Why are you an atheist?

[Abdul Alhazred]

Yes I know not all here are atheists like me.

I address this question to my fellow atheists, though others may comment of course.

Instead of issuing my own rant, I'll stand back and listen.

:D :cool:

[Zoot]

No reason not to be.

[Ari]

God told me to be. :)

Because there's no reason for a God and no apparent evidence either.

[SharonDee]

Because ... I don't believe in gods?

I don't understand the question. Do you want to know why I don't believe in gods, whether I ever believed in them ... what? :scratch:

[Petra]

Because I was born that way.

[Dragar]

I reserve belief in the existence of things when there is no reason to grant such belief.

[Dingfod]

I haven't yet been shown any reasonable evidence that would incline me to believe in anything supernatural, let alone god or gods.

[D. Scarlatti]

Because I hate God and Jesus and I have a lot of personal problems.

Plus I get to rape and murder without moral consequence.

[Dingfod]

Plus I get to rape and murder without moral consequence.Those legal consequences are a bitch though.

[Leesifer]

Because I was born that way.

:yeahthat:

[ceptimus]

The scientific approach is to doubt everything, and to attempt to resolve doubts and improve theories by a "try it and see" approach. Scientists call the "try it and see" method 'experimentation' as that sounds more grown-up. There is also the built-in assumption that you don't believe in anything unless that explains things better than not believing in the thing would.

So if you adopt a scientific approach, your default position would be to doubt the existence of God, unless you could run some 'try it and see' experiments to show that God does indeed exist. As there are (as far as I know) no such experiments, then I see no reason to believe in God at present.

[JoeP]

I was indoctrinated by my parents, my culture, and the sinister Board of Directors.

[wei yau]

Simply because it makes the most sense to me.

[Abdul Alhazred]

Gee whiz. Why is everyone so sensible?

:yup:

[Sweetie]

Because you hate God. :mischief:

:eek:

:heckled:




:P

[Clutch Munny]

No good reason to believe in anything describable as a god, that I've encountered; the general experience of seeing the most frequently (re)cited grounds for theism fall into familiar patterns of fallacy and unreliable reasoning.

[Crumb]

I haven't yet been shown any reasonable evidence that would incline me to believe in anything supernatural, let alone god or gods.
Bing-fucking-go!

[viscousmemories]

Bing-fucking-go!
Binggo?

I don't much like the label myself, but pretty much all of the above for me.

[LadyShea]

I do not believe in the existence of deities. That state of disbelief is called atheism.

It's a simple descriptor, much like I am a brunette because I have brown hair.

[godfry n. glad]

Because you hate God. :mischief:

Sweetie?

You're an atheist because you hate this god?

I personally don't have much time or energy to spend hating somebody else's comforting delusions.

[Miisa]

Because I find the idea of gods completely absurd, and have yet to see or experience anything that might change my mind.

[Dingfod]

Because you hate God. :mischief:

:eek:

:heckled:




:PI hate the Easter bunny, Santa Claus, and the tooth fairy with equal vigor as I hate your imaginary magic man in the sky, which is to say, not at all.

[Shake]

Uh, pretty much what everyone else has said. Except for Sweetie, of course, because she's a theist.

[Sweetie]

Sweetie?

You're an atheist because you hate this god?

I personally don't have much time or energy to spend hating somebody else's comforting delusions.

It's a mischief smilie --->:mischief:. It was a joke.

You're an atheist because you hate God, doncha know?

It was a joke at the expense of some Christians even.

:sniffle:

/me doomed to be perpetually misunderstood

[Sweetie]

If I may, from August 29th at CF:

http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?p=18084297#post18084297

[livius drusus]

I got it! No, really! :hugme:

[Sweetie]

I got it! No, really! :hugme:

I don't understand what that means. (I really don't, I'm sorry. :deepsigh: )

I go away now. :sniffle:

[livius drusus]

It just means that I got your original joke about the God-hating. The "No, really" was just in case you were incredulous.

[Sweetie]

Ohhh, ok. :yup:

[Ari]

Atheists don't know what jokes are.
Atheists are grumpy.
If you see an atheist, don't get close, tell your parents.

[Dingfod]

I figured that it was a joke, but I replied to the post just in case it wasn't.

[wei yau]

I find that I'm much happier forum denizen if I assume EVERYTHING is a joke. I'm not always right, but I've yet to be wrong with regards to anything posted by Crumb.

[JoeP]

Why are you singling crumb out for mention there, eldar?

[Abdul Alhazred]

OK. I of course don't mind a bit of sarcasm.

Thank you all for proving my point.

That atheists are just reasonable people. :yup: :cool: :wave:

[wei yau]

Why are you singling crumb out for mention there, eldar?

Crumb has this wondrous ability to delight me with his posts. I can always count on him for levity. While the same could be said for your own posts, I identify with Crumb more readily due to his superb handling of the smiley battles.

[Fencesitter]

Thank you all for proving my point.

That atheists are just reasonable people. :yup: :cool: :wave:

While I agree that the people on this thread are generally reasonable people (as far as I know from their posting), how did you get to this conclusion?

What does reasonable mean in this context? Agreeing with the OP? Or giving the answer that people are generally atheists because there's no evidence for God or that they don't believe in a God? Because that's the definition of atheist, so wouldn't one expect that answer?

