<p>feminism? uhhh...</p>
<p>as for the club, I get the feeling it would turn into weekly pseudointellectual conversation on why religion sucks.</p>
<p>i'm an atheist, btw, and I grew out of that whole atheist superiority thing years ago.</p>
<p>ILoveBrown/ Thanks for the club information and sorry to hear about what happened to your boyfriend and relatives. Aaah...that's too bad...</p>
<p>"feminism? uhhh..." = What is this? I hope you don't stereotype all feminists into one feminist model of yours.</p>
<p>As for the club, it would be so stress relieving to talk to another friend about my life. Not just on why religion sucks(by the way, religion has some very good aspects and I appreciate what it can do to people). We would have same views in many things and if the club can create a meeting place for people like me, I say whynot? And how are you so sure about "pseudointellectual conversations"? </p>
<p>Atheism isn't superior to anyone's belief. I have different stance that satisfies my kind of logic, that's all. As I hope you know, Feeling of superiority only nurtures intolerance and hatred.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>tell me your feminist values. I'm curious.</p></li>
<li><p>you don't need a club to achieve your goal. as for the pseudointellectual conversations, from my experience people pretend they're very knowledgeable in philosophical arguments, when often they act merely as parrots of things they've heard/read.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>oh and if you're following a set of beliefs, you're going to feel it's superior no matter what. HTH</p>
<p>Haha, I don't think religion sucks. Technically, both religion and atheism are logical fallacies; believing something even though you can't prove it, and denying the existence of something simply because its existence cannot be proven. I don't have anything against either; I'm just saying that believing in either of those requires a leap of faith.</p>
<p>km, atheism is the default. no leap of faith required.</p>
<p>agnosticism is the credited response, btw</p>
<p>I thought agnosticism was the default. According to the Merriam-Webster's Reference Library, an atheist is one who denies the existence of God. An agnostic neither denies the existence of nor asserts the existence of God. From dictionary.com:</p>
<p>a·the·ism
1.
1. Disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
2. The doctrine that there is no God or gods.
2. Godlessness; immorality.</p>
<p>ag·nos·ti·cism </p>
<ol>
<li>The doctrine that certainty about first principles or absolute truth is unattainable and that only perceptual phenomena are objects of exact knowledge.</li>
<li>The belief that there can be no proof either that God exists or that God does not exist.</li>
</ol>
<p>i think generally we are born godless</p>
<p>Ah, I think we're born neither, and we stay that way (agnostic), become godless (atheist), or become theists. But I guess being born neither would mean being born godless.</p>
<p>The default is atheism. That doesn't require the same kind of leap of faith. If there's no proof for the existence of something, we should act as if it doesn't exist. There's no proof of an invisible purple alien in your closet, so you shouldn't believe in one. And if there's no proof of a fire in your house, you shouldn't call 911 and run out.</p>
<p>Similarly, since there's no proof in the existence of a god (and, in fact, a great deal of evidence against the existence of specific gods due to the absurdity of religious texts), the default would be not believing in one.</p>
<p>Amor caelestis/ Presently, I don’t identify w/ any feminist sector, and I have a desire to learn what it’s about in America(thus going to feminist club @ Brown upon admission). In response to your question on my feminist value, I don’t have any problem in America(or so far I haven’t had any unfair experiences). But back in my country, most of my relatives strongly believe in traditional role of woman (i.e. supporting man in whatever they do and accepting domestic violence as default). This situation is much better now b/c our generation demanded a change in treating women, and I want to continue that tradition of breaking/antiquating conventional Confucianism.</p>
<p>I don’t know how else I should be able to talk to bunch of atheists@ Brown if some kind of meeting is not convened? I don’t know why you hate the idea of seeing a club in existence but club is for people who likes the idea of club, and if you don’t like it that’s fine with me.</p>
<p>I do agree that when we follow and choose certain set of belief, our conscious would “prefer” and feel confident on one thing over the other. But feeling superior about the set of belief system after your logic has been established would require a matter of choice.</p>
<p>Km7289/ Yes religion does not suck and to say that is a gross blunder of logic. Church can help some ppl.</p>
<p>Amor/ Not sure what you mean by credited response but no such default exists when we are all aware of human nature v. nurture dichotomy. Some people are born with tendency to believe in one religion.</p>
<p>nope, that would be parents forcing their kids to believe something</p>
