<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">These PERSONS didn't commit their atrocities<span> </span></span><i style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">in the name of</i><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"><span> </span></span><span class="gmail-il" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">atheism</span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">. As I said, they committed them for other reasons, usually to do with gaining and holding on to power over other people.</span><span class="gmail-im" style="color:rgb(80,0,80);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial"><br></span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">.<span> </span></span><span class="gmail-il" style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial">Atheism</span><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"><span> </span>is not a belief system. Surely you understand that   Ben Zaiboc</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"> Think of a belief system as like totems.  If you are a member of a tribe which has a totem, you are a member of a group that has a large number of beliefs and rites and other actions associated with that totem.  The same is true if you are both Baptists, Roman Catholics, Jews, and so on.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">Now think of meeting some stranger with whom you are sharing a table at Starbucks.  You strike up a conversation and find that both of you are atheists.  What other points of similarity are there?  Perhaps none at all.  There are liberal and conservative atheists, authoritarians and libertarians, and so on.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">If in fact you have no similarity with that other person than that you are both atheists (and maybe for very different reasons), then I say that atheism is not a belief system.</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline"><br></span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:comic sans ms,sans-serif;font-size:small;color:#000000"><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:19.2px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;float:none;display:inline">bill w</span></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 5:03 PM, John Clark <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:johnkclark@gmail.com" target="_blank">johnkclark@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><span class=""><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif">On Tue, Aug 7, 2018 at 1:23 AM, Giulio Prisco </span><span dir="ltr" style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"><<a href="mailto:giulio@gmail.com" target="_blank">giulio@gmail.com</a>></span><span style="font-family:arial,sans-serif"> wrote:</span><br></div></span><div class="gmail_extra"><span class=""><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">></div></span><i>Atheism IS a belief system</i></blockquote><div><br></div></span><font size="4">So is the multiplication table.  </font><span class=""><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex"><span style="font-size:12.8px"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">> </div><i>when it becomes militant and intolerant.</i></span></blockquote><div><br></div></span><div><div><font size="4">If I say believers are imbeciles that is not being intolerant, I'm just expressing my opinion and the believer is perfectly free to say the same thing about me.<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> </div>Pelting somebody with words is not violen<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline">t</div>, pelting somebody with rocks is; and so is burning somebody at the stake, a favorite pastime of the pious. <div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"></div></font></div><div><font size="4"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"><br></div></font></div><div><font size="4"><div style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif;display:inline"> John K Clark</div></font><br></div></div><div><font size="4"><br></font></div><div> </div><div><br></div><div class="gmail_quote"><br></div></div></div>
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