Why are you an atheist?

My parents never told me anything about Religion, God, or Atheism. I am thankful to them for letting me be a blank slate, free to learn and decide for myself.

My first experiences of Religion came in Primary School, in England at that time it was a legal requirement for schools to hold religious assemblies. I never took it seriously from the start, such wild stories, and odd ideas to me. I was one of those who sang "He's got the whole world, in his pants", and other such childish modifications to the hymns/songs.

It seems almost simple to me, I just didn't believe it.

As I got older, and took religious education classes, I started to see some of the flaws within the major texts, and still didn't believe any of it. I also went over the normal questions, such as why God doesn't help those in need.

I think what may have been a large implicit influence on my thinking, was my interest in technology and science as a child. I never thought about it at the time, but the whole of science is about evaluating claims, and not just believing things with no proof.

As I became even older, I started to think more explicitly about this, after reading and viewing some media that was critical of belief. It was at this point that I came to the explicit conclusion, that I shouldn't believe things on blind faith, that I should always try and investigate and decide for myself, based on evidence, the value of these claims.

I struggle to call myself an atheist at times, to me the term means something a little too strong, almost a belief in itself, that a God doesn't exist, which under my philosophy is also a no-no, as I can't prove that. I prefer to use the term agnostic, or the term that Dawkins uses, "de facto atheist".

Or as Pierre Simon de Laplace said to Napoleon:

The most famous exchange between these two men occurred after Laplace had given Napoleon a copy of his great work, the Mecanique Celeste. Napoleon looked it over, and remarked that in this massive volume about the universe there was not a single mention of God, its creator.

Laplace replied "Sire, I had no need of that hypothesis".

Carl Sagan also give that small demonstration (if you can find a flaw in that logic, let me know, I see none):

www.youtube.com...

Why not save a step?

I don't consider myself an atheist persay. But there is one thing I do know, we have to delude ourselves in order to believe in anything at all. Cause there just isn't any real knowing until ya know. So I can definitely see where the atheism comes from. Its all about proof. But in my mind, what difference does it make in the infinitesimal amount of time we have here, assuming the atheists are right that is, how we choose to delude ourselves? It is all just a matter of making ourselves happy. That is all it comes down to. I think the athiests are just happier erasing that "mystery" from their lives. But I don't believe there is any right or wrong to a delusion (belief) as long as it doesn't infringe. The atheists will all know eventually (along with the resat of us) and then it will all be a moot point. My guess is their surprise will be palpable.

I am an atheist because people call me an atheist. I wouldnt call myself one.

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I find it foolish to believe there is a god. we are not special, we are not some little pet project, being looked over, being loved. Its selfish to think so.

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We dont believe the sun is 17 miles away and the world lies in an infinite ocean of water.

Yet - there are still people that believe a sister theory from the same minds that created the above statement.

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religion is nothing more then an outdated theory on who/what/why/where/when. its is a theory nothing more, nothing less.

religion gives people 2 things.
hope and hate.

you do not need religion to tell you to be nice to each other, to love one another, to take care of one another. if you do...please stop breeding. I mean seriously - stop for the sake of the human race.

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thats the simplified version.


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I used to be a jehovahs witness. I was never baptised, still had christmas, still had birthdays and all that great stuff.

One day...around the age of 11 or 12 i came to a realization of what they were actually telling me, and they believed this stuff. Then i pretty much said...

"you..you believe what? hahha. im done with this." and haven't gone back to it or any religion.

my father was alright with it, he decided to stop it all since us kids said we were done with it.

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mild trauma ...nope so that generalization has nothing to do with me.


[edit on 12-5-2009 by epitaph.one]

reply to post by Astarfaraway


Hmm, interested post.

I'm definitely not a religious person. And I don't believe in a sentient being or 'God' as it were, but then, I don't think I'm a pure atheist as such either.

I only believe in energy and Life and that we're all part of the same thing, if that makes sense.

I don't think this energy/Life has a coherent consciousness or intelligence that is attributed to the likes of religious gods or deities -- as in, ones that are self-aware and 'judge' and set down rules and so forth. Or give such contradicting rules and information that is sure to confuse every culture of mankind that they eventually devolve into bloody wars and battles over whose God has a bigger willy!