<p>and you discredit all genetic factors? Some scientists say there is a "God Gene":inherited traits of religious tendency. I think the research offers credible evidence. I believe that spiritual behaviors and beliefs emerge from the brain( as well as from the environmental influence).</p>
<p>premed -- there are so many atheists and agnostics at Brown that you will probably find plenty of people with whom you feel comfortable sharing your opinions without forming a club.</p>
<p>In terms of feminism... you may find that although the United States has come a lot farther than a number of other countries in terms of giving equal rights and respect for women and other groups, there is still a significant amount of unconscious bias and discrimination. Fortunately, Brown is a great place to be a woman / womens-rights-conscious-person.</p>
<p>ILoveBrown/ Thank you so much for your insight! For years I felt like I was the only atheist in our small town. It would be ideal if I don't have to form a club to meet respecful ppl like you at Brown!</p>
<p>Feminism-- That's great to hear. I am already in love with Brown. Nothing is certain right now, but I plan to specialize in neurosurgery in the future. Since it's very male dominated area I hope I am not taken w/ their unconscious bias. Things could improve with time I guess.</p>
<p><em>Off to study ACT</em></p>
<p>A god gene is due to sociobiological factors. However, even if there is a god gene, that god gene does not push people toward a particular religion. People adopt specific religious beliefs because their parents force it upon them.</p>
<p>Parents forcing their child to believe in their doctrine is a strong cause-No doubt. So is their inborn character. There is no default whatsoever because we are not born tabula rasa; we are born with unique surroundings and genetic makeups that contributes to each of our belief system. To say that there is some kind of default religious state for everyone would be taking a great leap. We shouldn't generalize and say that we are born godless because we are born with different levels of tendency to believe in God.</p>
<p>My message got truncated above. We can't say we are all born atheist/agnostics/whatever and say our religious beliefs are give and take of environmental input. Although it may look like we use our process of elimination in deciding things, we can't neglect genetic influence. </p>
<p>The point I'm making here is that we are born with a greater tendency of becoming something(Atheist, Christian, etc). Most importantly, no default stage for mankind because everyone's starting stance is different.</p>
<p>Premed, I think they mean that like the instant that we're born we essentially don't believe in anything. Genes might make us inclined towards religion so that we may be likely to pursue a certain religion as we develop and live in our environment, but to the extent of our knowledge, there's no gene that specifically makes us followers of a certain religion at the moment that we're born. </p>
<p>iwasnotatypo - Do realize that I'm talking from a purely logical standpoint and nothing else. by the laws of logic, atheism technically does require some faith.<a href="by%20definition,%20atheism%20is%20the%20denial%20of%20the%20existence%20of%20god">edit</a>[edit/] Ask any logician - argument from ignorance: Since A is not proven to exist, A must necessarily be nonexistent - is a fallacious statement. The burden of proof lies both in the hands of those who assert the existence of A and those who deny the existence of A; there is no proof that A exists, nor is there any proof that A does not exist. Therefore, both asserting and denying the existence of A requires you to make a leap, since you don't really "know" at all. So, again, just based purely on logic, it's reasonable to question eachothers' views, but illogical to rule each other out. The examples that you've listed apply more to things like law, where it is presumed that something not proven to be true, BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT, is false. Otherwise, people could say stuff like they tripped on a rock and accidentally stabbed a person to death. For all practical purposes, we shouldn't assume that there's a giant green monster in our closets, but based on pure logic, which is the only thing that I'm talking about, you can't say with absolute certainty that the green monster doesn't exist until you prove that it doesn't.</p>
<p>Ugh, hello? Read my previous posting carefully. Wasn’t it clear that there is no specific “christian gene” or “Muslim gene” or “atheist gene?” We can’t be born with those. Just greater chance of becoming those. And that can be explained genetically in personality and logical process. </p>
<p>When we are born we are born without religious knowledge. In that sense, everyone is ignorant, NOT ATHEISTS. If you were to argue that there is no god in our unadulterated knowledge and thus we are atheists, that’s not true. Look into God-concept-creating tribal ppl. Where did that came from? If it’s not in our gene, somebody would have to educate them to worship that. And I said in my previous posting that there is no specific "GOD GENE" per se.</p>