Atheists: Do you feel good about your beliefs?

[Cabra West]

I'm a devout Christian and I've never understood how someone could happily live as an atheist who believes that they won't go to heaven. When I say atheists I don't mean Buddhists or anything, I mean the ones who think that death is the end.

Are you happy thinking that? Does it make you feel more intelligent? Would you LIKE there to be a God?

Personally if I was atheist I'd be depressed as hell going through life thinking like that. What are your opinions?

Well, to each their own I guess.
I always found the idea of living forever to be highly disturbing, let alone being judged by some unknowable and if observation is any indication rather vindictive and nasty higher being.

I don't think it has anything to do with intelligence, though. I'm sure there are lots of very clever people out there who dislike the thought of mortality just as much as less bright members of our species. In fact, they might dislike it even more, depending on how high an opinion they have of themselves.

I don't see any reason in getting depressed : I've got this life I get to enjoy it while it lasts, and when it's over, it's over. Simple as.
I don't know if I would be able to be happy and relaxed feeling constantly watched and being in constant fear of spending eternity in hell.


I would definitely like there to be a god. Not the one described in the bible, I honestly dislike the character, but some sort of higher being who would interact with us, provide comfort and share knowledge? That would really be a cool thing to have around.
Wishing something doesn't make it real, though.

[Ubaria]

Personally, I don't see anything wrong with the Christian belief...or any belief's for that matter.
I wasn't raised Christian so I wouldn't be as devoted to it as a person who was, I believe what I wish to believe and leave others to do so.

[Stovokor]

There's nothing to feel anything about since it's not a belief. However on an interesting note, to enlighten the OP some atheists do have beliefs that do not involve beings of a godly nature but of course that varies from person to person and can be as silly and vague as most recognized faiths.

[Hasastia]

Honestly I'm just not under any belief that there is a god, or a higher power or anything at all. I'm quite happy knowing that things in the universe work on their own. I'm not scared of a concept of hell, or death. I'm content. I don't want to live my life by things that I don't think are real. I don't need to think about where I'll be in my next life, because I like the now, and if there is a place after this, I would 1) rather not know, and 2) not care.

If I were in a faith, people would probably think I'm a good person, that I am a model citizen and an example of that faith's best aspects - but the only reason that I'm not is because I don't believe in anything, and I don't think I can be part of something like that where people are judged like cookie cutter pieces that have to be a part of a big puzzle.

Just tonight, I had a conversation with my sister, and we agreed that people who believe in god are either on the lower end of intelligence, delusional, or scared. It's not a bad thing, but when you use something everyone is scared of to get your way, it's disturbing. Take death. In most religions, if you are nice, give to your community, and thank god for what he or she has supposedly given you, then you'll go to heaven, and you won't have to worry. But if you go against what others think, or do something people don't like, history has shown us that religion will scare people into disliking that thing you've done, and use you as fuel to show where people who don't conform end up - usually hell.

In the simplest words I can muster, I don't want religion, I don't like it, and if god is real than it must either completely hate, or is entirely disinterested with the human race. I cannot think of a bigger waste of my time than attending a church sermon, praying, or blessing someone when they sneeze - though I will wish them good health, since this life is all we've got. We should cherish the "now" rather than throw it away on the what-ifs of the world that you won't need to worry about until after anyway.

I mean heck, half of the stuff in the bible people don't follow, and the other half we take extremely seriously for the wrong reasons. That book has been altered so many times in the history of the world to suit a certain way of thinking that it's most likely been stripped to the core of whatever it used to be. If that's all god gave the human race to remember it by, we pretty much screwed that one up. Oh, and all the miracles that used to happen, and all the unexplained things pretty much disappeared after we got video cameras and science - which used to be condemned by the church to keep us scared and in the dark (see: The Dark Ages). Almost every war that wasn't started by religion was fueled by it to give people conviction.

In my opinion, we'd be a lot farther along as a species if religion was never invented. I would think that we would have given up dancing for the Sun-God to get the rain to come when we found out the weather was controlled by earth's natural forces and not the Sky-King's wrath. It's simply mind blowing.

