Why Atheism?

[Bombila]

When I was young, I very much wanted to believe, and tried very hard, prayed very much, with passion and and with pleading and with worship.

Didn't work.

There is no 'there' there.

No entity reveals itself, therefore there is little point in attempting to commune with an uncommunicating non-entity. IOW, I have never found/seen/felt any evidence of the existence of any deity or supernatural force, not so much as a fluttering of the spirit(mind). No prayer ever answered, yay or nay.

I am essentially an honest person who tries to be honest first of all to myself. I could, if I wanted to, force myself to pretend the supernatural is natural or real, and likely I could successfully delude myself into believing all sorts of things, could convince myself, if I repeated the fantasy often enough to myself and others, that I had really had a religious experience, or a supernatural visitation, or a conversion - memory is easily manipulated. But I prefer the honesty of reality.

I'm pretty much convinced we have a finite singular lifetime in which to enjoy consciousness. I think that can be a pretty good deal if we are lucky and have health and good experiences. I think we have a duty to try to help everyone born achieve this. The deaths of children and young people are the greatest tragedies to me, the now being all we can have and they having missed what could have been their portion.

......

As for Holy Roller, he only speaks to the atheist he has manufactured in his head, an imaginary entity (see how easy that is?) that bears no relation to real atheists. He likes to insult his imaginary atheist and pretend it represents any real atheists he is actually speaking to. He likes to indulge his curious devotion to making bizarre accusations about the 'atheism' of Hitler, the god beliefs of Einstein, and pretend this has any relevance to atheists currently alive. He has insulted dead women in the person of Marie Curie, and live women in the persons of women on this board. He apparently thinks this makes him a shining example of Christian (Messianic) virtue. I'm pleased to be able to say most of the Christians I know in the real world would disagree.

 

[Celticflower]

Why are you bringing this up now? I'm hurt. You make it sound like I was taking potshots at Christians. I was not.


eudaimonia,

Mark

Sorry Mark. I started out vamping on your post and wound up ranting about alot of what I have encountered from others.

 

[XChristian]

HolyRoller,
Why do you single out Atheists? It's not like they are the only group of people who do not share your beliefs and values.

 

[Bombila]

HolyRoller,
Why do you single out Atheists? It's not like they are the only group of people who do not share your beliefs and values.

He's currently telling the Pagans et al what they believe and practice, so he does sideline. ;-D

 

[sidhe]

He's currently telling the Pagans et al what they believe and practice, so he does sideline. ;-D

It's good for lulz.

I think the reason we get less attention, though, is the lack of background history of atheists building wicker men or nailing living things together.

 

[Rasta]

maybe this has been asked before but i'm just curious. why don't you believe in anything?

Thanks for the post.

I was raised in a Christian home. In an attempt to objectively prove my faith true, I lost my faith.

As I studied other faiths, I noticed that everyone had very simular evidence, which is typically some words in a book that can't be verified and personal testimony.

The more I searched, the more skepticle I became. No supernatural or mythological event has ever been verified. All groups claim to experience their diety and claim interaction such as communication, revalation, etc. All faiths claim different implications, which all can't be true.

At this point, I was not convinced that any could be true.

If I am not convinced of their truth, I have no positive belief towards any faith system.

Thus comes to my current point of disbelief, also known as atheism.

 

[Rasta]

That's correct. Atheists who practice their religion are actually blasphemers.
How so?
By not 100% disbelieving in G-d, that's why. And having some belief goes against everything Atheism stands for.

I fathom the primary reason for the faith is actually intellectual and moral pride: by pointing their fingers at the few Christians or Jews who fall into sin, they can direct attention away from the jaw-dropping amount of sinning they do.
They can also claim Charles Darwin as their first saint, not even knowing that Charles Darwin was a Christian and a mighty man of G-d; Darwin's father a Lutheran minister.
This they do to placate the presumed Christian or Jewish stance that evolution is a false belief. We, for the most of us, make no such claim. I myself know that there's an evolutionary process to life, with G-d directing it all.

