Why are you an Atheist?

[Genivaria]

Exchange the atheist bashing with atheist burning.

Now I'm kind of glad we're not back in the middle ages. Y'know, technically now most of the Presbyterian Churches would be heretics.

They did a lot of burning back then.

Ohhhh yeah. They burned anyone who was a little different.
Let us never go back there.

[TFF]

Everybody's loud and outspoken and we like to fight about our beliefs nowadays.

I wonder if it was like this in the middle ages?

Yes but because it was all dial-up the threads weren't as long.

[TheIncorporation]

Now I'm kind of glad we're not back in the middle ages. Y'know, technically now most of the Presbyterian Churches would be heretics.

They did a lot of burning back then.

Ohhhh yeah. They burned anyone who was a little different.
Let us never go back there.
[img]

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/394456_307289345976705_229551967083777_836002_36768506_n.jpg

[/img]

Admittedly, the Church back then wasn't what it is now. Take a bunch of horrible people and put them in charge of a large corporation which everyone respects=bang, medieval church and popes.

Oh, and they viewed left-handed people as evil. Dang, if I had to write with my right hand that would suck.

[TheIncorporation]

Everybody's loud and outspoken and we like to fight about our beliefs nowadays.

I wonder if it was like this in the middle ages?

Yes but because it was all dial-up the threads weren't as long.

You win the internet, good sir.

[Harkonna]

God is a positive claim, and there is no evidence for it.

If there is no evidence for a positive claim, then the claim cannot be given any credence.

It is not up to those who acknowledge the fact that there is no evidence, and hence, no reason to believe that there is a 'god' or 'gods' or 'spiritual beings' within our existence, to prove that there isn't. The burden of evidence is on those who claim a positive, nott hose who rely on the default, and reasonable state that reflects the lack of any evidence whatsoever, which is a negative. Or null, rather.

Even if the majority of god/gods/spiritual beings existed, they would be negative and abhorrent beings with terrible influence on the world, our lives, and indeed very existence, based on the scriptures that describe them and their doings. Therefore, I would do whatever was in my own power to usurp such cruel, negligent and hateful dictators.

[Genivaria]

Ohhhh yeah. They burned anyone who was a little different.
Let us never go back there.
[img]

http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/394456_307289345976705_229551967083777_836002_36768506_n.jpg

[/img]

Admittedly, the Church back then wasn't what it is now. Take a bunch of horrible people and put them in charge of a large corporation which everyone respects=bang, medieval church and popes.

Oh, and they viewed left-handed people as evil. Dang, if I had to write with my right hand that would suck.

And redheads too.

[TheIncorporation]

Admittedly, the Church back then wasn't what it is now. Take a bunch of horrible people and put them in charge of a large corporation which everyone respects=bang, medieval church and popes.

Oh, and they viewed left-handed people as evil. Dang, if I had to write with my right hand that would suck.

And redheads too.

I think we're all in consensus that we're all very happy that we got out of the middle ages.

[Genivaria]

And redheads too.

I think we're all in consensus that we're all very happy that we got out of the middle ages.

Yes we are.

[Attackies]

I am Atheist, because I don't think there are solid facts that prove that Heaven, God and Jeasuse are really. So if those things are not really neither is Hell or the Devil. They both have to be there if you believe in one of them.

[Willynillya]

Everybody's loud and outspoken and we like to fight about our beliefs nowadays.

I wonder if it was like this in the middle ages?

Yes but because it was all dial-up the threads weren't as long.

funny

[Aesthetica]

Oh, and they viewed left-handed people as evil. Dang, if I had to write with my right hand that would suck.

On the upside... Those of us who are old enough to remember kindly teachers smacking wooden rulers over left handed knuckles and screaming "The left hand is the Devil's hand" learned to do a lot of things right handed to avoid painful attention, so we can use both hands almost equally...

[Zairoon]

There strikes me as being a good few flaws in religion (particularly Abrahamic ones). I think this partially factual experience demonstrates one of them quite nicely:

I once worked with a woman who had fairly serious mental issues as a result of a traumatic experience. She doesn't pray and doesn't go to church- one of the reasons she gave was that "it's full of old people" (bear in mind that she herself was in her 60s).

