NationStates

I figured that, since you have a Christian discussion thread and an Islamic Discussion thread, why not have an atheism discussion thread? Looking for one, all I could find was this weird thread from years ago with only about ten replies. If I need to have mod permission to start a DT I apologize, but ey, I'm not very smart.

This thread is, obviously, for any and all discussion regarding the absence of belief in a God, or if you feel like it, you can talk about what you had for breakfast. I don't really mind. The mods might mind though. Whether you're an atheist who wants to talk about it, or an agnostic who wants to see a variety of perspectives, or a theist who thinks that atheism is incorrect, everyone's welcome here. Some possible subjects are, including but not limited to;

• Arguments for or against a lack of belief in a God.
• Different schools of philosophical and political thought within atheism.
• Atheist and theist perspectives on political issues and current events.
• Issues regarding the dynamic between Church and state.
• The state of affairs of atheist groups and theist groups.
• The plight and problems of atheists and atheist groups around the world,

You can also talk about things like why you became an atheist, or why you stopped being an atheist. Were you always an atheist? Did you grow up in a religious household? How do you interact in day to day life with theists you know, and how do they interact with you? Theists, how do you interact with atheists you know? I feel like I'm speaking like theists and atheists are different species, so I should probably stop with that.

I personally, am an atheist of the more secular humanist skeptic type vein, though I kind of feel like a dork, saying that. I grew up and am still living in a Baptist Christian household and was relatively comfortable in my Christianity until 2015 when one of my friends came out as bi. I didn't say anything at the time, but I knew that the Bible was against gay marriage. After looking at some videos by pro-gay marriage people on YouTube (this was about the time they legalized gay marriage I think) I realized that there wasn't anything wrong with being gay. This meant I disagreed with a God who was meant to always be right. I know the contradiction, but I ignored it. About a month later I started watching a bunch of anti-SJW Skeptic type videos because they were funny, and while their arguments against religion that were embedded in many of their arguments against SJWs were annoying to me, I couldn't really refute many of them. I remember early 2016 I saw a YouTuber say that since evolution was true, the Genesis account of creation couldn't really be true, and I knew what she was saying was true. Over time my faith in Christianity got weaker and weaker until early 2017 when I realized that I was pretty much an atheist. I still love my family, and all the people at my Church are great people, I just don't agree with them, that's all.

I personally think that a lack of belief in God is justified, because the universe behaves and looks exactly how it would if it had no conscious creator. I also think that the abrahamic god has said and done many things that are reprehensible such as killing innocent people and advocating the death of innocent people. I think many arguments in defense of the killing that the abrahamic god has done is outwardly tyrannical, saying "God is always right" or "God controls and says what's right and wrong." I also think that religion instills a misanthropy in many theists who say that humanity is just evil sinners capable of no good or virtue without God. That's my reasoning.

I'm bad at reading lists but here's these (I'm not necessarily endorsing them);



Also, here's some atheist/agnostic YouTubers;



Above is my attempt at a poll. I know it's pretty bad, but hey, we're all a little pretty bad. That sentence got away from me.

Oof, atheists who want to talk about atheism. Isn't that a rarity? /s Now, let's try to keep the "all theists are dumb," and "all atheists are immoral," type statements to a minimum and the post-ironic shrek fedora memes to a maximum. Have fun (or don't, I don't mind. It's your life).

The redundancies in the bible, idiotic actions in the bible, the knowledge that nothing benevolent (At least, if you have unlimited power) is truly benevolent if it allows the type of suffering that I endure, and that the human race endures on a daily basis, and the simple fact that something that knows the future would absolutely eliminate the idea of free will are all what contributed to my disbelief in a higher power.

Depending on how you look at it, I am an atheist AND a polytheist.

"God is dead"
-Random 6 year old

Anyways, why does Satanism count as irreligious? I get it is the worship of man, kinda, but still.e

Of the terms above, I believe secular humanist fits what I believe best. I hold no ill-will against religion, and have no horror stories of how I lost faith - I simply never had it to begin with.

When I was younger on the rare occasion I'd watch religious-themed shows or read a religious book, I'd often wonder why I didn't feel the 'presence' they talk about or the calling of God. Then I'd move on to something else and forget about it.

I'm fairly passionate about secularism. People should be free to believe what they wish, or not believe. As long as nobody gets hurt it's all good.

Hammer Britannia wrote:"God is dead"
-Random 6 year old

Anyways, why does Satanism count as irreligious? I get it is the worship of man, kinda, but still.e

There are some branches of Satanism who don't actually think Satan is a real entity, but use him as a concept of Freedom and Opposition to Tyrants.