Einstein claimed Atheists got there by a sort of rebellious stance; that some people, upon being brought up Christian, will turn Atheist because they're erroneously taught in liberal institutions that Christianity (and religions in general) was a force of dissension and conflict and not one of peace. You know, a sort of misguided teenage angst. I disagree with this stance because the richarddawkins forum is cram-packed to the rafters with all sorts of immoral, unethical and rude, disrespecting posters. Misguided teenage angst cannot cause this conduct. I have to go, but there's another reason why I disagreed with Einstein's sentiment. I'll post it tomorrow...

Thanks for the hilarious post. LOL.

 

[Bombila]

It's good for lulz.

I think the reason we get less attention, though, is the lack of background history of atheists building wicker men or nailing living things together.

True. We get blamed for more humdrum stuff like mass murder, war and genocide. I mean, who's going to make a movie out of sensationally horrifying atheist non-rituals?

 

[Rasta]

And while atheist throw around words like "rational" and "logical" when explaining their lack of belief in God (or any gods), I just wish they would stop painting people of faith as lacking "intellectual integrity", "delusional", "childish" or "stupid". It is insulting to those of us with fairly high IQs who have chosen a life of faith for our own reasons.

I wish people of faith and people without faith would stop painting themselves as lacking intellectual integrity, delusional, childish, and stupid.

It really does put a bad taste in the other sides mouth.

I think you should speak to Holly Roller.

 

[Celticflower]

I think you should speak to Holly Roller.

I don't think he'd listen.

 

[Holy Roller]

Of course Darwin was a Christian, most people were in that day and age. Heck. [In the 19th Century], we'd only just managed to persuade the religious that killing people was wrong back then.

"Thou shalt not murder" --1500 BC, Jewish
"You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother."--1 BC, Christian
"He who commits murder must be considered as the worst offender, more wicked than a defamer, than a thief, and than he who injures with a staff." --2,300 BC, Hinduism. Laws of Manu 8.345
"Anyone who kills a believer intentionally will have his reward in hell, to remain there. God will be angry with him and curse him, and prepare awful torment for him." 600 AD, Islam. Qur'an 4.92
"[Evil-doers] kill the baby and cause abortion of the unborn." 2,300 BC, Taoism, Treatise on Response and Retribution
"A bhikkhu who intentionally kills a human being, down to procuring abortion, is no ascetic and no follower of the Fraternity of the Buddha." --2,300 BC, Buddhism. Vinaya, Mahavagga i.78.4

I'm telling you guys--Atheists aren't the sharpest tools in the shed here...

 

[Bombila]

I have found that people remember most the insults and other hurts they have received from a few individuals, and tend to forget the much more common simple acceptance or polite questioning. Using that personal perception to broadbrush any group is a mistake.

Also, it is, I think, a mistake to think one's own views are not hurtful to someone else. A Catholic may say an atheist who mocks the Eucharist is insulting, hurtful, blasphemous, etc. Yet the same Catholic thinks nothing of telling the atheist they will suffer, burn, endure torture forever, as if that were a nice thing to say to someone. Neither believes what the other is saying, both are insulted. Christians are famous for telling each other that they aren't really Christians, which of course is hurtful to the Christian whose belief is denied.

I recommend thicker skins all round, and thinking before you speak, not that I'm always successful at either of those things myself.

 

[Rasta]

I don't think he'd listen.

I think you are right. Though it's people like him that give everyone else a bad name, as I'm sure it's true for the other side of the fence as well.

Stupid people give us a bad name. Level heads will prevail.

