Why are you an atheist?

This is for a sci-fi story I'm writing.

One of my characters is an atheist.

I am not one myself, and I know maybe one atheist I can question, but I'm hoping to get a broader range of responses so that I may understand better and create a more believable character.

If I were an atheist, I think the push by many religions to weigh believers down in crushing fear would be one reason (yes, as you can tell I have my own doubts, but I have rationalized many of them...doubts mostly from years of studying with Jehovah Witnesses, although I have nothing against individual JWs). But I'm sure each of you would have more specifics.

And yes, I could (and I have already anyway) discover for myself some reasons, but my own point of view will color my opinion, so I'm hoping to have other's point of views as a lens to observe various atheist reasoning.

Also, this character is a 40 yr. old Caucasian man from Australia, just to give a little better visualization of the character.

I just want to say thank you very much in advance. I'll try to be as interactive in this thread as I can, since I'm still doing finals in college this week and I have limited time...sorry about that...but I will most certainly read each response very closely, and hopefully will learn something new at the same time...

Awesome, this is a great idea for your writing.

Now I am not an atheist, I use to be, since have turned into a Spiritual Agnostic, but perhaps I can shed some light on your chracter.

If he's middle aged which you said, and caucasian then he was probably raised by a very strict religious type family. Most atheists are bred from families who have very strong religious ties.

The reason I became one was the feeling of emptiness, the feeling that no matter what I did, it was never good enough for the religion that I was following.

It made no sense that the whole point was to loose and then beg for your enternal salvation at the end of it all. It also was a coping mechanism, it was easier to deny a higher power or higher energy than it was to try and understand and be a part of such a thing.

~Keeper

reply to post by tothetenthpower

The reason I became one was the feeling of emptiness, the feeling that no matter what I did, it was never good enough for the religion that I was following.

tothetenthpower, that is EXACTLY the feeling I had, hanging over me continuously, all the years studying with Jehovah Witnesses...you were never good enough, never, you could never pray enough, study the bible enough, or witness enough...

Thank you very much :-)

reply to post by Astarfaraway


a Documentary (in australia) recently on atheists seemed to show that all the atheists interviewed all had a religious upbringing, and reading between the lines, they all had some mild trauma associated with that.

It was a Compass doc. on the ABC maybe its on their website.It would be good for you to have a look.

I thought i was an atheist, until i thought about it.

I cannot remember ever believing in any god. So I guess you could answer "why" with "That's the way I am."

People say that it's because I'm a skeptic....................................but I don't believe that for a minute.

reply to post by 2theC


Thank you and wow, so it seems those in Australia with religious upbringing became scarred by it...quite interesting...

reply to post by Gawdzilla


Interesting, and very enlightening...I myself have always sensed there must be a God...

I'm not exactly an Atheist.. but I don't believe in a personal god (One that watches over us, guides us, ect..)


So my reasoning is probably valid on this one. I just don't believe that it makes sense, and much of what is said about god in the bible to me seems a collection of faulty irrational rationalizations of the world. Basically, it doesn't make sense to me that God is out there, and watching over me. Because why does God watch over me, but let some kid in Africa starve to death?

reply to post by shedhead



Ha, ha, yeah... :-)

Reminds me of an older Mad magazine comic..."I'm not paranoid, that's just a rumor started by all those people who are out to get me."

LOL... What kind of Atheist? The normal kind that just don't believe in a creator or the nasty loud "Evangelical Atheist" you find quite often on the internet?

www.urbandictionary.com...

evangelical atheist

See asshole

An evangelical atheist is one who not only believes there is no god or other supreme being, but is obsessed with convincing everyone around them to become an atheist too, usually through hard-line intolerance (the kind they accuse other religions of). When cornered they usually try to put down their opponent's religion and bash them for 'blind faith', not realizing that their belief that there is no god is no more or less valid or provable than the other guy's belief that there is one.

Not to be confused with normal atheists/agnostics, who for the most part just dont talk about religion and accept the beliefs of those around them as their perogative. Evangelical atheists are particularly common on the Internet, as organized religion is generally accepted as part of 'the system' of global human society, and lately it's become cool on the Internet to hate 'the system'.

reply to post by infolurker


I'm more of the "defender of science class" atheists. You can blame Ben Stein for my being here at all.

reply to post by Miraj


What has always bothered me is all the encouraged mass killings, especially of innocent babies and children, in the old testament...no love in this, no forgiveness in this...why did it happen?

Different Atheist have different reasons depending on there personal beliefs .

Some require prof of something to believe in it .

Some base it on there distaste of religion .

Some bas it on there distaste of religious people .

Some believe that " they " are there own god .

Some simply do not want to believe that there is anything above them that they should be held accountable to .

I would say that which ever reasons you decide upon as a guide for your characters motivation would also depend on his personality .

I would hope that you can keep us up to date with this book of yours ?

The more my mind expands the more I believe none of this is real. Some top physicists claim that most of the unsolvable problems in science actually work if you apply them in the context that we are living in a computer simulation. Therefore I believe if I am a simulated sentient program religion is a moot point within my simulated environment. What exists on the outside of the simulation is unknown and I can not base any spiritual belief on that.

reply to post by infolurker


Ha, ha! Good one!

Yeah, there are all kinds I guess. Very good point though. I think I will make my character more of the quiet type, except when confronted by situations (which he will in my story) which causes him to explain his reasonings.

reply to post by Max_TO


Thank you, very helpful.

Yes, I will attempt to keep you up-to-date, I suppose I could put some comments up on my member page as to when it is done and such. I hope to get it done this summer, while off from college...hopefully...

reply to post by contemplator


Wow! Cool! This is what my story is based upon! What a coincidence.

Yes, I agree with you.

Possibly a person sees holes in their particular religion's theories / dogma, notices the hypocrisy of those who claim to follow it.

Once you've fallen out with the religion you were brought up in it's very easy to ditch their idea of god.

Possibly, you might think the ancients were too ignorant to present a viable God. They couldn't understand the world around them so made up stories to explain it and now that we have more knowledge their idea of god seems infantile.

You might think spending eternity in hell is an unjust punishment if you only have a few decades of life to live.

You might object to the idea of a heaven that will accept repentant christian sinners but reject more saintly persons of other religious persuasions.

You might object to the lack of logic and the idea that you have to have faith rather than proof.

These are just ideas - it's not my intention to offend anyone.

Atheism is a non-prophet organization.

Thank God, I'm atheist.

Seriously, you might want to listen to this debate:

"Debate: Christopher Hitchens Vs Dinesh D'Souza" (keep going for all parts)

www.youtube.com...