Favorite books / What are you reading?

I'm currently going back-and-forth between NON-STOP by Brian Aldiss (slowly discovering the SF genre for myself, it's been great) and TELEGRAPH AVENUE by Michael Chabon. So far every character in each book is completely unlikable, but the prose and settings are pushing me along.
 
Akratus said:
Nas92 said:
Akratus said:
BigBoss said:
atheism is also considered a religion, though
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wut
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He means the militant trilby-wearing (or fedora, or whatever) atheism. Many people consider that a religion.
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Well I disagree. I would say it's mere zealousness.

Anyhow, I just read Dan Abnett's The Armour of Contempt and Only in Death. I love Dan Abnett, but I always notice huge continuity errors, but I guess that's partly the fault of WH40k's ever changing lore.
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I really love 40k. I was reading the Horus Heresy, but even for someone who is in it purely for the lore, as I don't even play the game itself, I have my breaking point. The series simply goes on for too long, and the novels aren't interconnected enough. I'll jump back into it in the future, I think.
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I don't know the details since I've never studied Atheism (there's different sects. Like those one people who believe they're going to be reincarnated into a plant or whatever), but I know it's officially classified as it's own religion/belief system. I believe the US Supreme Court even had a ruling on this once whether someone could classify Atheism as a religion or not.
 
Yes, but only for the purposes of the first amendment. In everything but a legal sense, it's not a religion. Come on, it's in the name, even.
 
Atheism is NOT a religion. Atheists do not believe, period. Just think about it for a second or two. Unlike religions, atheism in itself has no content: there's no philosophy behind it, no story with morals and rules, no rolemodels, no authorative text, no place of worship, no rituals, ... nothing. Atheism explains nothing and it sure as hell doesn't tell you how to live your life. Any two atheists can differ as much from each other as a muslim differs from an Amish farmer, simply because there are no guidelines for an atheist to follow. No story to tell each other and find comfort in. No nonsense to swallow. In fact, the only thing that atheists are guaranteed to have in common is the lack of a religion. So yeah, ha. :roll:

Whatever it is you're smoking, BigBoss, it's not doing you any good. And atheism now has different sects as well? Dude. No.
 
AlphaPromethean said:
Started reading Greg Bear's Forge of God.

I stopped reading shortly after.

What a horrifyingly boring writer.
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Greg Bear was one of the Asimov fanfic writers that got published. My brother actually read all three of the books in the "Second Foundation Trilogy" (written by Bear, David Brin, and Gregory Benford) and from what he said they really pissed all over the entire Foundation universe. So yeah, he's an overrated writer.
 
alec said:
Atheism is NOT a religion. Atheists do not believe, period. Just think about it for a second or two. Unlike religions, atheism in itself has no content: there's no philosophy behind it, no story with morals and rules, no rolemodels, no authorative text, no place of worship, no rituals, ... nothing. Atheism explains nothing and it sure as hell doesn't tell you how to live your life. Any two atheists can differ as much from each other as a muslim differs from an Amish farmer, simply because there are no guidelines for an atheist to follow. No story to tell each other and find comfort in. No nonsense to swallow. In fact, the only thing that atheists are guaranteed to have in common is the lack of a religion. So yeah, ha. :roll:

Whatever it is you're smoking, BigBoss, it's not doing you any good. And atheism now has different sects as well? Dude. No.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Concepts

AlphaPromethean said:
Started reading Greg Bear's Forge of God.

I stopped reading shortly after.

What a horrifyingly boring writer.
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Read my book then. Action picks up after the first chapter.
 
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BigBoss said:
alec said:
Atheism is NOT a religion. Atheists do not believe, period. Just think about it for a second or two. Unlike religions, atheism in itself has no content: there's no philosophy behind it, no story with morals and rules, no rolemodels, no authorative text, no place of worship, no rituals, ... nothing. Atheism explains nothing and it sure as hell doesn't tell you how to live your life. Any two atheists can differ as much from each other as a muslim differs from an Amish farmer, simply because there are no guidelines for an atheist to follow. No story to tell each other and find comfort in. No nonsense to swallow. In fact, the only thing that atheists are guaranteed to have in common is the lack of a religion. So yeah, ha. :roll:

Whatever it is you're smoking, BigBoss, it's not doing you any good. And atheism now has different sects as well? Dude. No.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Concepts
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What? That people have this obsession with categorizing things? That they've come up with different names for (different varieties of) things? That things aren't black and white, but shades of grey? That -isms come in flavours? What? Most of the stuff described there is usually referred to as agnosticism anyway. I think I'm not inventing anything when I say that an atheist generally does not believe in the existence of god(s). And if he does, he generally doesn't know what atheism really means. And the part of that Wikipedia article you've linked to isn't exactly going to make him much wiser either. If you start at the top, however, you will find that the article basically repeats what I wrote earlier. In much more detail.

If you really think your asinine statement, that atheism is a religion consisting of different sects, is worth a discussion, then you're not going to be wasting my time, friend.
 
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Might as well contribute to this Atheism discussion seeing as that's the direction this thread is derailing to.

This is coming from an Agnostic, by the way.

My stance on the definition is that Atheists don't believe in God, that's it.

There's no religious culture surrounding it, I wouldn't say it defies the point to say it does have some, since Athiesm has no "point" per say, it's simply a state of being.

What I will say is that I wouldn't blame anyone for mistaking that it is a form of Religious belief with the amount of pop-culture and attitude that has come to surround it (The culture made correlation between Atheism and Science, which by definition doesn't really exist, Atheism is simply a term for a lack of belief in God.There are no pre-assumed ties to Science.)