To think you could spend all eternity in either hell or heaven based on the events in an odd 70-ish or so years of mortal existance, in a universe that is already billions of years old with billions more to go, just makes no sense to me. Our physical lives are so infinitesimally small in comparison that to have to spend eternity in either heaven or hell because of what you do now, is akin to flipping a coin -- so much riding on such a small amount of time.

And the universe is filled with things like math and physics and geometry and chemistry and other '-istry' type things that make sense. 1+1=2, gravity, acceleration, atoms and molecules, photons and pencils and cups of coffee. There's too much 'rational logic' for me to believe in something that acts like an irrational, puritanical child that throws His/Her/Its toys out of the pram whenever someone does something it doesn't like, so then destroys them and their city. Oh but by the way, here's freewill -- have fun.

That's what lead me, early on, to disbelieve in a supreme being in a religious context and simply believe in energy and Life, and we're all part of the same thing. We all come from it and we all return to it, regardless of our deeds in this mortal realm.

What happens after this, well, I dunno. But I have been tempted in my life to hit that giant 'Reset' button, as it were, to see what happens....

CONVERSION TIME!!!

Okay, I believe in a God, and I call it my God and he made me in his likings, okay, I am just, trustable in any way, logic which makes sense, joyeouss, full of life, correct, in short just great.

This is my God, so if you claim here to be an atheist their might be something reeeely wrong with you here.

x x --x--

Originally posted by etherical waterwave
CONVERSION TIME!!!

Okay, I believe in a God, and I call it my God and he made me in his likings, okay, I am just, trustable in any way, logic which makes sense, joyeouss, full of life, correct, in short just great.

This is my God, so if you claim here to be an atheist their might be something reeeely wrong with you here.

x x --x--

So, you have your god and you're atheistic about all the others. I, however, choose to go one god further.

Originally posted by etherical waterwave
CONVERSION TIME!!!

Okay, I believe in a God, and I call it my God and he made me in his likings, okay, I am just, trustable in any way, logic which makes sense, joyeouss, full of life, correct, in short just great.

This is my God, so if you claim here to be an atheist their might be something reeeely wrong with you here.

Hmm, I'm trying to figure out how to reply to your post but due to the poor grammar I can't make heads or tails of it. I'm guessing you were typing your ideas/thoughts so quickly you didn't read it through.

I'm assuming you believe in a God, which is 'your version/definition' of God. Cool. No probs, that's your belief and I won't knock you for that.

But why would my atheistic belief indicate something is "reeeely" wrong with me being here? The OP's request was for people to reply and detail why they were atheists.

And by "CONVERSION TIME" -- was that an indication of 'converting' people to your belief in a God or some obscure American football reference (which I don't follow so I'm fraid if it was, it was lost on me )

[edit on 12-5-2009 by noonebutme]

reply to post by noonebutme


You should have read that post with mental mode set to "FULL SARCASM".

Originally posted by etherical waterwave
CONVERSION TIME!!!

Okay, I believe in a God, and I call it my God and he made me in his likings, okay, I am just, trustable in any way, logic which makes sense, joyeouss, full of life, correct, in short just great.

This is my God, so if you claim here to be an atheist their might be something reeeely wrong with you here.

x x --x--

with being an atheist someone who doesn't believe in a higher influence. with the term God being a higher influence.

reply to post by Astarfaraway


Good for you for authoring a book. I am a non-fiction writer but always thought it would be neat to write fiction. Maybe I have one in me?

I did a thread quite a few months ago here, where I gave reasons why I thought atheists are atheists and received a lot of posts. You may want to check it out to see the many responses and insight as to where everyone was coming from.

I believe in a God or Gods, but am against religion (incl atheism), and think it is very important to include the angle of God, or The Gods, as being scientists, and perhaps we are more of an experiment. I detach from the; "God loves everyone" theory.

reply to post by Astarfaraway


I am not an atheist. Howver, I know quite a few. Most seem to argue, what is the difference between "god just existing, through necessity etc. to the universe just existing?".

They dont see the need for a God. All of this is just a random probability.

"if you had a group of monkeys locked in a room with pens and papers for eternity, eventually one of them would write the entire works of shakespeare."

Thanks, Brad

Yup I think it is about time I do my science of god thread. I've been kind of putting it off because people will go in there and start talking about a sky fairy. Such a backwater view on both sides of the spectrum. We think we got pegged with how many books? Nobody even thinks that we might be completely wrong about what or why god is. Especially since the word 'God' has been used on the side of too many "evil" men. Anyway I digress before some retard comes in here and starts calling me an idiot. Cheers!

reply to post by Astarfaraway


Because.

