The Athiest Agenda

I am not going to go into any kind of debate as to whether God exists. No, I want to talk to you about a bigger problem, the problem of religion. The problem of what it is like to tell people you are an atheist and your life after you come to the realization. For me, I suppose I have always been an Anti-Theist. Like most school children today I questioned the story of the Bible and asked questions about death, life, life after death, etc. It just never really stuck with me, I saw through the false pretense and thought it was amusing. My parents were accepting (thankfully) and it was the end of it, up until now. At the age of 25 I realized, I had been living a lie. I had never spoken to my friends about religion, I would say things like “god willing” or “thank god” but only because it has so cleverly worked its way into our language. I was also so careful as not to offend, “are you religious” or “no offense” would always come before my opinion, as if I was fearful of the wrath I would incur as a non believer. Then it hit me, a “non believer”…….. being an atheist puts you in a category completely distant from a religious person it is not a matter of faith it is just a reaction to a story or idea. You either believe it or you don’t. But what happens when you don’t believe it?

Certainly a person who accepts a god, has no trouble associating with atheists. I mean, there are no atheists threatening to kill them right? In fact, to illustrate what I said earlier, atheists are going out of their way NOT to offend the religious. No atheist suicide bombers ( for the most part). Atheists never really burn books. No, the only thing an Atheist does wrong, is say that you might be wrong.
So what does it mean to not believe religion? I had friends on myspace that stopped talking to me. I had other friends tell me that they were as well, they just never said anything. When I post this I will be getting death threats. I will also have people telling me that I will burn forever. Most people will read this and think, “I wonder what happened to him to turn him away from god?” or “Oh, that poor fool” The fact is, Atheists get less respect than Satanists. The reason being, Satanists at least acknowledge that god is real.
It is a battle for supremacy and I am glad. In the end, logic will win…it may take some time, but it always does.

Atheism as Theism are just two points along the same path to enlightenment, most people who attain enlightenment have stopped at all points along this path at different times in their lives.

I agree with what your saying S and F!!


Mod Edit - Mod Note: One Line Post – Please Review This Link.


[edit on 20-10-2009 by elevatedone]

reply to post by hyperion.martin

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Wow dude you sure do underestimate the hatred some xtians have it can get a lot worse than that my friend.

Scary stuff aside, welcome to the club of reason and delusion avoidance.

The good news is our club is getting bigger and the gooder nesw is their club is getting smaller.

reply to post by hyperion.martin

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I for one have no problem with you or anybody else that is an atheist. I don't blame you. I don't believe in religions or the god of the bible. I believe in the original conscience, the one and only true creator, who i believe didn't need a human to preach his word. I give you props for staying strong with your beliefs and not being polluted by others. I am hated by some for my beliefs also but its all good, to each there own.

Peace bro.

Like factbeforefiction said, atheism is just another part of learning process. If you stick with it as a belief system you will ultimately become what other religions become. Atheism itself is a religion and logic is only one side of the coin. To just say 'logic will prevail' is just as ignorant as saying 'jesus will show me the way'. Why? Because logic is flawed and so is religion. Instead of following something that will only make you chase your tail, grasp it, take with yourself what you will and move forward. Atheism, just like other religions hold no real answer. Lead yourself and stop being misguided by others.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by jvm222]

You should consider studying Mao's "Cultural Revolution" where the peaceful atheists burned countless books and religious shrines and ended up murdering an estimated 70 million people.

The lesson is that any ideology can and generally has been used at some point to justify evil.

I've also wondered why Atheists are sometimes reluctant to even admit to believers that they are Atheists, is it fear of being loathed, or proselytized to, a lack of conviction in their own belief of being a non-believer?

Believers aren't shy about admitting their beliefs, regardless of which flavor they are, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Mormon, whatever.

Atheists will often partially admit to it by saying they're Agnostic before they will admit to being an Atheist, I've wondered why.

reply to post by jvm222

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How the hell is not believing something a religion ?

Main Entry: re·li·gion
Pronunciation: \ri-ˈli-jən\
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English religioun, from Anglo-French religiun, Latin religion-, religio supernatural constraint, sanction, religious practice, perhaps from religare to restrain, tie back — more at rely
Date: 13th century
1 a : the state of a religious nun in her 20th year of religion> b (1) : the service and worship of God or the supernatural (2) : commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance
2 : a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices
3 archaic : scrupulous conformity : conscientiousness
4 : a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith

reply to post by moocowman

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Because they do believe in something. They believe in nothing.

reply to post by factbeforefiction

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"You should consider studying Mao's "Cultural Revolution" where the peaceful atheists burned countless books and religious shrines and ended up murdering an estimated 70 million people."


The lesson is that any ideology can and generally has been used at some point to justify evil.






That is very interesting, I blushingly admit I was not aware of this.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by hyperion.martin]

reply to post by Lichter daraus

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That is a contradictory statement. Belief in nothing would be nihilism. Atheists are not on the same field of play as religion. Religion is a closed door, atheism is an open sky. It's a fundamentally different attitude toward life, not a belief; evidence and investigation leads to understanding in a universe that is attainable. It is anti-belief.

reply to post by hyperion.martin

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Well said and you are so right.
Jesus Christ is greatest logic of all.
Here's a little truth to add to your logic
above top secret.....

[edit on 20-10-2009 by randyvs]

Yeah but since you cannot disprove god, because go is not really a scientific notion, its not quantifiable, how is that logical? can you really claim the absence of proof to be anti-proof? I mean sure you can argue how accurate specific texts are or how practical certian rituals are but if god or gods is intepreted broadly you cant quantify that. If you said, god created the universe two minutes before I wrote this post and created the entire universe to appear to be much older than that, you cant disprove that statement, its not a, here is this word again, scientific statement. This statement is not compatible with the scientific method, so you could not prove it, or disprove it for that matter. The concept of god functions on the same principle. You cannot prove it anymore than you can disprove it. So where is the logic in that? Since so many atheists throw around the word logic and reason we should take a look at those words.
A manuel of logic (Welton, James (1896). A manual of logic. University tutorial series. 1 (2nd ed.). W.B. Clive.) defines logic as the art of science and reasoning, science being defined as the system of gaining knowledge based on the scientific method, reasoning defined as a cognitive process of looking for reasons. Well we have already established that the scientific method cannot apply here because you can make statements that could be true but are not testable. So that would leave reasoning. Looking for the reason, well this does not make sense to me as you can reason on both sides of this arguement. So one definition does not seem for logic makes it seem strange to me because it is an irrelavent term god is not logical so how can you say that logic says there is no god? Now lets look at another angle, math... and bad geometery puns. Lets go out here and say in order to be Logical you have to have a proof. Now I am no math whiz so the actualy calculations are beyond me but I am sure there is a mathmatical proof against god, if someone could help me and cite it that would be great. Now the one that some argue suggestest some sort of divine being is Bayes Theorem. Again not a math guy but assumeing there is indeed a proof against god and a proof for god you cannot really use math in the god/no god arena either, so no matter where you turn on the area of god Logic does not seem to come into play. Faith on the other hand is alittle simpler,lets define it as a reasoned belief in something you cannot anwser, everyone seems to have it, faith in god or no god or maybe something completely different. The point I am making is that by saying there is no god you are putting as much faith in your reasoned belief of no god or afterlife, as say someone who is putting it in a god and afterlife. Now if someone attempts to belittle your beliefs of nothing, I think thats wrong, satire and good humor are one thing, but sometimes people will do things to be spiteful because people do not believe what they do, take www.blasphemyday.com... as an example, yes some of their material has some satirical value (I like the image of jesus with the bubble that says BRB) but I cannot help but take away an overall arogant and spiteful tone from it, they seem to say I do not believe in god and I think I am better than you because of it. Just seems, well, mean and ignorant, and Im not even a follower of any clear religion and I dont believe in the divinity of christ. So basicly what I am saying is your not that persecuted, get off your high horse. Atheism is not anymore of a logical anwser as Fly spaghetti monsterism is.
My first post on ATS, To long? or mean? maybe not the best first impression, oh the insecurities.

well theres no arguing with you now mate?

I think for some people it is fear to be honest. I mean an atheist uses logic above faith, so one may tend to reason "what if I am wrong" Also in today's culture is seems that the word agnostic is more respectable than "atheist" but everybody has their reasons.

[edit on 20-10-2009 by hyperion.martin]

I read about a survey once where it was determined that parents are least likely to approve of their children marrying atheists. Out of all of the possible labels a person can fit into, atheists get the least approval.

I've been an atheist ever since I was old enough to look at the garbage fairy tales in the Bible and analyze them with logical thought. With the exception of a very small number of narrow minded Christian cultists I've never really felt any of this massive anti-atheist sentiment that is supposedly out there. Admittedly, I'm probably more intolerant of their nonsensical hogwash than they are of me.

Maybe I get left alone because I own a crap ton of guns and I don't believe in hell.

reply to post by hyperion.martin

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Religion is no laughing matter. Its the root of all evil (along with money) and will be the death of us all.

Its an embarrassing topic really, deny ignorance......?

Come on people! Wake up and smell science!

Peace.

You're welcome up here. I've lived in Canada all my life, I don't think I've met as many Christians as I have fingers in that time. I'm sure they're around, but unless you seek them out, you'd never know it.

I wouldn't lose sleep over those "friends" who stopped talking to you, they're children, you can do better.

Well, thanks for the info, but i was being sarcastic...

PEACE!!!