'Splain this one Atheists...

[Seth]

I have only one question.

If I stop collecting stamps, will I go to hell?

Depends. If you "believe" that collecting stamps is worth doing, then collecting stamps is your religion.
Because any belief is a religion.
So if you stop, you will go to stamp-hell. Where you get licked 24 hours a day for eternity.

No, not any belief, just beliefs held and practiced with devotion and/or as a matter of conscience or ethics.

[Seth]

Dictionaries are a great resource for the correct understanding of the meaning of words

They reference words individually that deprives them of context and it is context which ultimately
gives words their meaning. And dictionaries can not do this as they are descriptive not prescriptive
Since any word has greater relevance and understanding within a sentence than it does in isolation

And I put the words in context by demonstrating exactly how individual self-identified atheists hold beliefs and devotedly engage in associated practices consistent with those beliefs that are demonstrably matters of conscience or ethics.

Therefore, those persons meet the definition by description of their beliefs and activities that conform to the necessary descriptive elements in the dictionary.

If you walk like a religionist, and you talk like a religionist, and you reason like a religionist, and you argue like a religionist, as many if not most atheists, and pretty much ever single self-professed atheist in this or any other atheist forum do, then you are a religionist of the sect "Atheism." QED.

[JimC]

I don't need to practice my atheism.

It's already perfect.

[Animavore]

What has any of this shite you're all talking about, and whatever the other eejit is saying, got to do with the story in the OP?

[Ian]

Seth, do you have a favorite NFL team?

[Seth]

What has any of this shite you're all talking about, and whatever the other eejit is saying, got to do with the story in the OP?

It demonstrates the religious nature of the Atheist mindset, particularly with respect to "miraculous" events that neither they nor medical science can explain. Rather than saying the rational thing about the OP, which is "Interesting. I'm skeptical of the possibility of divine intervention but must admit that it's possible, given that there is no medical explanation of the event so far."

Instead they stubbornly, and religiously, avoid actually discussing the OP in a rational and logical manner because they are religiously barred from ever even admitting the possibility of some source of healing power outside of the paltry knowledge and understanding of human medicine that might display aspects of some higher power or being one might reasonably describe as "God."

[Seth]

Seth, do you have a favorite NFL team?

The one that wins the game. The other guys are losers.

[Ian]

Weak.

[Seth]

Weak.

Just indicating how little of a fuck I give about the NFL. Never did like football (either kind) and the Broncos pissed me off when they demanded a new stadium and then made me help pay for it even though I never patronize the assholes.

[Ian]

I see. Now, suppose I insisted that not being a fan of any one team, or being ambivalent or even disdainful about the whole league in general, still means you're an NFL fan. Being a fan of None Of The Above obviously still makes you a fan of something in the NFL, just like Broncos fans or Cowboys fans or Patriots fans.



We don't patronize the assholes either.

[Svartalf]

I deny being an NFL fan at all, I despise all spectator sports as a new form of the Opiate of the Masses

[Ian]

I deny being an NFL fan at all, I despise all spectator sports as a new form of the Opiate of the Masses

That still means you're an NFL fan though. You cheer for not having a favorite team just like I cheer for the Patriots. QED.

[Svartalf]

I leave you to your pathetic delusion
ISWYDT though

[JimC]

I am fucking militant about not collecting stamps!

[Animavore]

I see. Now, suppose I insisted that not being a fan of any one team, or being ambivalent or even disdainful about the whole league in general, still means you're an NFL fan. Being a fan of None Of The Above obviously still makes you a fan of something in the NFL, just like Broncos fans or Cowboys fans or Patriots fans.



We don't patronize the assholes either.

Heh. I was talking to this fine, fine ass Mauritian lady one night in the pub and she asked me if I believed in God and, of course, I said, "Nah", and she then asked if I believed in myself, and I said, "Yes." and she said, "Well then you believe in God".