published by the United Coalition of Reason:
YouTube - Arizona Coalition of Reason - A Life, a World, a Future. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSJLjwP0kuw&feature=player_embedded#)
Do you feel alone and isolated as a nontheist? You are not alone and there are many people out there just like you who don't buy the god thing:
Click on this link, below, for more information from the United Coalition of Reason:
United CoR (https://unitedcor.org/index.html)
The mission of the United Coalition of Reason is to raise the visibility and sense of unity among local groups in the community of reason, to create a national dialogue on the role of nontheists in American society, and to improve the way that nontheists are perceived by average Americans.
Edward
Clancy
02-11-2010, 04:42 PM
Atheists have no corner on reason, some of the most rigid, shallow thinking people I've known are atheists.
Agnosticism, now there's a reasonable position. We don't even know what most of the universe is made of, there may be realms or concepts of existence the nature of which we can't even dream, because they're not aprehendable by our human senses and minds.
Are you good without god? In other words, are you:
A. Doing fine without believing in deity?
B. Capable of being a good person as a nontheist?
Here is an informational video on Youtube published by the United Coalition of Reason:
YouTube - Arizona Coalition of Reason - A Life, a World, a Future. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSJLjwP0kuw&feature=player_embedded#)
Do you feel alone and isolated as a nontheist? You are not alone and there are many people out there just like you who don't buy the god thing:
Click on this link, below, for more information from the United Coalition of Reason:
United CoR (https://unitedcor.org/index.html)
The mission of the United Coalition of Reason is to raise the visibility and sense of unity among local groups in the community of reason, to create a national dialogue on the role of nontheists in American society, and to improve the way that nontheists are perceived by average Americans.
Edward
"Mad" Miles
02-11-2010, 07:01 PM
Valley Oak and Clancy,
I'm inclined to agree with Clancy on this big question issue, but I'm too intellectually lazy to commit. Iris DeMent Baby! "Let The Mystery Be"!!!
VO (can I still call you Edward? I noticed on your profile that you've deleted all "personal" info.) Love your new Avatar. Anne Hathaway is Haaaawwwwaaaattttt! Way outa my league and I only really marked her in "Brokeback.." I'm too old for her Princess early work, but your appropriation of her image sent me on a webquest for naughty photos. Alas, anything worth the look seems to cost more than I'm willing to pay... i.e. nada.
As previously and repeatedly stated, I have a "wait and see" attitude toward issues of God this, God that.
As for being on a spiritual path... (a de rigueur claim, it seems, to being a true waccobbite, i.e. someone considered "conscious" in our west county culture), I try to stay off the beaten path(s) myself, so much more interesting out here in the wilderness.
Clancy, keep up the good fight(s)!! When choosing between politesse and calling bullshit, bullshit, I side with your approach. Thanks for your efforts.
So as not to appear to take up all of the oxygen in the room, I leave it at this for now,
"Mad" Miles
:burngrnbounce:
Valley Oak
02-11-2010, 07:12 PM
Excellent point. Thomas Huxley coined the term, agnosticism, with precisely the same definition you gave it. (Not to be confused with Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, although they were both from the same family.)
The group that I referred to, United Coalition of Reason (UCR), defines itself as a composition of different groups of "nontheists." Nontheism is a more generic term under which anyone who does not believe in a diety(ies) comes under. This includes agnostics, atheists, humanists, freethinkers, etc.
Nontheists, who number in the millions in the US, may often feel alone or isolated, especially because of living in a society that is predominantly religious (christian) and are surrounded by issues such as school prayer, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc, which are in large part dominated and unilaterally decided by religious morality.
Edward
Atheists have no corner on reason, some of the most rigid, shallow thinking people I've known are atheists.
Agnosticism, now there's a reasonable position. We don't even know what most of the universe is made of, there may be realms or concepts of existence the nature of which we can't even dream, because they're not aprehendable by our human senses and minds.
Clancy
02-11-2010, 08:57 PM
Precisely? No way, you make it sound like I cribbed his definition. It took me 10 minutes to come up with that. And Miles, didn't you just commit to agnosticism, by virtue of your unwillingness to commit? Or maybe you were you just having fun with us...
