Are there any Atheists here?

[trigger]

‘sup?

There’s no rules or moral absolutes or eternal consequences.
Wanna go do some crimes?
Let’s go eat sushi and not pay.

[beathappening]

1/10 troll

You know what's really funny, was all that complaining you did in the soulistics thread about people gaslighting you. That's rich. Guess you're not much better, huh?

[trigger]

I was genuinely curious if there were other atheists here, but okay. I’m an atheist. My existence isn’t a troll on people of faith. I was also quoting Repo Man.

[beathappening]

Ok. I mistook your intentions. I used to consider myself an atheist, but now I don't like defining myself based on something I don't believe in.

[trigger]

Same... that’s also partly why my post was making light of it. Atheism isn’t something to take too seriously and it’s not really a club or an organization to belong to.

[beathappening]

Lol, I thought you were a euphoric christian looking for a fight

[Pete2000]

l'd always considered myself an atheist, but after taking a bunch of "what religion are you" surveys it looks like Secular Humanism is more accurate.

http://www.selectsmart.com/RELIGION/

[trigger]

The church of Satan is a great organization- they go around trying to separate church and state and getting religion out of politics. Keeping mandatory prayer out of schools and religious shrines off government buildings. They are generally secular humanists. I often identify as that as well.

[trigger]

Lol, I thought you were a euphoric christian looking for a fight

Nah. Just thought I was being kind of funny and seeing if I was alone or what. I’m not a dick.

The Soulistic thing was me asking legitimate questions about the weird shenanigans going on, and being accused of causing all of his problems. That swab dude PMed me with my real name (which I didn’t share here, but the vendor knew) and thinly veiled threats, so it’s obvious to me that he was working with them directly.

[mivanqua]

Ive thought about this for my whole life. I was raised southern baptist but then the preacher was caught molesting a thirteen year old mentally challenged girl and that kind of burned me out on religion forever. Especially when I found out that he had been caught doing that a couple of other times but the pastors association kept that quiet as did the higher ups of the church to secure him jobs in other churches. Ehhh...no thanks. Seems to happen quite often.
That being said, this is all set up a tad too perfectly to not have ANY higher power at play. When I think of earth, I immediately switch in my mind to the Genesis Device from Search For Spock. I think something like that was used to start this all off. Who knows though, really? Maybe some, but they aren't sharing. That is something that SERIOUSLY pisses me off about life. SO MANY QUESTIONS that will NEVER EVER be answered. If this is so, and it certainly is, what's the point?

[trigger]

All we are is future worm food. We are all grown up babies. We don’t know anything. We bumble through life. We learn. We grow. We succeed. We fail. We settle. We triumph.

The meaning of life is something you get to decide for yourself. It’s either gonna be the journey or the destination. Lots of religions offer pre-packaged answers, but all of them were conceived by man and none of them were based on actual experience. No one has been dead and visited the afterlife and come back to write a book.

As far as science can tell, we are contained in the brain, and not the soul. If you get a lobotomy or receive a lead pipe to the head, you’re different. No other organ can receive damage like that and change who you are. Sure, if you lose a limb, it can change you, but the change happens in your brain.

So when the brain dies, you are gone. And that’s okay. For me, that just makes the meaning of life more clear. What is life? It’s an experience you get to have. So make the most of it and enjoy. Don’t be a wage slave unless that’s what you want to do. Don’t waste time with someone you don’t love - that’s harmful to both of you as it wastes each of your precious time. And for me, not wasting time worrying about a god that doesn’t exist or spending one day a week in church or reading a book I don’t like was a simple choice.

As if there’s a god watching me fuck up or masturbate or lie or steal and adding it all up to decide if I’m worthy of being in a heaven where all the interesting people are denied entry (like, if it’s just filled with people who call themselves “good christians,” I seriously don’t want to be there)... I’ll pass anyway. Heaven doesn’t sound like a place where you can fuck or swear or take drugs or eat ass, so why would I want to be there for eternity?

I’m a good person without threats of an eternity in hell. Only people of faith don’t think that’s possible. Kind of tells me that religion is necessary for some people. And yeah, pastors and priests are often caught being child molesters. Saw a recent one where a priest was raping nuns or something. It’s nuts. I have my ideas how we all got here, and science does have plausible theories. I don’t think it’s as important as the burrito I’m gonna have for dinner or my child giggling at my fart noises. It’s interesting to think about for sure, but I’m okay not knowing the answer. There’s more that I don’t know than there are stars and planets in the universe. There’s more things you don’t know than things you know you don’t know, you know?

