Is there one example of a documented, atheist system for morality with at least some followers? — alcontali
Thanks for asking. You pretty much hit the nail on the head. The traditional theist is typically going to default to fundamentalism. Just like the atheist wiil default to positive Atheism in justifying their belief system. — 3017amen
It may not be ‘theism’ per se, but in my experience, if it’s *not* materialism, then it’s going to sound awfully like it. — Wayfarer
I dislike both atheism and theism because of their relationship to one another. Are any atheists not former theists? — NOS4A2
That is historically true, but not relevant to the point at hand. We are asking if you buy into the theist message or not. There’s a special term for “not” because theism was historically so dominant, and as someone who winds up not agreeing with theists as an incidental consequence of the rest of my philosophy (in my 20-chapter book on my philosophy I don’t even raise the question until halfway through the last chapter), I agree that it’s a little weird to have a special word for not holding a particular belief. But that is kind of the topic of this thread: how many of those who don’t hold that belief start out from that as a first principle and how many just happen into it as an aside, and vice versa, and also both questions for the believers too?
Yes. I was never a theist. I had basically zero idea about religious ideas until I was in my mid teens, and then when I learned something about religious beliefs I thought that people must have been playing a practical joke on me.
And what I think it means, is a relationship, or better, a sense of relatedness, to the animating principle of the Universe (whether conceived of as spirit, logos, dharma, or Tao.) So for example, when Christians speak of 'a new life in Christ', I find that intelligible, even if I wouldn't speak in those terms myself. — Wayfarer
The term “atheist” was, at least historically, a term of abuse used against those that didn’t follow the religious orthodoxy. In other words, a term invented by theists, in relation to theists. The very term assumes there is a god that one can be without. — NOS4A2
I’m the same way, I was never given any religious teaching or training and remained mostly ignorant of it until a later age. — NOS4A2
Atheism only rejects religious systems, without building anything else instead. — alcontali
Utilitarianism and Kantianism both make no reference to gods and so are entirely practicable by atheists. — Pfhorrest
Well yes, but we're clearly not talking about the same thing because it's absolutely obvious that there are - several brands of deontology, utilitarianism (negative utilitarianism, motive utilitarianism... ), virtue ethics (in dozensof different forms). I mean the vast majority of ethical systems don't involve God. So what is it you're getting at? — Isaac
I don’t see where you’re coming from with this whole “atheists don’t have systems” thing. For myself, my philosophy is extremely systemic, probably more so than is academically popular in Anglophone countries today, and I end up being an atheist as a consequence of that system. — Pfhorrest
I think that's mistaken. Modern scientific atheism, of the kind advocated by popular science commentators, is constructed from the hollowed-out shell of Christian philosophy. — Wayfarer
Modern scientific atheism, of the kind advocated by popular science commentators, is constructed from the hollowed-out shell of Christian philosophy. — Wayfarer
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