danielsangeo

What I'm saying is that, if a sperm and egg were allowed to conjoin, then a zygote (human/baby) would result. The arguments against abortion state that, if allowed, a baby would result. I'm saying that arguments against abortion are the same as arguments against contraception....or arguments against "wasting sperm" (see: ). I think all the arguments against abortion are equally silly. And then equating abortion to murder is just disgusting.

Atheism is the lack of belief in deities. Atheists are those those that don't believe in deities. If you "don't believe in beliefs", that's something different from atheism because atheism deals strictly with the belief in deities (and not having said belief). You're right that it might seem a bit excessive to have a word for people who don't believe (as people who aren't lawyers) but you have to understand that theism is a deeply ingrained thing far beyond someone's chosen profession. This is about worldview itself. And even that wouldn't be sufficient if there weren't a campaign of proselytization inherent in many religions. I have been told, flat out, that I really DO believe in God and that I'm just lying when I say that I don't. I have been told, flat out, that I am going to suffer greatly if I don't believe. I have been told, flat out, that I am an immoral sonofabitch because I don't believe. I have been told, flat out, that I hate the God that I don't even believe exists. I have been told, flat out, that Christianity is the way to go and that America and her laws should be Christian-based, so no gay marriage, no naughty words on TV, nothing that would upset the delicate sensibilities of the poor, persecuted Christians that oppress anyone that they don't agree with. It is this really aggressive smear campaign against atheists (or other non-Christians) (at least in the United States) that have created the atheist movement and what is, in my opinion, harming many religions from Christianity to Islam. You don't hear many attacks on Judaism or Buddhism from atheists and there's a gigantic, elephant-in-the-room reason for this: They don't generally proselytize. If this proselytizing didn't happen, you probably would not even know the term "atheist" or would only be vaguely aware of the existence of the word.

Contraception stops the natural progression of sperm and egg to zygote. If killing a zygote is the same as killing a baby, then surely, contraception is murder.

If it isn't akin to, say, organs in the body, then so is sperm/ova and it isn't right to kill them. How dependent they are on joining is irrelevant in determining whether it is morally right to kill them. Because, y'know, without both working in concert, a "growing, developing entity" wouldn't exist.

It's possible that, by the end of Freeman's Mind (o noes!), Gordon will be so fed up with things that he decides to accept G-Man's offer to bring a sense of stability back to his chaotic life (after being on Xen for so long and fighting Nihilanth, y'know). Finally, a human being again! Then he wakes up on a train to City 17.

Just to do a bit of shameful self-promotion, I have transcribed and uploaded the subtitles for this part to the Subtitles forum.

For those that don't believe in God because they've never heard of Him, or don't believe in any gods because they've never heard of the concept are still atheists because they don't believe in gods. They are also agnostic because they don't know.

He could mention the scope when he actually decides to use the weapon. I snickered at his aggravation that it was Xylazine and not something he could use. Especially after the cage fell into the water. And that damned barnacle.

No I believe properly in greek it would be apolytheism. A doesn't mean lack of it means without in ancient greek. So atheism is actually "Belief without God" Actually, if "a" means 'without', then it's "without belief in god". A-theism. A, without. theism, belief in god. Actually, it would be "without belief in many gods". The suffiix "ism" is applied to "theos", not 'a'. Aismthe? That sounds weird in my mouth.

It might be a "growing, developing entity" but it isn't "its own". It's still is a part of the mother. If life only begins at conception, then sperm and ova aren't alive.

Thanks, MartinX! Updated!

Canada, Sweden, Denmark or the United States. But I was born in the United States, so.... I've visited Canada and it was pretty neat. Sweden and Denmark also sound awesome but I've never been there.

Actually, we do know enough about evolution to definitely prove that we've evolved from more primitive forms. We can know how theur brain works, but not their concept of morality. You can't get that from a brain scan. Only with a deep discussion with the subject can you get to that. It's like looking at the grooves of a record and knowing that individual shapes in the groove will produce certain sounds, but it's not until you hear it that you can understand if it's someone talking, someone singing, or perhaps a musical instrument playing. But, back to abortion. Life is a continuum. It doesn't 'start' at conception. It 'started' eons ago and conception is merely another stage. If you want to go the Biblical route, Genesis states that man did not become a "living being" until God breathed the "breath of life" through Adam's nostrils. Therefore, until Adam was able to breathe, he was not a living being. If you want to turn this into a parable on abortion, then, until they breathe, they aren't "living beings". Me, personally, I wait until they separate from the mother through birth/Caesarian. It's what every human being on the planet has done. Prior to that, it is a part of the woman and it is the woman's decision what to do. If the government can't trust a woman to make a decision as large as this, then what else should the government tell women they can't do?