What I want to know is this: assuming the existence of the God of the Bible, where would she go when she dies? Would she be sent to hell for her lack of faith in spite of her condition? Or would her illness grant her automatic entry to heaven, even though she refused to worship God?

[Wisconsin7]

There is no proof, or even credible evidence from a reliable source, that any God/Goddess/Ultimate Genderless Being(s) exist, and as such do not believe in said Ultimate Being(s).

[Nature-Spirits]

Well, to answer the question in the title, I'm not an Atheist. And no, I wasn't raised in a religion. My mother's an Agnostic Gaian and I don't know about my step-dad (I've never known my biological father, so he's irrelevant). I was raised out of a religion. I actually knew nothing about religion until I was about six or seven, when I started asking questions about why people were kneeling on the ground apparently bowing at nothing (those people turned out to be Muslims), or why some people had little statues of a stable with a baby in it and crosses at Christmas (those people, mostly a few of my grandparents and great-aunts, turned out to be Christians), or who that person with an elephant head was on my mom's pyjama shirt (that turned out to be a Hindu god), or who the heck "Jesus" (which I thought was an odd name) and "God" were. I asked my mom what she believed, and she said that she believed in Gaia, a goddess of the Earth. She didn't tell me much more than that. Then there were kids at school who insisted that Gaia wasn't real and that God was. I argued back of course (I even kissed the ground to prove my point), because Gaia was all I knew about religion, though I didn't know much about her.
Anyway, I eventually stopped caring about religion (at about the age of ten). Then, completely by accident (I was researching "the Goddess" and "Hecate," who I'd discovered in a novel involving magick) I discovered Wicca at the age of twelve. I researched for months. Then, when I was approaching thirteen, I found out that I was interested in more religions than just Wicca. So I became Eclectic Pagan, eventually coming to incorporate many religions into my practice (including but certainly not limited to Wicca [including but not limited to Faerie Wicca, Greek Wicca, Celtic Wicca, etc], Druidry, a small but substantial helping of Asatru, a touch of Ceremonial Magic, a bit of Shinto, Buddhism, a few Hindu beliefs, Onmyoudou [not exactly a religion, but it's a religious practice], Witchcraft [again, not really a religion, but a religious practice], folk magick [do I have to repeat the thing about it not being a religion but a religious practice?], Shamanism [again, a religious practice], my own brand of philosophy that neither acknowledges nor refutes the existence of deity, and many more that I can't remember right now because I'm tired).
Anyway,I'm sure that you don't really want to here my life story, so I'll just shut up now.
PS: Oh, and I've read a bit of the Bible. It's deeply flawed, quite random (especially in the beginning. Like, what's with the random giants who are mentioned but never do anything?), and utterly boring. And self-contradictory. I mean, I'd known that there were flaws before, but until I read a bit of the actual book I never realised how weird it was.
PPS: And I do, in fact, believe in the Big Bang and evolution.

[Hossaim]

Because there is no proof nor logic in the belief of god yet tons in the belief of there being no god, and to all the explanations science has provided for the things that christnas say god did.

The bible is a book. Much like harry potter or the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. It just says it was written by god. If you scratched off J.K Rowling on the cover of the Harry Potter books and put god, then stated the book was written by him a few times would it start a religion? No, because we are smarter than we were a thousand years ago. Well, at least atheists are, they have accepted logic and proof over delusion, something most people should see as a good choice. Sadly, many do not.

And if one more person gives me this line:

the bible is real because it is written by god and we know it's written by god because it says so in the bible.

Im going to fucking kill them and every other person who says it because people that stupid, frankly, should not be allowed to live.

[Imsogone]

I am not an atheist. Neither am I a believer. I'm an agnostic. I'll go even further than that to say that the existence of a deity is largely irrelevant to our existence. Really, I don't know if a deity exists or not. There's not enough proof to support either contention.

[The Soviet Technocracy]

Because there is no proof nor logic in the belief of god yet tons in the belief of there being no god, and to all the explanations science has provided for the things that christnas say god did.

