Do atheist doubt

[Armistead]

For those that claim to be atheist, do you ever doubt?
Are there ever moments that you think there might be a God afterall. At the moment of death, will you relax in total comfort that you will pass into nothingness?

Christians that are honest will admit doubt. I can say I have faith most of the time. However, logic can cause me to doubt, until I can reconcile it all, I will always have some doubt. It seems it will be impossible for me to reconcile it all.

Are athiest the same...can science totally erase all doubt? This is an answer I honestly seek for my own reasons and growth

I need logic, I seek to make science and the bible line up, but I also am forced to make a decisions based on faith. In the end, both sides will alway say to the other..evidence. No one can out prove the other, yet anyway.

So really, if you follow the process, declare atheism, do the doubts ever totally go away.

 

[TheOutsider]

Doubt is part of the human condition. If you never question your beliefs then you aren't using your brain. Science is about questioning everything, all the time.

 

[rjw]

For those that claim to be atheist, do you ever doubt?
Are there ever moments that you think there might be a God afterall. At the moment of death, will you relax in total comfort that you will pass into nothingness?

Christians that are honest will admit doubt. I can say I have faith most of the time. However, logic can cause me to doubt, until I can reconcile it all, I will always have some doubt. It seems it will be impossible for me to reconcile it all.

Are athiest the same...can science totally erase all doubt? This is an answer I honestly seek for my own reasons and growth

I need logic, I seek to make science and the bible line up, but I also am forced to make a decisions based on faith. In the end, both sides will alway say to the other..evidence. No one can out prove the other, yet anyway.

So really, if you follow the process, declare atheism, do the doubts ever totally go away.

One important point – atheism does not necessarily have anything to do with science. I suspect many who are atheists are that way, not because of science, but for a variety of other reasons.

To your question!

Yes I doubt. But even as a Christian (born in to a Christian family, a regular member of a church, very active in church affairs) – I often doubted in the reality of God. Now that I do not accept the reality of any God, I doubt my atheism from time to time.

I hold on to it because atheism is the belief that makes the most sense to me.


Regards, Roland

 

[Blayz]

For those that claim to be atheist, do you ever doubt?

I think if you sometimes think god exists often enough then you move from atheist to agnostic. Personally, I doubt all the time. I doubt the results of analyses I perform, and I doubt the conclusions of others.

I have never doubted the question of God, which is to say I have uniformly assigned to the Christian God the same possibility of existence I assign to the flying spaghetti monster for quite a few years. Prior to the FSM I used the Giant Invisible Bunny as a comparator.

 

[Tenka]

Are athiest the same...can science totally erase all doubt?

Never, perhaps 99.99% of doubt in some cases. We don't know the exact value of Pi but we know to an extremely high accuracy and when our tools get better that accuracy increases, but it might never be totally, 100% accurate.
Science offers the best answers given the quality of our tools of investigation. This is not perfect but it got us men on the moon and the computer you use among other things.
Scientists would say they are eternally sceptical of all results and theories but not necessarily doubtful.

I need logic, I seek to make science and the bible line up

So which do you bend into line?

 

[RealSorceror]

I no longer have doubts about Christianity. It is definitely untrue. I do have doubts about theism in general, which is why I stay a deist/agnostic.

 

[gamespotter10]

Never, perhaps 99.99% of doubt in some cases. We don't know the exact value of Pi but we know to an extremely high accuracy and when our tools get better that accuracy increases, but it might never be totally, 100% accurate.
Science offers the best answers given the quality of our tools of investigation. This is not perfect but it got us men on the moon and the computer you use among other things.
Scientists would say they are eternally sceptical of all results and theories but not necessarily doubtful.

So which do you bend into line?

I thought pi was exactly 22/7

 

[uberd00b]

Doubt is an integral part of atheism.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

I thought pi was exactly 22/7

Actually:

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proof_that_22_over_7_exceeds_%CF%80

Hurrah for mathematics!

Also, I doubt my own faith from time to time. Just my tuppence.

 

[ranmaonehalf]

For those that claim to be atheist, do you ever doubt?
Are there ever moments that you think there might be a God afterall. At the moment of death, will you relax in total comfort that you will pass into nothingness?

Christians that are honest will admit doubt. I can say I have faith most of the time. However, logic can cause me to doubt, until I can reconcile it all, I will always have some doubt. It seems it will be impossible for me to reconcile it all.

