Comments on: The Atheist’s Mistake

By: john of england

john of england — Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:08:09 +0000

cant believe people are stll,going over old ground,with this old chestnut,,,,,, i think therefore iam,,,,athiests are correct,,,,,we knoe every human being is here for a reason,,,,athiests belive in something,the folly of religion, come on how much further do we have to disect,someone for their beliefs,,,,,reaction or creation,,,,,,,instead of trying to talk out who is right and who isnt,,,why not make a mental intent to heal the guy,,,,action speak louder than words,,,,it is my intent that he gets better

By: mr phira chuon

mr phira chuon — Mon, 23 May 2011 02:08:04 +0000

athiest, is a belief system itself.
You cannot escape what is in front of you meaning the universal law of love, hate, peace, and happiness you have to ask why we are here? and your purpose.

By: Brian Downey

Brian Downey — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:47:09 +0000

Half the world believes the metaphors are truths and call themselves Theists while the other half believes they are lies and calls themselves Atheists; they’re neither, they’re metaphors.
The problem with any type of “ism” is that the opposite of whatever the belief is becomes the” enemy” or “incorrect/wrong” in reference to ones perspective. Neither religion nor atheism is the problem and the more accurate argument from both sides would be the fact that rigidly clinging to any belief and becoming a fundamentalist about it is where the conflict begins. This is exactly what the philosophy of Non-judgment was trying to achieve. As soon as the mind comes to a conclusion about itself and its relationship to the world the seed of conflict has been planted and one will inevitably encounter people, places, and things that will stir up their mind and create conflict. Not coming to a conclusion as to who & what you are and therefore who & what others are can be very difficult but is possible; it seems like a weakness to ones intellect and the mind can’t help but take a stance which may or may not do us in as a species at this point in the journey. If we can’t enter a dialog with each other without the assumption that we are right and they are wrong then we are doomed. It’s are choice.

By: Mother Lightning

Mother Lightning — Tue, 17 May 2011 19:38:55 +0000

Wow, that was quite a conversation, & an important one in the realm of creating world peace. All opinions are to be respected. What I found interesting was that when the names of the sages were mentioned, I don’t recall a woman amongst the lineage. That in it’s self is very telling, of a world view that has continued for humankind.

In Peace Always,

Mother Lightning
of[thepeacegarden.blogspot.com]

By: Andrew Norris

Andrew Norris — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:22:42 +0000

Beachbum: same as Vijay

By: Andrew Norris

Andrew Norris — Tue, 17 May 2011 11:18:56 +0000

skchgo: Deepak loves this guy too, it’s at the heart of what he is about.
Bill: the letter was released in the public domain and the ability to reply to what it said is fair.

Ace: you totally can grow as a person as an athiest, but you will miss out when it comes near to death and at other testing times was I think what Deepak was saying
Vijay: not a belief, but a feeling and an open mind. I ask you this: what moves att the atoms and particles according to laws of physics? Many siritualists do not believe it is God that does this, rather that you are God, all is God, one entity of consciosuness that is effectively dreaming up all of this world and the laws of physics.

By: Beachbum

Beachbum — Mon, 16 May 2011 20:11:22 +0000

It’s called compartmentalization, to hold contradictory views in one mind. To believe anything … well as Hume put it: “A wise man proportions his belief to the evidence.” —David Hume

I think that the mistake you, Deepak, are making in your appeal to authority is that you assume intelligence is the marker of a fully and correctly functioning mind. A quick perusal of any number of studies on psychopathy will soon quell that conviction.

What you do not seem to grasp is that inner growth does not come from pretend knowledge (spirituality; the fat that grows around intellectually lazy pretend knowledge that must be strenuously worked off before any actual learning can begin), nor has it ever. Growth comes from actual knowledge. With the our expanding knowledge and comprehension of our connectedness to the universe we (atheists, secularists et al.) have been able to put away segregationist ideologies. We are not Protestant or Catholic, Black or White, human or animal, even a delineation between animate or inanimate has become fuzzy. We are all star dust. And the most amazing part is that we get to know about the universe. For the first time, to our knowledge, the universe gets to apprehend itself, through us.

Through the imperfect minds of some of those you list above, where you claim atheists haven’t walked with them, comes the basis of actual knowledge. It is you who has thrown the blanket generalization over these philosophers and thinkers. It is their ideas that are weighed in the free market of ideas, upon which the US was founded. With the useful information gleaned and the rest shelved with the mindset of their respective eras. Then you follow this erroneous claim with a totally false claim.

“Could anything be more subjective for a crowd that DECRIES subjectivity?”

Subjectivity, in the context you evince it, is the backbone of atheism. An individuals view based on evidence and experience. Just exactly like an atheist’s understanding of morality as being culturally innate, subjective and not delivered from a supernatural insight or revelation.

It is interesting to watch you do your mental gymnastics and contortions, though. Unfortunately, you’ve become all too obvious.

By: skchgo

skchgo — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:41:10 +0000

I’m an Atheist and find it ironic that Deepak Chopra needs to talk about an “Atheist’s Mistake”. If anyone has made a mistake its Deepak himself. Who is he trying to convince and what exactly is he trying to convince people of? I’m sorry but its very hard for me to take this man any more seriously than any other “spiritual leader” (have you seen how much he charges at a retreat?) As an Atheist, I believe in all people, I believe in loving everyone even your enemies and if that’s from scripture then so be it, religion does not define me. What defines me is the way I treat people. My rationale is I don’t need to become a Christian, Catholic, etc to understand the difference between right and wrong, I know them instinctively. As an Atheist, I’m also against the celebration of death, such as the way people have celebrated Osama bin Laden’s death so let’s please not make a blanketed statement about Atheist’s belief or lack there. I think its safe to say almost all organized religions have caused more death and destruction in the world than any atheist ever has, enough said.

