Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If your statement was true you would not feel the need to start a thread so you could make sure and label yourself as something non religious.
It seems like the only acceptable sort of atheist to you is the kind that shut the heck up.
This is a public debate forum. It is a special case. People should not participate here if they cannot handle actual discussion and debate. Especially on the atheist side, my guess is that 99% of the discussion and debate about (un)belief happens here, and nowhere else. There are specific exceptions, such as one member who is active in an atheist advocacy group. But you are basing your ideas about what (you wish) atheism is by extrapolating from a place where people by definition come to discuss philosophy, metaphysics and (un)belief, to all atheists, everywhere, at all times and in all places.
You'd feel so much better, I'm sure, if atheists were in fact, by and large, obsessed with religion for no good reason and had opinions about religion that, rather than reflecting how religion negatively impacts them, simply reflect a wish to somehow reconcile themselves to religion. Then you could completely dismiss atheism as self-inflicted suffering that raises zero questions about the validity and efficacy of your own beliefs.
If you have a life-long habit of thinking in terms of "there MUST be a god", "there MUST be a correct concept of God" then you will not credit someone who doesn't believe at all. The MUST in these statements is the begging of the question that locks people out of true freedom of thought.
That's the truth, it's the MUST part that keeps the rational thinking from happening.
Quote:
There MUST be a god ... or what? What, exactly? The implication is that "or life would be meaningless" or some variation thereof. The truth is, "or life would be whatever it is and I'd be able to see it for that". "or life would not have someone else's predetermined meaning and it'd be up to me to find my own meaning".
I wish I had had the opportunity to be a free thinker from the beginning instead of being raised as an evangelical Christian, it would have made things so much easier as far as not having to undo all this brainwashing. I'm still a work in progress but the " there MUST be" thing is gone and has been replaced by "there MUST NOT be a god" or else there would be some evidence of it.
Quote:
When you are told from the cradle that life without god is unthinkable, that god is a necessity rather than a superfluity, then even when you are surrounded by unbelievers living the unthinkable and dismissing the superfluous, you assume that if YOU didn't have god, your head would explode or your moral compass would throw a rod. It may be that convincing people that god is necessary is religion's greatest accomplishment and its most fundamental deception. More generically, since some religions don't really have gods, it's convincing people that the supernatural exists and is necessary to explain anything.
Exactly what I was saying, it's very hard for a Christian or other religion to comprehend not having that blind faith that is required to "believe". It is impossible for a religious person to understand that you can have a moral compass WITHOUT the belief in a deity, just impossible. I know, I thought the same thing once. How in the world can you be a decent person if you don't have that constant threat of "hell" looming in the background to make you behave? It just can't be, no god means evil and mayhem, right? WRONG. Morals are a choice, not a blessing from heaven cause your afraid "god'll getcha for all of eternity" if you don't believe and behave.
Quote:
My way out of this thought-pattern was the repeated experience that god never once proved himself necessary in my life. Experiencing, as I did, the consistent life-pattern that unfolded as one would expect if god were non-existent or at least absent or indifferent, the superfluity of god was self-evident after awhile.
Me too Mordant, I looked back over my life and everything that I ever thought was "supernatural" or "heaven sent" could be explained away quite easily either through science or rationality of thought. It's quite a journey out of religion but being free from that slavery is like a huge sigh of relief...."whew, glad that's over with" kinda thing.
With all the banter going on about atheists i need to define myself.
I'm some one who never had an interest in going to church, thought the bible was a bunch of fairy tails, dont believe in God, think the idea of creationism is absurd, I dont think about religion,i dont talk about religion and religion plays no role in my life and i have no wish to convert any one to my non religious ways of thinking.
I've always assumed this way of life described an atheist but reading many posts seem to imply atheism as some kind of alternate religion If thats the case what designation am i if not an atheist?
Yep, you're an Atheist!
Welcome to the brotherhood... Don't read too much into it, that's what those people with their black book do.
With all the banter going on about atheists i need to define myself.
I'm some one who never had an interest in going to church, thought the bible was a bunch of fairy tails, dont believe in God, think the idea of creationism is absurd, I dont think about religion,i dont talk about religion and religion plays no role in my life and i have no wish to convert any one to my non religious ways of thinking.
I've always assumed this way of life described an atheist but reading many posts seem to imply atheism as some kind of alternate religion If thats the case what designation am i if not an atheist?
Atheism is not an affirmative belief in some set of principles, it's just the state of not believing in any of the god claims that people make.
Don't let anyone tell you atheism is a religion. Anyone who says that is an idiot.
Atheism is literally to be A-Theos, which is to say, without theology. It literally means to be without religion. Atheism is the very antithesis of a religious belief. Not believing the in the existence of Santa Claus for example, does not comprise a religious belief. All religions hold some form of a belief in the supernatural in common. If one does not believe in the existence of the supernatural, then one is an atheist.
Me too Mordant, I looked back over my life and everything that I ever thought was "supernatural" or "heaven sent" could be explained away quite easily either through science or rationality of thought. It's quite a journey out of religion but being free from that slavery is like a huge sigh of relief...."whew, glad that's over with" kinda
I know there was a thing about being cocky which I could see. But I'd just like to put an observation from my nook which isn't the atheistic way. Am I right in noting that I see fom my perch a certain say p***** offness permeating thought? Marrying intellgence, cockiness and anger together is a pretty tough battery. What say you?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
If thats the case what designation am i if not an atheist?