Are athiest the same...can science totally erase all doubt? This is an answer I honestly seek for my own reasons and growth

I need logic, I seek to make science and the bible line up, but I also am forced to make a decisions based on faith. In the end, both sides will alway say to the other..evidence. No one can out prove the other, yet anyway.

So really, if you follow the process, declare atheism, do the doubts ever totally go away.

im sure many doubt, but i myself have never doubted and though the christian or any of the other gods could exists. Im sure those are wrong. "the entire def fo a god is unsure as well"

 

[yasic]

I doubt thinking I may be wrong about the existance of a god from time to time, however I did not do so for the christian one for quite a couple years.

 

[1rd2hvn]

I think with any belief there comes doubts... did you make the right decision, are you wrong? There are so many options out there and I think for many people atheism is an easy way out, its just a way to believe nothing. But for me there is an upside... if atheists are right and when we die we pass into nothingness then i'll do it with hope, but if it turns out that I'm right and God exists and I know I put my faith in him then I will enter into eternity with him. So as far as I see it I don't loose... that's one of the ways that helps me keep strong in my faith. Knowing that with God I am assured I will not be wrong in the long run.

 

[Lilandra]

The bolded statements contradict each other

I think with any belief there comes doubts... did you make the right decision, are you wrong? There are so many options out there and I think for many people atheism is an easy way out, its just a way to believe nothing. But for me there is an upside... if atheists are right and when we die we pass into nothingness then i'll do it with hope, but if it turns out that I'm right and God exists and I know I put my faith in him then I will enter into eternity with him.

So as far as I see it I don't loose... that's one of the ways that helps me keep strong in my faith. Knowing that with God I am assured I will not be wrong in the long run.

Are you assured or do you hope that you will spend eternity with God?

Are you assured that you have chosen the correct God? Will you pass into eternity in the Islamic Hell because you haven't followed Allah?

This has little to do with atheists and more to do with assuring yourself.

 

[Wiccan_Child]

if atheists are right and when we die we pass into nothingness then i'll do it with hope, but if it turns out that I'm right and God exists and I know I put my faith in him then I will enter into eternity with him.

False dichotomoy: there are more theories concerning the afterlife than those espoused by atheism and Christianity. Buddhism says you will reincarnate. Islam says you will burn in hell.
Still sitting comfortably?

 

[Eudaimonist]

At the moment of death, will you relax in total comfort that you will pass into nothingness?

Yes, I fully expect that I will.

It's not that I'm closed-minded to the possibility of God's existence. It's just that I see no reason to doubt. It doesn't take any faith to be an atheist.

Are athiest the same...can science totally erase all doubt? This is an answer I honestly seek for my own reasons and growth

No, science doesn't really have much to do with it.

I need logic, I seek to make science and the bible line up, but I also am forced to make a decisions based on faith.

I don't need to make science and the Bible line up, and I am not forced to make decisions based on faith.

In the end, both sides will alway say to the other..evidence. No one can out prove the other, yet anyway.

I don't need to prove somewrong false in order to see it as unsupported.

So really, if you follow the process, declare atheism, do the doubts ever totally go away.

I can't say how it would be for you. For me, all doubts of this sort diminished to nothing.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[thaumaturgy]

For those that claim to be atheist, do you ever doubt?
Are there ever moments that you think there might be a God afterall. At the moment of death, will you relax in total comfort that you will pass into nothingness?

My favorite line from a song is from the 5th Dimension that says: "I could swear there ain't no heaven but I pray there ain't no hell".

Personally my deconversion has been pretty hard and since I did it late in life (about age 38 or so) it is something I often struggle with.

Indeed the very nature of the "religious mind virus" is that it infects kids much as it did to me. Only problem was is that my brain chemistry was such that I fell into the dread scrupulositywhich essentially almost killed me over the course of my early adulthood.

So indeed I had to get away from religion. As I grew and saw more of the world and got out of the insular mdwestern state of mind and realized the world is a lot bigger than I knew and when I read the Bible and read some history of the faith, I began to doubt, which added to my doubt already present of belief in something for which I could find no real evidence.

So yeah, I have doubts. I have fear. And that fear is exactly what religion is supposed to save me from, but is in point of fact part and parcel of that same religion.

Christians that are honest will admit doubt.

I can say I have faith most of the time. However, logic can cause me to doubt, until I can reconcile it all, I will always have some doubt. It seems it will be impossible for me to reconcile it all.