[Thekid1420]

The church of Satan is a great organization- they go around trying to separate church and state and getting religion out of politics. Keeping mandatory prayer out of schools and religious shrines off government buildings. They are generally secular humanists. I often identify as that as well.

As a fellow atheist I just wanted to clear up that The Satanic Temple is who u are thinking of that does all the great work. The church of Satan is a much older, out dated cult from the 60s that isn't socially or politically active. The two are almost as different as science and Scientology.

[trigger]

Oh yeah, you’re right. My bad.

[BallzDeep9]

There’s more things you don’t know than things you know you don’t know, you know?

yeah. Are Agnostics welcome here, too?

I grew up in a pretty free open liberal West Coast town, and we had a Catholic School in the neighborhood and those kids blended in with us Public School kids ... Except they wore the silly uniform and we all laughed at that. But we also had a good bunch of Jewish kids in the hood, and they were cool too. No Negroes of course.

Anyway we all took turns, going to each others' Summer Camps as kids. All the churches had Youth groups and ran Summer camps.. I even went to the Jewish camp one summer it was great! And we had Boy Scout Camp of course.. I never made 1st Class Scout lol....

But the ONE horrible Summer Camp experience, was my friend whose parents were Baptists. They got all us kids waaay out in the woods.. Assembled us around the campfire at night... And the preaching started. It raised to a crescendo of Fire and Damnation.. then One by One, this asshole went around the circle. Each kid was singled out, forced to stand up, OR get down on his knees... and you had a choice: Accept Jesus right NOW- or Burn In Hell !!!

Well there was a LOT of crying and trembling and bullshit... I have NO idea, what would have happened if I'd stood up and yelled "Fuck Jesus!" One of the Camp Adults maybe would have shot me ?? Anyway me and a few other, Non Baptist kids, swore we'd never, ever, attend another Baptist camp or waste our time in their stupid fuckin' church.... The 1 kid who was my friend, rebelled against his Baptist parents and became the #1 kid to drop the MOST acid in high school

[beathappening]

I don't think using the word "negroes" is acceptable, even in a joking or ironic way. I'm not sure what you meant by it, but come on man.
When trigger compared you to a mildly racist uncle I thought he was kidding.

[trigger]

Everyone is welcome here.

[BallzDeep9]

I'm not sure what you meant by it, but come on man.

Well, 1- let me guess, you're white? 2- what I meant was the whole context of my story.. it's from the mid 1960's. At that time, it was considered the proper, correct word, accepted by blacks and whites. IF you want to start a racial discussion.. OK, but let's not hijack this one?

http://www.virginia.edu/woodson/courses ... ennett.htm

[beathappening]

Well, 1- let me guess, you're white? 2- what I meant was the whole context of my story.. it's from the mid 1960's. At that time, it was considered the proper, correct word, accepted by blacks and whites. IF you want to start a racial discussion.. OK, but let's not hijack this one?

http://www.virginia.edu/woodson/courses ... ennett.htm

My race isn't relevant. Nice ad hominem. I'm pretty sure I know that you aren't black though. Guess what? It's not the 1960s anymore! Maybe it was ok then, but it isn't now. I'm sure the n word or "colored" used to be considered proper in the mid 19th century or at some point. are you sure you want to go with that excuse? That "It used to be okay"? A lot of stuff used to be okay that is no longer tolerated. I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but I'm not sorry about calling out latent racism and ignorance when I see it. Cite all the sources you want, that is unacceptable in this day and age.

[trigger]

As the person who started this thread, I’m totally fine if you guys wanna derail it and argue about racism. I honestly couldn’t care less. Y’all can talk politics too. Have fun.

[Oletimer]

Religion or not, Christians,non believers,,I look at the persons heart,there's cold hearted people and big hearted ,what their beliefs are don't matter, people without compassion, empathy,love in their heart are usually victims of a tough upbringing, ,or natural born narcissist, ,then there's those who chose to be that way out of fear of being hurt,,my ex was an atheist,didn't believe in anything, also a Bono -fide narcissist, which is why , my kids have mental scars now,in their 30s,,never got validation of love from their narcissist father,,they aren't Christians,nor atheist, that's absurd, how can anyone call themselves an atheist if they don't believe in soneting,you have to not believe in something that you don't believe in the 1st place,ironic,satanic worshipping they believe in Satan, so that means they still believe in god,but worship Satan ,no? ? I'm not like minded, I also am not like minded to Christians,that seems like the phrase like minded Christians is placing themselves as better than others, special,we are all sinners, according to the preacher,bible,so Christians go to church on Sunday, sin all week,,it's reminds me of the money gathered up,the more you give,the more blessed,like buying your way into heaven,,it's the heart,,

[mivanqua]

I don't think using the word "negroes" is acceptable, even in a joking or ironic way. I'm not sure what you meant by it, but come on man.
When trigger compared you to a mildly racist uncle I thought he was kidding.

