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Quote from proletaria

Fortunately, you're mis-informed.

Atheism is quite old. There are tribes in Africa who developed no ritual/religious traditions (Will Durant has written at some length on them, if you're interested) who might be considered the first atheists. As far as traditional western skepticism/atheism, that developed in the 16th century and often overlapped with (or was disguised as) deism. Many of the so-called deists of the American enlightenment (including Benjamin Franklin, David Hume, and Adam Smith) were prone to visit the Salon meetings of Paul Baron d'Holbach, who was an early and vocal atheist intellectual.

Like most of the enlightenment, it was a review of greek philosphy. Protagoras wrote, "With regard to the gods I am unable to say either that they exist or do not exist," in the 5th century and Lucretius is probably the most famous epicurean atheist of the ancient greek tradition.

It is also widely suggested that Cicero (of Roman fame) was an atheist aswell, having penned to his friend "In this subject of the nature of the gods the first question is: do the gods exist or do they not? It is difficult, you will say, to deny that they exist. I would agree, if we were arguing the matter in a public assembly, but in a private discussion of this kind it is perfectly easy to do so."

And of course, it cannot be omitted that the developement of socialism came along side a dramatic growth of anti-theist fervor in europe and asia during the late 19th and early 20th century. It goes without saying that Marx, Engles, Lenin, and other political figures of that time were quite stridently atheist.

So the idea that Atheism is a recent development is completely without merit.

I didn't state Atheism was a recent development, I'm well aware on how long it existed. What I stated was the "Atheism movement" as in when mass peoples begun to flock towards the concept. Its similarity is that of one like the "women rights movement": people have been advocating women rights for a long period of time dating back to the formation of the United States of America and even Greece but only until the late 1900s did it become prominent (and established) as mass peoples began to flock to it in support.

I may be wrong, but never in history than today have I seen a mass movement/flocking of peoples towards Atheism.

Quote from proletaria

Reactionary atheism does tend to aim at western religions more than eastern, but I think this has two root causes:
1. Most people in the west aren't familiar with hindu tradition or anything but Aberhamic religions.
2. Neither religion has attempted the ammount of push-back against science and reason as the Aberhamic traditions. In-fact it's quite possible to be a buddhist and an atheist (at least in some schools of buddhism).

That is true, but as atheism is literally "without god/deity" I would like for it to transcend other than targeting Catholicism or any of its branches.

Quote from proletaria

Few polls dispute this handily. The US Religious Knowledge Survey, released in 2010 from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, found atheists and agnostics know more basic facts about the Bible than either Protestants or Catholics. That isn't to say more of them has read the bible cover to cover, but apparently they're more knowledgable.

"Atheists and agnostics, Jews and Mormons are among the highest-scoring groups in a 32-question survey of religious knowledge by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. On average, Americans got 16 of the 32 questions correct. Atheists and agnostics got an average of 20.9 correct answers. Jews (20.5) and Mormons (20.3). Protestants got 16 correct answers on average, while Catholics got 14.7 questions right."

That's what typically happens when the majority of an entire movement target only a specific religion and its related cousins. Then you have to also take into account about the Catholic/Christian mission to spread influence worldwide, there's bound to be more religious followers unknown to basic facts than there are Atheists/Agnostics to the sheer size of today's population of religious followers. Either way, the poll results are expected given on what we have today.

But I'll take into account my perception of the amount of knowledgeable Atheists/Agnostics were wrong.

Lessons from God right here!

Quote from proletaria

Well, Deism is the belief that reason and observation of the natural world, without the need for organized religion, can determine that the universe is the product of an all-powerful creator. According to deists, the creator does not intervene in human affairs or suspend the natural laws of the universe. Deists typically reject supernatural events such as prophecy and miracles, tending instead to assert that a god (or "the Supreme Architect") does not alter the universe by intervening in it.

This may be splitting hairs, if you happen to be a deist that doesn't reject supernatural events, but I don't think this model of god (a god that invents the universe and lets it do it's own thing) leaves any room for it to be charactarized as good, bad, or anything else. Of course, it's necessarily "good," that it created the universe, but beyond that there's no transendental goodness to be had. Most people would charactarize their faith as a trust that there will be divine intervention or at least salvation for themselves, presumably for living according to scripture. I guess we can play fast and loose with the definition and say anyone who trusts anyone has faith in the most general sense, but I think in this context that's a bit misleading.

(Oh and i'm still quite eager to hear about this atheist immaturity.)

Yes deists typically reject supernatural events and any interference with God/Supreme Being. However some deists still believe in the judgement/afterlife, others the concept of soul, and some believing that everything is in accordance with a "Grand Plan" drawn up from God/Supreme Being.

That's one of the wonderful things about deism, there is no set structure and it can easily integrate with one's philosophy without interfering with the strive for knowledge and/or science.

Said concepts drawn from the ambiguity of deism is what I mean when we believe "God is good."

As for the atheist immaturity part, I do not know how to go about that without getting too controversial but I'll give it shot:

It is no question that the Atheist movement only begun just recently (the past 1-2 decades to be exact) and with all movements you have the intellectuals and the sheep, the sheep being "going with the flow" because there's a mass number of people, think of it as a "riot mentality." It may be a little harsh but that's the gist of it.

