Questions for atheists

1. Why do you assume atheists have a closed mind to anything? An atheist is not necessarily "someone who believes there is no god", but rather "someone who does not believe there is a god". The first is an unprovable position, since you can never prove god's non-existence. Any atheist who is intellectually honest will admit that if he or she saw direct, provable evidence of the existence of a deity, they would change their mind. Naturally, you WILL find people who claim they "believe" there is no god, but then they are basing their stance on an article of faith just as much as any Christian or Muslim. The only intellectually honest statement an atheist can make is that they don't believe.

A more direct answer to your question: Why does an atheist *not* believe in a deity? For me, it's for the same reason I don't believe in Santa Claus, or the Tooth Fairy. There is simply no evidence that such an entity exists. Not a single shred that can be tested and verified. Why should one believe in anything that has no evidence?

Everything that science puts forth has evidence behind it. Is it all true? Of course not. We are humans and we can make mistakes interpreting the evidence. However, we humans work together, we share our discoveries, and over time we get closer and closer approximations to the truth. Religion does the opposite. It denies evidence. It accepts ancient writings as absolute truth even in the face of contrary evidence.

By what right does a Christian hold his belief system above the beliefs of tribesmen who believe in storm gods or ancestor spirits? Or the beliefs of Vikings who prayed to Thor and Odin? Or Jews, or Protestants, or Muslims, or Catholics, or Buddhists, or any of the other multitude of religions? There is equal evidence for any of them (i.e. none) so if you were honest with yourself you would admit that the only reason you value your religion above others is because that is what you were taught at a young age. (Early indoctrination is the only way religion keeps going.)

2. There are atheists who go around bashing religion, just as there are religous people who go around trying to convert others to their doctrines. Neither group really makes any progress, since they are generally preaching to people who have already made up their mind what they believe or don't believe.

However, WHY would an atheist put so much energy into it? It's BECAUSE they don't believe it. They feel that religion is an active evil in the world, holding back humanity's progress. This is particularly the case in the United States, where Christianity has taken on a particularly virulent form and is actively trying to retard our education and political systems.

3. The whole "maybe god uses evolution as his method of creation?" is a very old position. It's fine if you want to believe in parts of the Christian faith and try to make it work with science by ignoring other parts. But here's the issue: Science doesn't need God to work. The theory of evolution works perfectly fine at explaining how life evolved from single-celled organisms to the vast ecology of life we see today, all without relying on "magic" (which is what a divine miracle is, if you strip away the religious aspect of it).

It's true, science doesn't yet know how unliving matter turned into the first life, but unlike religious folks, scientists don't shrug their shoulders when they don't understand something and say "Must be magic". They keep looking for answers. Saying "I don't know" is the first step towards learning. Religion would rather you stop looking for answers and just accept what was written in a book.

4. I have no answer for you on this point. Maybe Jesus was a real person who's story got told again and again, growing with each retelling to make him seem more miraculous. Maybe he is purely a fable. There is insufficient evidence to know for sure.

5. The derogatory terms you refer to, "Zombie Jesus", "Talking Sky Daddy" etc. are just that, derogatory terms. I think you are being disingenuous with your questions at this point. You know perfectly well what they are talking about when they say those things.

I do object, however, to your defense against the term "magical". As I mentioned earlier, calling divine miracles "magic" is purely semantics. It's the same thing: a supernatural force that defies the laws of nature. I use the term when speaking of divine miracles because it helps to illustrate the ridiculous nature of religious beliefs.

If you feel offended at my words here, well, I don't really apologize. I don't go out of my way to argue with religious folks; I feel that they are entitled to their personal delusions. Besides, nothing I say will ever counter the early indoctrination most religious folks received, so it would be a waste of my time. However, you asked for feedback in a thoughtful manner, so I have endeavored to reply in the same way.

My parents are Agnostic, but took my brother and I to church to see if we were interested in it. I read the bible, and tolerated getting up early for Sunday school so I could see my friends. After Sunday school, we went to the service and sat through the sermon that I usually had no interest in. This was all my choice, my parents never made me do this. Even though Noah's Ark and Jonah and the Fish were totally unbelievable to me, I still liked hearing the stories. I guess I should clarify that, they were just not real to me and I couldn't believe that people took them seriously. I think a lot of Christians think that Atheists don't know the bible and have never been to church. This is a mistake, some of the most biblically knowledgeable people I know are Atheists.

