Always atheist?

[Diatrive]

In reading the threads here I seem to notice quite a few atheists that used to be theists.

I am just curious if there are others here who have never held any belief in a higher power?

I myself have never believed. And this is not through a lack of exposure, I went to catholic school for 8 years and even was an alter boy ( I was bribed by my mom with GI Joe ) The whole time I was amazed that this many people believed all this stuff?!?

 

[Jet Black]

not really. I went to a catholic school for a few years too, and I knew the ropes so well that the teachers said I would make a better catholic than the catholics there (my parents weren't catholic, so I wasn't either) but despite all that, it never just sank in. I can't say whether I really "believed " or not when I was young, since my mind just wasn't analytical enough, but by time I was 10 I didn't.

 

[DoomMoose]

I remember being in church as a child and seeing everyone in varied states
of "fanaticism".I thought "this is weird".And the fact that our preacher
stole money from the church after it was damaged in a flood and ran of
to texas where he was later shot.

 

[crazyfingers]

I have never been a theist. I have never believed in any god or gods.

I was exposed to a degree in high school from friends but I always thought that they would grow out of it. When I got to college I realized that most people don't grow out of it and I learned that some of those who don't grow out of it are dangerous.

I have never been a theist.

 

[armed2010]

I used to be christian, but only left until about 8 months ago. Quite frankly I have never felt this good. I have such an open mind now, open to all kinds of possibilities. I view life as a greater experience, instead of just a stage before going on to heaven/hell.

 

[Blindfaith]

Sounds great.............until you're standing before God in judgement.

 

[revolutio]

Sounds great.............until you're standing before God in judgement.

Scaring him doesn't help.

 

[crazyfingers]

Sounds great.............until you're standing before God in judgement.

Gotta love those threat based religions.

 

[Philosoft]

Sounds great.............until you're standing before God in judgement.

Heh.

"Your honor, I plead insanity."

"No, not mine. Yours."

 

[Jet Black]

Sounds great.............until you're standing before God in judgement.

The beauty is that I would get to justify myself with a doubt in my heart, an dfind out of God really is just or an egomaniac.

 

[DialecticMaterialist]

When I was very young, 6-8th grade I was a very devout believer. In fact I would get in trouble with teachers and peers for being "overly devout". The evidence eventually turned me away from it though.

The reason I turned away is sort of ironic though. I never could believe in a God that demanded blind faith, for that would make belief (with the consequence of hell) a guessing game, I thought any God that was good and just would give evidence. This attitude was encouraged by my religious teachers.

So I looked into the evidence to try and prove God more and more. Obviously the opposite had happened, obviously (as I am now an atheist).

and came back first as a Deist, then a Multi-faith type, atheist, agnontic and then atheist again. (This all took place during the span of late 8th grade to 11th grade.)

And though my beliefs have changed one thing that hasn't is my committment to what my reason and the evidence tells me is real. That I believe is the most sure-fire way to find truth, and it is the only way I think. Otherwise it seems just a guessing game, and that's a belief that I think is fundamentally wrong.

 

[HeatherJay]

I have a question. If the reason that you don't believe in God is lack of proof, my question is can you ever have 100% proof that there is no God? I hope this doesn't come off as sounding judgemental...it's not meant to be in any way. It's just, I can understand the agnostic view point (basically, they don't know so they don't commit either way...if I'm wrong, please tell me)...but the atheist point of view is that there is definitely no God, right? I guess I don't understand not even leaving the tiniest bit of room for the possibility of God. Can anyone explain it to me? Thanks.

Love, Heather

 

[David Gould]

I do not think that the atheist view point is that there is definitely no God. I am an atheist and I do not hold that view.

Some God concepts can be ruled out absolutely due to contradictions.

Others cannot be ruled out.

Being an atheist simply means that you are not a theist.

I am an agnostic atheist - I do not know if a god exists or not but I hold no belief that it does.

 

[David Gould]

In addition, I would suggest that most atheists would like to see evidence that God exists. This does not mean they would want 100 per cent proof. Verification is not possible - logical positivism collapsed a few decades ago.

 

[Diatrive]

I have a question. If the reason that you don't believe in God is lack of proof,

Well, I don't believe in god because I see no reason to believe in god. This is important to understand. If I walked up to you and told you that I controlled space elves that make it rain, do you not believe me because I don't have 100% proof? This is the exact same thing for me.

my question is can you ever have 100% proof that there is no God?

