Are we freethinkers to be as petty as Christians on their websites? I want to hear more about the world changing problems we might soon be facing and the unique solutions that only atheists are capable of providing. Global warming, overpopulation, species extinction, a Yellowstone supervolcano, asteroid collisions, our own mortality -- are just a few examples that we need to discuss and seek solutions for now BEFORE they are upon us. We know as atheists that our lives will be meaningless (no heaven or eternity) if we don't solve these problems that the religious believe only Jesus will solve --so they don't need to plan or think. Sorry it's late on a Saturday night. , but what do you think?
I agree with your position completely.
Yes it's a lot of pressure to be an atheist who can see see what will happen if we do nothing and yet see that without a group or country that has the foresight and capital to solve those problems, those problems will occur. I'm sure freethinker like you can see it too.
I think in China parents are limited to 2 children. If our country did that it might help with the over population of this country. It also seems our group is more concerned about global warming than the religious fools. They believe in the fairy tale that Jesus will made an 2nd appearance on Earth and that will making our planet uninhabitable one day is ok . That's another reason I left that backwards way of looking at things.
I'm for population control also but I've heard a really strange argument the other day that if we have more old people, young people will have to work harder to support the old people. There won't be enough young healthy adults to take care of both children and parents. Thoughts?
@confidentrealm That could be a problem, but I think it will eventually even out for it won't be problem for the most part. The only people who will have problem with population control will be the catholics. Due to there belief system about having as many as they can. Not many people want 5 or 6 kids in today's economy.
@freedom41 many religion beliefs focus on breeding, not just Catholics. Look at the right to lifers.
@confidentrealm depends on our progress in medicine and in quality of life for longevity.
I feel like atheists and agnostics are less shackled and perhaps more thoughtful when it comes to science and how science and technology can make the world a better, more healthful place. I think we are also less shackled when it comes to dealing with human abnormal psychology.
I do not hold the view that "only atheists" can provide some answers. Not all theists are equally judgment-impaired / limited in all contexts. There are things I can solve with most of my fellow humans, and I have a unique contribution to that based on my individual perspective and helped along by critical thinking -- of which atheism is but one side-effect.
You are however correct that if you think your imaginary friend will prevent or solve certain problems you aren't as likely to act upon them, or even to recognize them. Fortunately the percentage of Christians who literally think that is relatively small, probably sub-20% on a worldwide basis. In turn, Christians on a worldwide basis, by the most encompassing possible definition, represent about a third of all persons. So the literalist / fundamentalist mindset is not much more than 5% of humanity. I therefore conclude that I can find common cause with at least 95% of humans, most of whom have no idea I'm an atheist to begin with.
I never said that only atheists can provide helpful answers. However, there are some answers that only atheist may be able to provide basically do to their open mind and their rational and logical thought. And the fact that they look at the real world and not in terms of Make-Believe or fairy tales. For instance colonizing planets and developing nanotechnology so that we can do away with menial labor are Concepts atheist need to think about because others plan on going to an afterlife.
super volcanoes have no solution there are over 20 and if 1 goes off which they do every 100000 yrs or so it would be fairly bad news but probably not a total extinction event though life would get real hard real fast. Global warming is causing so many different problems that we are probably almost past the point of reductions in fossil fuel usage etc etc making any difference, most scientists already think we are in the 6th mass extinction so anything we now do is likely to little to late.
Asteroids are the one that almost everyone agrees its not if its when one hits, as we would need several years to put together a plan and see it through i don't like our odds and if its so big say 100kms across deflecting it may be impossible to start with also any quick look at NEO websites does not fill one with joy.
Our own mortality is currently 80-100 give or take you mentioned overpopulation so if some miracle procedure does appear in the near future most likely through crispr would it not just send us down an ever quicker route to starvation lack of water lack of habitable land etc
This irritates me about some freethinkers. We more than any other group of people have the ability to think outside the box in fact in some of these problems we need to think outside of this planet. But we dare not do that it might take too much thought into much money oops.
@HumanistSinger yes its much easier to ask questions then get angry when people actually bother to answer them im sure
@weeman actually I didn't want to use an angry symbol but they didn't have a thumbs down symbol.
@weeman by the way you didn't provide the answers merely stated the problem in detail which is which is very important to do first. Actually if the truth be told, we need to move the human population and some of the wildlife inhabitants out into space. We need to extend Elon musk's technology to the Moon Mars and Beyond and start using the materials in space to create new spacecraft and habitats before there's worldwide conflict and a natural or nuclear disaster. Seems farfetched but doable. By the way, these ideas have already been proposed by great freethinkers such as Gerard K O'Neill, Isaac Asimov, Carl Sagan, and many others. We need to make another great push for space and this time stay out there. The one thing we lack for overpopulation is space and it is all around us. We just need to make use of this vast resource.
@HumanistSinger .....
Hey... Have a GREAT Sunday!
what, atheists, as diverse as we are, should be superior in character to theists? some of us are petty and some of us are not. if you have some discussions to start (it's really hard to start a discussion with "we should be discussing this" but, you know, present the problem, or present the solution, or something) go for it. but you know, enjoying discussions about a variety of topics, some of which are vital world issues and some of which are just fun, does not make us petty. it's just human.
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Point taken. But I got your attention didn't I?
@HumanistSinger is that all you wanted? attention? feh. run into the street naked carrying a sword and get the same effect. you didn't get any more attention from me for saying something stupid than you would have for saying something smart. i answer a lot of posts.
i know this won't change your life, but i have no particular respect for your attention-seeking. in fact i rather DISrespect that. i will now turn my attentions elsewhere.
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Actually I think many atheists are mired in the same types of muddle headedness that we find Christian's stuck. Actually I don't see the problem with getting attention especially one that's part of the goal of this website. But also attention is important for the many ideas that I do think our relevant. Yes we need time to be human, but we also need to focus more of our finances and our cunning on finding ways to promote atheism all denouncing religious thought. By the way my attention seeking was win win because I do think what I said was accurate and I also manage to move move up a level as a new member.
@HumanistSinger you need. not we need. whatever. goodbye.
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I think that if you looked into it a bit further you would find that a lot of us are already involved in these issues. Many of us already belong to political parties and/or pressure groups which are trying to change the world and in most cases improve it for the majority. In addition, I think you are conflating a number of different types of issues, some of which we can do something about, others we can't. I don't think anything I do will affect the timing of the eruption of a supervolcano or an asteroid collision, but I am doing my best to bring in a government in my country that will pay more attention to global warming and species extinction. If you look at the posts on some of the groups available, you will find plenty of people keen to share their ideas on such things.