It takes a big pair to make the claim of atheism.

Atheism claims the inexistence of God while there's no substantial evidence for it. You're right, you can do whatever you want, but is it sound therefore to make the claim? To he honest, I think you claim inexistence just to tamper with your conscience.

I have no evidence of God I can present someone, I only have myself and the experience thereof, the same goes for those claiming inexistence.

All I'm saying here is it takes a big pair, you know, to outright make the claim while there's no substantial evidence.

All debunking of the history in the Bible didn't convince me of God not being here. I myself found some pearls in the book I put to practice in my life. I'm not here to prove what I say, you'll just have to take my word on it, it's really hard to explain, it's all in my mind you know.

I myself am trying to find God in my life, I'm looking forward to finding Him.

Maybe you should consider losing all the bias about God yourself too and do your best to make yourself experience Him in real life, whatever that may be.

There's no substantial evidence of there being no God, and I find some trying too hard to find any. It's just a game, you just have to be a player.

If you don't find myself replying, think of myself taking your reply into consideration. I try not to act impulsively when triggered.
There are a lot of emotions involved in these kind of discussions and one can't be holding back too much on judging others.

I'm not judging the atheist, I'm judging atheism.

There are only two possibilities 1. God does exist. 2. God does not exist. There is no conclusive evidence for one or the other. I don't agree that it takes courage to be atheist. Believing in an oblivion is more comforting than believing that actions in life are taken into account afterwards and consequences are subsequent.

I don't like being judged neither does anyone else.

You sound like most of us-we don't know.

We do have evidence of tremendous tampering with "The Bible" and as we learn more we realize the Christian religions of today are relying on semi-historical yet unproven beliefs.

It's hard to continue to feel the Holy Spirit and profess beliefs without any evidence.

So, really, basically, alot of us just are honest these days and say we just don't know and that seems to really trigger the religious.

It's an unknown and an unknowable(at this time). Theism and atheism are both faith based because of this.

a reply to: Out6of9Balance

It takes a big pair to make the claim of atheism

Not really. I’m an atheist and have no belief either way because of lack of evidence.

I’ll find out when I die.

originally posted by: intrepid
It's an unknown and an unknowable(at this time). Theism and atheism are both faith based because of this.

Faith to me means something though.

No one(in this life), will ever know.

So no one will ever be "right".

So this argument is 100% pointless.

originally posted by: intrepid
It's an unknown and an unknowable(at this time). Theism and atheism are both faith based because of this.

I agree with your statement entirely, Intrepid. I would offer some slight amplification from my perspective.

There are those of us who were born without the "genetic predisposition" enabling "faith".

Further, there are those of us who do not understand the genetic predisposition towards the NEED for a superior/almighty being.
(And as a corollary, I do not understand WHY - if there is/are superior being/s - those beings require that we worship them.)

As far as being an atheist, I guess that's the closest category that fits. Or is this agnosticism?

ganjoa

a reply to: CulturalResilience

Don't know if I'd call the idea of oblivion comforting, but everything is relative. And I'm not sure if there's only two alternatives, things may be a lot stranger than we can imagine with earthly faculties.

Just imagine existing in a 2D space; you can go forwards and backwards, or left and right, but you'd never guess there was an up or a down. And here in 3D we can't imagine what the fourth cardinal direction could be, took us a long time just to start asking about it.

So, in a similar way, I think there may be theological/metaphysical "spaces" that we haven't even dreamed of yet, that might make our current arguments seem childish, if we only knew.

We are in the highest of speculative territory and everything is theoretically possible in what might be an infinite universe. Complete oblivion of consciousness, versus a continued existence with consequences, by definition is more comforting as oblivion means non-existence. If you are suggesting something can both exist and not exist, a third possibility, is about as highly speculative as its gets, but that is the game were playing here, so why not.


a reply to: Cutepants

originally posted by: Out6of9Balance

originally posted by: intrepid
It's an unknown and an unknowable(at this time). Theism and atheism are both faith based because of this.

Faith to me means something though.

Faith means believing in something not provable.

a reply to: Out6of9Balance

You completely misunderstand atheism. Atheist do not claim anything. They just don't accept OTHER people's claims in the existence of God because there is no evidence everyone agrees on as real evidence. Nobody denies the existence of apples because you can hold an apple in your hand. The problem every claim people make as evidence of God's existence is a subjective judgement. There doesn't exist one piece of objective evidence everyone would agree is objective evidence.

Now if God started bellowing out commands of morality from the sky scientists would argue it is more likely the voice is from extraterrestrial graduate students doing an experiment on humanity rather than it being the Almighty. Occam's razor is brutal.

originally posted by: intrepid
It's an unknown and an unknowable(at this time). Theism and atheism are both faith based because of this.

Atheism is not a religion. Atheism is not having faith. Atheism is the absence of ALL faith.

Atheism is a belief system where the only things we consider real and exist are those things we can share with objective experiences.

Atheists don't tell Christians what or how to believe. But Christians ALL the time try to define what it means to be an atheist without talking or listening to atheists!

originally posted by: dfnj2015

Atheism is a belief system...

Thus faith. I didn't say religion.

originally posted by: intrepid

originally posted by: Out6of9Balance

originally posted by: intrepid
It's an unknown and an unknowable(at this time). Theism and atheism are both faith based because of this.

Faith to me means something though.

Faith means believing in something not provable.

I don't go by that explanation. I believe faith is subjective and personal and different for every different person. Faith is evidence of something in the future and proof of the force behind it creating it.

a reply to: Out6of9Balance

Merriam-Webster would disagree with you.

a reply to: intrepid

It's not my problem.

a reply to: intrepid

I'm sorry, but if "faith" was the same as the word "belief" then we would not have two words. Faith is a belief in something without evidence. Belief is not faith.

That is the whole point. Atheists do NOT have faith.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
Atheism is a belief system where the only things we consider real and exist are those things we can share with objective experiences.

No, Atheism is not a belief system, it is a observation in practice.

Belief never comes into play in the mindset of a atheist (when discussing deities). You can have hope of course, suspicions, etc...but belief is required when there is no strong evidence. That is the keystone to religions

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: intrepid

I'm sorry, but if "faith" was the same as the word "belief" then we would not have two words.

I guess we can just throw "synonym" out with the rest then?