Wednesday, March 18, 2009

It's Facepalm Time Again


examiner, atheism, atheist, muslim, islam, asshat, religion, stupid,
Yeah, it's that time again. I'm not exactly certain what goes on at examiner.com, though not always thoughtful examination, apparently. (If you saw the hash Ray Comfort made of his examiner articles, you knew that already.)

Today I examine the Islamic Examiner's latest endeavor:

Simple Arguments Against Atheism- Part 1, by Yusuf Khan.

And yes, they are simple.

Atheism is a belief system marketed today as the 'choice' of rationalists and intellectuals worldwide. it's totally a choice. generally not made by the overly religious, though there may indeed be irrational stupid atheists. i've never met them, but i've not met every atheist in the world, either. But does Atheism even make sense? this from someone who clearly thinks Islam makes sense.

No sooner had I written this introduction in a video presentation that I was struck by a barrage of 'offended' atheists. so there was a whole crowd of atheists surrounding you as you wrote it? where were you writing it? live on pharyngula?

"Hey! Atheism is not a religion!"
"Atheism is not a belief system, it's unbelief!"
Umm..okay.
atheism is not a religion. it is obviously not a religion.

Let's examine this, shall we?

religion

1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe, esp. when considered as the creation of a superhuman agency or agencies, usually involving devotional and ritual observances, and often containing a moral code governing the conduct of human affairs.

clearly not. atheism doesn't speak to the cause or purpose of the universe, and atheists don't believe in superhuman agency(ies). we engage in no devotional or ritual observances, nor do we subscribe to some atheistic moral code.

2. a specific fundamental set of beliefs and practices generally agreed upon by a number of persons or sects: the Christian religion; the Buddhist religion.

clearly not. getting atheists to agree on anything other than we don't believe in god is like herding cats. heck, we can't agree on a symbol or a nonsymbol symbol.

3. the body of persons adhering to a particular set of beliefs and practices: a world council of religions.

again, we only share the one belief, and we don't have practices, so clearly not.

Have it your way. damn right i will- no tomatoes!

Because if that's the case then I don't know why Atheist propaganda it's not atheist thought, or atheist viewpoints, it's "propaganda". way to frame the argument, yusuf. is always found in the Religion section of most publications, including this one.

And that's the facepalm.

This is his "logical argument": if an article is in the Religion section of the publication, the subject matter must automatically be a religion. Therefore, if I put articles about Islam in the sports section, Islam is soccer. If I put birth announcements with the obituaries, the babies all die.

That's not even close to logic.

It's a little like Political articles in the Style & Fashion section of Examiner.com. But's that okay, I'll play along. It'll be fun. maybe for you, probably not for the rest of us.

So let's begin. What follows is a series of simple, logical arguments against Atheism. again, probably not.

First of all, what is Atheism? No one seems confused on the definition of their disbelief other than our Atheist friends themselves. in which case, the confusion is real and valid. by the way, how many different types of Islam are there, Yusuf? You guys seem a little confused, too.

On the surface the definition of Atheism seems to be the denial of the existence of an all-Powerful, Supreme Creator. or a lack of belief in, if you're me. i don't deny, i just don't believe. yes, i know, subtlety is dead, but i'm still trying.

However comma delving a little deeper into the quotes made by many Atheists which atheists and what quotes? confirms that a number of them do not deny the existence of God at all. Instead they seem to affirm His existence but they defy His Authority. again, how can i even address this if he won't show me the quotes? this is ridiculous.

So get your act together guys. It'll help you as well as everyone else out..a lot. it would help me if you give me the damn quotes, asshat.

Stay tuned for more: logical arguments, debunked myths. And thanks for stopping by. "more" implies there were logical arguments and debunked myths in the first place.

"examine" my ass!


5 comments:

  1. I really don't get why these people keep talking about how atheists "defy" god. I've read a number of atheist blogs for a while now and no one seems to be defying anything. I know it's not as much fun, but there you go. Atheists just seem like a bunch of folks who have the same basic organizational problems pagans do (this is what happens when idependant thinkers of any kind get together). I believe these people need to realize that "defy" and "unbelief" are not the same thing.

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  2. Blows my mind, too. You can't defy what you don't believe in. Unless we want to make an argument that Muslims defy Odin. Did you click on the link to the "symbol v. nonsymbol symbol" argument? Herding cats, indeed.

    I never thought of the similarity, but pagans do seem to have the same basic organizational issues. Probably because "pagan" covers such a wide variety of belief. You and my other two pagan favorites have virtually nothing in common in terms of belief, other than you have beliefs and they are decidedly not christian.

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  3. I read that, I love it. Personally I love the A as a symbol, because of the literary reference. It's sort of fun. But it isn't my decision.
    Yeah, most parts of paganism have as much in common with each other as we have with Islam. It's like lumping atheist and agnostic together, no one in either group knows why people do it and both probably wish people would stop.

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  4. Poking the patriarchy and the christians at the same time- good times!

    I love my pagan brethren, and, well, I view agnostics the way gays view bis- piss or get off the pot- but i can't figure out why we all get lumped together. We're not the same in that way, anyway.

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  5. it's an "us or them" thing. if you don't believe as they do, you are automatically OTHER. note how this guy doesn't realize that there ARE atheist religions, but that ATHEIST don't have a religion (again, you are right, subtle is dead) because technically Buddhism, Taoism and Shinto are atheist (well, one can argue about Shinto, because they had nature spirits, and there ARE types of Buddhism that think Buddha is a god, but that is against Buddhist teachings, so...)

    also: *meow*

    hehe

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Comments are for you guys, not for me. Say what you will. Don't feel compelled to stay on topic, I enjoy it when comments enter Tangentville or veer off into Non Sequitur Town. Just keep it polite, okay?

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