Now I have to say I'm a complete atheist, I have no religious views myself and no spiritual views, except very watered down humanistic spiritual views, and consciousness is just a fact of life, it's a natural fact of life.
The Big Book__ chapter We Agnostics draws a line in the sand: God either is or He isn__. What was our choice to be (Alcoholics Anonymous, 53)? Nature abhors a vacuum and a state of nothing can__ exist in either the material or spiritual world. This kind of binary thinking made sense in the autocratic world of 1939. But in a democratic, pluralist society, all-or-nothing thinking is a cognitive distortion__ philosophical assumption that everything is right or wrong, good or evil, superior or inferior. In this millennium, people can hold opposing views and be equals in the same community. Our Traditions, lovingly and tolerantly, make room for more than one truth. That__ a good thing, because the only problem with the truth is that there are so many versions of it.
Beyond Belief: Agnostic Musings for 12 Step Life: Finally, a Daily Reflection Book for Nonbelievers, Freethinkers and Everyone
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The Big Book__ chapter We Agnostics draws a line in the sand: God either is or He isn__. What was our choice to be (Alcoholics Anonymous, 53)? Nature abhors a vacuum and a state of nothing can__ exist in either the material or spiritual world. This kind of binary thinking made sense in the autocratic world of 1939. But in a democratic, pluralist society, all-or-nothing thinking is a cognitive distortion__ philosophical assumption that everything is right or wrong, good or evil, superior or inferior. In this millennium, people can hold opposing views and be equals in the same community. Our Traditions, lovingly and tolerantly, make room for more than one truth. That__ a good thing, because the only problem with the truth is that there are so many versions of it.
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The only differences between a cult and a religion are the numbers of adherents and the degree to which they are marginalized by the rest of society.
People see the cleverness of nature and suppose it's the cleverness of the animal itself but it was obvious to me that each and every segment of the animal isn't aware. How much I'd hate to live totally unaware of myself, I thought. What would be the point of living, of existing, if you weren't ever to know about it? I looked at the Fox Moth and pitied it, poor unconscious creature. But then, I supposed, at least it wouldn't be disappointed. It would never find out.
Evil_doesn__ mean doing things that have bad consequences for people. It means private thoughts and actions that are not to __he Christian majority___ private liking.
[Religion is] a fantasy [and is] completely empty of any explanatory content. It is also evil.
We advocate the atheistic philosophy because it is the only clear, consistent position which seems possible to us. As atheists, we simply deny the assumptions of theism; we declare that the God idea, in all its features, is unreasonable and unprovable; we add, more vitally, that the God idea is an interference with the interests of human happiness and progress. We oppose religion not merely as a set of theological ideas; but we must also oppose religion as a political, social and moral influence detrimental to the welfare of humanity.