Atheists and Religious Folks Are Similar in Their Non-belief

[Hermit]

Atheism is a lack of system, hence the difference.

As for the rest of the post, .

[hiyymer]

Atheism is a belief system, hence the similarity. The reason why atheists don't like admitting that atheism is a belief system is the same same reason why they try to make out that theists have the burden of proof whereas they don't. It's because atheists are desperate to remove anything which puts them in the same boat as theists. They want to put the whole burden of proof onto theists, and they want to put the label of "belief" entirely with theists. Atheists are fucking cheats. No wonder society regards them as oddities. Atheists should be put in zoos. It's like the old saying goes, no one likes an atheist.

There are different kinds of atheists. In the end no one is operating without a "belief system", because life would be meaningless if you had to live it in the actual rational scientific reality that we think is what really exists. If something is rational it is by definition explainable in principle and a caused process obeying the laws of science, including our physical being. So if we wish to "live" we must live in the meaning that our brain creates; the agents that cause themselves; not only gods but the model of the person, the self, the you, the I. It is almost impossible to appreciate how totally created by our brain is our sense of a meaningful reality. The idea that a god doesn't really exist is circular and meaningless. The 'self' that I experience in my head as intentional and "I deciding" also doesn't really exist in the very same sense. Our experience of life is irrational. Our brain is creating these models of caused processes so that it can survive. We are inside the mechanism.

It is true that many atheists are rationalist who are over-invested in the "I deciding", as if only the god agent is a product of our brain. But not every atheist. One can accept the nature of our experience without taking on a god as something transparently real. It's just accepting that everyone's brain has a story, a narrative, a need to create a conscious integrated view of what is important to it. There is no ultimate "right" or "wrong". Making other people "wrong" is just the mechanism in action; a power trip; like your story that "atheists are fucking cheats" or the other story that "theists are ignorant and superstitious". Anyone's story is just as real as anyone else's story. What you want is irrational, and living life is just standing for what you want and not having to have reasons.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There are different kinds of atheists. In the end no one is operating without a "belief system", because life would be meaningless if you had to live it in the actual rational scientific reality that we think is what really exists.

Bullshit. We don't have to "believe" in something to have meaning to our lives.

[hiyymer]

There are different kinds of atheists. In the end no one is operating without a "belief system", because life would be meaningless if you had to live it in the actual rational scientific reality that we think is what really exists.

Bullshit. We don't have to "believe" in something to have meaning to our lives.

If by "believe" you mean taking something on faith that you can't actually rationally demonstrate, then it is my humble opinion that you do.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There are different kinds of atheists. In the end no one is operating without a "belief system", because life would be meaningless if you had to live it in the actual rational scientific reality that we think is what really exists.

Bullshit. We don't have to "believe" in something to have meaning to our lives.

If by "believe" you mean taking something on faith that you can't actually rationally demonstrate, then it is my humble opinion that you do.

You probably do. But don't assume everybody does.

[hiyymer]

There are different kinds of atheists. In the end no one is operating without a "belief system", because life would be meaningless if you had to live it in the actual rational scientific reality that we think is what really exists.

Bullshit. We don't have to "believe" in something to have meaning to our lives.

If by "believe" you mean taking something on faith that you can't actually rationally demonstrate, then it is my humble opinion that you do.

You probably do. But don't assume everybody does.

I really do think it's inescapable. It's not so much that I am trapped in my body, as that my body and its brain creates the "I". "I deciding" is there in my head whether I like it or not.