Actually that unfortunately is not the question, in accepting the terms of that question I would have to accept the existence of what you are asking me to disprove in order to accept the question. Take this as an example : "Can you ever have 100% proof that I don't control space elves?"
Seriously think about that for a second, not about the literal nature of something silly like space elves but the nature of the question itself, since you know there are no space elves, where do you begin? You can't, so you see how the burden of proof lies on the person making the assertation. You would naturally say to me, "Prove, to me there are space elves first!" Just swap space elves for god in any of these and the same circumstances exist.

I hope this doesn't come off as sounding judgemental...it's not meant to be in any way. It's just, I can understand the agnostic view point (basically, they don't know so they don't commit either way...if I'm wrong, please tell me)...

I think you have a misconception of what an agnostic is. I will explain it in the next block.

but the atheist point of view is that there is definitely no God, right? I guess I don't understand not even leaving the tiniest bit of room for the possibility of God. Can anyone explain it to me? Thanks.
Love, Heather

Okay, here is how it works.

Atheist - simply stated, you do not actively believe in God. On a number line where 6 is absolute belief and -6 is absolute denial an atheist is at 0.
We do not actively believe in god .

Now in that you have explicit and implicit atheists, the qualifier for this would be if you have been presented enough information to make an informed decision. So, I who went to catholic school and have studied many world religions and still am an atheist is an explicit atheist. While a child in China, who has never heard of a god is an implicit atheist. He has not been presented with the theistic information to make a decision on his own.

Now, we come to agnostics, where that is whether or not you believe it is possible to 100% know whether god exists. So you can have an atheistic agnostic like myself, who does not actively believe in god - atheist : and who does not think it is possible to know - agnostic
Then there are theistic agnostics even priests and ministers who actively believe in god - theist : who also don't think it is possible to 100% know - agnostic .

So, did that help? Or did I bog you down with jargon

 

[crazyfingers]

I have a question. If the reason that you don't believe in God is lack of proof, my question is can you ever have 100% proof that there is no God?

The reason that I do not believe in any god is that I have seen NO Evidence that one exists. It's not simply that there is not enough evidence. I have seen NONE.

Note also that I do not say that no god exists. I say that I have seen no evidence so I don't believe.

No it is not possible to have 100% proof about anything. All of my beliefs are conditional upon the evidence continuing to support them. If new evidence comes along that require that I reevalue a belief, that's fine.

I hope this doesn't come off as sounding judgemental...it's not meant to be in any way. It's just, I can understand the agnostic view point (basically, they don't know so they don't commit either way...if I'm wrong, please tell me)...but the atheist point of view is that there is definitely no God, right?

No. That is not correct. Only strong atheists say that there is no god. Weak atheists simply lack belief in a god. Most atheists are weak atheists.

I guess I don't understand not even leaving the tiniest bit of room for the possibility of God. Can anyone explain it to me? Thanks.

Love, Heather

Your perception of what most atheists believe or do not believe is not correct. You believe that all atheists are strong atheists. Most are not. Reading this would be helpful to you.

 

[HeatherJay]

Thanks for your responses guys. I have a much better understanding of where you're coming from now.

Love, Heather

 

[foolsparade]

I believed in a god as a child. mainly because of selfish childhood desires. For example I remember distinctly praying to god to put snakes in my back yard so I could catch them, because I wanted them as pets. There may have been snakes but I looked and nothing. Later I came to believe in God because I wanted death to be not the end. So in a way I have always been an atheist. My existence is a chance or a bet that I won. Which makes life for me so much more important.

 

[Rae]

Curious. I was raised in an agnostic/atheist household and became a born-again Christian at the age of 13. I deconverted at age 26 and became a Pagan shortly thereafter.

Yes, I knew what atheism was. I was an atheist for a couple of years, partly due to the influence of the Unitarian Universalist church we were attending.

No, I'm not here to convert you. Be an atheist. I'd just ask that you not try to convert me back to atheism. Thanks!

 

[Vicar Philip]

I was raised a Roman Catholic in a small town, did the Catechism bit, Confirmation, the whole enchilada. Had to get married in my wife's church, Methodist, because my family didn't approve of our marriage, and the "Good Catholics" didn't want to upset anyone!

Always believed evolution, never questioned god. Until a bad experience in a Sunday school class occurred. It made my wife contemplate.... something awful.... and I then began to question a god who would allow one of his "faithful" to even BEGIN to think such thoughts.

Soon found the Internet Infidels and will never go back to believing in an imaginary being up there somewhere.