Ask an atheist anything! (seriously, anything)

[QwertyGirl]

But it is a choice. Having faith is a choice. Not having faith is a choice. There is no conclusive evidence one way or the other, so it really comes down to making a choice to believe or not.

So, again, what do you gain by choosing not to believe? And I guess as well, what did you lose by believing?

Just out of curiosity, could you give me a list of 5 or 10 things that you currently believe, that you could wake up tomorrow and decide to just not believe anymore? Non-religious things. Facts of life types of things.

 

[OddBird]

Yes, I do.
Asking how I can be sure it’s red is like asking how I can be sure my husband loves me. I can’t ascertain the fact. But as he’s faithfully staying by my side day after day, I trust it is true.
My relationship with God is very much like that. Can I be sure He loves me ? Well, the Bible tells me so, the Church tells me so, and there are blessed days when I have an inkling of an indescribable presence by my side, so I trust it is true.

 

[goout]

Atheist can make nice careers off of God, or at least spend a good portion of their days gleaning meaning and purpose off of God and God’s existence.

The purple unicorn deniers…not so much.

The almost comic irony is: without God atheism has zero meaning or purpose.

 

[Wozza]

Atheist can make nice careers off of God, or at least spend a good portion of their days gleaning meaning and purpose off of God and God’s existence.

The purple unicorn deniers…not so much.

The almost comic irony is: without God atheism has zero meaning or purpose.

The irony is…that atheism has no meaning or purpose with God either.

 

[niceatheist]

Atheist can make nice careers off of God, or at least spend a good portion of their days gleaning meaning and purpose off of God and God’s existence.

The purple unicorn deniers…not so much.

The almost comic irony is: without God atheism has zero meaning or purpose.

Atheism is a pretty general statement. The Judeao-Christian deity is the one most Western atheists are going to be referring to, but properly it could refer to all gods in all cultures that we are aware of, as well as other views of God, like the Deistic view of a Prime Mover. In other words, we could live in a world where the Judeao-Christian view of God didn’t exist at all, and the world was populated by Deists and Pantheists, and atheism would still exist.

 

[goout]

goout:

Atheist can make nice careers off of God, or at least spend a good portion of their days gleaning meaning and purpose off of God and God’s existence.

The purple unicorn deniers…not so much.

The almost comic irony is: without God atheism has zero meaning or purpose.

Atheism is a pretty general statement. The Judeao-Christian deity is the one most Western atheists are going to be referring to, but properly it could refer to all gods in all cultures that we are aware of, as well as other views of God, like the Deistic view of a Prime Mover. In other words, we could live in a world where the Judeao-Christian view of God didn’t exist at all, and the world was populated by Deists and Pantheists, and atheism would still exist.

I am sincerely happy for you that all of that is important enough to ponder.

 

[Wozza]

goout:

Atheist can make nice careers off of God, or at least spend a good portion of their days gleaning meaning and purpose off of God and God’s existence.

The purple unicorn deniers…not so much.

The almost comic irony is: without God atheism has zero meaning or purpose.

Atheism is a pretty general statement. The Judeao-Christian deity is the one most Western atheists are going to be referring to, but properly it could refer to all gods in all cultures that we are aware of, as well as other views of God, like the Deistic view of a Prime Mover. In other words, we could live in a world where the Judeao-Christian view of God didn’t exist at all, and the world was populated by Deists and Pantheists, and atheism would still exist.

Or believers in purple unicorns.

 

[Wozza]

niceatheist:

goout:

Atheist can make nice careers off of God, or at least spend a good portion of their days gleaning meaning and purpose off of God and God’s existence.

The purple unicorn deniers…not so much.

The almost comic irony is: without God atheism has zero meaning or purpose.

Atheism is a pretty general statement. The Judeao-Christian deity is the one most Western atheists are going to be referring to, but properly it could refer to all gods in all cultures that we are aware of, as well as other views of God, like the Deistic view of a Prime Mover. In other words, we could live in a world where the Judeao-Christian view of God didn’t exist at all, and the world was populated by Deists and Pantheists, and atheism would still exist.

I am sincerely happy for you that all of that is important enough to ponder.

Why the sarcasm? That was a pretty vanilla comment.

 

[goout]

You assume bad faith. I stand by comments as written.
Please don’t stalk me it’s unbecoming.

 

[Pattylt]

why would you CHOOSE to have them

I hope someguy doesn’t mind other agnostics piping in…
Having children is HOW atheist/agnostics live beyond this life. We share our DNA with our children and show them how amazing this life is. We live beyond this life in our children and grandchildren’s memories eventually to fade away in the future but our love passed down continues on…as does our DNA. :hugs:

Welcome to CAF. I came to learn about Catholicism and stayed because I find it fascinating. They have much I agree with and much I don’t but I understand their viewpoint much better. And that’s always a good thing!

