Think of every religion you can think of. Some of them you believe in, some you don't. If you don't believe in any of them, you are not religious. This doesn't seem like something I would have to explain. But here you come with "non belief is a religion too". You probably don't believe in Scientology. How "fastidious" are you about that? When you were a child and had not yet heard of Christianity, How "fastidious" were you then? You certainly weren't stating to anyone what you didn't believe right? But you clearly didn't believe in Christianity, or any religion, having no knowledge of them right? This idea that atheism requires faith is something that stupid people say. Religion requires faith. If you can't conjure up the faith to have theism, you lack theism and are by definition atheist. I have discussed this here maybe a thousand times. It's the most common thing ever said by anyone about anything. Every idiot on the planet thinks a lack of faith is the same as faith. Just think about how you don't believe in Bacchus. Now apply that to al the myths. As far as times when people state what they don't believe? Sure there are times. I am not a Sunni Muslim, for example. I don't have to try very hard to not be a Sunni Muslim, which is a good thing, given the current political climate. The short answer to your question is that a religious person is someone who believes things based on faith as opposed to reason. Don't say "but you have faith too, you have faith the sun will rise even before it happens". I base my expectation of the sun rising on past evidence. Not faith. Faith in this context means without evidence.
I would hope the galactic overlord wouldn't be so petty as to require insincere lip service and would just be ok with you not doing bad stuff. Or perhaps not care at all what you do.
Lets take a break from theological discussions and look at these fuckers doing it again: TERROR IN MALI: Jihadist gunmen shouting 'Allahu Akbar' launch shooting and grenade rampage in hotel, killing three and taking 170 hostage before freeing those who could recite the Koran
nevermind the 6k plus airstrikes we have conducted 4 times the rate of any other country involved in this. I get where you are going, but this is just silly fear mongering rhetoric
Why would you want to do anything other than air strikes? I don't think we should put 1 American soldier on the ground. Bomb em, if they hide amongst civilians, bomb them too. They shouldn't harbor terrorists.
Mali used to be a somewhat peaceful islamic country until 2012 when sharia became the law in the north. They have a high illiteracy rate and typical signs of sexism....girls attend school at half the rate of boys and it's estimated that up to 90% of the female population have undergone forced genital mutilation. I don't give two shits about a country that willingly abuses 90% of any of it's children. Why anyone would travel there, even for a business symposium, is beyond me. But I certainly don't wish any of them dead as a consequence.
There is a difference between a religion and being religious IMO. A person can be one without believing in the other. No. I asked the question. It seems to me that a "religious person" is concerned with promoting their beliefs, perhaps trying to convince others, loud proclamations, and an effort to define societal norms and laws to their comfort. Atheists do that too. I believe that there is a group of people who are Scientologists and follow those principles. I don't share their point of view. I also don't spend any time thinking about it, protesting Scientologists or paying for billboards to say so. My only religion as a child was USC football and yes, I was loudly stating that ucla sucked. I didn't say atheism required faith. I am saying that atheism seems to require a certain amount of effort, otherwise there would be no movement, no fund-raising, no attempts to change the law, etc. If nobody walks around all day saying they have a lack of faith, then there is no atheism or atheism movement. Unless of course you are Darth Vader. It's the amount of time and effort put in to stating what you have a lack of faith in. Unless someone asks me directly, I am never going to utter the words, "I am not a Sunni Muslim" nor am I going to belong to a group of people who gather for the sole purpose of stating they are not sunni muslims. Okay. IMO, that doesn't eliminate intelligent people. I accept that faith is something lacking in evidence. Again, that doesn't disqualify smart people from the ability to have faith for a variety of reasons and in a variety of things.
They do not because they literally have no beliefs to promote. It's not possible. Again, you were born an atheist. It didn't require effort.
I just found out that there was a League of Militant Atheists. They very devout in professing and proselytizing their non belief. Praise Google https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/League_of_Militant_Atheists
