Was Socrates an atheist?

[reasonvemotion]

After The Trial. To the Jury who condemned him he spoke thus

"Now it is time that we were going, I to die and you to live; but which of us has the happier prospect is unknown to anyone but God."


This speech would seem to affirm he believes in God. Yet it doesnt seem reasonable to accept he was a believer.

If he did believe, which of the three explanations would best apply.

1) because he is compelled to;

2) because he wants to enable goodness;

3) out of self-interest, or

4) he was an aethist

If you believe the last, he was an aethist, why did he in his last hours refer to "God".

[Atthet]

It would have been Zeus, or another pagan god, not God god.

[thedoc]

It would have been Zeus, or another pagan god, not God god.

That would make him 'not an atheist'.

[Atthet]

That would make him 'not an atheist'.

Atheists don't believe in the Christian God, because this god is invisible. The pagan gods were not invisible, and were defined. They had personas, and clear definitions. Atheists today make no case against Hellenic and Roman paganism. The very idea of "god" is changed from then. In Judeo-Christian dominated western civilization, we cannot compare the Jewish and Christian idea of God, with pagan theology.
The two sets of god, as defined and meaningful, is completely different. So the postmodern atheist cannot speak against pagan theology. The pagan gods are humanized, and depicted in images, and stories. This is opposite of Judeo-Christian theology. Atheistic conceptions of godhood cannot apply equally to both sets of culture, monotheistic or polytheistic culture.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

That would make him 'not an atheist'.

Atheists don't believe in the Christian God, because this god is invisible. The pagan gods were not invisible, and were defined. They had personas, and clear definitions. Atheists today make no case against Hellenic and Roman paganism. The very idea of "god" is changed from then. In Judeo-Christian dominated western civilization, we cannot compare the Jewish and Christian idea of God, with pagan theology.
The two sets of god, as defined and meaningful, is completely different. So the postmodern atheist cannot speak against pagan theology. The pagan gods are humanized, and depicted in images, and stories. This is opposite of Judeo-Christian theology. Atheistic conceptions of godhood cannot apply equally to both sets of culture, monotheistic or polytheistic culture.

What crap. I define an atheist as someone who doesn't believe in superstitious garbage. Your god is no different from any other god.

[jinx]

The atheism religion is defined by worship of the process of 'evolution'. Non living matter, turning into life, through natural processes is scientifically impossible. Atheists worship 'evolution'. Some processes that has never been observed, is contrary to every observed law of nature in written history (6,000 years) and has absolutely no mechanism. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle all seemed to be pagan god worshippers like the atheism religion. They too held belief in spontaneous generation. I thought Socrates had no writings???

[liyuqingru]

I think He is a atheist

[Bernard]

I think we can safely see the Socratic God being identical with the Socratic Good.

[reasonvemotion]

"Socrates' only defense against the charge of impiety in the Apology is a response to the straw man charge of atheism. Obviously Socrates was not an atheist; that wasn't even a part of the charges against him. Aside from swearing several times on traditional gods like Zeus and Hera, Socrates doesn't make explicit reference to any. "All the important references to divinity in the Apology are indeterminate references to [the god] or, once or twice, to [gods]. … Socrates might as well be speaking of 'god' and 'gods' in a quite generic sense."

Was Socrates impious towards the gods and goddesses of Athens? Almost certainly. M.F. Burnyeat's "The Impiety of Socrates" .

[SecularCauses]

After The Trial. To the Jury who condemned him he spoke thus

"Now it is time that we were going, I to die and you to live; but which of us has the happier prospect is unknown to anyone but God."


This speech would seem to affirm he believes in God. Yet it doesnt seem reasonable to accept he was a believer.

If he did believe, which of the three explanations would best apply.

1) because he is compelled to;

2) because he wants to enable goodness;

3) out of self-interest, or

4) he was an aethist

If you believe the last, he was an aethist, why did he in his last hours refer to "God".