Hammer Britannia wrote:"God is dead"
-Random 6 year old

Anyways, why does Satanism count as irreligious? I get it is the worship of man, kinda, but still.e

Depends on the Satanism I suppose.

Hammer Britannia wrote:"God is dead"
-Random 6 year old

Anyways, why does Satanism count as irreligious? I get it is the worship of man, kinda, but still.e

Many Satanists are religious atheists.

Grew up Christian, was an atheist for a while (including an edgy anti-theist phase), polytheist now.

Washington Resistance Army wrote:Grew up Christian, was an atheist for a while (including an edgy anti-theist phase), polytheist now.

Who do you worship?

Hammer Britannia wrote:"God is dead"
-Random 6 year old

Anyways, why does Satanism count as irreligious? I get it is the worship of man, kinda, but still.e

"God exists".
Random 6-year old, but a different one.

Your point.

Big Jim P wrote:

Hammer Britannia wrote:"God is dead"
-Random 6 year old

Anyways, why does Satanism count as irreligious? I get it is the worship of man, kinda, but still.e

Many Satanists are religious atheists.

Alvecia wrote:

Hammer Britannia wrote:"God is dead"
-Random 6 year old

Anyways, why does Satanism count as irreligious? I get it is the worship of man, kinda, but still.e

Depends on the Satanism I suppose.

Gotcha...

Risottia wrote:

Hammer Britannia wrote:"God is dead"
-Random 6 year old

Anyways, why does Satanism count as irreligious? I get it is the worship of man, kinda, but still.e

"God exists".
Random 6-year old, but a different one.

Your point.

I was memeing, that's my point.

Albrenia wrote:Of the terms above, I believe secular humanist fits what I believe best. I hold no ill-will against religion, and have no horror stories of how I lost faith - I simply never had it to begin with.

When I was younger on the rare occasion I'd watch religious-themed shows or read a religious book, I'd often wonder why I didn't feel the 'presence' they talk about or the calling of God. Then I'd move on to something else and forget about it.

I'm fairly passionate about secularism. People should be free to believe what they wish, or not believe. As long as nobody gets hurt it's all good.

Militant behaviour, by both Atheists and Theists, is what leads to issues, no? The best kind of environment is one where everyone keeps in mind the beliefs of others, but keeps their own to themselves in terms of either forcing their beliefs upon the other, or attempting to 'correct' that which they think is wrong. True secularism should be free of constant lobbying and recruitment, from either side. Believe what you will, don't force it down anyone's throat, and everyone stays happy. At least, until they're crushed by the corporate machine, but hey.

Arkhall wrote:

Albrenia wrote:Of the terms above, I believe secular humanist fits what I believe best. I hold no ill-will against religion, and have no horror stories of how I lost faith - I simply never had it to begin with.

When I was younger on the rare occasion I'd watch religious-themed shows or read a religious book, I'd often wonder why I didn't feel the 'presence' they talk about or the calling of God. Then I'd move on to something else and forget about it.

I'm fairly passionate about secularism. People should be free to believe what they wish, or not believe. As long as nobody gets hurt it's all good.

Militant behaviour, by both Atheists and Theists, is what leads to issues, no? The best kind of environment is one where everyone keeps in mind the beliefs of others, but keeps their own to themselves in terms of either forcing their beliefs upon the other, or attempting to 'correct' that which they think is wrong. True secularism should be free of constant lobbying and recruitment, from either side. Believe what you will, don't force it down anyone's throat, and everyone stays happy. At least, until they're crushed by the corporate machine, but hey.

Agreed for the most part. There's a smattering of examples where one's faith needs to step aside to prevent harm (no beating your kids to death to expel demons or anything, for example) but all the personal stuff should not be infringed upon by any government or group.

Hammer Britannia wrote:

Washington Resistance Army wrote:Grew up Christian, was an atheist for a while (including an edgy anti-theist phase), polytheist now.

Who do you worship?

The Greek pantheon. There's a couple polytheists hanging around NSG, not enough to keep a discussion thread active though.

Washington Resistance Army wrote:

Hammer Britannia wrote:Who do you worship?

The Greek pantheon. There's a couple polytheists hanging around NSG, not enough to keep a discussion thread active though.

OK, cool.

Personally, I think i felt Zeus talk to me, but I think it's mostly just my stomach and not thunder

Washington Resistance Army wrote:

Hammer Britannia wrote:Who do you worship?

The Greek pantheon. There's a couple polytheists hanging around NSG, not enough to keep a discussion thread active though.

