"Without a Creator, there is no POINT to ANYTHING. You may as well take out a gun and shoot the person next to you in the head after the pretty sunset is over."
"No!" you said..."I shouldn't do that."
Here in the UK, guns are banned, so that is very unlikely. Americentric much, Inkabink?
"Why not?"
"Cause I wouldn't want to kill anyone!"
Simple Humanist/Atheist philosophy. Also because it'd be impossible for me to do so (the crackdown on guns in the UK, post-Dunblane, has resulted in criminal gangs sharing the few guns left in circulation)
"Why not? Who cares about life and death? There's no point to any of it. You're just a bunch of nicely-arranged random molecules anyway. So are the rest of us."
If that's your attitude, then it says so much about the right-wing Fundamentalist mindset. With the emphasis on Mental.
"Ok, then, I wouldn't do it because it would bring sorrow and pain to their family and friends. And it's illegal! I'd go to prison!"
Again, common sense Atheistic logic. Also proves we value life far more than you fundies,.
"So shoot yourself after you're done shooting them. Problem solved."
I can't (even if I could) Like I say, guns are banned here in the UK. And frankly I'm glad they're banned here. So there's your argument shot down in flames (pun may or may not be intended).
"Or heck, just go ahead and go to prison."
I don't think there's a law on the statute books that makes not shooting someone result in a custodial sentence.
"What do you care what happens to you?"
Because I do. Unlike you, apparently.
"You're NOTHING, lol."
And your use of 'lol' in your argument immediately invalidates everything you say. Because it shows you don't care (otherwise you wouldn't be sarcastic in a discussion that doesn't, nor justifies, warranting the use of such).
"You're just a happy freak accident of the universe."
Still doesn't mean I can't be civilised to my fellow human beings. The Golden Rule, and all that jazz.
"And who cares about "sorrow and pain"? It's all just freaky chemical reactions in our accidentally-created brains anyway."
So you like sorrow and pain? You perv.
"Emotions aren't "things". They're just abstract concepts."
Rather like your 'God'. But at least emotional states exist.
"It's all just a bunch of chemicals and neurons and such. None of it matters."
Neither does the man-made concept of religion. The Golden Rule exists. 'Be Excellent To Each Other'. Your point?
"And what's this about "illegal"?? Who gets to say what's right and wrong, anyway?"
Something called the Rule of Law. Legally enforceable guidelines voted upon after being discussed & drawn up, by people voted in periodically by we the people. In a democracy. Y'know, where you live. As opposed to, say, a theocracy such as Iran or Saudi Arabia.
"There's no such thing as "right" and "wrong" because there's no ULTIMATE AUTHORITY! Laws were made up just to help society run more smoothly."
See above. So why aren't you living in Iran or Saudi Arabia? If you can answer that the only way possible, you've just answered your question. You've also destroyed your own argument.
"Morality is a bunch of bunk."
And here is the most telling sentence. Ever hear of Timothy McVeigh, Inkabink? He was a devout Fundamentalist Christian. And yet, despite his own Christian Morality, he blew up the Alfred P. Murrah building in Oklahoma City, murdering 168 people, including 19 children. He had a 'Creator', yet, he did that. What was stopping him? There was a Christian who didn't care about life and death.
"No! I'm not shooting anyone, especially myself."
"Why not"
Because I can't use a gun. I live in the UK. DUUUUUUH?!
"I want to stay alive! I like being alive."
"Why? The world is pointless. You're pointless. Life is pointless. The world is full of pain and hate and misery and struggle. Why not just end it and get some nice, empty, no-more-brain-activity peace?"
So why aren't you out there, doing something to make the Human Condition just a little bit better eh, Inkabink? Join a Christian voluntary charity such as Christian Aid or the Salvation Army? The fact you're not says so much about how you care.
"Atheists believe a lot more about God than they will ever even comprehend."
Or mayhaps our morals are infinitely superior. And at least we Atheists exist. We certainly know more about your beliefs than you fundies do:
'Know your enemy and know yourself, and you wil not be imperiled in a hundred battles'
-Sun Tzu, "The Art of War"
Which is why you & your fundie ilk will never win, in the grand religion vs. secularism scheme of things. The fact that this world is so secular & modern - but civilised - means the war has already been won.
I could murder a man/woman/child, but I choose not to. I could rape a man/woman/child/goat, but I choose not to. I could become a walking pharmaceuticals lab, via taking any & all controlled substances known to man, but I choose not to. I could become a walking brewery/distillery, by drinking myself into an early grave, but I choose not to (Getting drunk just once served as the perfect aversion therapy, thanks; I drink in moderation since then). I could smoke myself into an early grave, but I choose not to.
You see? One can live a sensible, reasonable life by making sensible, reasonable choices.
Making choices. The ultimate freedom. No 'God' required.
I could become a raving, rabid right-wing Fundamentalist Christian like you, Inkabink. I choose not to.
And there's not one fucking thing you can do about it. What are you - a supposedly 'moral' right-wing Fundamentalist Christian - gonna do to make me choose otherwise eh, Inkabink?
Put a gun to my head?