Just to be clear, I don't think people who believe in a god are stupid, I mostly think they're scared, or they've been raised to think that believing anything else is wrong. It's so ingrained in culture and society that it is hard for people to get out of their cave and experience something that they didn't know could happen, i.e. no god being exactly the same as a god. If you think about it, the only god that's ever existed is the one that people wanted. The one that gave people a thing to grasp on to when things looked bad, or would listen to your problems when you were in need; but the only thing we ever prayed to was ourselves, and the answers we got didn't come from anyone but ourselves. I think it's nearly insulting to say that god helped someone through a situation, because I know deep down that they worked hard enough to overcome adversity, and to flippantly give credit to anyone but that person is wrong.

I was raised as a christian, and I'm a very intelligent person; so I think that naturally I saw through all of the shallow camaraderie that my church members shared, and I refused to go there by the time I was nine. I never felt that spark people did when they walked into a church, and I'm certain I never will. Being a part of a religion, to me, seems like something that refuses people to be all of themselves. It restricts people where nature does not. It holds people back. If people had the moral code that we were supposed to live by as sentient, compassionate individuals (not animals mind you, but what humanity has made us) we would all be better for it, and we wouldn't need skewed beliefs of people from biblical times telling us how to live in this modern, intelligent age that we're all a part of.

In short, the universe doesn't need a god, and I'm not scared of death. I'm a good person, but I don't need religion as a moral compass. People in religion are most likely not highly intelligent, and/or scared. Religion is only a tool to make people hate each other or get the unintelligent to do things they would not otherwise do. I believe that people's time is better spent living their lives than worrying about where they'll be after they die. The bible has been rewritten innumerable times to fit a need, and is no longer a word of a higher power. (I use bible in place of all religious texts, really). The church has repressed people for hundreds of years because they want power. We should have finished believing in things that explain why the sun goes down at night and comes up in the morning because we have science. I'm intelligent, and have never felt god is real or even possible. We shouldn't give credit for human accomplishments to something that is not a factor in their esteem. Religion restricts us in a way nature never would.The bible is incredibly dated and contains only basic half-truths on how we should behave in the modern, educated time we live in.

That is all, and now I'm going to bed. Feel free to point out my faults, because it's 4 a.m. here and I'm sure you'll find some.

[Blouman Empire]

How about those who hold the position that the question of deity is simply not important enough to consider?

Unless you have a firm "all or none" viewpoint on all topics discussed on NSG and cannot accept any differing viewpoints even those that are slightly different then you shouldn't be on here.

1: They are not, because it is impossible. If they say that they don't know, then they lack an active belief in a deity and are therefore atheists. I can call myself a space walrus, but that doesn't mean I am.

2: Carl Sagan (falsely) equated all atheism with gnostic atheism, as far as I can tell. He lacked a belief in a deity, and so he was an atheist. Not the kind he is quoted as talking about, though.

Well if you feel the need to boost your numbers...

[Minarchist Territory of Pineland]

I think it's cute the way atheists don't think atheism is a belief.

It's like saying Marxism isn't an ideology, or that progressivism isn't a metanarrative.

Simply because one projects onto, and demonizes it's polar opposite of being that thing, through displacement, to distract people from the realization that they are still adhering to a system of thought.

While atheism is defined, not as a belief in anything, but specifically categorized as a non belief, you still end up in a belief that there isn't a God, because in comparison a non-belief that when we die we just rot is still a non-belief of the atheist system, just as the atheist system has a belief that you just rot when you die and that's it. The word 'belief' doesn't mean 'theists believing in deities and afterlifes'. It literally just means 'someone having a belief in a system of thought', and that can manifest in pretty much any doctrine people choose to adhere to, regardless of what it says.

Debating on and redefining word semantics, to give one doctrine prestige over another, or to get some superficial intellectual high ground, or feeling of being 'woken up' just seems silly to me.

The first mistake people always make, with anything, is thinking they are somehow exempt or infallible from the same criticisms, they throw at others.

[Samuraikoku]

just as the atheist system has a belief that you just rot when you die and that's it.

Fact.

[Minarchist Territory of Pineland]

I'm not saying it's true or not true, opinion wise. All I'm saying is, metaphysically, it's still a materialist belief system.