So you are no different from anyone else on the earth. Atheists are just those who say their doubt far outweighs the evidence a Just God would provide in support of his existence.

Are athiest the same...can science totally erase all doubt? This is an answer I honestly seek for my own reasons and growth

Science never erases all doubt. Look closely at well-written scientific papers and you'll see that everything of value is couched in terms of probability of avoiding errors of hypothesis testing. No scientist worth his or her salt ever claims 100.000...0% truth. Ever. The minute you see one who does, call him or her a crackpot.

I need logic, I seek to make science and the bible line up, but I also am forced to make a decisions based on faith. In the end, both sides will alway say to the other..evidence. No one can out prove the other, yet anyway.

Good for you in trying, but may I ask why you wish to line the bible up with science?

That is an honest question. Why? Is there something fundamental about the Bible that means it has to line up with scientific understanding? Why don't you do the same thing with say, the Bhagavad Gita? Or the Q'ran? Or "Alice in Wonderland"? Or "Moby Dick"? Why the Bible specifically?

So really, if you follow the process, declare atheism, do the doubts ever totally go away.

For me probably not. And that's a good thing and a bad thing. Religion has almost never been much more for me than a constant threat of not getting it right. I can't fault anyone in particular for that. And most Christians don't roll out the threat of eternal damnation, but enough do to make me scared of it.

Is God's love really supposed to amount to 72 years (average male lifespan in the U.S.) of doubt mixed with fear of eternal punishment? If that's what it is, then it does that quite well for me.

That's why I had to pursue my doubt and walk away from religion. Why live my life in constant fear of imagined possibilities in unseen areas?

 

[SeraphymCrashing]

Doubt is a powerful part of my life. Basically my Doubt that a god exists is far greater than my doubt that he doesn't.

 

[The Nihilist]

For those that claim to be atheist, do you ever doubt?
Are there ever moments that you think there might be a God afterall. At the moment of death, will you relax in total comfort that you will pass into nothingness?
Christians that are honest will admit doubt. I can say I have faith most of the time. However, logic can cause me to doubt, until I can reconcile it all, I will always have some doubt. It seems it will be impossible for me to reconcile it all.
Are athiest the same...can science totally erase all doubt? This is an answer I honestly seek for my own reasons and growth
I need logic, I seek to make science and the bible line up, but I also am forced to make a decisions based on faith. In the end, both sides will alway say to the other..evidence. No one can out prove the other, yet anyway.
So really, if you follow the process, declare atheism, do the doubts ever totally go away.

I did not become an atheist for mundane reasons; I was a devout Christian, came upon some unfortunate data, and, after 3 months of hard thinking, unwillingly became an atheist. After all, piety demands honesty, whether intellectually or otherwise. That being said, sometimes I do feel worry arise within me. I deal with this by remembering that worry is nothing more than a feeling and dismissing it, after reviewing my reasons for atheism.

 

[z3ro]

For those that claim to be atheist, do you ever doubt?
Are there ever moments that you think there might be a God afterall. At the moment of death, will you relax in total comfort that you will pass into nothingness?

Christians that are honest will admit doubt. I can say I have faith most of the time. However, logic can cause me to doubt, until I can reconcile it all, I will always have some doubt. It seems it will be impossible for me to reconcile it all.

Are athiest the same...can science totally erase all doubt? This is an answer I honestly seek for my own reasons and growth

I need logic, I seek to make science and the bible line up, but I also am forced to make a decisions based on faith. In the end, both sides will alway say to the other..evidence. No one can out prove the other, yet anyway.

So really, if you follow the process, declare atheism, do the doubts ever totally go away.

Doubts never totally go away; but when I was in a really bad car accident, not sure if I would live through it, I didn't suddenly turn to god and ask him to save me, I worked at saving myself. I think that's what you're kind of getting at.

eta: isn't this in the wrong forum?

 

[monkeypsycho62]

I think with any belief there comes doubts... did you make the right decision, are you wrong? There are so many options out there and I think for many people atheism is an easy way out, its just a way to believe nothing. But for me there is an upside... if atheists are right and when we die we pass into nothingness then i'll do it with hope, but if it turns out that I'm right and God exists and I know I put my faith in him then I will enter into eternity with him. So as far as I see it I don't loose... that's one of the ways that helps me keep strong in my faith. Knowing that with God I am assured I will not be wrong in the long run.

Pascal's Wager = dumb