Indeed, and some of them are posting here. At least you and I agree on something.

MG: “If you were to tell me ANYTHING, anything at all, I’d ask for evidence and proof.”

Martin, there’s more than one approach to knowledge — and here’s a word *you* might want to look up: “epistemology.” If you categorically reject all approaches other than your own — well, there’s a word for that too, which we’ve already covered.

B: “An atheist *is* statistically an agnostic”

I’d suggest doing a better job of educating yourself before returning to to this discussion. Odd that you consider yourself an atheist, yet I’m the one who has to introduce you to what atheism actually means. Teh Internets never fail to amaze…

Thanks DR for posting on some meaningful things.

So you’re agnostic about gravity? Agnostic about the fact that the world exists outside your mom’s basement? An atheist *is* statistically an agnostic - the words are not exclusive, you moron. Go read what Martin Grondin wrote.

Atheist: disbelief in god(s)
Agostic: no knowledge of a god

Some atheists may be quite zealous and will not allow questioning, and I’d be just as adamant and questioning towards them. I know that personally I question myself all the time. That’s the hallmark of a rational, logical mind. If you were to tell me ANYTHING, anything at all, I’d ask for evidence and proof. Crime statistics in the US shot up? I want proof. If you told me an Earthquake hit Atlanta, I’d want proof. If you tell me there is a God that loves me and sent a human sacrifice for my sins, I want proof.

I hold religious beliefs to be the same as any other. There is nothing fundamentalist about this. There is nothing fundamentalist about requiring evidence for all claims, regardless of how religious it is.

Satire, mockery, and the like are forms of questioning, doubting, and advancement. I find it funny we find no problem with ridiculing flat earthers. It just so happens that some claims have never really been shown to be true… and we have to move on instead of endlessly arguing.

Dude, you make this too easy. May I suggest you at least learn the difference between atheism and agnosticism. Then, you can ponder the issue of your own fundamentalism…

Listen to Martin Grondin - you could learn a lot.

Go look up atheist in a dictionary (a really Good Book btw), I think you’ll find it means the absence of something rather than anything fundamentalist. If an atheist says they are certain that they are right then they are simply not an atheist - it’s merely saying they have no faith of a supernatural stats juggler. Only theists have the luxury to say ‘I believe this’ without being questioned.

So, quick test - I am happy to say ‘I think it is possible but unlikely that the world was created by Mike Arrington’. Will any religious people join me in this statement? Ah, yeah, thought not - now that’s how fundamentalism works you see?

@Bob - your mind is small and your horizons are limited. Just because you can’t imagine possibilities beyond whatever is intuitively presented to you in a limited education then you make some incredible leap ‘of faith’ for a ‘Santa Claus’ to explain it. Go look up the term ‘Celestial Teapot’ in Google. (God didn’t make Google either btw)

I imagine you don’t know how your Fox News TV really all works, so you think it’s all divine intervention? Just because something isn’t intuitive to you doesn’t give a 50/50 chance that an enormously complex God figure has made everything you see possible (and, of course, listens to your abstaining of personal responsibility in ‘prayer’).

My Work Here Is Done.

On behalf of People2Pray, thanks for the post! Ironic…I’ve created numerous “commercial” Web 2.0′esqe sites and was always trying to figure out how to get them on TC, but it never crossed my mind to try to get P2P on here.

The smug self-righteousness of fundamentalist atheists matches nicely with their more religious brethren.

Please stop playing the victim. There is a marked difference between attacking ideas and beliefs and attacking people. Questioning someone’s faith and beliefs is valid. We question each other on every other issue. Faith is just another thing that we can question.

It is not intolerant to question beliefs. It is not intolerant to ask someone why they believe Mary was a virgin. Or ask why they believe in Jesus instead of Attis or Mithra. The Easter season has been celebrated for millennia before Jesus supposedly set foot on Earth.

What is intolerant is demanding that others not question beliefs while waving the flag of victimhood. It is quite possible to have a civil discussion without resorting to personal attacks. What is also intolerant is demanding that your personal belief system be the only one recognized and demand that it be recognized in a fashion that you personally wish to see fit.

We can’t please everyone.

The post had a nice composition of links for the God fearing and the godless, can’t we just leave it at that? Are feelings really hurt when the “tone” is slightly dismissive? Do you get as indignant when they take a particular tone against a certain company?

@Allen: “anti-evidence anti-logic virus of the mind” … just how do you think the micro and macro level complexity that is evident in even the most casual observation of the physical world came to be?

Can you propose any systemic view that accounts for said evidence as well as the proposition that all that we see was purposefully created, with intent and care?

Of course not, as it take a far larger “leap of faith” to believe that we are all the result of unguided stochastic processes.

That’s one of the bigger ironies when it comes to many of the current “discussions” of the interplay of faith and reason … those that ostensibly uphold the sanctity of reason usually implicitly omit any actual reliance on defensible reason … in reality usually relying on a secular religion of belief in statistical impossibilities, defended by caustic personal attacks.

It’s just silly, and not very constructive.

Bob

We’ve been running under the radar beta testing a new social prayer site at http://www.kindlejoy.com, and I guess this is as good a time as any to see what the TC crowd thinks.

Thanks for the *ultra* nice comments. It’s like a fireside chat with Nedward Flanders himself. Hi-diddly ho, neighborino!

With you being so nice and all, it’s certainly making me have a good rethink on all that ‘Dark Ages’ period stuff, those centuries of cultural misogny, that ol hatred of homosexuals, the ages of education suppression and that whole ‘creepy pedophile priest vibe’ that’s been going on recently.

If we put aside all the pain, wars, hatred and ignorance your and other’s misguided faith/stupidity has caused, then I’m sure we can find some middle ground.

I am sure we are just alike, it’s just I happen to believe in one less god than you - the math makes us almost equal eh?

Happy Easter Gabe - but please don’t procreate.

It appears that I am fasting from both food and grammar today. Oh well :).

That’s unfortunate that some of the ‘meanest, most petty and viscous people’ you know seem to have faith. I’ve met many that are quite the opposite.

Happy Easter Bipper.

TechCruch is the best in class at writing about web 2.0 companies. Go here to see a list of companies, like Apollos, do……

Oh well, there are worst things in life. Hopefully people will read this comment…but unlikely. I love TechCrunch anyway. Nothing else compares.

Hey Duncan, update the post with a line about us…you know you want to.