 

[QwertyGirl]

But with regards to the others, why do you think I encounter so much hate and bigotry? Did I just get bad luck with my contacts, or do other people encounter these attitudes, as well

Thought I would weigh in on this. People who behave this way do so because they see religion as harmful. They can view it harmful in thousands of ways, and usually have been on the receiving end of it or have loved ones who have been harmed by it. That doesn’t mean you have to tolerate disrespect though. There is nothing wrong (and everything right) with telling that that if they were harmed by religion, you are really sorry that is the case (I am sure you would be).

 

[Wozza]

You assume bad faith. I stand by comments as written.

Then my apologies. It just seemed that a boiler plate definition of atheism would be unlikely to make you ‘sincerely happy’ so I assumed sarcasm. My bad.

 

[Mike_from_NJ]

Atheist can make nice careers off of God, or at least spend a good portion of their days gleaning meaning and purpose off of God and God’s existence.

The purple unicorn deniers…not so much.

The almost comic irony is: without God atheism has zero meaning or purpose.

There are two important factors why atheists in Western cultures focus attention on the Judeo-Christian God in his many forms:

1. Often times people who question the integrity, morality, and dignity of atheists in Western culture are those who believe in the Judeo-Christian god. To defend one’s integrity, morality, and dignity from the various claims and well-worn canards it’s often important to note the plank in the eye of the persons noting the speck in one’s eye.
2. There are some people in seats of power who wish to use said power to force a Judeo-Christian religious viewpoint on the populace as a whole – including those who are not believers. The less abuse of power by these people would mean less pushback from atheists.

 

[stpurl]

They did receive something. It just wasn’t what they wanted to have, so they refused to acknowledge it. "God, I want to win the lottery. I have asked you thousands of times but I haven’t won–so you didn’t listen’. . .
or, since one can argue, “But I asked for something good!”. . .
“God I asked you to save my mom’s life–or take away my best friend’s cancer–or give us world peace–and my mom died, or my best friend died, and we sure don’t have world peace --therefore you didn’t listen”. . .

God listened. God knows that saving one’s physical life is good, but that saving one’s eternal life is better. Maybe God knew that if your mom had gone on living, she would have put her eternal soul in danger of damnation somehow, while letting her die ensured that she died in a state of grace and so now lives eternally. Maybe God knew the same about your best friend. Maybe God knows that ‘world peace’ right now would not be best and would somehow lead later to the most hideous pain, suffering, and world-wide apostasy and thus a host of damned souls. He knows the ‘whole story’, we at best know maybe one page. . .one paragraph, one sentence, one word. . .and we’re going to presume that what we want, even something ‘good’, is something better than what God, who knows all, knows is necessary?

 

[niceatheist]

Maybe there are atheists that arrived where they are without having their mum die.

 

[stpurl]

That wasn’t the point so I don’t know why you mentioned that. I was responding to STT’s post about people who asked God for something and weren’t ‘answered’ by showing that people are answered, just not sometimes with the answers they ‘want’ or expect.

If you asked me for a couple of bucks so that you could get food, and I gave you some coupons for Denny’s because you wanted food, I wouldn’t give you the ‘couple of bucks’ so that wasn’t answered, but I would give you the food which you wanted to get with the couple of bucks. Would you complain, “No, I want FOOD, give me money”? Some might. But I would still have answered you.

Or I might not give you the money, even if I had it, because I had seen you over a period of months and years take money given you ‘for food’ and you go off and buy drugs or alcohol. I might take that money you asked for and go directly to the nearest food shelf and buy that much and more, knowing that you sometimes went there. So again, you asked for food. I didn’t give you the ‘couple of bucks’ directly, but I used that and MORE to provide food in the place you most likely would finally go.

God being God can do more and obviously my analogy is a limited and human one. The point is not how atheists ‘arrive’ at atheism or that they necessarily do so when they are not ‘answered’ in prayer, but rather that God DOES answer prayer.

 

[HerCrazierHalf]

So, what have you got?

Another nonbeliever here.

1. Other than your immediate family are you out or are you a “closet atheist”?
2. Were you surprised by how big a deal matters of faith are to others?

 

[blackforest]

I like your approach. Although in reality it’s pretty hard to show compassion to somebody full of mockery and bitterness, that is precisely what our faith teaches us to do. Just posting up some kindness may take the edge of off: “If you’ve been hurt by religion, I’m truly sorry.”

 

[QwertyGirl]

I have found that some times it catches them by surprise and really causes them to reflect and think about things a little differently.

You are so right, though. Definitely not the easy path!

 

[AtheistNoMore]

My two cents here. As a former atheist/agnostic, I felt that nothing we can prove without science and direct observation cannot exist. This includes God. The worst part about being atheist was the thought that no one is watching over me, no one can answer my prayers (or the atheist equivalent), and that when I die I will simply turn to dust and disappear forever. It is very easy to assume that because we can’t see God, He doesn’t exist. I even felt a sense of smug superiority over religious people (including Christians), believing they were brainwashed and I had full control over my own thoughts and actions. Needless to say, I no longer feel this way, and I joined the Catholic Church earlier this year.