Is Neo-Atheism The Way to Go? [Poll]

[gumpzilla]

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Let me get this straight... That's not enough?! Being barred from gaining high office is acceptable to you? Would you accept this condition for gays, blacks, or any other group?

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Being black or gay isn't a belief system, so I think this is a dumb comparison. To say that atheists are the most maligned group in America, when this seems to be the extent of their suffering that you can come up with, seems absurd to me.

[Lestat]

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Let me get this straight... That's not enough?! Being barred from gaining high office is acceptable to you? Would you accept this condition for gays, blacks, or any other group?

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Being black or gay isn't a belief system, so I think this is a dumb comparison. To say that atheists are the most maligned group in America, when this seems to be the extent of their suffering that you can come up with, seems absurd to me.

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Skin tone or gender is not a pre-requisite to being a minority. I very much disagree. It is not at all absurd. There are very important issues at stake (stem-cell research comes to mind, as does abortion and birth control), where our leaders cannot admit to being guided by rational reasoning. A politician cannot say for example, "It is ridiculous to think that a blastocyst has a soul, because for one thing, there are no such things as souls!".

[gumpzilla]

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There are very important issues at stake (stem-cell research comes to mind, as does abortion and birth control), where our leaders cannot admit to being guided by rational reasoning. A politician cannot say for example, "It is ridiculous to think that a blastocyst has a soul, because for one thing, there are no such things as souls!".

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And yet plenty of politicians who are ostensibly religious are in favor of legal access to abortion, over-the-counter emergency contraception, and embryonic stem cell research. I'd imagine you could find a decent number of atheists who are against abortion and embryonic stem cell research, too, as the soul is obviously a red herring for that discussion. (EDIT: That is, I'm pretty sure you could find non-theists who still think it is murder to kill an embryo because it is in some sense a living human, soul or no.)

[Lestat]

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There are very important issues at stake (stem-cell research comes to mind, as does abortion and birth control), where our leaders cannot admit to being guided by rational reasoning. A politician cannot say for example, "It is ridiculous to think that a blastocyst has a soul, because for one thing, there are no such things as souls!".

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And yet plenty of politicians who are ostensibly religious are in favor of legal access to abortion, over-the-counter emergency contraception, and embryonic stem cell research. I'd imagine you could find a decent number of atheists who are against abortion and embryonic stem cell research, too, as the soul is obviously a red herring for that discussion. (EDIT: That is, I'm pretty sure you could find non-theists who still think it is murder to kill an embryo because it is in some sense a living human, soul or no.)

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I'll concede you have a point about there being reasons other than religious ones to be against things like stem-cell research and contraception. But there's no denying that religious tenets make up the bulk of the opposition. So it is anything but a red herring.