Why Are You An Atheist

[idiosyncrasy]

Since being on this site it appears that 9 out of 10 are atheists. So just out of curiosity, I wondered why? Have you always been one? If not, what made you reject belief in God? I would love to hear your views.

[anaxcrosswords]

Absolutely not, Ratter. All I believe in is good morals and doing the right thing where I can. No god or religion has to tell me how to do that.

[janbee]

I'd sooner believe in the tooth fairy, santa claus and the easter bunny. As for creating the world in 6 days.. ha, that's nothing. Wimpey could've done it in 4.

[atalanta]

I wanted to believe in god, to be the same as everyone in my school, and in my village, because all social life was centred on the church. But so many people in the church rejected me in so many different ways ( refusing my harvest gifts, turning their backs when I wanted to discuss volunteering, and many more) that I started to wonder what I had in common with these people. I decided there was nothing, so I started to do some research, and found all my original doubts were confirmed by prominent atheists like Dawkins and Russell. I searched for evidence, and found none. So, until I find some convincing evidence of the truth of religion/gods, I shall remain an atheist.

[naomi24]

atalanta, I don't understand. Why were you rejected?

[grasscarp]

Vulcan, a ghost is not somebody literally returning in their human flesh and blood form which is what Mosaic was writing, so I don't think I was contradicting myself.

[idiosyncrasy]

Having researched atheism I found that there is a “New Atheism”. These “new atheists” are not content to keep their views to themselves. They actively and passionately try to persuade theists that God is non-existence, even a product of their imagination. Instead they believe that blind, natural forces are responsible for all of reality.

If that is the case, their argument that God causes people to suffer from horrific diseases, children die through malnutrition and all the pain and suffering in the world, is invalid. If, as they say, that God does not exist, who causes all the pain etc that is reaching epidemic proportions?

You cannot blame God if he does not exist. On the other hand, if you say God is the cause of everything bad and evil, then you must believe God exists!

You cannot have it both ways!

[naomi24]

idiosyncrasy, Atheists aren’t trying to have it both ways. They are simply deconstructing the arguments of the religious who do, in fact, want it both ways by claiming that God is responsible for all of the good and none of the bad.

Incidentally, ‘New’ Atheists are only ‘new’ because the western world has at last become civilised enough to concede that opinions other than religious ones are acceptable. Prior to that an atheist voiced his thoughts at his peril.

[Big Jenny]

The bible and all we are taught about religion is just another fairy story, and it beggars belief that any intelligent, thinking person could fall for it.

It's all designed to keep the peasants in their place with fear.

BJ

[idiosyncrasy]

Naomi
Your comments are laughable. Atheists do want it both ways. You say they are deconstructing the arguments of the religious. But how can you do that unless you have the idea(belief) that God is responsible. The Bible talks of many gods, but not all believers accept or know that. So which god are you decrying?

What’s new about New Atheism? No, it is not as you state – a progression. It is not just substantive arguments for disbelief, which are as "old hat" as the arguments for belief.

No, New Atheism feels there is a war to be waged.

http://www.iep.utm.edu/n-atheis/

[mibn2cweus]

I came to the realisation early on that arbitrary beliefs have far ranging consequences in the choices and actions that follow from such beliefs and that truth does not hinge on intuitions or feelings of what is true. What I have learned subsequently is that explicit knowledge is a product of understanding the means and process by which knowledge is acquired and verified and that belief in god circumvents this process. Until you know what you believe, why and how, you might as well believe in the devil as god given your inability to distinguish what makes one any better than the other or to determine why neither exists.

[naomi24]

idiosyncrasy, well it’s nice to see you smiling.

// how can you do that [deconstruct the religious argument] unless you have the idea(belief) that God is responsible. //

Why would I need to have an idea/belief that God is responsible in order to argue against irrationality? That doesn't make sense. If you told me you worship fairies I'd argue similarly.

//New Atheism feels there is a war to be waged.//

You may laugh if you like, but don’t forget the blasphemy laws in this country were abolished as recently as 2008. I think knowledgeable atheists scare the religious because they are eminently capable of deconstructing the argument for religion to its very foundations.

[vulcan42]

So, let me get this straight, in order to try and prove that the tooth fairy doesn't exist I have to believe the same tooth fairy does exist?

[Canary42]

I make no apology for re-posting this - to me it sums up the whole misconception about a god.

A dog thinks "This man feeds me, loves me, grooms me, houses me, pets me, and takes good care of me. He must be God."


A cat thinks, "This woman feeds me, loves me, grooms me, houses me, pets me, and takes good care of me. I must be God"

[ToraToraTora]

no atheist blames "god" for bad things. They just wonder why, if he exists, he doesn't prevent them.

[jd_1984]

I doubt it is that black and white.
There are probably categories of people in between Very religious and Atheist.
I for example, went to a Church Of England School, I was christened and went to church weekly up until secondary school.
I don't practice religion and I have some doubts in my mind about the whole thing such as every religion worships a different god and believes that their interpretation is the ONLY true religion. But, I would like to believe there is something beyond this mortal life, I just have no comprehension what it could be.
Am I an atheist?

[vetuste_ennemi]

"But don’t forget the blasphemy laws in this country were abolished as recently as 2008".
That, of course, was about the Christian religion, Naomi. I think you'll find that a very specific version of blasphemy law has found its way back into this country (and the West generally), de facto if not de jure.

[naomi24]

V_E, indeed.

jd_1984, no, you’re not an atheist.

[DTCwordfan]

I grew up in a Methodist family with a grandfather who was a devoted lay preacher, following the Charles Wesley strand of the sect. When my old man died, I was surprised to find that he was on the board of 19 chapels in the NW, he being agnostic.

Any philosophy and science question gets you questioning and logic/evidence does not stack up to the spiritual.....anything but in the temporal. I will concede that the Bible et al. was a brilliant way of (i) explaining the unexplainable to the masses and (ii) controlling them, possibly even extortion of their hard-earned income.

The only concession I would take is the Einsteinian concepts of religion as to the creation of patterns that dictate the laws of astronomy....but to believe that some figment of a God controls how I think or the intervention of action to illness, disasters, great events is, quite frankly, totally stupid and should condemn the purporters (priests included) to the mad house.