No I'm using it as it is used in political science usage.

A cult of personality is when the media starts to portray a public figure as "more than human."

A lot of atheists around the world aren't any more sophisticated than Christians. Instead of God being at the center of worship they put in a political leader.

Cult of personality: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_personality

If you ask me atheists in the West luck out by being in Christian countries or nations that hold Christian values because they never experience the dominant cult of personality phenomena and so they think atheists never engage in worship.

I'd rather worship Christ than some dictator....Christ has much better values....He's the image of God and he endorses humility....Do you think Stalin or Mao or Pol Pot endorsed humility or kindness? Or did they prate on about them in theory with substandard results?

[QUOTE=Splendour;24236866]Jong Il-Kim (did I say his name right?),[\QUOTE]

You know, for someone who loves to sit around and google useless **** all day, this... this is just fantastic.

[QUOTE=master3004;24237170] I make a post of substance and you interrupt the thread with this garbage?

For the record ....it's Kim Jong-il.

I'm aware of what it is, and your post had no substance. You essentially compared atheistic views and communism as being the same thing. You didn't make a post of substance. You NEVER make a post of substance.

That atheists around the world engage in cults of personality is a substantive observation that is easily verifiable and thus my post above is substantitive.

The relationship between communism and atheism is a complicated one just like the relationship of religion to women's rights. You just like to overlook the complications because you don't understand them rather than admit atheists can engage in worship of political figures.

I don't take too much exception with this, although I'd add that none of the actions these men took were based on a lack of belief in god, but as you point out, cult like philosophies that had little to do with atheism. FWIW - I view religions as cults also. Some worse than others.

Nevertheless, none of this has anything to do with the point that mistergrinch was making. He purposely left humans out of it and focused only on natural phenomena.

I'm just making the point that atheists are no less immune to hero worship than anyone else.

If you were you wouldn't have favorites like Chomsky and Dawkins, etc., who's thinking you are touting all the time.

Intellectuals are important but they have feet of clay.

In Cambodia the Leftist-Communist Mao influenced intellectuals got the ball rolling under the Khmer Rouge then turned on themselves and were liquidating intellectuals on their own side as "enemies of the state". They systematically killed students and intellectuals when they weren't putting their professionals like their medical doctors out to hard labor in the fields while they let untutored children act as doctors in hospitals (true story).

Personality cults don't make sense in the Cosmist civilization I envision, because the first principle of Cosmism is our utter insignificance in the universe. The most powerful global dictator is still less than a speck of dust on a speck of dust. Cosmism isn't that different from Abrahamic religion in that sense, but it uses "Cosmos" in place of "God" and doesn't appeal to absurd biblical myths.

Space exploration is the key to our future because most astronauts who've left earth develop a cosmic perspective like this. Edgar Mitchell had a religious revelation; an Israeli astronaut emailed his president calling for world unity and peace; a Chinese astronaut admitted that he couldn't see the Great Wall from space. Imagine if every politician took a trip into space and saw our planet in perspective. It would make our current national, ethnic and religious feuds seem as archaic and petty as the first tribal battles with femur clubs in the Olduvai.

Splendour, everyone in this country has lucked out because our founders created a secular country and specifically sought to eliminate religion from government. If we had been founded as a "Christian" nation, we would not enjoy the kind of freedoms we have now. I also don't know a single atheist who puts in the kind of blind faith and absurd time commitment with any human that you put in with your god. There is a vast difference in having heroes and role models than endowing someone with your worship and credit for your very existence. You won't get a group of atheists to repeat Jonestown.

Groups of atheists have done worse than Jonestown. Check out the Khmer Rouge or some of Stalin's activities.

So has "the group" of redheads.

Jesus would count under this from my perspective. So would most of the Pharaoh and Roman Emperor God kings. Along with a bunch of other kings in human history who were viewed as Gods and counted under the pantheon of human Gods.
I wouldn't think it would be a lot. But im sure some do and i agree their idiots.
I dont think that. Atheist worship things and sometimes people.
Id rather not worship any of them.

Lol, you're hopeless. That had nothing to do with atheism. Atheism is not a philosophy. It doesn't tell you how to form a society, interact with people, perform charity or commit violence. You were talking about cult of personality and hero worship. A group of atheists won't get together and commit suicide because of someone they worship, unlike the gullible religious.

In general when it comes to religion atheist's critical thinking seems to breakdown.

I'd trust an atheist to know science or math but not on religion or religious topics.

I've just traded posts with too many atheists and they always overstep boundaries and draw parallels between groups that are not relevant then jump to conclusions based on wishful thinking or biases. They over credit between theist groups and they overlook their own problems. Since there are so few atheists not wearing the "rose colored" glasses it makes discussions with them nearly impossible.

I think atheists have "chameleon potential" just like any human group. They can change colors and or bond with various ideas. Then claim later they didn't when there are clearly atheists strung all over the globe and their atheism is aiding and abetting lots of different political movements. If the movement is an epic fail then it was political ideologies fault. But if that's the case then why don't they give Christians and other religious groups the same break?

Clearly their religious-political thinking stinks.

God's nature of man as evil is much less contradictory. God just says everyone is evil and you can expect the worst. He's not a politician like atheists are who are there to claim the glory when things go right but step out of the picture when things go wrong.

But I think they are. You are assuming that everyone living under the brutal regimes that you mentioned were were also atheists. That's an incorrect assumption.

Two things. First,
I can tell you the majority of my atheist friends have read and studied more religious scripture (Not just christian, so they aren't completely clouded by a singular worldview) than the majority of my religious friends.

And two,
This is coming from a person who IN THIS VERY THREAD drew parallels between being an atheist and being a communist monster.

Well played Splenda, well played.

You (and some others who post here), are exceptions at actually knowing a lot about the religion you practice. Most people who consider themselves religious know very little about the facts of their religion and it's true that the average atheist knows more about it than they do.

The fact is, many atheists became atheists precisely because they took the time to find out more about what it was they were taught to believe and discovered too many logical inconsistencies to continue believing. Just saying..