Wouldn't it be self-validating to ask why people are atheists and have them give them the definition of atheism and then claim that that makes them reasonable?

Fence

[Dingfod]

Kinay! Any reasonable person can see it is so.

[viscousmemories]

I assumed he was joking. :giggle:

[godfry n. glad]

If I may, from August 29th at CF:

http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?p=18084297#post18084297

:giggles:

...and following it to the end, it seems clear that the theists all think that the cosmos is arranged according to their dogma. The universe came into being as per their scriptural message and there is an afterlife and it conforms to how they were taught.

When it was pointed out that the theists were seeing things in black/white, either/or dichotomies, their response effectively was:

:blink:

"Yeah... There are no other choices other than heaven or hell."

Um... That's a logical fallacy, is it not? A false dichotomy?

How about nothing? There is nothing after death. No afterlife, no heaven, no hell, no limbo, no purgatory, no Elysium, no Hades, no Sheol.

Then there are those, including Paul, who believed in various levels of heaven. Y'know, "7th heaven" and the "third heaven"...perhaps Paul and the early founders of Christianity thought that christians would have to climb through the various levels of heaven. And, what about Dante? Was his view of the Inferno not legit, by christian standards? Hey... He's got several levels of hell.

I'm convinced that those who construct these comfortable scenarios do so with the conviction that they are amongst the "good guys" who will enjoy eternal reward because they've hewn to the "right teachings" and "lived an exemplary life" based upon what they, or some earlier visionary, imagined was necessary.

From my view, it's mostly self-delusion.

Now, that's not saying I don't have my own delusions. I suspect I do. Like the fact that humanity has the ability to think and act in its own interests as a species on earth. Everything tends to show that it is not the case, yet I continue to hold that it might just be possible.

[ceptimus]

I assume, perhaps wrongly, that a lot of us were educated (or indoctrinated if you prefer) in religion, but we became atheists anyway. I wonder if there is a similar proportion of people bought up in a purely secular way, who then get religion?

I think that the human brain has a predisposition for belief. It probably evolved as a useful survival trait - part of what makes us want to search for explanations and reasons for everything. I'd be interested in any studies that chart what proportion of people have 'converted' in either direction. Ideally I would want to know about people who convert to or from any paranormal belief system - and I include religion as part of that, but I doubt if there are any reliable figures.

[Fencesitter]

I assumed he was joking. :giggle:

Really?! :doh:

Then I must be an atheist. . . no sense of humor. :D

Fence

[Sweetie]

If I may, from August 29th at CF:

http://www.christianforums.com/showthread.php?p=18084297#post18084297

:giggles:

...and following it to the end, it seems clear that the theists all think that the cosmos is arranged according to their dogma. The universe came into being as per their scriptural message and there is an afterlife and it conforms to how they were taught.

When it was pointed out that the theists were seeing things in black/white, either/or dichotomies, their response effectively was:

:blink:

"Yeah... There are no other choices other than heaven or hell."

Um... That's a logical fallacy, is it not? A false dichotomy?

How about nothing? There is nothing after death. No afterlife, no heaven, no hell, no limbo, no purgatory, no Elysium, no Hades, no Sheol.

Then there are those, including Paul, who believed in various levels of heaven. Y'know, "7th heaven" and the "third heaven"...perhaps Paul and the early founders of Christianity thought that christians would have to climb through the various levels of heaven. And, what about Dante? Was his view of the Inferno not legit, by christian standards? Hey... He's got several levels of hell.

I'm convinced that those who construct these comfortable scenarios do so with the conviction that they are amongst the "good guys" who will enjoy eternal reward because they've hewn to the "right teachings" and "lived an exemplary life" based upon what they, or some earlier visionary, imagined was necessary.

From my view, it's mostly self-delusion.

Now, that's not saying I don't have my own delusions. I suspect I do. Like the fact that humanity has the ability to think and act in its own interests as a species on earth. Everything tends to show that it is not the case, yet I continue to hold that it might just be possible.

Ok. :1thumbup:

Start a thread, it was just a joke and the link was to verify that I am not someone who just says you reject a God you know exists or you just deny Him because you hate Him.

There are other reasons for your atheism though many have different reasons.

Carry on, ignore me, pretend I don't exist........please. :P

[Crumb]

I'm not always right, but I've yet to be wrong with regards to anything posted by Crumb.
:yup: Smart man.
Why are you singling crumb out for mention there, eldar?
Yeah! That's a good fucking question! :noid:
Crumb has this wondrous ability to delight me with his posts. I can always count on him for levity. While the same could be said for your own posts, I identify with Crumb more readily due to his superb handling of the smiley battles.
Oh. :blush2: That's a great fucking answer. :yup:

[godfry n. glad]

Crumb has this wondrous ability to delight me with his posts. I can always count on him for levity. While the same could be said for your own posts, I identify with Crumb more readily due to his superb handling of the smiley battles.
Oh. :blush2: That's a great fucking answer. :yup:

Uh.... I don't know about that.... I've heard rumblings of bias and intimidation in the smiley polls. I think we need a full and impartial investigation and...given the prevaling method demonstrated at the national level, this responsibility should be given to....Crumb.

:search:

[Crumb]

Grand idea godfry.

/me investigates... :detect:

It's all fine here! :phew: