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Originally posted by PoopDawg
Most people deny there is a heaven because they are afraid of being held responsible for their immorality.
Just because you tell yourself there isn't a hell doesn't mean you will be excluded from it.
Wake up, grow up. The end is near. Would you risk eternity just because God isn't "logical"?
Sounds like a risky gamble to me.edit on 18-4-2011 by PoopDawg because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by The Djin
reply to post by OptimusSubprime
My intent with this post is not to challenge your belief as an atheist, we can have that debate at another time and in another thread. I welcome it. I respect your belief, and would never try to cram mine down your throat, and I expect the same courtesy.
Hm, perhaps a good start to your thread would be be to knowledge the fact atheism is not a belief but a lack of belief . So, you are not challenging anyone as there is no belief to be challenged,bald is not a hair colour.
Hope ? Faith ? An atheist is more likely to understand this as wishful thinking and less likely to be drawn to it.
Originally posted by Tephra
How does putting your hope in a mystical creature any more inspiring than putting your hope in the flow of things?
I don't really see the difference between a religious person, and a non religious person, in this regard other than the fact that the religious person usually loses their faith when something terrible happens, and a non religious person has no faith to lose.
My simple point that I'd like to make is this, if an omnipotent being did exist, and I was presented before it, I would spat on it, for all the suffering it has allowed in this world.edit on 18-4-2011 by Tephra because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by kylioneXsushi
We find hope in ourselves, from our own strength. From the knowledge that our thoughts will effect the world however intangibly but fundamentally on a quantum level. We find hope in every continued heartbeat of an ill person. In all of the tiny wonders that spill forth from coincidences. Hope is born from the wonderment, not that a deity brings about miracles, but that miracles happen by sheer chance. The don't have to happen, no one tells hem to, but they do. I find hope in the universe and in nature, which have proven time and time again that it has a way of righting it's self when we have done something wrong. I find hope when I look up at the stars and realize, that in this tiny corner of a spiral galaxy we exist. We just as easily couldn't. But we do.
Those that need god to find hope are the truly hopeless.
Originally posted by OptimusSubprime I know that there may be some who reply to this with contempt or insults, but I am looking for the atheists who are willing to honestly answer the question of " without a belief in God, where do you find hope?
where do you find hope? What gives you strength in the face of adversity?
Do you ever feel alone and empty inside without a belief in a higher power?
There is one thing about religion that I do love and that is the faith that people have in God. I also love the hope that people find in God.
Originally posted by restlessbrainsyndrome
reply to post by OptimusSubprime
I think many people often look to many forms of lies or childish fantasies to know that this life, that is filled with pain and misery is not for an ending big fat "zero". People have a problem with goodbyes. And to think that dying is a goodbye...an end...scares them.
But the thing that many fail to realize is that we don't need hope because we are not afraid to accept the inevitable. Religious people need hope. Hope by definition is wishing for a positive end result. Hope is for those that "wish" for something better after it all ends. What most fail to see is that we KNOW one thing. We are here now. We are living NOW. Why have hope that it is all for something else.
Religion kind of screws it up for the rest of us. It promotes fear and misery and limitations. Where hope and faith is what religious people have, it is replaced by respect and common sense in those that do not have a deity.
I am living my life. It is the only one I have, so I must work hard to achieve what I wish to achieve. I have the power to change my future if I start heading down a path I do not want to be on. I have the understanding that it is the only one you have too. So I work hard to make it so that your life is good as well. I am not greedy...I will gladly offer my shoes to someone who has none even if it means I must walk barefoot for a while. Why? Because it makes his one life here better and makes me feel good as well knowing that I have done something to make someone's life better.
If we could all have this understanding, it would make life a lot more precious, more important to everyone.
Originally posted by reeferman
reply to post by OptimusSubprime
There is one thing about religion that I do love and that is the faith that people have in God. I also love the hope that people find in God.
this is the part that is disturbing to me in your statement..
1faith
noun \ˈfāth\
plural faiths
Definition of FAITH
1 a : allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2 a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust
3 : something that is believed especially with strong conviction; especially : a system of religious beliefs
You like idea of people holding on desperately in a firm belief in something for which the is no proof of while suffering emotional trauma, with no self esteem, grovelling before other equal humans who are all the while controlling them through superstition? its as if your in Love with the idea of being in Love without experiencing Love looking for someone to tell you how to fall in Love .. act in Love.. stay in Love.. Faith for Faiths sake is foolish... looking fondly upon peoples Faith seems mean spirited.. you might as well say "I like the way the suffer through it".. the capability to express Love, Kindness, Friendship, is all with in US.. you do not need an imaginary Man in the Sky keeping a ledger so reward you to act Decent.
My Hope is in my own heart & mind.. and the company I keep..after 38 times around the Sun I have found no one has any answers. if they tell you that, they are lying.. religion is NOT God's doing. It is a system. It is a man controlling another man through fear of the unknown. God is not what men think. Too many humanistic traits given to Him. There was no Holy Fax from Heaven. Men wrote the rules to control other men. You can still see the hypocrisy to this day. Jesus had simple practical teachings that have been twisted & ignored from Day One resulting in the corrupt Church's feeding off the weak you can see all around the world today..
sorry for the rant.. peace
Originally posted by OptimusSubprime
"without a belief in God, where do you find hope?
Originally posted by PoopDawg
Most people deny there is a heaven because they are afraid of being held responsible for their immorality.
Just because you tell yourself there isn't a hell doesn't mean you will be excluded from it.
Wake up, grow up. The end is near. Would you risk eternity just because God isn't "logical"?
Sounds like a risky gamble to me.edit on 18-4-2011 by PoopDawg because: (no reason given)
Originally posted by graphuto
Originally posted by Tephra
How does putting your hope in a mystical creature any more inspiring than putting your hope in the flow of things?
I don't really see the difference between a religious person, and a non religious person, in this regard other than the fact that the religious person usually loses their faith when something terrible happens, and a non religious person has no faith to lose.
My simple point that I'd like to make is this, if an omnipotent being did exist, and I was presented before it, I would spat on it, for all the suffering it has allowed in this world.edit on 18-4-2011 by Tephra because: (no reason given)
Isaiah 57:1
1The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
Originally posted by Tephra
Originally posted by graphuto
Originally posted by Tephra
How does putting your hope in a mystical creature any more inspiring than putting your hope in the flow of things?
I don't really see the difference between a religious person, and a non religious person, in this regard other than the fact that the religious person usually loses their faith when something terrible happens, and a non religious person has no faith to lose.
My simple point that I'd like to make is this, if an omnipotent being did exist, and I was presented before it, I would spat on it, for all the suffering it has allowed in this world.edit on 18-4-2011 by Tephra because: (no reason given)
Isaiah 57:1
1The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart: and merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come.
Oh so you're saying this god brutally murdered, instilled cancer, or just generally caused the painful death of millions of innocents because of this evil which he is in control of? What a nice guy.
Genius.edit on 19-4-2011 by Tephra because: (no reason given)
without a belief in God, where do you find hope?