I even think a good argument could be made that it is reasonable to believe in a benevolent diety or universe simply because myriad studies have shown that people who do live longer, more satisfying and healthier lives than those who don't.
Excellent point. Thomas Huxley coined the term, agnosticism, with precisely the same definition you gave it. (Not to be confused with Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World, although they were both from the same family.)
The group that I referred to, United Coalition of Reason (UCR), defines itself as a composition of different groups of "nontheists." Nontheism is a more generic term under which anyone who does not believe in a diety(ies) comes under. This includes agnostics, atheists, humanists, freethinkers, etc.
Nontheists, who number in the millions in the US, may often feel alone or isolated, especially because of living in a society that is predominantly religious (christian) and are surrounded by issues such as school prayer, abortion, same-sex marriage, etc, which are in large part dominated and unilaterally decided by religious morality.
Edward
Valley Oak
02-12-2010, 07:18 AM
Of course you can call me Edward. That's a lot better than what many people on this list have been calling me for the last 6 years.
;0)
And yes, Anne Hathaway is a direct descendent of the Goddess Aphrodite. I also like the way she fights for the LGBT community. Her brother is gay and she is very close to him. I also like the fact that she recently abandoned the catholic church because of their homophobia (not to mention their pedophilia). I also confess to having looked for a few nude photos of Anne online and my new avatar was the closest I came to an exposed booby (although there is an impressive photo of her sporting a see through top that she gallantly wore in public).
Like I said to Clancy, although the agnostic v. atheist debate has always been a fascinating one, the main reason I posted this thread was because I wanted to let local nontheists know that they are not alone and that there is a rather large group out there just for them that they can identify with or even become a member of if they choose. I would love to see one of their huge billboard board signs right here in Sonoma County asking: "Are You Good Without God?"
And it's nice to know that I'm not the only one enjoying the "wilderness" out there.
Edward
Valley Oak and Clancy,
I'm inclined to agree with Clancy on this big question issue, but I'm too intellectually lazy to commit. Iris DeMent Baby! "Let The Mystery Be"!!!
VO (can I still call you Edward? I noticed on your profile that you've deleted all "personal" info.) Love your new Avatar. Anne Hathaway is Haaaawwwwaaaattttt! Way outa my league and I only really marked her in "Brokeback.." I'm too old for her Princess early work, but your appropriation of her image sent me on a webquest for naughty photos. Alas, anything worth the look seems to cost more than I'm willing to pay... i.e. nada.
As previously and repeatedly stated, I have a "wait and see" attitude toward issues of God this, God that.
As for being on a spiritual path... (a de rigueur claim, it seems, to being a true waccobbite, i.e. someone considered "conscious" in our west county culture), I try to stay off the beaten path(s) myself, so much more interesting out here in the wilderness.
Clancy, keep up the good fight(s)!! When choosing between politesse and calling bullshit, bullshit, I side with your approach. Thanks for your efforts.
So as not to appear to take up all of the oxygen in the room, I leave it at this for now,
"Mad" Miles
:burngrnbounce:
LenInSebastopol
02-12-2010, 01:30 PM
It is good of you to try and give succor and identity for your group. Often such a post ends up in an emotional wreck & flame war. But there may be just cause as folks are promulgating the basic views of "how & why" of our very existence!
While the Huxley family did much in British science to advance solipsism, the other more political heroes of this bent helped depopulate our planet as none before in all of combined history. Now I know that no religion is "pure" and clean of such (look at the fundies of The Religion of Peace!, so your point is well taken) there is the local parochial view that America is christian, but I suppose that is based on what one defines as "christian" thus bringing all historical baggage to the fore. Not an easy nut to crack.
The fear is that many in your field will try to "proselytize" those less certain of your "reason". As with most things, folks simply wish to be left alone in their belief systems and not be harangued, so it is good you are giving hope (based on what I don't understand), strength and friendship to those whose belief systems are based simply in...what? science? or reason, of it could be genetic and there is a gene that you have, or are missing, that allows one to "believe". Good luck on that.