You do realize that the likelihood is that this story is inaccurate? As an atheist, I refer to god quite often, "god damn," "fucking christ," "mary fucking christ," etc. It doesn't mean I believe in god. The story probably deleted the part where Socrates said "Not!"

[SecularCauses]

The atheism religion is defined by worship of the process of 'evolution'. Non living matter, turning into life, through natural processes is scientifically impossible. Atheists worship 'evolution'. Some processes that has never been observed, is contrary to every observed law of nature in written history (6,000 years) and has absolutely no mechanism. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle all seemed to be pagan god worshippers like the atheism religion. They too held belief in spontaneous generation. I thought Socrates had no writings???

Atheists don't worship evolution. In fact, an atheist may not even believe in evolution, much less worship it. And evolution is well founded, and it is actually the bible-thumpers and the koran-thumpers who believe in crap that defies science and logic. It's not god worship you freaks engage in but pure lunacy.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

After The Trial. To the Jury who condemned him he spoke thus

"Now it is time that we were going, I to die and you to live; but which of us has the happier prospect is unknown to anyone but God."


This speech would seem to affirm he believes in God. Yet it doesnt seem reasonable to accept he was a believer.

If he did believe, which of the three explanations would best apply.

1) because he is compelled to;

2) because he wants to enable goodness;

3) out of self-interest, or

4) he was an aethist

If you believe the last, he was an aethist, why did he in his last hours refer to "God".

You do realize that the likelihood is that this story is inaccurate? As an atheist, I refer to god quite often, "god damn," "fucking christ," "mary fucking christ," etc. It doesn't mean I believe in god. The story probably deleted the part where Socrates said "Not!"

I'm not sure if you are joking but my thought was that the story doesn't ring true. 'God' to us means the 'God' of the bible. Why would he refer to that when he's from Ancient Greece? He probably actually said 'Zeus'.

[SecularCauses]

I'm not sure if you are joking but my thought was that the story doesn't ring true. 'God' to us means the 'God' of the bible. Why would he refer to that when he's from Ancient Greece? He probably actually said 'Zeus'.

Yeah, the ancient Greeks would have looked at each other and said, "Why the fuck is he speaking English?" The story sounds like something the Christian fundies made up trying to fool people into thinking that if an ancient Greek even believed in god, then god must be real. I'm not buying it.

[vegetariantaxidermy]

I'm not sure if you are joking but my thought was that the story doesn't ring true. 'God' to us means the 'God' of the bible. Why would he refer to that when he's from Ancient Greece? He probably actually said 'Zeus'.

Yeah, the ancient Greeks would have looked at each other and said, "Why the fuck is he speaking English?" The story sounds like something the Christian fundies made up trying to fool people into thinking that if an ancient Greek even elieved in god, then god must be real. I'm not buying it.

My thoughts exactly. I think that was the point of this thread too.

[SecularCauses]

I'm not sure if you are joking but my thought was that the story doesn't ring true. 'God' to us means the 'God' of the bible. Why would he refer to that when he's from Ancient Greece? He probably actually said 'Zeus'.

Yeah, the ancient Greeks would have looked at each other and said, "Why the fuck is he speaking English?" The story sounds like something the Christian fundies made up trying to fool people into thinking that if an ancient Greek even elieved in god, then god must be real. I'm not buying it.

My thoughts exactly. I think that was the point of this thread too.

The point of this thread is that jebus power is real. The person who started the thread is a fundie. When not plotting against Jews and atheists, she embellishes about the power of the fictional jebus character. He was a loser in the story who got his ass kicked. I'm not sure what the big deal is any way. If he were a god, then nothing he did would have been a big deal. If he weren't a god, then none of it would have happened. Christers want to have it both ways: they want people to believe he was a god and the acts were a big deal. Why? God could have made more babies, so it's not like he sacrificed his "only" son. Plus, what kind of parent wants to be worshipped for sacrificing his own kid? The whole scam of christer religion stinks.