What I'm saying is that there's only so much we can learn from direct monitoring of brain activity. You state that we are the only ones capable of perceiving right from wrong in a way that most other animals are not. We don't know enough of about other animals to make that statement yet.

Atheism is made of up three parts. theos = God/deity ism = suffix making former "belief" Therefore theos+ism=Theism (belief in gods or deity or deities) a = lack of Therefore a+theism=atheism (lack of belief in god or deity or deities). Agnosticism, meanwhile, deals with knowledge...or, specifically, the lack thereof. Easy way to remember it: "Do you believe in a god?" If Yes, then "theist" else "atheist". "Do you know that god exists?" If Yes, then "gnostic" else "agnostic". I am an agnostic atheist. I don't know and I don't believe. I don't know the term (if there is one) for the belief there is no deities. Like I said, some atheists might believe there's no deities, but that's not atheism. I just don't know what it is. Let's come up with one! Atheismism?

We were talking about morality up to this point, not abortion itself. It has to do with morality because it was stated that other animals (non-human animals) do not have morality and that, since we do, we are obviously separate from the animal kingdom. But we're not. When I say that we "created morality", I'm saying that these are a set of 'laws' ('thou shalt not kill', 'thou shalt not rape') that we created to define what is "good behavior" and what is "bad behavior". Other animals may or may not have these itemized lists. As for scientists studying animals, have we been able to decipher the songs of whales yet? How about the chattering of dolphins? The meowing of cats? The barking of dogs? Is there a bird-to-English dictionary I could look at? We only believe that we have these "morals" (which make us separate from the animal kingdom) because we only understand human languages. We can't speak the language of any other species...yet. But we can communicate with our closest cousins through sign language.

Read a bit more carefully. We are all animals. We don't think and reason like the blue whale and the blue whale doesn't reason like us. And we and the blue whale do not reason like cats and dogs. I am not saying that there's no morality. I'm saying that morality is something we created to define natural behavior and that good morals (natural behavior) are those that help the species survive and thrive and bad morals are those natural behaviors that are a detriment to the species (such as murder, rape, etc). Also, I don't know of any study that states that humans are the only ones with the ability to think or reason in a way to discuss morality. Do you speak dolphinese?

No. Atheism is the lack of belief. Agnosticism answers to a different question. Atheism is the lack of belief in deities. Some atheists might believe that there are no deities, but that's different from atheism.

Nah, I don't think there's a contradiction in my argument. You stated, point blank, that only humans can reason and think. Science does not say this. Now you backtrack and state that they "can't do it to the extent we can". I think trying to compare humans with other animals if a fool's errand. We think and reason differently from other animals but that DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE'RE THE ONLY ONES THAT CAN THINK OR REASON. Sorry for the caps but I felt the emphasis was needed. We cannot think or reason as the blue whale can just as the blue whale cannot think or reason like us. You're comparing apples to oranges here.

I almost fell out of my chair at "FUCK YOU, FISH!"

Wait, how do you know that? In other words, what we think are "human morals" or "morality" is just nature.

Sorry for the little off-the-rails "rant" portion... felt like Cave Johnson for a second there. Also, atheism isn't a belief. It's a lack of a belief. As I keep saying. Additionally, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons. I don't push religion away. I would love to be religious and believe in God and all that stuff, but I see no reason to believe.

Yeah, I don't see a reason why they would do something like that.

Sounds about right to me, do you have a different opinion? Yes, so far I think that there is no ultimate goal in life. You live. But that is a pretty pathetic thought as I am not smart enough to know that and the chances of that being true are just as high as anything else. The betterment of our species seems quite frankly as just another religious type of belief to me. Just something to give you meaning as the atheists say. Great. What's wrong with "meaning"? Goals are something we humans made up, so why can't goals be what we want them to be? I'm not going to be religious for the sake of "not knowing the truth". I'm also not going to "believe in a higher power" simply because it would give me comfort against my complete lack of knowledge. So, I'm going to focus on what I know and CAN know. I'm going to ride that rollercoaster. I'm going to fly on that plane. I'm going to get involved in sociopolitical and religious discussions against idiots on the Internet. I'm going to possibly help subtitle Freeman's Mind episodes! I'm going to watch videos on Accursed Farms! I'm going to play the Black Mesa mod when it comes out! I'm going to get a job in computer animation! When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these?! Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give ME lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man who's gonna burn your house down! With the lemons! I'm gonna get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down! .....oh, wait. Sorry.

Well, considering that there are other non-human animals that possess traits like monogamy, concern for the well-being of other members of their species, and other such things that many would consider "human morality", perhaps "morality" isn't something for humans but something that we just invented for ourselves.