Just FYI I knew this guy who is dead now who was an acid taking Grearful Dead tour hopping dope shooting hippie type who was not even a little bit racist who used that word as well. It's just what they were called in the 50s and with some people it stuck. I used to get SO FUCKING PISSED OFF at him for using it but he just couldn't help it. He didn't mean anything by it, it was just habit. What he grew up doing. And I get what you're saying, "get with the times, man" but at least with him, old habits were hard to break. Perhaps that's the case here. Just saying...

[brave777]

I consider my self a philosophical person, i study many subjects, i dont claim them or reject them. But from all the study i do came to think end result is we are that one universe and yet we all can have our own frequencies, kind of like radio station, what ever you tune to, that's what you will hear. There is no other God. We all gods with the small g that can connect to higher totality. We are all creators on earth or outside earth, plants, tree's, animals, insects, and those annoying mosquito.. I sure want to slap someone who came up with mosquito idea. lol. I hate calling it the big God fractured himself to explore itself and its creation but that's how i see it. From what i hear, if you don't completely destroy your essence by giving in into dark magic, which is mostly low vibration beings, dark entities can help but at the same time they take something in return from you, that can hurt and destroy you, you can experience all and totality, and everything in universe if you pick the light path, dark side hate light so they will never experience it but the option is always there to change to yin/yang. But at the same time its not a bad thing to be bad, but if the soul gets over 50% bad in them, that universe all the light beings and totality is the judge to make you no more as a frequency as they might see it there is no hope and you are 100% all about self destruct. If wish you can join planets and reincarnate, learn and explore, and improve God, thats what the big God always wanted to do. I go by one rule, respect, i dont care if your religious nut or bible preacher or bible hater atheist. If you got no respect for people, I will call you out. Period. Religion is a control and manipulation, man made. Anything related to fear/anger it always comes from lower vibration places, many dark entities feast on it, sin is nothing but learning curve and should always exist so you don't stop evolving, telling people they should stop evolving comes from the dark side. Asking God with the big G for forgiveness for your sins is nonsense and dark side always smiles at it. If you hurt god with the small g that is we are all in a physical form, for example your brother or sister, go directly and ask for forgiveness. The big God loves that and all the light beings. They dont need you standing on your knees with folded hands asking forgiveness. If you honestly need help, sit in nature and focus on what problems you need to work on and what you need help on, there are always light beings ready to help. Another way to do it, write it on peice of paper all the things you need help with, go outside and burn it, let the universe take care of it. It has to be 100% sincere. If you never tried it, what do you have to lose? So you mortals, smile when you see god's and respect one another and any knowledge you receive from God, thank it and just evolve. When you know there is only one God Universe, you respect all gods because that's where we all come from until the day we die. Learn, evolve and respect, it is the game.

Edit: Oh forgot to mention, Jay Essex wrote 3 books. First book how everything starts and many beings. second book describing the beings in detail, and third book is the history of earth and past civilizations, Atlantis etc. I seen it on amazon and barns and noble. If never studied any esoteric stuff, best to ignore those books, wont be for you. Book name is "Creation" by Jay Essex.

[MetalMamaRocks]

I'm an atheist. And I live right smack dab in the middle of the Bible belt. I guess you could call me a closet athiest because only a few people know.

[beathappening]

I'm more of a agnostic atheist. I reserve all judgement until evidence is presented one way or the others, but as of right now I think science is out best chance at truth, and for people who.write science off as a "faith" are horribly misguided and my heart goes out to them. There are things that we can't YET explain but science is our best chance at solving those problems. The solar system being a celestial centered system wasn't underi until some time ago Gravity wasn't understood hundreds of years ago. The movement of planets, stars, and comets.used to be a total.mystery and treated as a bad omen. Now we know better and we can predict these things with extraordinary precision. Just because we can't yet explain everything is part of what makes life so interesting to study, leaving mythology at the door. We will know one day times like this will be regarded with humor and pity. No, we can't explain everything yet, but we have an excellent map to lead is by and generations of brilliant men and women leading the way. It's something to be optimistic about.