The bible is a book. Much like harry potter or the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. It just says it was written by god. If you scratched off J.K Rowling on the cover of the Harry Potter books and put god, then stated the book was written by him a few times would it start a religion? No, because we are smarter than we were a thousand years ago. Well, at least atheists are, they have accepted logic and proof over delusion, something most people should see as a good choice. Sadly, many do not.

And if one more person gives me this line:

the bible is real because it is written by god and we know it's written by god because it says so in the bible.

Im going to fucking kill them and every other person who says it because people that stupid, frankly, should not be allowed to live.

Atheists are not more likely to be intelligent than the average person.

Rather intelligent people are more likely to be atheists. Being an atheist does not make you any smarter than you were before. Plenty of intelligent people have been religious, or held religious views. Freeman Dyson, for one.

And finally, atheism is not irreligion. I am an atheist, I am a non-denominational Christian, too. You can be atheist and religious, and it irks me when people conflate the two or think them both the same.

[Hossaim]

Because there is no proof nor logic in the belief of god yet tons in the belief of there being no god, and to all the explanations science has provided for the things that christnas say god did.

The bible is a book. Much like harry potter or the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. It just says it was written by god. If you scratched off J.K Rowling on the cover of the Harry Potter books and put god, then stated the book was written by him a few times would it start a religion? No, because we are smarter than we were a thousand years ago. Well, at least atheists are, they have accepted logic and proof over delusion, something most people should see as a good choice. Sadly, many do not.

And if one more person gives me this line:

the bible is real because it is written by god and we know it's written by god because it says so in the bible.

Im going to fucking kill them and every other person who says it because people that stupid, frankly, should not be allowed to live.

Atheists are not more likely to be intelligent than the average person.

Rather intelligent people are more likely to be atheists. Being an atheist does not make you any smarter than you were before. Plenty of intelligent people have been religious, or held religious views. Freeman Dyson, for one.

And finally, atheism is not irreligion. I am an atheist, I am a non-denominational Christian, too. You can be atheist and religious, and it irks me when people conflate the two or think them both the same.

Fine, Atheists are more logical in some departments than christans.

[Streamland]

I am not an atheist. Neither am I a believer. I'm an agnostic. I'll go even further than that to say that the existence of a deity is largely irrelevant to our existence. Really, I don't know if a deity exists or not. There's not enough proof to support either contention.

Not again

[Imsogone]

I am not an atheist. Neither am I a believer. I'm an agnostic. I'll go even further than that to say that the existence of a deity is largely irrelevant to our existence. Really, I don't know if a deity exists or not. There's not enough proof to support either contention.

Not again

Excuse me? You have a problem with agnostics?

[Erinkita]

Not again

Excuse me? You have a problem with agnostics?

I think it's more to do with the misconception that agnostocism is a middle ground between atheism and theism, and the further misconception that you have to deny the existence of a god in order ot be an atheist.

[Tulija]

Both sides can claim as there is no evidence therefore you can't disprove the existence/lack of existence of God. I choose to not believe in God because it's more improbable that there's an invisible man-God in the clouds who is omnipotent yet refuses to touch our lives, than there being no God.

Not to mention the fact religion asks so much more of it's believers; you must believe in all manner of unproven things. Atheists merely refuse to accept what cannot be proven. I don't see how this is so difficult to understand, if not agree with?

[Streamland]

The problem, sir, is that you are an agnostic atheist apatheist. You can't cherry pick which of these three things you are, since you are ALL of them by necessity.

[Imsogone]

Excuse me? You have a problem with agnostics?

I think it's more to do with the misconception that agnostocism is a middle ground between atheism and theism, and the further misconception that you have to deny the existence of a god in order ot be an atheist.

I think it's funny that all atheists seem to be Christian atheists, as if there's only one god that you can't believe in and that there are no other gods that you can't believe in.

[Erinkita]

I think it's more to do with the misconception that agnostocism is a middle ground between atheism and theism, and the further misconception that you have to deny the existence of a god in order ot be an atheist.

I think it's funny that all atheists seem to be Christian atheists, as if there's only one god that you can't believe in and that there are no other gods that you can't believe in.

Okay... that had nothing whatsoever to do with what I said, but good for you I guess?