Where do atheists come from?

[imokyrok]

I came with a return ticket to where I came from.
We all did.
But there are those who think they are going somewhere else. Impossible destinations.

Only on earth do we experience Heaven and Hell.

63 year old Sandra, a relative of mine died of cancer last Sunday, she had taken care of her husband-my younger brother Seamus, her four children, grandchildren, the elderly and infirm, as a carer, and her 91 year old mother!

During Sandra's last days God was never mentioned by any of her relatives, Christians all.

Sandra was a Julie Walters type character, as in the film, "EducatinG Rita", starring Michael Caine.
She has left a lot of people devastated!
Myself included.

I'm sorry for you loss Maurice. It sounds like Sandra left her mark on the world in a wholly positive way. If we all could do likewise what a planet we'd have.

[imokyrok]

@Cookiemonster , it seems that people respond to the tenor rather than the appended content/ comments of the OP. A particularly lrish desire for regurgitation that advises half-assed response and quasi-polemic.

Dot I think you've misread the situation. Cookie specialises in starting troll threads hence posters probably assumed he was up to his usual ie. being provocative but it's own sake and paid little attention to anything other than the thread title. He only has himself to blame for that. However since you've drawn attention to the fact that this is a serious post I'll open it and check out the paper.

[Cato]

A couple of quotess from the editorial;

In fact, the more we learn about the "god instinct" and the refusal of religion to fade away under the onslaught of progress, the more the non-religious mindset looks like the odd man out. That is why anthropologists, psychologists and social scientists are now putting irreligion under the microscope in the same way they once did with religious belief

The aim is not to discredit atheism but to understand how so many people can override a way of thinking that seems to come so naturally. For that reason, atheists should welcome the new scrutiny.

[Toland]

This is an interesting thread.

Up to my neck in work today. Feck.

[FutureTaoiseach]

"No religion" categorised by Province/County/City (Census 2006):

Leinster:
117,248

Munster:
44,348

Dublin City/County:
80,737

Connaught:
18,852

(part of) Ulster:
5,870

[Toland]

"No religion" categorised by Province/County/City (Census 2006):

Leinster:
117,248

Munster:
44,348

Dublin City/County:
80,737

Connaught:
18,852

(part of) Ulster:
5,870

These figures, however, given the structure and layout of the Census question they are based on, are not worth a sh1te (or, at best, a very serious underestimation).

[fun tzu]

Atheists miss the point in my opinion. Where we stand in relation to God and what he would expect from us are questions that are not really resolved by his non-existence. In my opinion the absence of God doesn't answer any questions but simply deprives us of the questions.

No you're missing the point.

The questions are wrong. We ask them because of how we're built but they are meaningless. There are no answers to them. There is nothing up there expecting anything of us.

Do you expect things of a tree or a rock other than to just do what it does?

It's vanity to think we are somehow fundamentally different from everything else in the universe.

[TradCat]

We ask them because of how we're built but they are meaningless. There are no answers to them.

But maybe to point is not the answer but the question and that's what atheists are missing.

It's vanity to think we are somehow fundamentally different from everything else in the universe.

Well, for a start we have vanity.

[Toland]

In my opinion the absence of God doesn't answer any questions but simply deprives us of the questions.

Quite right.

Though I'd quibble with the use of the verb "to deprive".

"To free" would be more appropriate in this context, imo.

[fun tzu]

But maybe to point is not the answer but the question and that's what atheists are missing.

Well, for a start we have vanity.

What good is a meaningless question with no answer? It's an encumbrance.

I'm sure other animals have some form of vanity. First one that springs to mind is cats

My point is that we are made of the same things as rocks, trees, planets, stars. We're a complicated arrangement of that stuff that does some pretty cool stuff (and some shocking horrible stuff) but we're not fundamentally different from anything else.

The closest thing I can identify with a god is the entire universe/multiverse. Meaning that you and me and Richard Dawkins are part of god. There's bits of the bible and other holy books you could interpret that way but it's an interpretation that's so far from the generally understood meaning of the word religion that it only makes sense to say you're an atheist if you think like that.