This doesn’t make sense to me.
And when humanoids did appear on the scene, atheism existed before theism. Atheism was the original state of humanity. It would take millions of years of evolution of a humanoid brain in order for a human mind to evolve to the point of believing in Gods.
If the humanoid mind cannot comprehend a belief in God, how cannot it comprehend beliefs at all? There would be no higher thinking…it seems once there was an ability to think in such a way spirituality was common, in the conventional paradigm.
…skeptical Greek and Roman writings were suppressed and taken out of circulation for the reading public. (Interestingly, in Christian monasteries that became scriptoriums, monks copied some of the ancient skeptical documents from the Greeks and Romans. That’s how we have these documents today.)
I watched a debate between Tom Holland and A.C. Grayling that covered some of this topic. I find it amusing…either Christians suppressed knowledge of skeptical documents or they encouraged them. Well, which is it? It can’t be all suppression obviously.
I have watched a few more of Tom Holland’s interviews…it would be interesting to read the book Dominion alongside others here and discuss since we have many secular humanists to see where you disagree with his points. He called himself a secular humanist before he did his research but his latest interview basically said he calls himself Christian (nominally) because that’s what our Western culture is in its values.
Both are true. There was both suppression of knowledge and free thought as well as encouragement of knowledge and free thought among Christians and the ruling class then as today. Look at today’s events of Twitter surrounding free speech and censorship. No different now than in ancient times. Also didn’t God tell A&E not to eat from the tree of knowledge? so even God was a suppressor of knowledge.
The definition of atheism is no belief at all - none, zero. A fish can’t believe in God, therefore the fish is an atheist fish. Belief in God(s) can only come once the human brain was evolved enough to allow for abstract thought. My guess is that this evolved in humans with emergence of the Genus Homo about 2 million years ago, but abstract thought may go back to Australopithecines . If a human can have an abstract thought to plan and make a stone tool, then a human can have an abstract thought about agency or gods. Until that time, humans were atheists.
I don’t know the history to confirm. But there’s always been some tension in Christianity regarding free speech or reading alternate ideas.
This just strikes me as silly so it made me skeptical of the rest of the author’s claims or argument. Atheism seems like a conscious choice about abstract ideas. Fish can’t make conscious choices about abstract ideas.
But where they actually human then before that time?
Oh, before I forget, I would like to send you a book for you to read to your new baby. It is delightful. Let me know privately were I can ship it to.
No atheism has nothing to do with conscious choice. It is the absence of conscious choice. Theism is conscious choice. And an atheist fish is as silly as theistic evolution.
Thank you, but no thank you.
Regarding animal baby books, I recommend all 3 baby books by Jimmy Fallon. My kids loved them.
https://www.amazon.com/Your-Babys-First-Word-Will/dp/125007181X/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=dada+jimmy+fallon&qid=1610390220&sr=8-1
You haven’t proved this. Your atheism is not a conscious choice?
I am not sure what is the dividing line between what is human behavior and what is not human behavior. It has not reached any kind of consensus among scientists yet. But as more knowledge about early humans is found, human behavior is found earlier and earlier times. Humanity is at least 2 million years old.
No my atheism wasn’t a conscious choice as when I was baptized (without my consent) as a seven week old baby, I didn’t know anything about God. I went to Kindergarden and was told the Adam and Eve story. My reaction to the story was “snakes don’t talk”. I never consciously rejected God because I never consciously accepted God’s existence. To me it was always a big ruse, lie, or con. Do this or don’t do that or else you are going to a place after I died filled with fire and be torture forever. But God/Jesus loves me. Even at a young age I said “huh”. And then the nuns tried to explain the Holy Trinity to me and all I could think of was 3 isn’t equal to 1. By the time confirmation came (age 13) and I was to be made a soldier of Christ, the bishop never showed up and the sword on the shoulder thing never happened and I said “f*** it”. But I remained a good Catholic for the next 30 years, never going to Church (except on my wedding day) (and my father’s funeral mass), never giving a dime to the Catholic Church, and never proclaiming my lifelong atheism. I venture to say that there are millions of Catholic Atheists like me in America some of them very devout Catholic Atheists.
You’re right, they don’t.
Two covenants - that gets confusing. Maybe this is a bigger problem for Catholicism though, still emphasizing works.
Yes, 3 doesn’t equal 1. That’s not the Trinity. But yes, obviously hard for any kid to understand.
I have honestly never heard of this practice in Catholicism. Pretty bad he never showed up.
This is an odd practice of Catholicism to me too. In all the churches I’m familiar with, if you don’t attend, the church leaders will contact you and wonder what’s going on. So eventually you’ll either attend if you want to or formally withdraw your membership.
Oh they still contact me (and my deceased mother). For 50 years, every month and several times around Christmas and Easter, I (and separately my deceased mother) gets letters, donation envelops and all kinds of mail from the Catholic Church from local parish and also from the Dioceses. I usually throw them into the trashcan immediately as they are usually a request for a donation which would go against my father’s advice to never give a dime to a church. I did write a letter to the Bishop years ago to have me taken off the rolls of the Catholic Church but was told that since I was baptized (without my consent) in 1958, I remain a Catholic forever.
Can you sue them for harassment?
Also, that skewers any attempt to claim that Hitler wasn’t a Catholic.
I don’t so think so as I was never damaged (or abused) by the Catholic Church. I didn’t experience psychological child abuse from the bible stories although the Abraham and Issac story made me watch my father more carefully. As for getting a ton of solicitations for money being harassing, I would so no. I get tons of requests for donations from two political parties as well as both pro-life and pro-choice groups. Being an unaffiliated voter and religious unaffiliated confuses fundraisers. They don’t know what I am for and what I am against. They think that a person is either for God or against God. Having no God is like dividing by zero to them.
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