Theism =/= Atheism =/= Agnosticism
This is something that really bothers me.
Theism (the broad definition) = The belief in the existence of one or more deities.
- Monotheism = The belief in the existence of one god, or deity.
- Polytheism = The belief in more than one god or deity.
- Deism (look up the Age of Enlightenment) and Pantheism (big in the Romantic Era, or Romanticism) also fall under the broad definition of theism, but you can google those if you’d like to know more.
Atheism = The rejection of belief in the existence of one or more gods, or other deities.
Agnosticism = Neither belief nor disbelief in God, or other deities.
Stop referring to Atheism as a ‘lack of religion.’ That’s not what it means.
Reasons why for a lot of people (at least that I’ve met) atheism and pantheism end up being almost the same.
weerd; and enter the awkward explaining to other atheists that you DO have spiritual/occult/religious feelings. Even if you don’t share them, even if for the GLORY OF NO GOD you have a more radical atheist bent [and maybe also to dispell doubting believers & yourself that, above all, you absolutely reject gods as a concept…]
But, in my explorations, there are a number of religions who have no god or superpowerful gods (gods here being natural phenomena), there are many that are self-centred, or world-centred; the concept of “god” that relig ppl often talk about is SO Abrahamic that it alienates non-godded spirituality and morphs all other understanding of gods away from their original thoughts and towards an Abrahamic one.
On Wednesday, March 7, 2012, American Atheists erected a billboard on the corner of 33rd Street and Broadway, the heart of a Muslim community in Paterson, New Jersey, with the wording: “You know it’s a myth, and you have a choice” in both Arabic and English, with the word “Allah” on the left side.
But are you serious though.
They have the right to do this, but this is intentionally annoying, preachy and self righteous.
This is some serious assholery right here, and the fact that it is targeted at a marginalized religious community just makes it that much more insulting.
atheists: you don’t gotta be douchebags. you have a choice.
reblogged for kittykatstark’s totally great new billboard idea
Brilliant counter to that insulting nonsense from American Atheists.
idk guys, believers have a history of billboards that are all god-this-god-that [this ad is also in a jewish neighb and they have a christian one too that came first] catholic billbs around yuletide reminding us jesus is the reason North european pagans had winter holidays, etc.
Personally? I don’t see any reason to politely fold my hands in a world where believers control our politics, our values, and folks nag you down to admit you have “spiritual beliefs” or else “ISN’T YOUR LIFE SO EMPTY AND DEVOID OF PURPOSE??” because where do you get your morals from, yeah??
And in a world where we swallow platitudes like spoiled milk and treat religfolks all nicenice because “it’s none of your business” nevermind that being “godless” is still any of their justification for why they are right and all others are wrong
Well…
I think this is pretty nadsy.
(via write-on-red)
You Want a Physicist to Speak at Your Funeral
You want a physicist to speak at your funeral. You want the physicist to talk to your grieving family about the conservation of energy, so they will understand that your energy has not died. You want the physicist to remind your sobbing mother about the first law of thermodynamics; that no energy gets created in the universe, and none is destroyed. You want your mother to know that all your energy, every vibration, every Btu of heat, every wave of every particle that was her beloved child remains with her in this world. You want the physicist to tell your weeping father that amid energies of the cosmos, you gave as good as you got.
And at one point you’d hope that the physicist would step down from the pulpit and walk to your brokenhearted spouse there in the pew and tell him that all the photons that ever bounced off your face, all the particles whose paths were interrupted by your smile, by the touch of your hair, hundreds of trillions of particles, have raced off like children, their ways forever changed by you. And as your widow rocks in the arms of a loving family, may the physicist let her know that all the photons that bounced from you were gathered in the particle detectors that are her eyes, that those photons created within her constellations of electromagnetically charged neurons whose energy will go on forever.
And the physicist will remind the congregation of how much of all our energy is given off as heat. There may be a few fanning themselves with their programs as he says it. And he will tell them that the warmth that flowed through you in life is still here, still part of all that we are, even as we who mourn continue the heat of our own lives.
And you’ll want the physicist to explain to those who loved you that they need not have faith; indeed, they should not have faith. Let them know that they can measure, that scientists have measured precisely the conservation of energy and found it accurate, verifiable and consistent across space and time. You can hope your family will examine the evidence and satisfy themselves that the science is sound and that they’ll be comforted to know your energy’s still around. According to the law of the conservation of energy, not a bit of you is gone; you’re just less orderly. Amen.
- Aaron Freeman
This is the most beautiful thing I have ever read.
Member of the Ukraine feminist group Femen gets arrested for protesting topless in the Vatican.
My grandmother, a woman who has been to nearly every country in the world, was thrown out of the Vatican several times for having her knees exposed and being a woman. She kept returning as a sign of protest of the sexism the Vatican ardently reinforces in their policies.
The woman above is amazing.
Oh my god, I’m so in love.
(via hellyeahfeminism)
thegiantsquid submitted: “Some facts for those who try to mix religion and politics”
(Source: stfuconservatives, via hellyeahfeminism)
Rapture got you down? Consider this…
I would like to talk a little about the Rapture. I’m hoping we can chat a bit about how the date of May 21, 2011 came to be…
Harold Camping, the president of Family Stations, Inc., performed the calculation. Here is his logic from http://www.religioustolerance.org/hcamping.htm:
“The number 5 … equals “atonement.” 10 is “completeness.” 17 means “heaven.” 5 x 10 x 17 = 850.
(850) x (850) = 722,500. This can be interpreted as: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.
Camping believes that Christ was executed on 33-APR-01. The interval from that date to 2011-APR-01 is exactly 1,978 years.
1,978 multiplied by 365.2422 days (the average number of days in each solar year) = 722,449 days.
Adding 51 days brings the total days since Jesus’ execution to: 722,500. This will occur on 2011-MAY-21.
Anyone else see this as people trying to use convoluted math to, in effect, read God’s mind? To place a date on this specific Saturday is fairly presumptuous. I would be skeptical even if a quantum physicist did the math, let alone a radio tycoon.
We also have to consider the fact that the Bible was NOT written in English, but translated from Hebrew and Aramaic. There are hundreds of bible translations in circulation, each have their little differences and faulty interpretations. When it comes to numbers in the bible, there have been mistakes. One iconic mistake was the Number of the Beast 666, was mistranslated, and is actually 616. If even one of the numbers in the calculations done by Camping was incorrect, everyone, righteous or no, will be on Earth come Sunday.
Also, lets consider the origins of the equation. There is no “End Times Tutorial” in the Bible, and even if there was, it wasn’t written by God, it was written by men. It wasn’t translated by God; instead, it was men. And the equation wasn’t made by God, it was a man. Here’s my equation for the End-Times:
(Men x writing) + (men x translating) + (men x arithmetic) = a pleasant Sunday, May 22, 2011.
Have a good weekend. Jesus, save me from your followers.
(via thambos)