[Samuraikoku]

I'm not saying it's true or not true, opinion wise. All I'm saying is, metaphysically, it's still a materialist belief system.

Except you do rot when you die. Unless you're cremated. Fact.

[Minarchist Territory of Pineland]

Which is still a belief from a materialist framework, regardless of it's truth or not.

See, I can repeat words too.

[Samuraikoku]

Which is still a belief from a materialist framework, regardless of it's truth or not.

See, I can repeat sentences too.

So now a scientific fact is a materialist belief?

[Minarchist Territory of Pineland]

Metaphysics.

Materialism =/= only substance

Physicalism =/= universal grasp on all matter and energy.

[Frisivisia]

Metaphysics.

Materialism =/= only substance

Physicalism =/= universal grasp on all matter and energy.

Metaphysics are bullshit. We aren't here for a reason, we don't have a higher purpose, we just live, and then die.

And I think that's beautiful.

[Minarchist Territory of Pineland]

Metaphysics.

Materialism =/= only substance

Physicalism =/= universal grasp on all matter and energy.

Metaphysics are bullshit. We aren't here for a reason, we don't have a higher purpose, we just live, and then die.

And I think that's beautiful.

And that's still a belief system. It's something you believe in. You believe metaphysics are bullshit, you believe you're not here for a reason, you've believe there's no higher purpose, and you believe that you just live and die.

Denying metaphysics, to eliminate competition, and give materialism more ground doesn't remove metaphysics being present, and it doesn't withdraw materialism from still being something people believe in.

Buddhist monks are a hell of a lot more wiser than most pretentious, stuck up western youths. And they will claim materialism is an illusion.

Isn't it great, how different philosophical doctrines, are present in the land of free information, to let people decide for themselves what they want to adhere to?

[Dyakovo]

Not possible.

Why not? Are all the people who say they are agnostic not?

Because it is impossible to neither believe nor lack belief.
A majority of the people who say they're agnostic are agnostic atheists.

[Dyakovo]

I think it's cute the way atheists don't think atheism is a belief.

It's like saying Marxism isn't an ideology, or that progressivism isn't a metanarrative.

Simply because one projects onto, and demonizes it's polar opposite of being that thing, through displacement, to distract people from the realization that they are still adhering to a system of thought.

While atheism is defined, not as a belief in anything, but specifically categorized as a non belief, you still end up in a belief that there isn't a God, because in comparison a non-belief that when we die we just rot is still a non-belief of the atheist system, just as the atheist system has a belief that you just rot when you die and that's it. The word 'belief' doesn't mean 'theists believing in deities and afterlifes'. It literally just means 'someone having a belief in a system of thought', and that can manifest in pretty much any doctrine people choose to adhere to, regardless of what it says.

Debating on and redefining word semantics, to give one doctrine prestige over another, or to get some superficial intellectual high ground, or feeling of being 'woken up' just seems silly to me.

The first mistake people always make, with anything, is thinking they are somehow exempt or infallible from the same criticisms, they throw at others.

It isn't a belief. It is a lack of belief, not my fault you can't comprehend the difference.

[Quintero]

I'm a devout Christian and I've never understood how someone could happily live as an atheist who believes that they won't go to heaven. When I say atheists I don't mean Buddhists or anything, I mean the ones who think that death is the end.

Are you happy thinking that? Does it make you feel more intelligent? Would you LIKE there to be a God?

Personally if I was atheist I'd be depressed as hell going through life thinking like that. What are your opinions?

So, your question is:
"Do you feel bad that when you die you won't go somewhere that you don't believe exists?"
No, I won't feel bad for not going somewhere that doesn't exist.

I do feel good in my belief.
You know why?
Not make believe. Not delusion. Not unreasonable.

[Frisivisia]

Metaphysics are bullshit. We aren't here for a reason, we don't have a higher purpose, we just live, and then die.

And I think that's beautiful.

And that's still a belief system. It's something you believe in. You believe metaphysics are bullshit, you believe you're not here for a reason, you've believe there's no higher purpose, and you believe that you just live and die.

Denying metaphysics, to eliminate competition, and give materialism more ground doesn't remove metaphysics being present, and it doesn't withdraw materialism from still being something people believe in.