Must be hard to get your hands on accurate material from the time. Pretty damn cool subject though.

Washington Resistance Army wrote:The Greek pantheon. There's a couple polytheists hanging around NSG, not enough to keep a discussion thread active though.

>preferring the effete Hellenistic pantheon to the virile Latin one
I'm shaking my head, profligate.

Washington Resistance Army wrote:

Hammer Britannia wrote:Who do you worship?

The Greek pantheon. There's a couple polytheists hanging around NSG, not enough to keep a discussion thread active though.

Pfft, nor superior Latin rendition of said pantheon?
Although I have been hearing some interesting theories on the origins of many Indo-European pantheons.

Albrenia wrote:

Washington Resistance Army wrote:
The Greek pantheon. There's a couple polytheists hanging around NSG, not enough to keep a discussion thread active though.

Must be hard to get your hands on accurate material from the time. Pretty damn cool subject though.

For Greco-Roman paganism it's incredibly easy apart from some of the (aptly named) mystery cults. Pretty much everything important about the religions is still known to us and rituals and festivals and prayers and whatnot have largely survived.

Washington Resistance Army wrote:

Hammer Britannia wrote:Who do you worship?

The Greek pantheon. There's a couple polytheists hanging around NSG, not enough to keep a discussion thread active though.

The Greek gods have got to be the coolest, from a truly weird standpoint of "What the fuck Zeus, we have enough children".

Roman gods are cooler only by names, since they're pretty much carbon copies of the Greek.

Used to be a catholic in my younger years, but even when i was a catholic i was never a practising one, i only went to church for things like weddings, funerals and when i was forced to go for mass by my school (which was the only time i ever went because it made me something beyond bored) and didnt pray at all except at those masses either (and i didnt even fucking know a full prayer lol) and in general i honestly did not give a fuck about the whole god thing and found it to be a waste of time. So about half way through secondary school i went atheist, still tried to get forced to go mass, but after a very angry phone call from my dad the school knocked that in the bud after a while.

So ive been an atheist now about...idk about 8-9 years i guess.


My family (Mum and dad are both catholic, my sister is kind of religious, my brothers arnt) didnt give a fuck about me being an atheist either, my choice and they respected it.

The Xenopolis Confederation wrote:I'm bad at reading lists but here's these (I'm not necessarily endorsing them);

• Aron Ra- Foundational Falsehoods of Creationism (I couldn't find a PDF but just look it up on YouTube)
• Richard Dawkins- The God Delusion
• Christoper Hitchens- God Is Not Great
• The Bible
• The Quran

I was going to mention adding Nietzsche to the reading list. However, while his position on Judaeo-Christian theology/morality/ethics is clear, his applications of the Greek gods Apollo and Dionysus in his works tends to indicate some acceptance of theistic thinking in certain narrow contexts, mainly as allegories for discussing and expressing various facets of the human condition etc. A few years ago, I gave a lecture on Nietzsche's interpretation of Apollo and Dionysus during my Master's at University, so it is an area of Nietzsche's work that I am very passionate about.

I am an Atheist. I think that most people who I have sparred with in NSGeneral are probably implicitly aware of that by now, but just saying it here explicitly.

Arkhall wrote:

Washington Resistance Army wrote:
The Greek pantheon. There's a couple polytheists hanging around NSG, not enough to keep a discussion thread active though.

The Greek gods have got to be the coolest, from a truly weird standpoint of "What the fuck Zeus, we have enough children".

Roman gods are cooler only by names, since they're pretty much carbon copies of the Greek.

Eh, they’re some differences. If I remover correctly Mars and Ares don’t exactly line up in all regards.

Anyway what’s more likely is that the pantheism developed divergently but later ‘merged’, at least in some aspects.

The Huskar Social Union wrote:Used to be a catholic in my younger years, but even when i was a catholic i was never a practising one, i only went to church for things like weddings, funerals and when i was forced to go for mass by my school (which was the only time i ever went because it made me something beyond bored) and didnt pray at all except at those masses either (and i didnt even fucking know a full prayer lol) and in general i honestly did not give a fuck about the whole god thing and found it to be a waste of time. So about half way through secondary school i went atheist, still tried to get forced to go mass, but after a very angry phone call from my dad the school knocked that in the bud after a while.

So ive been an atheist now about...idk about 8-9 years i guess.


My family (Mum and dad are both catholic, my sister is kind of religious, my brothers arnt) didnt give a fuck about me being an atheist either, my choice and they respected it.

Further proof that you aren't fit to rule the Pdox thread, you don't even follow the Pope