Aside from online conversations (and even then they are few) atheists in general don't know what the hell they are talking about and keep putting the blame on the Catholic Church, the Bible, etc. without even knowing what "wrongs" they did/have (not to mention all they target is the Catholic Church and its branch-offs, never do I see atheists target Buddhism or Hinduism).

For example, let's look at the Bible. I guarantee that at least 70% of the Atheists in any location (school, neighborhood, city, country, etc.) will most likely have not ridden the Bible or if they have have only decided to target specific passages and not take into account the previous or following verses from it, let alone the chapter.

Now don't get me wrong, ignorance is perfectly fine. It's the fact that people choose to remain ignorant even if they know the resource is right in front of them that really ticks me off.

Quote from proletaria

I'm not sure i'd call a deist a person of faith. All they are assuming is that something god-like does exist. They don't think it interacts with anything or anyone. They don't believe in miracles. It's entirely causal and in their viewpoints, rational.

Faith is defined as believing in the goodness, trustworthiness, reliability, etc. of something, be it a person, concept, or thing, this includes deities such as God or Supreme Being.

Deists still believe in God and believe God is good.

Quote from proletaria

I'm a little confused. Your ignorant friends, who happened to be atheist, made you re-consider atheism? Can you walk me through that in a bit more detail?

Quote from proletaria

Interesting. What about deism appealed to you more than atheism? (Note: I don't see any harm in being a deist, it's totally benign by comparison to any theistic movement.) I'm just curious.

That was the first blow yes. It made me consider atheism as most atheists are just like them, ignorant and well apathetic to learn more information about the controversial issue. I didn't like being associated with the crowd. Though the reasoning is immature it later blossomed into more well-thought out reasoning and some philosophy on my part. What personally made me a Deist was that Thomas Jefferson was a Deist (as were most of the founding fathers of America, not all) and his Declaration of Independence revealed to me that religion and science/strive for knowledge can coexist without the strife we have today.

Quote from proletaria

I'd argue more of it doesn't apply today, but I have a similar take on the Bible. It, like any other man-made morality-driven text does contain food for philosophical thought. Given it is also a common literary experience for a great many people in the western world, it also provides ample opportunity for allusion. I'm not sure it would make everyone who read it a better person, but it couldn't hurt anyone who was already a rational person.

Anyhow, I commend you on a good post. Thanks for sharing.

Well it won't automatically make one a better person, the first part is reading the second part is actually the initiative to use what you read into effect.

Anyways, happy to share

Quote from DesmondTiny

Quote from AnathemicOne

Back from my hiatus and updated the OP (with Dominion it, hell yeah).

When I get more time I will update the "Arguments" section more and add "Classic 5v5" with Dominion in "Game Modes"

Edit: Alright I've just finished updating the OP up-to-date

Why don't you mention anything about 3v3 I guss I'm the only one that did 3's up to lvl 30

Well 3v3 isn't really a game mode but a map... plus personally I don't believe it's ranked up with SR and Dominion.

But if you want I can add it

@MonkManD3

That cover scared me

Gotta play through softcore first.

However I would've played through softcore in the first place first due to me wanting to appreciate the story in its fullest without having the frustrations of gameplay weighed down upon me.

The Wizard's Disintegrate spell.

Man that's going to be fun

My head hurts

Dat Duriel, He will Holy Frost you into Oblivion.

Back from my hiatus and updated the OP (with Dominion it, hell yeah).

When I get more time I will update the "Arguments" section more and add "Classic 5v5" with Dominion in "Game Modes"

Edit: Alright I've just finished updating the OP up-to-date

Back from another hiatus from DFans and I see a religion thread that Link didn't make? Blasphemy.

So skipping over the other posts, I'll just reply to the OP (if that's okay, too late I'm gonna do it anyway).

-------------

I was baptized, raised, and confirmed Catholic, however I'm a Deist (I still haven't come out to my parents/family members on my true ideology (so yeah I still attend Catholic church)).

Why did I become a Deist?

Well going through the middle of the Catholic confirmation process I've first became an Atheist due to the gay rights movement and Prop 8 (damnit California). During said issue of Prop 8 I finally decided to read the Bible front and back, Old and New Testaments, and found specific passages I didn't agree with or just plain disliked.

Towards the end of high school I matured (in my humble opinion). In my personal group of friends most were Atheist and the others religious. The ones who were Atheist I realized what I name the "ignorant Atheists" as in they just kind of went along with it. I was fine with it at first but as I began to expand my knowledge about the controversial issue of religion I realized that I wasn't going to have any meaningful conversation with my current friends, so after high school we drifted apart (I'm in contact with like.... two I think?).

I specifically chose Deism because of my English class in Junior year because we were taught a bit about Deism during the middle of the first semester. I was interested and onto further research into it, it seemed like a viable and perfect ideology for me.

As for the Bible, it's a good book. There's a bunch of lessons you can learn from it, however one must read it with an open mind. If you read critically and/or literally into it then you're depriving yourself of its true message. In short, the Bible is a moral book written in an early time period and meant for that time period. This means that there is going to be some writings that don't apply to today's society, but at the same time there are some writings (in fact many) that can apply to today's society and chances are will make you into a better person.

I think I switched mains from Lux to Akali.

Akali is just so satisfying and fun to play, like a more viable Katarina.