Atheists, do you agree with this?

[Ransom]

Live for yourself...there's no one else
More worth living for
Begging hands and bleeding hearts will only cry out for more

Basically, do you agree with this little snatch of RUSH ANTHEM (rock on). The lyrics of this song
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/rush/anthem.html were written by an Atheist, and portray his Atheist view on things. And you?

[Recusant]

No, I don't agree with these lyrics; they sound like simplistic Randian bullshit to me. Ayn Rand may have been an atheist, but she was also in my opinion a nasty loon who wrote atrocious books filled with harmful nonsense. Another opinion: Rush sucks, and this song stinks.

[Ecurb Noselrub]

No, I don't agree with these lyrics; they sound like simplistic Randian bullshit to me. Ayn Rand may have been an atheist, but she was also in my opinion a nasty loon who wrote atrocious books filled with harmful nonsense. Another opinion: Rush sucks, and this song stinks.

The main lyricist for Rush is drummer Neil Peart, and he cites Ayn Rand as an influence, although he has attempted to downplay this in interviews.

[Squid]

Rush is okay, mostly overrated IMO.

[Sandra Craft]

No, I don't agree with these lyrics; they sound like simplistic Randian bullshit to me. Ayn Rand may have been an atheist, but she was also in my opinion a nasty loon who wrote atrocious books filled with harmful nonsense.

Let me just say amen to that.  You can add to that seriously self-deluded (tho that probably goes with loon) and her books were atrocious not just for the content but the writing style. 

Another opinion: Rush sucks, and this song stinks.

I don't know who Rush is, other than obviously a rock band, but I just can't help rolling my eyes when people complain about the neediness of others.  As if anyone makes it entirely on their own, and isn't going to have their own hand out at some point, and probably be bitching just as loud if nobody fills it.

[Fi]

No, I don't agree, and it sounds to me like an immature, douchey egoist worldview.

[Ransom]

No, I don't agree with these lyrics; they sound like simplistic Randian bullshit to me. Ayn Rand may have been an atheist, but she was also in my opinion a nasty loon who wrote atrocious books filled with harmful nonsense.

Yeah I think that too.

Another opinion: Rush sucks, and this song stinks.

Now there's a load o' shit. Rush is one of the awsomest bands God ever created.

[Ransom]

Incidentally, why don't any of you guys agree with this? Why not live for yourself?

[xSilverPhinx]

Because I have those close to me to consider, that's why. It's as simple as that.

[Ransom]

Because I have those close to me to consider, that's why. It's as simple as that.

But are you not higher than them? Animals eat or be eaten, and you and I are just animals. Without souls, noting separates us from slugs except appearance and intelligence.

[Recusant]

But are you not higher than them? Animals eat or be eaten, and you and I are just animals. Without souls, noting separates us from slugs except appearance and intelligence.

So you think that slugs are capable of empathy? What indications do you have that that is the case?

[Ransom]

But are you not higher than them? Animals eat or be eaten, and you and I are just animals. Without souls, noting separates us from slugs except appearance and intelligence.

So you think that slugs are capable of empathy? What indications do you have that that is the case?

OK, that was funny, I'll admit. Let's use, uh... Baboons. Actually, let's just say I didn't state all the differences between me and a slug, though maybe between Joe Biden and a slug.

[Squid]

Incidentally, why don't any of you guys agree with this? Why not live for yourself?

It's bad social economics (not in the finance sense but in the social animal interaction sense)

[Ecurb Noselrub]

Because I have those close to me to consider, that's why. It's as simple as that.

But are you not higher than them? Animals eat or be eaten, and you and I are just animals. Without souls, noting separates us from slugs except appearance and intelligence.

Do chimps and dolphins have souls? They care for those close to them.

Watch this video of this mother cat hugging her kitten.  Does she care for her kitten?  Does she have a soul?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vw4KVoEVcr0

[DeterminedJuliet]

Incidentally, why don't any of you guys agree with this? Why not live for yourself?

It's bad social economics (not in the finance sense but in the social animal interaction sense)

This. I tend to take a bit of a structuralist point of view when it comes to society. We are inherently social creatures and, on the whole, we're better off being civil to one another than acting like wild savages. Context does matter, though. If I lived alone on an island there would be no "morality" in my actions and good and bad would be irrelevant.