The origins of atheism

aus22 · Sep 22, 2015

There s great difference between saying there is no God or saying you do not have a religion. Atheists are about10% of the population in our census but those with no religion or will not put their religion in the census are25%. The reality is that those who believe in all the tenets of a religion are rare. Most people believe some but dismiss or do not understand others.
While there have always been atheists there have been believers .
What is new is that some political regimes have claim to be atheists like Communists or Nazi .If was recently stated that Cuba was atheists because o the Communist government. But communist countries when given the freedom to practise their religion is very religious.e g Russia or Poland

Belk · Sep 22, 2015

aus22 said:
There s great difference between saying there is no God or saying you do not have a religion. Atheists are about10% of the population in our census but those with no religion or will not put their religion in the census are25%. The reality is that those who believe in all the tenets of a religion are rare. Most people believe some but dismiss or do not understand others.
While there have always been atheists there have been believers .
What is new is that some political regimes have claim to be atheists like Communists or Nazi .If was recently stated that Cuba was atheists because o the Communist government. But communist countries when given the freedom to practise their religion is very religious.e g Russia or Poland

jenny1972 · Sep 22, 2015

GoldenBoy89 said:
He should have picked a more convincing form of communication with his creation than speaking through fallible men and an ancient book.

like speaking to/inspiring His creation directly ? God does do that all the time - if it was just a matter of having faith in fallible men or an ancient book everyone would eventually become athiests

99terabytes · Sep 22, 2015

Foxhole87 said:
There is something wrong with nearly every idea you have presented.

Please teach me, for my edification.

GoldenBoy89 · Sep 22, 2015

jenny1972 said:
like speaking to/inspiring His creation directly ?

Yes. Exactly. I've never seen any instance where God directly spoke to us. Many claim he has, but until he speaks to me, I have no reason to believe you.

God does do that all the time - if it was just a matter of having faith in fallible men or an ancient book everyone would eventually become athiests

Well from where I'm standing, that seems to be exactly the case.

AV1611VET · Sep 22, 2015

jenny1972 said:
all im saying is that Allah means God

Allah is the primary deity of the Quraysh tribe.

The tribe that Mohammad was from.

If you think ALLAH and JEHOVAH are the same, try asking a Muslim if he/she worships JEHOVAH and see what happens.

Dr Bruce Atkinson · Sep 22, 2015

AV1611VET said:
Atheism is a spiritual problem, not an intellectual one.

In other words, it stems from the heart, not the brain.

Psalm 14:1a The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God.

Biblicallly speaking, the "heart" is associated with our deepest desires. The fool does not want to believe in God, so he/she finds 'rational' reasons for not doing so. People can rationalize about anything that they want to believe or do. If, by God's grace and spiritual power, our hearts are changed, then we come to want relationship with God. If our hearts are not changed, then it is natural (original sin) to not want to believe in God.

AV1611VET · Sep 22, 2015

Colter said:
Paul's opinions don't mean much to me, he was never taught by Christ in the flesh.
He brought a lot of his own baggage into his compromised version of the gospel.

Feel free to answer my question though.

I'm interested in what you think.

I already know what Paul thought.

Belk · Sep 22, 2015

AV1611VET said:
Allah is the primary deity of the Quraysh tribe.

The tribe that Mohammad was from.

If you think ALLAH and JEHOVAH are the same, try asking a Muslim if he/she worships JEHOVAH and see what happens.

Or they could ask you if you worship Yahweh.

aus22 · Sep 22, 2015

The Problem with saying GOd never spoke to you is that you are in a minority. Are you saying that the millions in claim that God spoke to them are lying or delusional . To practice any religion you must believe God spoke to you in some way.

AV1611VET · Sep 22, 2015

Belk said:
Or they could ask you if you worship Yahweh.

Cute.

Dr Bruce Atkinson · Sep 22, 2015

Oafman said:
Before even our distant ancestors had evolved the imagination to create all of the various religions, there was atheism.

