Athiests: What do you do when....

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Annemariels said:
So, do you know and experience love? Is your perspective on love different from ours?

Being an atheist is not the same as being involved in the occult, is it?

I can’t imagine how it would be living in a religion-less home. Can you tell me what it is like? Do you just go about your daily life without talking about anything having to do with God or no God? Or do your families instill their beliefs in you like we instill our beliefs in our children?

Is there a feeling of peace in your relationships? It seems like I detect a sense of bitterness and anger in the atheists posts here and at amazon.com’s Christian forums, but realize that it might be because of the conversations and not a reflection of how you go about your daily lives.

Do you feel happy and peaceful and experience love? Or do you feel combative and negative about life? Or is it like us Christians, where it all depends on our personality type?
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I can’t say anything about growing up as an atheist, because I didn’t. I can remember occasionally wondering what it was like, though, to be in a family that didn’t go to church regularly, that didn’t have times set aside for prayer (we used to say the Rosary fairly regularly in our house) and didn’t worry about things like eating meat on Fridays or giving up things for Lent, or observing holy days and so on. They seemed like a normal part of life for me back then, and it seemed odd to think that they weren’t so for everyone.

Now, by contrast, I don’t do any of those things, and it seems oddly quaint when I encounter people who do - like when my parents come to stay, and still go to mass on the weekends. Not, of course, that I ever get on their case about it, because it obviously is still meaningful to them; we tend to live and let live - I am content for them to go to mass, as long as they’re content for me not to accompany them. If they explicitly asked, I probably would - but only for their sake, not because I think I would find it meaningful for myself. Of course I do still think about religion and belief - and here I am posting about it!

And to answer your question (although I’m sure it has already been answered by others) - no, atheism is nothing like being involved in the occult. It is explicitly defined as a lack of belief in any gods, and that, for many atheists, includes any other supernatural entities as well.

As for experiencing love…well, I can give you my take on it, but of course I can’t speak for anyone else. Yes, I do have a profoundly different perspective on love now than what I grew up with. If I can use a somewhat prosaic analogy, it’s kind of like cutting out the middleman - I give and receive love on my own behalf, not through the mediation of any god. If anything, this entirely earthy, human love feels much more real and solid to me than anything I ever felt, growing up Catholic and with notions of loving God/Jesus before anything and anyone else. I understand that what we feel as love is a biochemical process, but that doesn’t take away from its power and intensity - it is what it is, and it’s a powerful motivator to act in the best interests of loved ones.

Does that help?
 
So, do you know and experience love? Is your perspective on love different from ours?
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Of course atheists know and experience love. I imagine every person’s “perspective on love” differs from that of every other person, atheist or not.

Being an atheist is not the same as being involved in the occult, is it? No. Atheism is the lack of belief in gods; the occult is an umbrella term for a lot of beliefs and practices.
I can’t imagine how it would be living in a religion-less home. Can you tell me what it is like? Do you just go about your daily life without talking about anything having to do with God or no God? Or do your families instill their beliefs in you like we instill our beliefs in our children?
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The best analogy is this: do you really live in a Thor-less home? What’s it like? Do you just go about your daily life without talking about anything having to do with Thor or no Thor? Does your family instill its non-Thor belief in you?

See how silly it sounds? In the exact same way that you live your life without Thor, atheists live their life without your god, Jehovah.
Is there a feeling of peace in your relationships? It seems like I detect a sense of bitterness and anger in the atheists posts here and at amazon.com’s Christian forums, but realize that it might be because of the conversations and not a reflection of how you go about your daily lives.
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As you say, it’s a bad idea to look at posts on forums that, by their nature, lend themselves to hostility and use it to make judgments about people’s lives.
Do you feel happy and peaceful and experience love? Or do you feel combative and negative about life? Or is it like us Christians, where it all depends on our personality type?
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As always, it depends on personalities. For myself, I’m quite happy, peaceful, and full of love.
 
I have personally known several atheists who turned to God as they approached the end of their lives. They seemed to find comfort in that. All of them asked me to pray for them. How sincere their conversion was I cannot say. Even the most famous atheist of the 20th Century, Jean Paul Sartre, was supposed to have ceased being an atheist before he died. That was certainly true also of Antony Flew, another famous atheist who recently died.

Since atheism offers only a literal dead end, it’s hard for me to see how it offers any comfort at death or at any other time of profound trouble. There is nothing in atheism to lean on. If you fall, you just fall. :crutches:
 
Charlemagne_II said:
I have personally known several atheists who turned to God as they approached the end of their lives. They seemed to find comfort in that. All of them asked me to pray for them. How sincere their conversion was I cannot say. Even the most famous atheist of the 20th Century, Jean Paul Sartre, was supposed to have ceased being an atheist before he died. That was certainly true also of Antony Flew, another famous atheist who recently died.

