Whatever, just have fun claiming atheists are more selfish than religious people and that the highly educated attend church "more than any other group". Forgive those that draw some conclusions about your constant implications. By the way, did you know black people are on average far less educated than white people? I'm just saying is all. Don't draw any conclusions based on me bringing up that sort of thing...

That's not what i claimed.  Your drawing conclusions where they aren't.

See the post i just made in response to SciFiboy.

Also yes.  An advantage to being white is that your more likely to get an education... and a better quality edcuation at that.

You don't think that's an advantage of being white?  White people are more likely to have transitive wealth, or luck into it because white people generally date white people.  This gives them advantages in educations.

It's an advantage to being white.

I don't believe in shying away from things because it's not politically correct.

Buddhism is a religion, because even without a theistic force, there are good things and bad things that happen after you die, and ways to try to achieve the good things. This is why I'm so interested in Buddhism, because it's a religion without a G-d. And the core force in Zen in particular is actually a belief in nothing, which makes it almost close to Nihilism, even though it's the exact opposite in practice.

I think the main difference is that religions have codes of conduct for this life, based on what happens in the next life. It could be heaven or hell, or it could be reincarnation or samsara, or it could be anything. Pantheism, monotheism, and polytheism all have this in common. Atheism does not.

I don't see how you can have any religion without an afterlife. I think anything else is philosophy.

They've existed.  I believe the Sumerians or Assyrians believed this.(i forget which.)  You were created by the gods.  To live on earth and serve them to their every whim... and when you died... you no longer existed.

Very pessmistic people.

Pretty sure early judiasm or christianity (or both) didn't have an afterlife either.

oh, i think i understand you know

i have a reason to help others, which is that i think its a good thing to do and something that makes me feel good

Religous reasons do not equate to Altruism

theyre still selfish reasons, they think there good deeds will get them a reward when they die

I don't "believe" in science or have "faith" in science. I believe various things that come out of the scientific method. but I don't pray to science, I don't leave my life up to science any more than any religious person does.

The difference between buddhism and atheism is that buddhists have a large set of traditions they observe, ceremonies, religious leaders, a belief that one must act in a particular way. Things atheism does not have.

You can create a religion out of most anything, but you still have to create it. Correlation doesn't make a religion. Millions of people all over the planet eat eggs for breakfeast, these people also believe that the earth rotates around the sun, they also do crossword puzzles, and they prefer cats over dogs. Is this a religion because you can make a correlation between them?

There is no atheist code of conduct, or ceremony, or acknowledged leaders, and all "kinds of stuff". If atheism is a religion then anything you think is a religion.

Haha, even without a land of the dead or anything?  Kickass.  Well, I can still cram that into my philosophy vs. religion idea by calling it a theistic philosophy, in the way that Buddhism is an atheist religion.

And yet I don't see you posting negative statistics about the religious every time these topics come up.

I agree with mr.stickball. I think it would be fair to say that any formal group of people with the same religious theology (or lack of it) could be called a religion.

At the end of the day, if someone asked me my religion I would not say none, I would say Atheist. I'm sure many atheists would

Yep.  Exactly. 

Also well... religions are organized.  I mean there are christian charity hospitals and the like... becuase religion provides venue for a large group of people to get together, under the beleif that they should help others.

Religious people are basically a "step ahead" in this regard... since they're better organized.  If some religious goes to church every week person finds out about a charity they can mention it to their pastor give the information... then bam.  The pastor spreads it.

Every christian suddenly knows about it in the area.

There can even be donation boxes right next to where you come in... which definitly helps that it's so easy to donate.  Or the pastor could just collecte extra donations at the end of the sermon and agrees to send them in seperatly.... takes a lot of the "pain" out of it making it easier to give, and making you more motivated to give since instead of having to spend an hour checking everything out to write a donation... (which for a lot of people... isn't much since they can't afford it) you can just give 20 bucks or whatever you can afford to the pastor.