This statement of yours is a belief that is entirely based on a kind of faith, because there can be no evidence or proof for it.
Also, since atheism is based on a belief that there is no God, it is dependent on the idea (cultural or religious) that there might be such a God. Theism must come first before atheism is even a possible idea.

Colter · Sep 22, 2015

AV1611VET said:
Feel free to answer my question though.

I'm interested in what you think.

I already know what Paul thought.

Oh I see, small g big G God. I constantly encounter Christians who think Satan is a living being today who big G God keeps on a short leash to do evil things. That Satan also has a bunch of demons on the payroll. I'm often told I have demonic goblins and such corrupting me......usually when I make a point that people can't conceade.

Dr Bruce Atkinson · Sep 22, 2015

juvenissun said:
May be. Then they were not human.
Animals are all atheists.

Animals are all atheists? How absurd. Animals cannot be either theists or atheists because they cannot think abstractly enough for such things. It is likely that if my pets COULD think abstractly, they would think that I was their god.

Belk · Sep 22, 2015

aus22 said:
The Problem with saying GOd never spoke to you is that you are in a minority. Are you saying that the millions in claim that God spoke to them are lying or delusional .

Or honestly mistaken, yes. It Does tend to explain why the answers provided vary so wildly and tend to be correlate with the geographic region of the theist.

aus22 said:
To practice any religion you must believe God spoke to you in some way.

Not really. My wife is religious but also an atheist.

Belk · Sep 22, 2015

Dr Bruce Atkinson said:
Animals are all atheists? How absurd. Animals cannot be either theists or atheists because they cannot think abstractly enough for such things. It is likely that if my pets COULD think abstractly, they would think that I was their god.

There have been multiple threads on this subject so I will caution you about traveling down this rabbit hole. It just leads into an argument on if the definition of atheism requires knowledge of a god concept or not.

GoldenBoy89 · Sep 22, 2015

aus22 said:
The Problem with saying GOd never spoke to you is that you are in a minority. Are you saying that the millions in claim that God spoke to them are lying or delusional . To practice any religion you must believe God spoke to you in some way.

Actually, most people will agree that most gods aren't real. It's only when you ask them about their god that they change their tune. I'm sure you don't stop yourself and think about whether you are pleasing Zeus or Odin or Apollo or Thor, do you? Do you live your life trying to appease Ra, the Sun God of the ancient Egyptians? No, you probably don't. But all of these gods have been believed to be real and we know they can't all exist, they are contradictory. So the options are, either one religion got it right and is The Truth™... or none of them are actually true. I tend to lean towards the latter.

To answer your question about believing the claims of those who say god has spoken to them, I have to respectfully say that I don't believe those claims. Just like there are many who claim to have seen a ghost, Big Foot, aliens, and the Loch Ness monster, I don't believe any of their claims either and I won't until I see one for myself. Until I hear the unequivocal voice of God speak directly to me, I simply cannot take someone else's word for it. I just don't bend that way. Maybe you can, but I don't.

jenny1972 · Sep 22, 2015

GoldenBoy89 said:
Yes. Exactly. I've never seen any instance where God directly spoke to us. Many claim he has, but until he speaks to me, I have no reason to believe you.

Well from where I'm standing, that seems to be exactly the case.

i completely understand what your saying

Dr Bruce Atkinson · Sep 22, 2015

dazed said:
God is the origin of atheism! When God created a baby, what language does that baby speak? Alanguage!!! Not Chinese, English or any human language. What religion does that baby believe in? None! Only through time, will it become a Christian, Muslim, Buddhist etc..

Atheism is choosing to not believe in God. A baby does not believe or disbelieve in ANYTHING! The term atheism only makes sense if reference to theism (belief in God). The word "a-theism" literally means against God, but we now understand it as disbelief in God or gods. An inability to believe in anything (like babies and animals) does not equate to atheism.

Dr Bruce Atkinson · Sep 22, 2015

Chriliman said:
Logically God would be an "atheist" because there is no God above him. Does this mean he wants his created beings to be atheists? Heavens no!

If you believe in God, it is also reasonable to say that He believes in Himself. In the Bible, God frequently describes Himself as God Almighty.

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