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03-03-2013, 06:02 PM #1
Help me understand your being Atheist
I know thereare some here that are so insteadof bickering (Alex) give me your views.Heaven,hell,gay,straight,white,black help me see your views that involve this Atheist belief or movement.Here is the Wikipedia definition but I would rather hear it from your point
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities.[1][2] In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities.[3][4][5] Most inclusively, atheism is simply the absence of belief that any deities exist.[4][5][6][7] Atheism is contrasted with theism,[8][9] which in its most general form is the belief that at least one deity exists.[9][10]
The term atheism originated from the Greek ἄθεος (atheos), meaning "without god(s)", used as a pejorative term applied to those thought to reject the gods worshipped by the larger society. With the spread of freethought, skeptical inquiry, and subsequent increase in criticism of religion, application of the term narrowed in scope. The first individuals to identify themselves using the word "atheist" lived in the 18th century.[11]
Arguments for atheism range from the philosophical to social and historical approaches. Rationales for not believing in any supernatural deity include the lack of empirical evidence,[12][13] the problem of evil, the argument from inconsistent revelations, and the argument from nonbelief.[12][14] Although some atheists have adopted secular philosophies,[15][16] there is no one ideology or set of behaviors to which all atheists adhere.[17] Many atheists hold that atheism is a more parsimonious worldview than theism, and therefore the burden of proof lies not on the atheist to disprove the existence of God, but on the theist to provide a rationale for theism.[18]
Atheism is accepted within some religious and spiritual belief systems, including Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism, Raelism, Neopagan movements[19] such as Wicca,[20] and nontheistic religions. Jainism and some forms of Buddhism do not advocate belief in gods,[21] whereas Hinduism holds atheism to be valid, but some schools view the path of an atheist to be difficult to follow in matters of spirituality.[22]
Since conceptions of atheism vary, determining how many atheists exist in the world today is difficult.[23] According to one estimate, atheists make up about 2.3% of the world's population,
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03-03-2013, 06:16 PM #2
Unlike the christian religion, I'm going to show you how easy it is to be an atheist.
Ready?
Here it is....we have ONE rule.
"Do you believe in god"....if the answer is "no".....congratulations, you are an Atheist!
See how easy that was.
Everything else, matters about religion, society, beliefs, science, whatever is on a person to person basis.
You can be a conservative atheist, liberal atheist, anti-gay atheist, pro-life atheist, whatever-atheist.
Being an atheist simply means you lack the belief in god.Last edited by JustAlex; 03-03-2013 at 06:23 PM.
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03-03-2013, 06:18 PM #3
Sounds about right. The only thing atheists agree on is the absence of proof of deities.
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03-03-2013, 06:32 PM #4
In all honesty, we will never know why we are here. Is god real? I have absolutely no idea. My guess is no (and that's all it is, a guess). There probably will never be any proof of his existence or any proof that he doesn't exist.
People that are religious forget three huge things. First off, god is the superior being. God is the one that should be serving us, not the other way around. God has all powers and could solve all the world's problems by just snapping his fingers, but he chooses not to? Why? I know I would never let anybody suffer if I have absolute power and I can stop it.
Second, people that believe that Jesus is our savior do not understand how long 2000 years ago really is. It is an insurmountable length of time to truly understand. Think 20 years ago. Brett Favre was playing his first season with the Packers. Bill Clinton just started his first term as president. Michael Jordan retired from the NBA, the first time. Kurt Cobain was still alive. Crystal Pepsi was around. Think about how long ago that was. Now do that time length 100 times over. Anything that happened before the year 1300 or maybe even 1200 is hearsay. Who knows what happened. Anyone who says otherwise is lying.
God's proof of his existence is 2000 years ago taking human form as his son, telling people his is the son of god and sacrificing himself to die on on the cross only to raise from the dead two days later. What is the point of that? Why can't he just let us all into heaven? Remember all of us have sinned and nobody is good enough for heaven without accepting Jesus as our lord and savoir? Why go though all that when you have the powers to just let everybody into heaven? It's completely unnecessary.
