15th March 2003, 6:12 PM
Perhaps I didn't explain myself well enough... I was attempting a bit of a train of logic there. I meant only what I said. I never meant "All athiests are suicidal". Sure there's all those things to live for, which is exactly my point. Creatures have desires that make them want to live. Those that do not go extinct. Why do things want to live? What kind of instinct would say "I want to live, I don't want to live as well"? No, you wish to live, yes? That's why we have reproduction. Things that don't reproduce go extinct. Desire to live obviously includes desire for immortality. So long as life goes on this will ALWAYS be a desire that can NEVER be removed from ANY creature's mentallity without making it cease to desire living at all. Remove the desire for immortality is impossible without removing the desire to continue living at all. It may be supressed, but it's there, and it's the entire reason for scientific endevors. We wish to "go on". That is why humans desire religion. Religion is promised immortality we have thanks to our imaginative abilities. The only way to remove religion is to remove our imaginative abilities OR our desire for immortality. You can't destroy either one without destroying what it means to be human. Thus, I submit to you, religion is a part of humanity.
That is my point. Athiests suicidal? Hardly! My point is that they are hiding from their own humanity.
That is my point. Athiests suicidal? Hardly! My point is that they are hiding from their own humanity.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)