What or whom do atheists posit as their highest authority?

Yes. The actions I take encourage my belief. As you said the object of my belief remains unproven. But if I - for example - believe that if I do something good then I get something good myself, and I do something good, and retreives something good. Then the belief is not only strengthen but the object of my belief is also strengthen (or as to say the 'truth value' of the object of my belief is strengthen).

 

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So years after I die, I will magically appear in some dudes testicle as a sperm?

Haha!

 

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Cyperium, I too believe that if I do something good, or be helpful to people then they too will be good or helpful in turn. To me or others. Experience has shown that to be true more often than not. But I do it out "self interest", if you like, not out of a belief in God.
The fact that you have a belief is not proof that the object of belief exists, and neither does the fact that the belief structure works.
The reciprocation of my "goodness" only strengthens my opinin (or belief) that "if you're nice to people they'll be nice to you".
Unless you mean that if you're good the good things that happen to you will be admission to an afterlife. In which case could you explain why that is anything more than self interest with a long-term and unproven payback?

 

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more fool you then.

yes.

your actions ain't worth didilly squat.

it's not up to me, I dont have to prove anything, I'm not asserting an afterlife exists, you are.
if you dont want to prove it, then dont assert it exists, have the decency to say you dont know, you cant be sure.

 

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M*W: Your viewpoint is about as useful as tits on a frog. Atheists don't even believe in Lucifer/Satan much less consider these astrological characters have any kind of authority!

 

Christ is also referred to as the "morning star". Satan isn't [necessarily] "evil", it is the other side, the rival, of God.

Just because astrology exists in the Bible, doesn't mean that's all it is.

Satan lies dead in matter, until we make it alive with our life (spirit) by becoming its servants. When satan (the law, spirit, of matter: cooling off, paralysis, drawing inward) acts in matter (its right place and time), it is a divine law, but when it is in our mind, we become it, and the law turns into mental forms and we become cold and hard and self-centered, just like matter.

Spirit is life, matter is resistance. The law of the spirit is radiation, giving, selflessness.

 

Hogwash.

How you can say this matter of factly is baffling. I could just as easily profess that the universe is created by all sorts of quivering coloured tubes. The purple tube is responsible for creating gravity, the red tube is responsible for electromagnetism etc... I would be no more wrong than your fantasies and wild stabs in the dark.

Why can't you just say there may be a god and not pretend to know all the answers. By spouting all of this lunacy there is almost no chance that you are even anywhere close with your answers to it all. That remains the obvious flaw with all/most religions on this planet.

 

Not magically, "you" (I don't mean your body and person) are there already. The self is omnipresent in both space and time.

 

Jenyar,

Better late than never.

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Exd 22:18 Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.

The particular instance I am referring to:

“Two years later their manual, Malleus Maleficarum, was published with 14 editions following between 1487-1520 and at least 16 editions between 1574-1669.”

“It was now heresy not to believe in the existence of witches. As the authors of the Malleus Maleficarum noted, "A belief that there are such things as witches is so essential a part of Catholic faith that obstinately to maintain the opposite opinion savors of heresy." Passages in the Bible such as "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" were cited to justify the persecution of witches. Both Calvin and Knox believed that to deny witchcraft was to deny the authority of the Bible. The eighteenth century founder of Methodism, John Wesley, declared to those skeptical of witchcraft, "The giving up of witchcraft is in effect the giving up of the Bible." And an eminent English lawyer wrote, "To deny the possibility, nay, actual existence of Witchcraft and Sorcery, is at once flatly to contradict the revealed Word of God in various passages both of the Old and New Testament.”

(http://www.thenazareneway.com/dark_side_of_christian_history.htm)

* How do you see the teachings of Christianity via the Bible, through the Pope and the Catholic church not in play here?

 

Exodus 22:18 You shall not allow a sorceress to live. The World English Bible Translation

To live where and at what instance? :bugeye:

 

stretched,

The quote above is about affirming the existence of witchcraft and sorcery. That's a far cry from justifying killing innocent people for the charge of witchcraft. I'm certain you're aware that the paranoia of the time had much to do with superstition, which is condemned in the same breath as witchcraft:

Deuteronomy 18:9-11 When you enter the land the LORD your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices his son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead.​

There is nothing to stop people from abusing laws given to Israel for their circumstances (not to mention the complete senselessness of Christians applying Jewish laws as if Christ never existed), but abuse of a law does not make the law invalid or abusive. I understand your concern, and I assure you that I share it. But if someone doesn't take the commands "you shall not kill" or "you shall not give false testimony" seriously, and literally takes the law into their own hands, that's something religious and secular laws condemn. Some Christians were also killed as "witches". And you'll see that it was also Christians who brought an end to the witch trials. As the Reverend Increase Mather stated after the Salem Witch trials: "It were better than ten suspected witches should escape than one innocent person should be condemned." Any system of justice may suffer from bad judgement, not just those that pertain to God. Our responsibility is to expose it.

 

but i was just kidding.... i really like the world lunacy.... even though it s a bad word.... i didn't know it was... but i know now. and.... i like it.

 

Yeah, but this is, you know, the Modern World. Not 1500 BCE. The bible no longer applies to daily life, because things have changed. It is no longer just "okay" to kill someone just because they believe in something you disagree with.

 

Yo Hapsburg,

How come Goerge Bush can murder those that don`t agree with him at will?

 

He was legally given that power. Courts are also given the power to condemn people who don't agree with them. I don't pretend to understand America's foreign policies, but I do know it's not as simple as "murder at will".

 

Their wiener.

 

Actually, if you were to study the goals and values of Satanism, you would find that the atheists goals and values are the same. Go figure. Who's your daddy?

 

if you were to study the goals and values of Satanism, you would find that the atheists goals and values are the same.

Really? Satans' goals and values were to live life to the fullest, do no harm to others, learn as much as possible and go golfing on Sunday mornings? Kewl.

 

I can't personally say I know the goals of values of satanists. As you apparently do, I would ask that you kindly put them here so I can then see if they match up with my own goals and values. Dare to stand by your words?

 

I said I believed in an afterlife. I'm not saying I know! You don't know that the afterlife doesn't exist. Therefor you shouldn't say that you know that the afterlife doesn't exist. It is then the knowledge that is faulty - or what you perceive as your knowledge.

...and I will NOT discuss who is the greater fool!