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Comment by dollar | Hacker News Reader

For Christ's sake, is there no safe haven in this world for the unapologetic atheist? I thought that Hacker News might be the one safe zone where Jesus brainwashing is not regurgitated to the masses, but I guess not. News flash for everyone, death is inevitable, and people do not rise from the grave, whether they harbor sympathy for humans or not. Life's meaning, if there is one, is at this stage incomprehensible to human beings. If there is life beyond the grave, it definitely isn't life, and it definitely isn't what you think it is. How many more years must humanity be shackled to superstition and death fear before we fucking get over it and move on to the important work of getting off of this planet? For fucks sake...

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> News flash for everyone, death is inevitable

As far as we know there is nothing in the laws of physics about death (or life). It's all about fields and particles. Or maybe strings or loops or something else, but vitalism (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism) is over.

So death "is" inevitable only because we don't know how to prevent it.

> How many more years must humanity be shackled to superstition and death fear before we fucking get over it and move on to the important work of getting off of this planet?

I'm totally okay with space colonization but conquering death (with science, I mean) seems like a more pressing issue. After all, even if we already had space colonies people would still die.

People would still die indeed. But I think technologically our odds favor tackling the issue of colonization over death. If we remain here on this planet, death of the entire species is a certainty. That could happen a lot sooner than people think.

Most Christians I know are way more open-minded than you seem to be. Your tone reminds me of the few intolerant christians I know.

Religious discussions aside, wtf do you mean with "getting off of this planet"? Whereto? There's nothing around for TRILLIONS of klicks!

First fuck up the planet, then leave, does not appear to be a trait of highly developed civilisations. More one of perishing ones.

I don't think that's what he meant. This planet is great, we should definitely keep it and take care of it. But it is just one single planet, we should try and hedge against problems out of our control (such as big meteorites).

I vote for solving death first, or at least in parallel (we can do both at the same time); I think we could do it faster than setting up a sustainable colony on another world.

That's right Jesus freaks, downvote me to HELL!

Unapologetic atheist here. I downvoted your complaint about downvoting because such complaints add nothing to HN.

(I do share your distaste at the way some Christians have seized on this as a preaching opportunity.)

Frankly, the entire religion aspect of the discussion doesn't belong here.

As an atheist, I'm entirely fine with you finding comfort in whatever you like, even if it is completely irrational. It is your business. I also accomplish nothing by being "militant" toward people simply for believing in something. That is best reserved for situations where that belief or things drawn from it are imposed upon the rest of society. For example, in public education, science, politicians, taxation, decisions of national importance. Things where that belief impacting beyond the scope of an individual's life are forced upon everyone and on behalf of everyone.

However, it is also quite ridiculous to use this opportunity about an important topic to start telling people they should somehow convince themselves to believe in something metaphysical, because "it'll bring you peace". You aren't the Hare Krishna and this isn't the local airport. Let's leave the discussion at something like "I'm religious and find some solace and peace in my religion that helps me cope with potential mortality".

Telling people they should "believe in jesus" and linking to ridiculous books or interviews about why they should believe in jesus in incredibly self-serving, inappropriate, and counter-productive.

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