 

[Rasta]

"Thou shalt not murder" --1500 BC, Jewish
"You know the commandments: 'Do not commit adultery, do not murder, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother."--1 BC, Christian
"He who commits murder must be considered as the worst offender, more wicked than a defamer, than a thief, and than he who injures with a staff." --2,300 BC, Hinduism. Laws of Manu 8.345
"Anyone who kills a believer intentionally will have his reward in hell, to remain there. God will be angry with him and curse him, and prepare awful torment for him." 600 AD, Islam. Qur'an 4.92
"[Evil-doers] kill the baby and cause abortion of the unborn." 2,300 BC, Taoism, Treatise on Response and Retribution
"A bhikkhu who intentionally kills a human being, down to procuring abortion, is no ascetic and no follower of the Fraternity of the Buddha." --2,300 BC, Buddhism. Vinaya, Mahavagga i.78.4

I'm telling you guys--Atheists aren't the sharpest tools in the shed here...

What date did the Crusades take place?

 

[Holy Roller]

You wouldn't happen to have a verifiable quote handy so that we may see Einstein's exact words?


eudaimonia,

Mark

Why? Here:

I do not share the crusading spirit of the professional atheist whose fervor is mostly due to a painful act of liberation from the fetters of religious indoctrination received in youth.

http://atheism.about.com/od/einsteingodreligion/tp/Was-Einstein-an-Atheist-.htm

This is the last time I'm going to do an Atheist's homework. It's time you guys actually do something constructive for a change.

 

[Holy Roller]

Not only are posters like this found in the Richard Dawkins forum...we have a fair few of them here!! I wonder who I could be refering to?!?!
[/color]

Richarddawkins forum doesn't respect the Christian poster because it's an Atheist forum. Since this is a Christian forum, this gives me the liberty to tell the truth about the Atheist.

 

[Rasta]

Richarddawkins forum doesn't respect the Christian poster because it's an Atheist forum. Since this is a Christian forum, this gives me the liberty to tell the truth about the Atheist.

Doesn't Jesus command you to turn the other cheek? Doesn't Jesus command you to love your enemy?

Why are you bad at following Jesus' commands?

 

[Holy Roller]

......

As for Holy Roller, he only speaks to the atheist he has manufactured in his head, an imaginary entity (see how easy that is?) that bears no relation to real atheists. He likes to insult his imaginary atheist and pretend it represents any real atheists he is actually speaking to. He likes to indulge his curious devotion to making bizarre accusations about the 'atheism' of Hitler, the god beliefs of Einstein, and pretend this has any relevance to atheists currently alive. He has insulted dead women in the person of Marie Curie, and live women in the persons of women on this board. He apparently thinks this makes him a shining example of Christian (Messianic) virtue. I'm pleased to be able to say most of the Christians I know in the real world would disagree.

If you guys wanna keep believing this nonsense Bombila is saying (not that I think you do), you may want to go to this link. It's an active, open forum at richarddawkins. It shows quite clearly that I have been keenly accurate in my assessments of Atheists:
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=58850

Here we see Atheists, just as paranoid as I have been saying they are, being, well, paranoid. Someone asks about not being "100% Atheists" and all the Atheists jump on his case, suspecting him of being a troll:
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=58424

Atheists in consensus agree that Josef Stalin was a theist and perhaps Christian:
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=58274

I could go on and on and on and on...

 

[Holy Roller]

What date did the Crusades take place?

What does a just war like the crusades have to do with it?

 

[Rasta]

If you guys wanna keep believing this nonsense Bombila is saying (not that I think you do), you may want to go to this link. It's an active, open forum at richarddawkins. It shows quite clearly that I have been keenly accurate in my assessments of Atheists:
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=58850

Here we see Atheists, just as paranoid as I have been saying they are, being, well, paranoid. Someone asks about not being "100% Atheists" and all the Atheists jump on his case, suspecting him of being a troll:
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=58424

Atheists in consensus agree that Josef Stalin was a theist and perhaps Christian:
http://www.richarddawkins.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=20&t=58274

I could go on and on and on and on...

Can we use Fred Phelps as an accurate example of how all Christians are?

If not, why are you so hypocritical?

What does Jesus say about hypocrits?