Another point is the whole idea of being saved. God loves us so much, but if we are unsure of a historical even that may or may not have happened 2000 years ago we burn in a fiery pit for all eternity? The punishment doesn't fit the crime. You don't give someone the death penalty for jaywalking. People seem to underplay the consequence of hell. Picture putting your hand on a stove burner that is on high. That is what your body would be like for all eternity. We're not talking about losing your X-Box privileges for a week. That's seem way, way to harsh of a penalty for anyone excluding someone like Hitler or that Adam Lanza.
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03-03-2013, 06:43 PM #5
I definitely agree that what we have is a guess, but I want to say something about this "guess"...
Unlike the believer who is grounded in "faith", some atheists (such as myself) first began as skeptics, we were skeptical about religion and the things it taught us.
We did not accept their answers, so we went looking for better answers, while we might have not found everything we were looking for, we did find more acceptable theories grounded in evidence.
Even though my atheism is not contingent on science, I will say that it played a factor in my final conclusion.
And thus, if someone asks me "Doesn't it take more faith to believe that no god exists?"
I can easily answer....no, in fact it doesn't take any faith at all.
But I must note, that this is my own beliefs and again, these beliefs are not contingent to being an atheist.
One can be an atheist for just about any reason one wishes to subscribe to.
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03-03-2013, 06:46 PM #6
Death is a very scary thought. Who wants to die and just turn into a rotting corpse? I certainly don't. Almost everybody wants to believe in heaven and to get there all you gotta do is believe. When it's too good to be true, it usually is. Now, I will never deny the fact that it doesn't cost anything to believe. However, how can you truly believe something that is so difficult to truly believe. Now I am talking about truly believing, not just saying I believe and secretly having doubts. I didn't see Jesus die on the cross and the come back from the dead. I wish I would have but I didn't. Anyone of faith has to have at least a little doubt. If they say they don't they're lying.
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03-03-2013, 07:36 PM #7
alex, technically you are wrong, your one rule does not work,
atheism, deny existence of god
agnosticism, argue existence of god cannot be proven
nontheism, take no position
as you can see you can take the position of there being no god without being an atheist
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03-03-2013, 07:47 PM #8
Atheism doesn't deny anything.....the word deny means to "refuse or admit the truth or existence of something".
That's not what we do, since there is no truth in theism....only faith.
Atheists lack a belief in god.
Agnosticism is a position where the existence or non-existence of a deity is unknowable, so you do have that definition correct.
And as I have said before, that's why I'm an "Agnostic-atheist".
I don't believe in god, but I don't claim to know whether god really does exists or not.
And I don't feel like rehashing this argument, so I'll leave it there.
But being an atheist simply means you don't believe in god, that's all there is to it.
You don't have to do anything else.
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03-03-2013, 08:04 PM #9
alex, you can make any term mean anything you want, I was pointing out how academia views atheism.
the definitions I provided were in fact from one of my college courses on religion.
the book;
Experiencing the World's Religions, 5th Edition
Michael Molloy
ISBN: 978-0-07-340750-0
chapter one, page 7,
to deny the existence of any God or gods (atheism)
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03-03-2013, 08:17 PM #10
Shrew, I'm going to admit right now that I missed a few definitions of the word "Deny" and only used one which I know for a fact is not to be associated with atheism.
Here is the dictionary definition:
Atheism
a : a disbelief in the existence of deity
b : the doctrine that there is no deity
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atheism
Here is "Deny":
Deny
to declare untrue <deny an allegation>
2
: to refuse to admit or acknowledge : disavow <denyresponsibility>
3
a : to give a negative answer to <denying the petitioners>
b : to refuse to grant <deny a request>
c : to restrain (oneself) from gratification of desires
4
archaic : decline
5
: to refuse to accept the existence, truth, or validity of
There are 5 definitions to deny....and the only one I can kind of agree by saying that "Atheists deny the existence of god" is probably the first definition.
However, atheism is NOT acknowledging any truth.
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