Americans United for Seperation of Church and State. Association for Science and Reason. Atheism UK. Britain's only distinctively atheist organization. Our sole objective is the advancement of atheism. From this, we have derived our key principles, which in turn inform our policies and strategies.
Atheist Alliance International. Atheist Community of Austin. Atheist Foundation of Australia. Atheists for Human Rights.
Atheist Society Melbourne, Australia. Scepticism about the gods was good, it provided a sphere for political dissent for people who wanted to criticise Rome implicitly. As the Roman empire became increasingly difficult to govern, there was a strong motive for those in power to find an ideological force that could hold the people under imperial control.
Christianity proved particularly useful for this purpose. The Theodosian code was instituted in the fifth century CE, and represented a vast shift away from the old model of Graeco-Roman polytheism. Now, religion was not an infinitely expandable series of cults dedicated to multiple different divinities; all doubt was heresy, and all beliefs except Nicene Christianity were punishable by death.
This is an invigorating, urgent book that makes an important contribution to a central contemporary debate. There were no ancient equivalents of wars using religion as a premise the crusades or jihad. Whitmarsh also reminds us that disbelief comes in many varieties. Democritus the atomist — who lived in the fifth century BC — seems to have had some kind of belief in the gods: he thought that people see gods in their dreams, although they have no explanatory function for the workings of the material universe.
Gods exist, but they are irrelevant for scientific inquiry. Democritus was not an atheist in quite the same way as Hitchens, but he was no fool, and he was certainly not brainwashed by religion. Battling the Gods: Atheism in the Ancient World review — disbelief has been around for 2, years. Read more. Topics Religion Book of the day History books Classics reviews.
Reuse this content. At the end of the day, both existence and non-existence turns out to be opinions. Neither of the arguments had ever been proved. So, what is Maya and what is truth?
Those two entities are so fluid, it is so hard to even differentiate between them! Let me search for a better one. The idea is to more methodically consider the major arguments of the atheists and try to understand their arguments better and so respond better. KRS said:. Click to expand Atheists Argument against first cause argument: "The main problem of the First Cause Argument is the idea that every event has a cause. Raghy said:. I wonder if atheists can accept that something can come into existence miraculously, why they find it difficult to accept the logical first alternative?
Dear Raghy Ji, Thats the effect of Maya. Dear Sravna, Actually nothing is a miracle. Everything has a logical explanation.. Yes Renuka, but the problem is it is contrdictory in a fundamental sense. Therefore it is just not the question of acquiring knowledge. I get what you mean. Ok I will give you an example.. Lets take the case of materialization of Vibuthi for example.
Some gurus and rishis are capable of this. Believers might say "Oh it's a miracle of God" Non believers might say "Its fraud" Logical explanation is anchikarana Grossification of the 5 elements to form a physical object.
But since this cant be proved scientifically due to the lack of ability to detect subtle elements Tanmatras.. Just to add.. I do not want to "convert" anybody. We all are intelligent people here, and come to our own conclusions.
Like Mr. KRS said I too would not post in this thread. No Renuka you are missing the point. The argument is fundamental. How can something exist without a cause? This is not a question which would find a answer after research and development. You understand what I mean? Dear Renuka, The answer is the first alternative which I mentioned in my earlier post which is Brahman is timeless.
We are not trying to convert karunanidhi or raja by writing what we know about them. Hindus along with parsis and jews do not convert. Hindus are less rigid about 'no entry' compared to the other two. Even when allowing conversion to augment the fast dwindling population was discussed last year, the religious heads refused to approve conversion by marriage or by choice. Sanatana dharma theists do not hate atheists but leave them alone. I do not want someone else to explain my belief system what ever that be.
Sorry Mr. Sarag, you misunderstood my word "convert". I am not a zealot about my belief. What I meant was just as I want to be left alone with my faith in Brahman, similarly I would leave an atheist with their belief system.
Sarang you wrote:. Similar threads A. Locked Let us try our best to get married -by stotras. Replies 8 Views 8K.
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