Fellowship of Reason (split off from thread about Satanism)

[salyed]

I previously posted in the "What do you think about Satanism?" thread: "I also believe that there are some "religious" type organizations that developed by adherents of Ayn Rand's Objectivism - if you are into that sort of thing."

Here are some links to the Fellowship of Reason based upon the principles of Objectivism.

Fellowship of Reason (http://www.fellowshipofreason.com/)

Wikipedia article about the Fellowship of Reason (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellowship_of_Reason)

I'm always interesting in discussions about various nontheistic and atheist-friendly "religious" (or similar in function) organizations. These include (in addition to the Fellowship of Reason): Humanistic Judaism, Ethical Culture, the "naturalistic pantheists" of the World Pantheist Movement, humanists within the Unitarian Universalist Association, "secular pagans" (who often overlap with the "naturalistic pantheists"), some of the "Satanic" organizations, the Sea of Faith (a nontheistic interpretation of Christianity - this seems to exist more in the UK, Australia and New Zealand), progressive interpretations of Buddhism, Universism, etc. (Let me know if I have missed any.)

[salyed]

Somehow my previous post never made it. Anyways, here's another atheist "religion" (although not based on Objectivism).

Church of Reality (http://www.churchofreality.org/)

[Wizard]

I think I may become a LaVeyan Satanist and a Reform Jew. I think I believe in God but he can kiss my ass if he wants me to follow his rules. I'm a free person, I'm living life the way I want to.

[salyed]

So then what would be the point of becoming a Reform Jew (and LaVeyan Satanism is nontheistic)? And why do you believe in "God" and other supernatural entities?

[Wizard]

So then what would be the point of becoming a Reform Jew (and LaVeyan Satanism is nontheistic)? And why do you believe in "God" and other supernatural entities?
Yeah, i know LaVeyan Satanism is non-theistic, I can still believe in God and do that. I'm not your normal theist, I know that God may not exist, but he's the only supernatural thing to believe in. If not that, I guess I'd be a deist or an agnostic.

[HighOnHotSauce]

And why did this split off from the Satanism thread?

[viscousmemories]

And why did this split off from the Satanism thread?
It wasn't actually split off, salyed posted some links on the other thread and then decided to make a new thread to continue posting them. Calling it a split was his idea.

[salyed]

Yeah, sorry about that. I was planning to continue any Satanism discussion on that thread and talk about other atheistic/nontheistic "religious alternatives" here. Oh well....

Anyways back to Wizard's comments.... I'm still not clear how you are justifying believing in God with following an admittedly nontheistic "philosophy" which does not believe in the Christian God as one of its central tenets (with LaVey the term "philosophy" is used rather loosely as his "Satanism" is primarily dumbed down Ayn Rand with a touch of Nietzsche - the first part of his "Satanic Bible" he blatantly plagiarized from Ragnar Redbeard's "Might is Right" and his "Enochian Keys" he plagiarized from John Dee).

I'm also interested in your rationale for your "maltheism" ("God is bad" - which could be a tentative first step towards atheism).

[Wizard]

Well, I've always liked the Jewish religion, maybe that's why I believe in God, maybe I want the afterlife rewards you get for believing in God, not sure really. All I know is i kind of believe in the Jewish God, Jesus is a false messiah and thats my beliefs. But the rules are so strict, thats why I dont like him, hes a dictator.

[HighOnHotSauce]

And why did this split off from the Satanism thread?
It wasn't actually split off, salyed posted some links on the other thread and then decided to make a new thread to continue posting them. Calling it a split was his idea.

I figured all that, I just meant it's much the same thread, in other words why did he bother to make a new thread....