PratchettFan
Gold Member
- Jun 20, 2012
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What if someone doesn't lack religious belief? For example, suppose someone stated "I believe there are no gods." Would that person be an Atheist?
What difference does the label make?
If there is any truth to religion that can be based on modern observation, it's that there are as many different religious doctrines at any given moment as there are living souls with enough self awareness to consider the question.
Show me two people who claim to be in perfect religious synchronicity and I'll show you a one in two shot at finding a liar. Religion and personal beliefs are what makes us individuals, and religion not achieved in the privacy of ones own mind is coercion, plain and simple.
I would agree with you the lables mean nothing. That was the point I was trying to make. You don't lack beliefs simply because you define yourself that way. The lable only has meaning if it accurately reflects behavior.
I would disagree with you about religion. Faith and belief are certainly individual and I would agree with you that no two people are identical. Religion, however, is social. As such, it tends to be more about compromise. In any society more complex than a small clan, you will always find religion and government. Both acheive the same thing in slightly different manners and they are always intertwined. It's a human thing. It really has nothing at all to do about gods.