Why are atheists so unhappy?

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yankee_doodle said:
no, because we know jolly old Santa isn’t real. It’s about the presents … and after Christmas sales 🙂
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Actually Santa Claus is real. Santa actually means Saint and Claus is german for Nicholas (not sure if his name is spelt this way), anyways he’s a real person, I believe he was a bishop in the 4th or 5th century if I’m not mistaken.
 
josie_L said:
Actually Santa Claus is real. Santa actually means Saint and Claus is german for Nicholas (not sure if his name is spelt this way), anyways he’s a real person, I believe he was a bishop in the 4th or 5th century if I’m not mistaken.
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point is … he’s long dead and decomposed, so he won’t be coming down my chimney anytime soon.
 
yankee_doodle said:
Here’s a link to one of my posts in another thread (on pretty much the same topic):
forums.catholic-questions.org/showpost.php?p=5630005&postcount=221
In this post I lay out one of my many objections to theism.
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I couldn’t find any substantial reasons but we’ll leave that because it’s off topic.
As far as happiness goes, I’m not really sure how that question bears on the veracity of religious claims?
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It is related to the objective value of life. If happiness is attainable it is less likely that we exist by chance.
Are atheists or agnostics happy to discover religion is not true? I guess some might be a little disappointed (like when a child discovers Santa Clause isn’t real); but I certainly can’t speak for all atheists or agnostics. As for me, I don’t think my views toward religion affect my state of happiness one way or the other (though perhaps I’m not an objective judge).
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So whether or not you survive after death makes no difference at all to you?
 
redhen said:
Right, and it didn’t physically move.

Theologically, that is a possibility. I think though everyone in the area observed that the ground and clothes dried (after an all night rain) in just a few minutes.
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Did you not understand even the Atheist newspaper saw the Miracle and believed?
 
a solar event is not a miracle (and obviously we don’t know what it was exactly, if anything remarkable happened at all, since there’s literally thousands of different accounts of the alleged phenomena at Fatima).

This is the same way I’m sure religious entities exploited events like solar eclipses before we discovered its natural explanation.

Like I said before this is little different than believing Benny Hinn really did make that guy walk when he slapped him upside his head :confused:

Oh and btw just because most newspapers are “secular” doesn’t mean they’re atheist (including I imagine Portuguese newspapers). It’s also funny how this event was isolated to Fatima (where you would think if the sun start spinning and hurling toward the earth … the rest of the world might notice). Hmmm … I have a bridge for sale, anyone interested?
 
yankee_doodle said:
a solar event is not a miracle (and obviously we don’t know what it was exactly, if anything remarkable happened at all, since there’s literally thousands of different accounts of the alleged phenomena at Fatima).

This is the same way I’m sure religious entities exploited events like solar eclipses before we discovered its natural explanation.

Like I said before this is little different than believing Benny Hinn really did make that guy walk when he slapped him upside his head :confused:

Oh and btw just because most newspapers are “secular” doesn’t mean they’re atheist (including I imagine Portuguese newspapers). It’s also funny how this event was isolated to Fatima (where you would think if the sun start spinning and hurling toward the earth … the rest of the world might notice). Hmmm … I have a bridge for sale, anyone interested?
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The truly amazing thing about the miracle at Fatima which every Atheist/agnostic seems to forget is that it was predicted to happen that day by a bunch of children no less who were told by Mother Mary. How do you explain such a thing? And the miracle of the sun was seen by others (30 or 40 miles away) outside of Fatima.

p.s. Both atheist and theist saw this miracle.
 
josie_L said:
The truly amazing thing about the miracle at Fatima which every Atheist/agnostic seems to forget is that it was predicted to happen that day by a bunch of children no less who were told by Mother Mary. How do you explain such a thing? And the miracle of the sun was seen by others (30 or 40 miles away) outside of Fatima.

p.s. Both atheist and theist saw this miracle.
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it doesn’t matter … since here’s what we know to be true. First, no one (that I’ve heard of) outside that small region witnessed the event. That means it couldn’t have been a solar event (because if the sun were hurling toward the earth, or were spinning in a bizarre way … surely there would have been millions if not billions of witnesses world wide, and scientists would have been able to study the event real time).

So the event was either a local atmospheric phenomena, something that originated from the ground in that area, or some sort of mass hysteria (that occurred for unknown reasons). Interestingly the town at the center of this controversy is shrouded in religious superstition (with an intensely strong Catholic history, with legends dating back to the inquisition during its Moorish era).

At any rate … I’m not sure what happened in Fatima, except to say there’s no reason to attach any spiritual significance to it. The thing is, as with all supernatural claims made by religion, it’s an event that cannot be repeated and therefore can never be subjected to rigorous scientific scrutiny. Moreover, as far as scientists can tell, it was a normal day as far as solar activity goes, and the event was confined to a small region of the world (conveniently a Catholic region). I guess it’s also strange that the alleged apparition of Mary the three young girls had looked more like a Viking princess than a semetic woman.

Anyway … I’ll leave you guys to your wishful thinking.
 
josie_L said:
The truly amazing thing about the miracle at Fatima which every Atheist/agnostic seems to forget is that it was predicted to happen that day by a bunch of children no less who were told by Mother Mary. How do you explain such a thing? And the miracle of the sun was seen by others (30 or 40 miles away) outside of Fatima.

p.s. Both atheist and theist saw this miracle.
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There is no logic reasoning that could lead anyone to conclude such an event was a miracle.
 
yankee_doodle said:
it doesn’t matter … since here’s what we know to be true. First, no one (that I’ve heard of) outside that small region witnessed the event. That means it couldn’t have been a solar event (because if the sun were hurling toward the earth, or were spinning in a bizarre way … surely there would have been millions if not billions of witnesses world wide, and scientists would have been able to study the event real time).

So the event was either a local atmospheric phenomena, something that originated from the ground in that area, or some sort of mass hysteria (that occurred for unknown reasons). Interestingly the town at the center of this controversy is shrouded in religious superstition (with an intensely strong Catholic history, with legends dating back to the inquisition during its Moorish era).

At any rate … I’m not sure what happened in Fatima, except to say there’s no reason to attach any spiritual significance to it. The thing is, as with all supernatural claims made by religion, it’s an event that cannot be repeated and therefore can never be subjected to rigorous scientific scrutiny. Moreover, as far as scientists can tell, it was a normal day as far as solar activity goes, and the event was confined to a small region of the world (conveniently a Catholic region). I guess it’s also strange that the alleged apparition of Mary the three young girls had looked more like a Viking princess than a semetic woman.

Anyway … I’ll leave you guys to your wishful thinking.
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In other words you have no answer for what happened, and neither for that matter does science.
 
josie_L said:
If science can answer this then it should do so definitively.
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It’s hard to definitively say what happened, as the event occurred in 1917, and cannot be reproduced. All anybody can do is offer explanations as to what may have happened.

Out of curiosity, what sort of quality do you expect from a scientific answer? What would convince you that this particular incident was not a miracle?
 
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