Buddhist monks are a hell of a lot more wiser than most pretentious, stuck up western youths. And they will claim materialism is an illusion.

Isn't it great, how different philosophical doctrines, are present in the land of free information, to let people decide for themselves what they want to adhere to?

I have an ideology. That makes me wrong?

[Dyakovo]

And that's still a belief system. It's something you believe in. You believe metaphysics are bullshit, you believe you're not here for a reason, you've believe there's no higher purpose, and you believe that you just live and die.

Denying metaphysics, to eliminate competition, and give materialism more ground doesn't remove metaphysics being present, and it doesn't withdraw materialism from still being something people believe in.

Buddhist monks are a hell of a lot more wiser than most pretentious, stuck up western youths. And they will claim materialism is an illusion.

Isn't it great, how different philosophical doctrines, are present in the land of free information, to let people decide for themselves what they want to adhere to?

I have an ideology. That makes me wrong?

Yes, because obviously your ideology is directly linked to your lack of belief in a deity or deities.
*nods*

[Xhaine]

I'm a devout Christian and I've never understood how someone could happily live as an atheist who believes that they won't go to heaven. When I say atheists I don't mean Buddhists or anything, I mean the ones who think that death is the end.

Are you happy thinking that? Does it make you feel more intelligent? Would you LIKE there to be a God?

Personally if I was atheist I'd be depressed as hell going through life thinking like that. What are your opinions?

It's not depressing at all. It makes me want to make every moment and make it worthwhile for everyone, instead of waiting to enjoy life in a fantasy world Heaven.

[The Imperial Terran Republic]

I am not an Atheist as much as I am a Naturalist (I Believe That Science Can Explain Everything) I just don't believe that our universe is the work of a divine creator.

[Czechanada]

Metaphysics are bullshit. We aren't here for a reason, we don't have a higher purpose, we just live, and then die.

And I think that's beautiful.

And that's still a belief system. It's something you believe in. You believe metaphysics are bullshit, you believe you're not here for a reason, you've believe there's no higher purpose, and you believe that you just live and die.

Denying metaphysics, to eliminate competition, and give materialism more ground doesn't remove metaphysics being present, and it doesn't withdraw materialism from still being something people believe in.

Buddhist monks are a hell of a lot more wiser than most pretentious, stuck up western youths. And they will claim materialism is an illusion.

Isn't it great, how different philosophical doctrines, are present in the land of free information, to let people decide for themselves what they want to adhere to?

Metaphysics are a just a social construction. They exist only because people claim they exist. And just because someone makes a claim, that does not mean there is automatically some possible validity to it.

[The Humanist Federation]

I don't find it depressing at all. It took billions and billions of years to produce Homo Sapiens and another 50,000 years or so to produce me. Statistically speaking, the fact that I exist, and have enough consciousness to type this sentence is extremely slim. I have a minuscule amount of time to savor the great experiment of life, and it's all the sweeter when you realize that there is no invisible hand arbitrarily ruling over your life.

Also, I don't want to think there is a god. It's a waste of time and the fact that he doesn't exist doesn't phase me.

[Czechanada]

I don't find it depressing at all. It took billions and billions of years to produce Homo Sapiens and another 50,000 years or so to produce me. Statistically speaking, the fact that I exist, and have enough consciousness to type this sentence is extremely slim. I have a minuscule amount of time to savor the great experiment of life, and it's all the sweeter when you realize that there is no invisible hand arbitrarily ruling over your life.

Also, I don't want to think there is a god. It's a waste of time and the fact that he doesn't exist doesn't phase me.

Well, the invisible hand of the market does rule over your life.

[Murray land]

I'm a devout Christian and I've never understood how someone could happily live as an atheist who believes that they won't go to heaven. When I say atheists I don't mean Buddhists or anything, I mean the ones who think that death is the end.

Are you happy thinking that? Does it make you feel more intelligent? Would you LIKE there to be a God?

Personally if I was atheist I'd be depressed as hell going through life thinking like that. What are your opinions?

Can we stop with these threads please they have established one fact DON'T debate religion or a lack there of.