The pop-culture surrounding Atheism (especially on the Internet) has, ironically, gained an almost Religious aspect to it.

So no, Atheism is not a Religion. I wouldn't blame anyone for mistaking it as one though.
 
BigBoss said:
Yeah see, for me it didn't start out so much as a hobby as it did simply a path to find myself and seek Enlightenment. To me, enlightenment is simply learning the truth, and acting on it. Some may take their whole lifetime to achieve it, others may do it in days.

Anyways, I'd always be happy to share some quotes from my notebooks with you. For example, I based my own religion off what I call the Five Great Realizations:

• While god exists, your primary objective is not to worship him, but treat your fellow man with love and humility. Worshiping god should be of secondary importance. (It is also not necessary to worship god, only follow the path of Dharma. Worshiping him simply speeds that path up).
• Our spirits were born from God, and our spirits will return to him in the end. We must seek Enlightenment in our time here on Earth to reach God or we will simply be stuck in a state of reincarnation until we do so.
• The world's major religions are simply different paths to the same thing, Enlightenment. This path is known as Dharma, and it is through Dharma that we achieve Enlightenment. (I sometimes include the Eightfold Path of Buddhism in this one).

Anyways thats three of the five.
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Oh no, it didn't start like a hobby at all, I was partially joking about that one - it just seems to me like some sort of hobby. In my case, I wouldn't label it as seeking the path of Enlightenment - the cynic in my is doubtful this is achievable in my case - but seeing it as a certain way of making some sense of the world and myself in it - that would be all right. I suppose that's a sort of enlightenment in its own way, but nothing grand.
I do not believe I will reach it though...whatever I'm looking for.

Thank you for sharing these.
They are somewhat conflicting with my own beliefs when it comes to certain details, but in practice is similar. I should read more on Far Eastern religions though.
 
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BigBoss said:
Atomkilla said:
They are somewhat conflicting with my own beliefs when it comes to certain details,
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Like which parts, explain?
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The spirits returning to God part is something I don't exactly agree with - I do not believe there is an actual return to God in any form because I do not believe that we have ever left God (or that God has ever left us) in order to return - nor do I believe that not doing so will result in the indefinite reincarnation process. I take the reincarnation process as indefinite in itself, as long as there is Universe/God.

However, as I've said before, I would not to know more about Dharma in order to actually make any sort of argument. Me not seeing eye to eye with one of your Realizations is probably a fault on my part - simply because we are not looking it from the same perspective, due to my lack knowledge of your beliefs' background.
That being said, I also haven't said anything specific about what I believe in, so there's not much point in (potential) arguing...
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Place_to_Hide_(Greenwald_book)

No Place To Hide by Glenn Greenwald. It's about Edward Snowden and the whole exposing of the NSA spying etc. The beginning of the book deals with how Snowden contacted Greenwald and they eventually met and the ball began rolling. Interesting book, not sure if it's perfect though, the book could have been refined. Also the ending seems a bit tacked on and short, as if they wanted the book to get to the printing machine fast. Not really my favourite book but deffo an interesting read for me, an individual who isn't super computer savvy. Good to know about these things, NSA and it's cohorts is a pretty scary organisation.
 
Reading Black Blizzard by Yoshihiro Tatsumi which I will probably finish later this evening. It's a 127-page manga about two convicts, murder, love and secret identities, but the most amazing part is that Tatsumi finished it in 20 days. I'm not kidding. In the back of the book is a short interview with him in which he says so, adding: 'Back then I generally needed a month and a half to produce one book-length manga, so this was quite fast.' As if a month and a half isn't incredibly fast as well. It was his full-time job, sure, but it still blows my mind. Reading his stuff makes you feel like a total amateur. :(
 
127 pages in 20 days for a comic book/manga? Wow I can't even tell you how lazy that makes you look when it comes to you're drawings :grin:

No, but seriously. That's not bad at all.
 
Tagaziel said:
BigBoss said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism#Concepts
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Are you seriously arguing that atheism is a religion? Seriously?
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You're a bit behind, that discussion is over. On a related note, however, I just realised that Wasteland 2 treats atheism as a religion, since there's a "None" and an "Atheist" option. I'm guessing it's because of the God's Militia, and the Temple of the Titan.

Anyhow, not sure how this relates to the topic, but I'm planning to buy an ebook reader (not Kindle, too expensive in my country) to read the ebooks on Gutenberg. Anyone had experiences with them? The epub versions on ereaders do look better than the crappy HTML versions, right?
 
Nas92 said:
You're a bit behind, that discussion is over. On a related note, however, I just realised that Wasteland 2 treats atheism as a religion, since there's a "None" and an "Atheist" option. I'm guessing it's because of the God's Militia, and the Temple of the Titan.
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My bad. I don't think Wasteland 2 treats it as a religion, but simply bunches it along with possible religious orientations. It's called Religion because "Attitude to religious movements and/or the concept of deity (deities)" would be a tad long for the UI, don't you think? :)

Anyhow, not sure how this relates to the topic, but I'm planning to buy an ebook reader (not Kindle, too expensive in my country) to read the ebooks on Gutenberg. Anyone had experiences with them? The epub versions on ereaders do look better than the crappy HTML versions, right?
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Yes. Should work without a hitch.

gutenberg is awesome.
 
You could also try using the Kindle app, or FBReader or another e-reader app on your mobile phone or tablet for a while (if you have those). Not quite the same as an e-reader, but works pretty well -- and means you don't have to buy yet another separate device.
 
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