Since atheism offers only a literal dead end, it’s hard for me to see how it offers any comfort at death or at any other time of profound trouble. There is nothing in atheism to lean on. If you fall, you just fall. :crutches:
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Ah yes, the death bed conversion. Vulgar religious loan sharking of the cheapest, nastiest, tawdriest kind.

I can think of nothing more sickening than taking a person who is delerious and out of his or her wits as mental and physical functions are increasinly impaired, the mind no longer functioning on all cylinders, the will weakened, the spirit demoralized… taking that person I say, and bullying and coercing he or she into making protestations of conversion.

Someone awaiting death, ill and wracked with pain, will no doubt say anything to just to get a bit of peace and quiet, even make protestations to a deity they don’t believe in, just to get their tormentor to push off and leave them alone.
 
Charlemagne_II said:
I have personally known several atheists who turned to God as they approached the end of their lives. They seemed to find comfort in that. All of them asked me to pray for them. How sincere their conversion was I cannot say. Even the most famous atheist of the 20th Century, Jean Paul Sartre, was supposed to have ceased being an atheist before he died. That was certainly true also of Antony Flew, another famous atheist who recently died.

Since atheism offers only a literal dead end, it’s hard for me to see how it offers any comfort at death or at any other time of profound trouble. There is nothing in atheism to lean on. If you fall, you just fall. :crutches:
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It’s vaguely amusing that people so often refer to Antony Flew in this context, as though his conversion from atheism to deism were somehow a support for their very specific brand of religious belief. If I recall, Flew stated quite bluntly, when asked, that he believed in neither a personal god nor an afterlife.
 
Moonstruck888 said:
This may interest you on this topic. I not only believe there is no life after death, but it comforts me. I know that there is a way out of hell… I know that when I die I shall have sweet oblivion. No one can bully me, manipulate me or threaten me, because I don’t believe there is any invigilation of my life from beyond the grave…
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“Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.”
 
Sair

*If I recall, Flew stated quite bluntly, when asked, that he believed in neither a personal god nor an afterlife. *

As a matter of fact, Flew was seriously conversing with an Anglican bishop long before he died. This fact is documented in his last book, There Is A God. Hope springs eternal, even for atheists! 👍

Moonstruck’s own tawdry charge that atheists at the end of their lives are bullied into turning to God is unworthy of reply. :rolleyes:
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Sair

*If I recall, Flew stated quite bluntly, when asked, that he believed in neither a personal god nor an afterlife. *

As a matter of fact, Flew was seriously conversing with an Anglican bishop long before he died. This fact is documented in his last book, There Is A God. Hope springs eternal, even for atheists! 👍

Moonstruck’s own tawdry charge that atheists at the end of their lives are bullied into turning to God is unworthy of reply. :rolleyes:
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As far as I can tell, Flew was “at most” a deist…the fact that he was talking to an Anglican bishop doesn’t necessarily mean anything.
 
At least 40% of the Anglican clergy are basically atheists.

Please cite your source. 😉

Young’s Theorem … does that mean atoms probably don’t exist? :rolleyes:

*Ah yes, the death bed conversion. Vulgar religious loan sharking of the cheapest, nastiest, tawdriest kind. *

Will you be so arrogant on your own deathbed? :confused:
 
Charlemagne_II said:
At least 40% of the Anglican clergy are basically atheists.

Please cite your source. 😉
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Rowan Williamson, Archbishop of Canterbury. The leader of one of the comparatively enlightened Christian sects.
Young’s Theorem … does that mean atoms probably don’t exist? :rolleyes:
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Nope. It means that has to be proven that they exist and how they’re structured. However, there was a man called Ernest Rutherford who figured out how to do just that.
*Ah yes, the death bed conversion. Vulgar religious loan sharking of the cheapest, nastiest, tawdriest kind. *
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Will you be so arrogant on your own deathbed? :confused:
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Yes. And I will have my kids under orders to kick anyone who tries to convert me up and down the street.
 
Moonstruck

Rowan Williamson, Archbishop of Canterbury. The leader of one of the comparatively enlightened Christian sects.

That’s the name of your source. Now please provide the source itself. The words he actually used and the place where they may be found.

:confused:
 
Moonstruck

*Yes. And I will have my kids under orders to kick anyone who tries to convert me up and down the street. *

What if it’s your kids who are trying to convert you? 😃
 
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