1. It seems those who are religious cannot come to a consensus on which religious interpretation is the reality.
2. There are too many coincidences between religions for me to believe that they are more than a human's reasoning for why they are alive and where they came from.
3. The Bible is a piece of literature written by a human.
4. We can never know the answer. Why live your life for a religion when you'll never know if you're right?
5. Hell has been used too many times to scare people for it to have any meaning left.
6. Many religious people have taken their beliefs into politics. And that's wrong.
7. People of one religion often, for some reason, feel a strong hatred for those of one or more other religions.
8. Religion has been used as an excuse to create wars, or wars have been created as an excuse to fight over religion.
9. We are far too similar to divide ourselves on an issue as abstract as religion.
And my favorite...
10. Evolution seems pretty much 100% from my research. I honestly don't think that dinosaur bones were put there to fool anyone. I think it's impossible to deny evolution. I think it's impossible to place a young age on the Earth. I think that form, function, and survival of the fittest has been proven more times than necessary for people to get the point.

And as a bonus for any Judeo-Christian beliefs-
I don't think people can live to be over 200 years old ever. I don't think that a flood was God's doing. I don't think Jesus rose from the dead and I don't think he was the son of a deity. I don't think women came from a man's rib and I think it's kind of awful that people reduce women to that. And I don't think that snakes or bushes can talk.

For me it was a long transition over several years.

When this began I was a regular in a Presbyterian church as were most of my friends and I truly believed it was where I was supposed to be. But as time went on, I started to see the apathy and hollowness in people and in their lives. The only thing people went to church for, it seemed, was to compare clothes. I left the church and grew to hate it. I went from church to church looking for a true place to be and nowhere had what I was looking for. No one was genuine so I became an unaffiliated christian.

Then things became more complicated at school in 6th form biology. Evolution? At first I naturally just tried to pick holes in it, but I can to really appreciate how beautiful and awe inspiring of a system it was. Genetics were particualarly riveting.

So genesis is wrong, I concluded, but it brings about a rather troubling issue. What else is wrong and how can I be sure what is right. I can't. Eventually as I learned more about the bible, I ended up chucking it outright.

Eventually I had to ask myself why I believed in a deity at all. I had been indoctrinated as a child. In the end I had no justification for believing.

The use of logic within the confines of individual religions almost made me an atheist. Take any "holy" book and apply logic; its fairly easy to find holes which disprove the entire basis of the religion.
The only reason I'm not atheisitic is because I choose to attribute this to human flaw; I think it is beyond mortals to understand the mind of any God, be there one or many. Ergo, I believe all religions are based on the limited understanding and perception of what humans wound up writing the books.
I've chosen to seek God, or gods, in my own way; if there is some divine planner out there, I logically must be following the path he/she set before me. The only faith I have is that I'll wind up where I'm needed, sooner or later. However, you can see how my viewpoint could easily make an atheist; remove my optimism, and you have a bonified atheist.
The simple recipe: Take one theist, apply logic, remove optimism, and stir for one day. Presto! You have an atheist.

reply to post by Malfeitor


"The simple recipe: Take one theist, apply logic, remove optimism, and stir for one day. Presto! You have an atheist. "

The simple recipe: Take one theist, apply logic, remove the BS of religion, and stir for one day. Presto! You have an atheist.

Now you have it right.

I'm an Atheist, wasn't raised in a religious household nor did I have any serious trauma as a child.
It's just that the bible is all over the place and contradicts itself every few pages, and the other religions aren't much better. Buddhism is nice I guess but you don't have to believe the rest of the nonsense just to justify being a generally nice guy to people you meet.

These two demotivational's pretty much sum it up.
Atheism
and
Christianity

Originally posted by Astarfaraway
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?

Exactly.. I can't accept a creator that want's his supposed creations slain for very bad reasons. Much of the Old Testament is morally un-acceptable. I don't buy this belief either, that the omni-scient God suddenly shifts his tone and re-incarnates to save us all, and preaches love and peace. I like the Jesus character.. He's a great guy, he really is.. I just don't buy into the bible's claims.

Too many things that just do not add up.

I don't believe in god for the same reason I don't believe in Unicorns.

People have written and talked about Unicorns but I still have no reason to believe they exist...