[Oletimer]

I like the way you think ,,,[quote][/Postby brave777 » Mon Jun 24, 2019 6:46 am

I consider my self a philosophical person, i study many subjects, i dont claim them or reject them. But from all the study i do came to think end result is we are that one universe and yet we all can have our own frequencies, kind of like radio station, what ever you tune to, that's what you will hear. T]And the main thing I agree with is------------. I go by one rule, respect, i dont care if your religious nut or bible preacher or bible hater atheist. If you got no respect for people, ,We are all different, All the stuff about light and dark is very interesting, DEEP,,perceptive

[Oletimer]

////Atheist vs. agnostic
There is a key distinction. An atheist doesn’t believe in a god or divine being. The word originates with the Greek atheos, which is built from the roots a- “without” + theos “a god”.

However, an agnostic neither believes nor disbelieves in a god or religious doctrine. Agnostics assert that it’s impossible for human beings to know anything about how the universe was created and if divine beings exist.////

Agnosticism is not a belief system as atheism is; rather, it is a theory of knowledge. Etymologically, it means, “not, or no knowledge.” An agnostic is someone who believes human beings simply cannot know anything metaphysical or beyond the physical realm; therefore, they cannot know whether things like spirit, angels or God exist at all.

[Oletimer]

Belief in aliens could be America’s next religion

‘American Cosmic’ explores how the once-fringe phenomenon has taken root among the powerful.

POWER
BELIEF IN ALIENS COULD BE AMERICA’S NEXT RELIGION
‘American Cosmic’ explores how the once-fringe phenomenon has taken root among the powerful.



Clare Coffey MAR—18—2019 09:16AM EST
The aliens have landed.

Or at least, they’re about to. That’s a reasonable takeaway when a renowned Harvard astronomer publicly declares, without apparent fear of repercussion, that he believes an alien spaceship may be orbiting our planet.



INTELLIGENT EDGE

But that seems to be changing. A new book by D.W. Pasulka — professor and chair of the department of philosophy and religion at the University of North Carolina Wilmington — American Cosmic: UFOs Religion, and Technology, focuses not on grassroots investigative societies or marginal cults, but on UFO believers in the halls of power.

Her narrative begins on a drive through the hills with pioneering computer scientist, venture capitalist, and ufologist Jacques Vallee. “Silicon Valley is full of secrets,” he tells her. It ends in the Vatican Secret Archives (alas, not because the Ultimate Clue lies steganographically hidden in a Templar codex).

Along the way, Pasulka meets “Tyler,” a biomedical technology mogul associated with the U.S. space program. Tyler is the most curious part of a curious book. Like most of the scientists, government researchers, and tech giants Pasulka quotes, Tyler’s real name remains a secret. But Pasulka has presumably done scholarly due diligence on his background, which would otherwise be hard to believe: Tyler has over 40 biotech patents to his name, many of which he believes were communicated to him by non-human intelligence. He works in a government program where, according to him, the kind of intricate security-clearance labyrinths one might find in an X-Files episode are the norm. “I don’t know who is responsible for putting me on these jobs. I think that somehow they are responsible for it. My own direct boss doesn’t know what I do. This is how the program works.”

Pasulka describes him breezing through airports without getting stopped by security: “We arrived at the airport, and Tyler sailed right past security, past first class, past economy class, and out the other side. He seemed to be literally beyond the law.” His name unlocks doors at the Vatican. In his official capacity as a researcher with the U.S. space program, one of his roles is merely to be at certain places at certain times — his superiors believe, apparently that his physical presence produces certain outcomes at experiments and rocket launches.

“Certain outcomes,” is frustrating circumlocution, but it embodies a tension fundamental to the book. Pasulka documents the end of a long cultural shift regarding UFOs, as it moves from a marginal fringe to a major belief system. Part of this shift is what Jacques Vallee calls the “Invisible College,” the network of credentialed, well-placed researchers seriously investigating the phenomenon. “The phenomenon” is Vallee’s carefully neutral term for the collection of commonly attested events and effects that make up “UFO” sightings. The term is useful for those trying to apply a scientific or scholarly framework, because it makes no claims about the origins. And in fact, Vallee does not believe that what people commonly identify as extraterrestrials actually come from space. Vallee is agnostic on their actual origins, but at various points has posited that they may be some sort of window into another dimension, or an illusion created for psychological manipulation.