By: Lorna

Lorna — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:08:36 +0000

My Father was an atheist, He was also a highly Intelligent man reading ‘The Complete works of Shakespeare’, ‘Tolstoy’s War and Peace’ and the Bible at the age of ten! He also married an Irish Catholic, He once sat me down to explain that if ‘God’ was all around us then there’s no need for church’s or religion(as he believed religion and politics were too closely aligned) because if you need god he’ll be there and hear you no matter where you are. He advised me,to always let my conscience be my guide, if I could do one nice thing per day throughout my life; then my life would have been worth living. In later years I came to understand why he felt this way, when my sister died at seven weeks old in Malta; the church told my Mum that my sister had died with ‘a sin on her soul’ because she hadn’t been Christened so they’d bury her amongnst the orphans. So my Father approached the naval service’s ( he was a serving sailor) Consequently my sister Diana was buried amongst the servicemen overlooking the ocean in Calcara, I miss him because whilst having his own belief’s he afforded us the freedom to find ourselves. I do not follow religion, but I do believe in the spiritual self and the oneness of us all

By: asa

asa — Mon, 16 May 2011 19:07:08 +0000

You’re making this grandiose sweeping attack on rhetoric and the rhetorical arguments of atheists (neatly stereotyped) using a heap of rhetorical arguments. You spend almost this entire letter setting an image of atheists being immoral/indecent/false(ly informed)/idiosyncratic/subjective(ly-hateful) and ~bad~, in a general manner, so that you can make random claims seem more viable. That’s rhetoric.
“…no one takes seriously that atheists are founts of decency and morality while sincere believers are all servile and superstitious.”
It might slip by some, but if you’re looking for rhetoric, that’s it right there. You subtly imply that your opponent is a bad person. Nowhere did you mention that believers were being called less moral or decent, just servile and superstitious. You implied that atheists are indecent and immoral all by your lonesome. That’s classic ad hominem.
Truth is definitively not an ambiguous thing. If you’re trying to be more subjective, you’re failing to do so by applying this definition of truth (seemingly as something obtained from a spiritual journey) to the words of someone with a very different definition and intended/implied use of the word. Atheism is much closer to being the opposite of existentialism than being synonymous with it, since atheism is based, in the case of Mr. Hitchens, on analyzing existing evidence, observations, and science.

By: CeeBee

CeeBee — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:31:37 +0000

What is it called when someone uses a cause or agenda, noble or ignoble, to, conciously or subconciously, rectify/rewrite personal traumas? I know thats terribly wordy, sorry. I just suspect unacknowledged and ungrieved issues when such singular closeminded views persist, ie Hutchin’s dogmatism. I wish I knew the term…

By: Orion

Orion — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:15:02 +0000

Beautiful article. Well written and fair. To all “love is the answer”. Funny with athiest friends, they cringe at the slightest reflection of love. Its all about their intellect and ego. They say “question everything” and hold no credence in anything but logic. Kind of like the Tin Man in Oz. No heart so they might as well dance. When an athiest dies and goes to heaven, he asks God to see his birth certificate and when God does not produce it, a new conspiracy is created. 🙂

By: Vijay

Vijay — Mon, 16 May 2011 18:00:08 +0000

To believe in God or anything else is easy , you need not know anything you can just believe.

To deny something, to refute something including GOD belief you must know it all and beyond..
How much we know about our own body, how much do we know about the evolution of life and the universe. We know a lot, but what we do not know is much much bigger..
A starting point will be to read “Deepak chopras Quantum Healing” and The “Holographic universe Michael Talbot.”
How can Atheism exist then..

By: Ace DeNiro

Ace DeNiro — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:45:13 +0000

The problem with this article is that it implies one needs a religion to grow as a person. I don’t think atheists inherently have an aversion to the teachings of religion. I think the term better suited for this article would be anti-theist.

By: bl

bl — Mon, 16 May 2011 17:16:23 +0000

i”m not sure that all atheists are denying the fact that jesus or a number of profits actually lived, it seems the dispute is the way it is interpreted as a biblical threat to those who do not follow scripture to their letter. hitchen’s outrage initially was about the terror instilled in the hearts of children and adults and the justification to kill another for dissimilar beliefs, grown to a rant that many consider at least interesting to listen to from a well educated and gifted debater.
there have been many profits most greeted with skepticism and often hate,
but if the message was love and not violence, it is the same message.
joseph campbell had the same type of humor in listening to fanatics speak with authority of the wrath of the afterlife,
it was ” religion is the misunderstanding of poetry”.
love should be the point.

By: heartphone

heartphone — Mon, 16 May 2011 15:08:39 +0000

The wonderful revelation with any article is that it has sprouted from a field that is able to hold every possibility in itself.
Everything we can imagine, think of or intuitively feel, it all is an expression of something so much greater than ‘we’ can ever comprehend.
Thanks in all humbleness!!

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:20:06 +0000

The problem with this article is he was writing a letter to other atheists. Why are you reading it. Leave the world alone your not right ether

By: CynicFan

CynicFan — Mon, 16 May 2011 11:01:56 +0000

Even Atheism is a religion; it is a firm belief in the negative existence of a higher power. It draws followers and adherents.

While I feel that man has created God in his own image, I’m not adverse to any system that helps people understand their place in the universe. Whether it be prayer, meditation, chakra, massage or other method to reach an awareness of body and mind and the wide universe, I’m all in favor of it.

I am strongly against any organized religion, because shortly every single one becomes tainted by the passions of man and loses its purpose.