I have epilepsy and when I was 22 I had 6 seizures 1 night. I stopped breathing and was dead for over 3min, they managed to revive me, obviously. When I was "dead" I saw no bright lights, no heaven or hell, no reunion with dead relatives or pets. I didn't even know I had died until someone told me the next day. This reinforced the belief that I had all along, there is no god, heaven or hell, only this life. Enjoy it while you can, because this is all we have.

Someone will probably say that since I was never a believer in the 1st place, that's why I never saw heaven and I was stuck in purgatory,or maybe I just don't remember any of it. I've heard it all before, and fundamentalists get really upset with me sometimes. I just think to myself, who would want to spend eternity in heaven with these a**holes anyway if it existed? I think there was a comedian that said something like "Go to heaven for the weather, and hell for the company."

The size of the Universe is unknown; it may be infinite. The region visible from Earth (the observable universe) is a sphere with a radius of about 46 billion light years, based on where the expansion of space has taken the most distant objects observed. For comparison, the diameter of a typical galaxy is 30,000 light-years, and the typical distance between two neighboring galaxies is 3 million light-years. As an example, the Milky Way Galaxy is roughly 100,000 light years in diameter, and the nearest sister galaxy to the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy, is located roughly 2.5 million light years away. There are probably more than 100 billion galaxies in the observable Universe. Typical galaxies range from dwarfs with as few as ten million stars up to giants with one trillion stars, all orbiting the galaxy's center of mass. A 2010 study by astronomers estimated that the observable Universe contains 300 sextillion stars.

And you think someone created this to have a personal interaction with you?

I believe atheists are separated in 3 groups according to the motives that led them to atheism.

1)Those who become atheists to differ from the masses. (most of them become atheists at a young age as a form of reaction)

2)Those who become atheists because they have anti-social issues and psychological problems. They are atheists only because of deep hatred for their christian society.

3) Those who become atheists because they really don't think the existence of a divine being is possible. (minority)

TL;DR

My mind isn't closed, it's open to things that can be proven, sceptical of charlatans and the like.

I believe all religion is men trying to enslave other men by going above their heads and citing sources that are to be believed on faith alone.

Religion works for some as solace, absolution and a purpose in life but as a great thinker once said, 'I have no need for that hypothesis'.

I simply cannot believe there is a god who is so petty he wants to be worshipped, surely a divine being is above pride.

As for the Jesus bit, 4 supposedly different people telling of one person in a book compiled by someone we don't know, translated by someone else we don't know and changed over time all to suit their various agendas. You wouldn't be able to get a paper at highschool level approved on such dodgy sources unless of course it was religious studies.




Brad Pitt, you're on my s***list.

1. I am an atheist because I have come to the conclusion that an afterlife and the theory of god was developed in order to fill a space that knowledge could not. I mean to say that the theory behind deities was to comfort the ignorant and to assist in maintaining a feeling of security for the unknown. I feel no insecurity about the unknown and therefore have decided that I do not need a fallacy to assuage my fears.

2. I put no energy into trying to educate those who believe because they all have the right to believe in something that is unverifiable and fills a gap in their emotive state namely fear of the unknown.

3. You can believe in both evolution and a creator however your statement about evolution being unproven is false while we have not found the exact link to our evolutionary past in terms of plants we have seen evolution in crops and other plants through the years. Look up the specifics for evolution you will find what you need there in terms of facts about what is and is not proven.

4. I believe there was a man named Jesus he more than likely was trying to influence people to a better way of life and ways of living in harmony that got warped over time to become the current religion we see today.

5. I have never used either of the terms you mention but talking dead guy probably refers to when someone claims to have had Jesus speak to them from heaven and the belief that you need to be dead in order to go to heaven. As for sky daddy while it is never stated that he lives in the sky religious iconography often depicts heaven as being clouds sky stuff of that nature thus he lives in the sky or up while hell is underground and fire brimstone and down.

Hope this helps you in your quest for knowledge on why some atheists think the way they do. Keep asking questions because that is the only way to learn.

1. Atheism has nothing to do with closing your mind to a god, but rather opening your mind to the possibility of there not being one. God, to me, is an archaic belief that should be done away with.

2. Because we want to stamp out stupidity!

3. Because a universal creator is an archaic idea not based in reality.

4. Oh, I believe he lived, and then people made up stories about him and called it a bible.

5. We call you goofy names because you believe in stone age ideas. We are supposed to be evolving here, not clinging to stupid ideas from your great great great great grandpa. Stupid.