TO DECENT ROMANS, CHRISTIANITY WAS A WEIRD AND POSSIBLY SORCEROUS CULT PRACTICED BY REDNECKS AND ILLITERATES — UNTIL SUDDENLY IT WAS THE FORCE BEHIND THE EMPIRE.
The social credibility of the “invisible college” could potentially lend a valuable gravitas to belief in the phenomenon, if they were to come forward. But for now, stigma or the protocols of the member’s work enforce silence and anonymity. At a moment where the UFO is betwixt and between — almost, but not quite ready for uncontroversial discussion in polite society — Pasulka finds that circumlocution, pseudonymity, and privacy militate against the academic virtues of transparency and exact citation trails. This dynamic creates a frustrating opacity for the reader: it’s often unclear which of the wilder parts of Tyler’s story she has confirmed independently.

However, none of this secrecy necessarily suggests a conspiracy, unless it’s the same conspiracy that has dogged every system that moved from marginal belief to massive social leverage. To decent Romans, Christianity was a weird and possibly sorcerous cult practiced by rednecks and illiterates — until suddenly it was the force behind the empire. The Mormons were unwelcome freaks who believed in seer stones, indigenous American Israelites, and polygamy. Now they’re the face of clean-cut American success west of the Rockies.

Polling shows that 35 percent of Americans believe that extraterrestrials came to earth in the past, and 26 percent believe that aliens have visited in modern times. This in itself does not necessarily make a new religion. Americans also believe, to varying degrees, in ghosts, Atlantis, and telekinesis. But according to Pasulka, UFO beliefs display other classic indicators of religion: sacred sites, sacred revelations, and testimony by credible witnesses to miraculous events.


At one point, Pasulka travels to an unnamed site in New Mexico. Accompanying her are Tyler and Pasulka’s own colleague “James,” an astrophysicist at a prestigious university, and not only a UFO believer, but a repeat contactee. (He finds the phenomenon unwelcome, and describes it as something that in earlier times would be called “demonic.”) The unidentified mesa is allegedly the site of a spacecraft crash many years ago. Tyler has obtained special permission for the two academics to visit and look for artifacts, on the condition that they travel blindfolded.

The sense of sci-fi melodrama does not decrease from there. The researchers do in fact find an artifact, a piece of material that shuts down an airport luggage scanner on the way home.

“The material looked like crumpled tinfoil that was also a type of fabric. It was clumped with dirt and debris.”

Pasulka cannot shake the suspicion that it was planted for her to find, that the whole thing was a setup. Eventually though, a team of scientists determines that the object is highly anomalous, unlike any known material on earth.

“In religious studies, this would be a miracle, either a miraculous object or a miraculous event, such as a healing. Of course, this is not how Tyler and James would speak about the site, but it is my assessment. The sites in New Mexico function as the sacred sites of a new religion… They are the places of a hierophany, where non-human beings descended to earth and left us a ‘donation’ as James, chuckling, once called it.”

A hierophany is a revelation of a sacred being, and Pasulka is not the first to make the connection between the descent of glowing saucers and glowing angels. Erich von Dänikan’s Chariot of The Gods gave rise to the cheerfully mendacious Ancient Aliens, which re-interprets almost every major ancient civilization’s religious and cultural legacy as the work of visiting extraterrestrials.

Despite the undeniable goofiness of (and racist assumptions involved in) Giorgio A. Tsoukalos’ project, the “biblical UFO hermeneutic” has become popular. Adherents point to the Bible’s more bizarre manifestations of divine presence as indications that the Abrahamic religions are built on misidentified extraterrestrial encounters. For instance, Ezekiel’s wheel, traditionally believed to be revelation of the ineffable and awful Lord of hosts, is better understood as a spaceship.

To the degree that alien religion is parasitic on established scriptures and traditions, it resembles what sociologist Daniel O’Keefe calls a magical protest sect. These sects arise when dominant organized religion feels too restrictive or lifeless. They expropriate aspects of the religions they protest, and repurpose them in ways that allow participants to directly manipulate the sacred.

Thus, there’s no need to submit to restrictive ethical codes or interact with desiccated or corrupt ecclesial bureaucracies. You can “call down” UFOs from the skies yourself, as one of Pasulka’s interviewees does. Or, like Tyler, you can develop a personal protocol that will allow you to “interface” with a higher intelligence and creative source.

“I basically believe, and there is evidence for this, that our DNA is a receptor and a transmitter,” he claims. “It works at a certain frequency — The same frequency, in fact, that we use to communicate with satellites in deep space. Humans are a type of satellite, in fact. So, in order to receive the signals and to transmit the signals, we have to tune our physical bodies and DNA.