I am open to the idea of their being a higher power. But, i have lived my life just fine not believing. For me, it does not feel right to have blind faith. But that is just me. I would rather take responsibility of what i have done, then blame some higher power.
How do you guys feel about atheists and atheism?
But, should you not be living life for yourself? Why do you live it according to someone/something Else's standards? That is not living, is it?
"But, should you not be living life for yourself? Why do you live it according to someone/something Else's standards? That is not living, is it?"
I definitely like and agree with that.
With that being said, I have no problem with Atheists and I have no problem with people who practice religion, so long as they don't pressure me into becoming apart of their movement.
Many of the people who label themselves as atheists are not atheists at all. They are just reacting to a negative religious upbringing. Having finally seen the conflicting nonsense that religion told them as a lie, they assume that everything that religion told them must be a lie too. God included.
So they sort of throw the baby (God) out with the bath water (religion)
If you ask these people to describe the God that they don't believe in they invariably describe an angry judgmental punishing god that lives on a far off cloud called heaven.
This I can understand because I don't believe in that God either.
As an atheist I can say I used to look to them in reference and respect.Someone who doesn't need god even when I was religious was respected because I felt and now feel as an atheist that they are more inclined to deal with reality.I decided to be one not out of my own vanity but because of my looking at possible religions and my inability to find any truth in them.
It seems to boil down to the question whether you feel a need to believe. When you believe in God you also are doing much more, you are also accepting that belief is knowledge. To me that is a lie and is unacceptable behavior, even the mark of someone who would betray you for their comfort.
Most people feel a need to believe and the social pressure to join them can be, especially in small rural communities, overwhelming, a mental threat and sometimes even a physical threat.
God doesn't exist. Existence consists of either matter or energy, If a god is not composed of matter or energy, then that god does not exist. If a god is composed of matter or energy, then that god is subject to physical laws, therefore miracles would be impossible.... God doesn't exist.
The more you learn about the world around you, the more you realize that it all that stuff is a myth
I find absolute certainty in either camp to be elusive for me. So I'm probably an agnostic, with a high threshold to clear before I would believe in the God as commonly described by those who point to the bible as the source of their belief or the particulars of what they believe.
I suspect that religion exists for purposes here on earth. It seems to be promoted for the benefit of both those that promote it and for the followers. How much of the benefit seems to vary by the promoter of the religion, rather than the flavor of it.
But I too am open to the idea of something that might be close enough to the God they describe, to be added to the ranks of believers, when and if I hear or see or learn something that reaches the level of impact to make me believe. So far the efforts made to get me to buy in have fallen short of the mark.
I think many organized religions teach many valuable things. I find it unfortunate that so many of them also teach so many disturbing things. I'd like to think everyone espousing a religion does so with honorable intent. But there is evidence to suggest some are in it for money, or power, or fame instead.
So, Atheists have reviewed the evidence for the existence of God and found not only that the evidence is lacking, but that they reason that this God cannot in fact exist. We can quibble about defining God, but lets agree God is some kind of higher power with at least the characteristics common to the mainstream religions that combine to such a large number of follower-believers.
Are Atheists rejecting the existence of any part of this God, or are they only rejecting the specific God or Gods who's definition crosses a certain line?
I do not believe in God. But I also don't believe that we can be certain God doesn't exist. I simply do not know, yet. Perhaps I never will. Or perhaps I will believe tomorrow.....
Religious folks, for the most part, have blind faith in God? Atheists, for the most part, have blind faith there is no God? Agnostics just try to enjoy the football game and not think about such things. Some religious folks feel the need to prove God exists. Some atheists (well probably a lot of them) feel the need to prove God does not exist. They do this by arguing Darwin's Theory of evolution, the scientific method, etc. But most religious folks who have blind faith in God also believe in Darwin's Theory and in the scientific method. They do this without falling over like some who try to chew gum and walk at the same time. This drives atheists crazy. But then maybe they are already crazy. Why would anyone make it a priority in life to worry and fuss about something they do not believe? I don't believe in flying elephants and don't spend much time fussing about it.
And I don't "feel" anything but warm, cold, soft and rough. I think atheists should just kick back and enjoy the football game..
I feel that atheism is a paradigm for freedom of thought. There is an exception to my statement, and that has to do with an atheist who firmly insists that there is no god. That, at its best, is faulty thinking. After all, proving a negative is next to impossible. For instance, can we prove Mother Theresa didn't toss orphans into a river? That's a bit of a loose analogy, but I think it gets the concept across.
With 27,000 or so religions in this world, how does one go about defining what, or who god may be? Am I an atheist if I worship the sun? Keep in mind, stars are the factory of matter in our universe. They are the creators of matter.
Stars utilize hydrogen as fuel, and as a byproduct of nuclear fusion create heavier elements like helium, carbon, iron along with every other naturally occurring element that exists in our universe.
Essentially, we as humans, and the world around us came to exist out of materials created by stars. We're all made of star dust.
Gravity brings matter together, and without the force of gravity, we wouldn't exist as we do now. So, because we know the methods of how stars function and how gravity works, wouldn't we be able to consider gravity and stars to be our creators? In at least some extent, that answer is yes.
Now, should a star, or gravity be worshiped because they both played an integral part in the creation of mankind? I don't see why not. People like to worship the gods whom they believe created them, and therefore I see no reason why stars and gravity should not be considered as god-like.
In terms of living life for yourself vs. others, or a higher power, there's something to it. We, as a species have thrived due to the fact that we are able to cooperate with each other in large, organized groups. We are social creatures. When you consider evolutionary biology, it's well within the reason to think that we evolved the brain circuitry for the predisposition of believing in a higher power for the benefit of our species. In order to cooperate in larger groups, faith and hope in a higher purpose are very beneficial to our survival.
I hope this has been thought provoking for you. All the best.
I think Atheists ( and also let me add, Agnostics like myself ) are seeking truth and would rather not have blind faith. In fact, we don't know if there is "Life after, well, Life" or not. Some Atheists/Agnostic people might disfavor religion, because of how some extremists act. Some Christians spread hate instead of love.
I know there is a difference between Atheism and Agnosticism, and the "Agnostic Atheist vs Agnostic Theist" ( all the various types of Agnostic people ). With simply Atheists, some can be very extreme and out right brutal, calling anyone 'ignorant' who does not agree with them. However, most Atheists MAKE SENSE and don't live in a false illusion.
I'm Agnostic. I disbelieve in god, but I do not KNOW there is not a higher power. I don't have bad feelings towards Atheism at all, but I'm all for "We don't know the answers, but we should continuously search".
I respect their beliefs but then again I kind of feel bad for them if they only knew how it feels to believe they would never question it or doubt it!!!!! but I really do find them very interesting!!!!! like I love Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens they are so smart and I respect them so much =)
How do you feel towards atheism?
