Re: virus: Does God really exist?

David McFadzean (morpheus@lucifer.com)
Mon, 19 Aug 1996 23:46:58 -0600


Lior asserted:
> >Atheism is a religion. It is based on a certain axiom on the existance
> >of god, just like any other religion.

And Wade T. Smith replied:
> This sort of seewaw play with the language is fine for a useless Sunday
> morning, but atheism is an approach to _life_, not an approach to magic.

Instead of just relegating Lior's position to useless Sunday mornings,
it may be more fruitful to give it a charitable reading and ask in what
sense it could possibly be true. Obviously most self-proclaimed atheists
react indignantly, if not violently, to the suggestion that their
school of thought is just another religion, the implication being that
it is no better or worse than any other. But what if, as Lior suggests,
a religion is redefined as any meme-complex based on a stance about the
existence of god? Does this new definition shed any light on the issues
at hand? Maybe, maybe not, but at least we can criticize the argument
on its own merits without dismissing its author out of hand.

--
David McFadzean                 david@lucifer.com
Memetic Engineer                http://www.lucifer.com/~david/
Ideosphere Inc.                 http://www.ideosphere.com