This is one of my favorite videos of Sam Harris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3KG5s_-Khvg&feature=related
The second half is about Harris' particular weirdness but the FIRST part is a really good argument IMO about the "atheism" label. He starts at 4 mins and the relevant argument ends at about 24 mins.
Here is a good quote at 21:45
"Why should we stand obediently in the space provided? Why should we stand in the space carved out by the conceptual scheme of theistic religion. Its as though our opponents, before any debate, have drawn a chalk outline of a dead man on the side walk and we just walk up an lie down in it.
Instead of doing this, think about what would happen if we simply use works like reason and evidence. What is the argument against reason?"
I am increasingly accepting the term atheist for myself because I think Harris' argument is not practical. But it is worth talking about.
Its a good video, well worth watching the whole thing.
ABE: Sorry 1.61803 meant to reply to post 1.
Edited by Jazzns, : No reason given.
BUT if objects for gratitude and admiration are our desire, do they not present themselves every hour to our eyes? Do we not see a fair creation prepared to receive us the instant we are born --a world furnished to our hands, that cost us nothing? Is it we that light up the sun; that pour down the rain; and fill the earth with abundance? Whether we sleep or wake, the vast machinery of the universe still goes on. Are these things, and the blessings they indicate in future, nothing to, us? Can our gross feelings be excited by no other subjects than tragedy and suicide? Or is the gloomy pride of man become so intolerable, that nothing can flatter it but a sacrifice of the Creator? --Thomas Paine
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