Questions for atheists

1.


I want to believe, trust me, because I'd live forever if I could (or maybe I just feel that way because I'm single). It's just that there's nothing in the observable universe that seems to point toward anything but decay coming for every one of us. A soul there is not a single shred of evidence for, and our bodies return to the ground to further life in general. It's all a part of the cycle. It's as sad as it is beautiful.

That said, I'm 100% certain there is life on other planets considering there are ~150 billion galaxies (BILLION. GALAXIES) in the observable universe alone. The chances that life happened here and only here seem very, very slim; even if the conditions are incomprehensibly specific, chances are it happened on at least one of the unfathomably large number of planets out there, and likely millions if not billions of them. Many of them could be spacefarers. Some might even have learned to harvest stars. Some might have the technology needed to effectively live forever. But we will never know, because they're too far away to ever reach us.

So technically I am open to the possibility of something more than just us, you bet.


2.

Because they're people and some people are more argumentative than others; this applies equally to every religion as they're comprised of, you guessed it, people.


3.

I don't say that. In fact, I often try to persuade Christians and encourage them to believe in it because I know I'd be interested in how God does things; it would help me appreciate the grandeur of His work!

But of course, I don't believe and think evolution shows how it could happen with or without a conscious controlling force. But it's painful to see the undeniable denied, so I prefer that they take facts into account and shape their beliefs after them rather than vice-versa.


4.

I think Jesus might have been real. In fact, I think a lot of the people from the Bible are likely more than fiction. I just think the scripture tells a fictional, hearsay-based account on most events it details, facts being contorted to the point of being inrecognizable.

But yeah, I'd like to believe he was around and tried to teach people to take 'er easy; the Dude of history if you will.


5.

As for "believe in a talking dead guy", I haven't heard this but if Jesus was a person who lived 2000 years ago then he would in fact be dead by now. So such words make perfect sense from a non-believer's standpoint.

As for "magical sky daddy", you believe in something that from our earthly perspective is indeed capable of magic, that does not live here, and that is considered to be the father of everything. Magical sky daddy. It's somewhat metaphorical/intended to be demeaning.

---
Sad story. You got a smoke?

reply share

add reply

formatting help

1. Why are you an atheist? I am curious why you would close your mind to the possibility of something more then just us and that there is any existence after death.

A combination of two things. The First thing is, how different religions and denominations treat each other, often extremly violent, even though God could, and should in just about any conceivable concept of morality clear things up. Of course, this still leaves open the possibility, that God is activly malicous, and wants humans to slaughter each other in his name. But here comes the second thing: there simply is no proof pointing to Gods existence (as was allready said multiple times in this thread), so I don't have to assume that God exists. And, under these choices (no God at all or a God that is activly hostile to humans) I prefer the first over the mindcrushing despair of the second.

2. Why do some atheists put so much energy into something they don't believe in? By this I mean I know and have met some atheists that have their beliefs and don't care about my beliefs and are happy to do their thing and let me do my thing belief wise. Then there are atheists I have met that feel that it is their life mission to bash God and bash peoples belief in God and I just don't understand why you would put so much energy into something you don't believe in. I'm not talking about defending your beliefs as an atheist. I am talking about atheists that go out of there why to bash God or someone's belief in God. When no one is putting down their beliefs.

Most of the former Replyers already answerd part of that Question (they have the feeling, that Religion plays ato great role in society). I for myself, admit, that I just look for some argument, where the target is easy, but stilleasy to find and plentyfull.(Of course, this is only MY answer, and doesn't necessarily apply to anyone else)

3. I have herd a lot of atheists say that they don't believe in a universal creator or God because they believe in evolution. My question here is why can't you believe in a universal creator and evolution. I believe in both. How can I do that you ask well let me explain. We now that evolution is true because things change and evolve. What we have not been able to prove is the theory of evolution as to how everything was created. So with the theory of evolution and the theory of creation both being unproven I don't see any reason why we can't look for proof of both. I mean if there is a universal creator who's to say that they didn't create everything by evolution.

No one argues, that evolution disproves God (and, by the way, evolution has been observed. Ever heard of antibiotics-ressistant bacteria? Thats what happens when some bacteria survive the Use of antibiotics and evolve to endure higher amounts of them) . The only ones, that feel that it either has to be evolution or creation are the ones, who desperatly want to believe, that the six-day-creation-story is the literal truth.

If some of our greatest scientists have been catholic or catholic priests and they believe in a universal creator why don't you?

Thats what is called "Argument from Authority". It is often misused as a form of logical fallacy, for example in this case.

4. Why don't atheists believe that a man named Jesus lived? I understand why an atheist would not believe that Jesus was the son of God but I am curious to know why many of you say that Jesus is a myth or never lived. First I would like to start with the bible. I know the bible is not 100% fact. What I am getting at is that the bible was all written as separate books before is was all put together as one book so why would four different people. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John write four separate books about their lives with Jesus if he never lived. And why would the apostles go out and spread the message of Jesus and start a church based on his teachings if he never lived. All of this can be found in the book of Acts another book written separately by Paul and other apostles. Also Jesus has been written about outside of the bible. http://carm.org/non-biblical-accounts-new-testament-events-andor-peopl e Why is it that people have no problem believing that historical figures like Plato, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, King George III, lived but when it comes to Jesus, suddenly a different standard is offered. Even though the historical evidence for Plato and Aristotle is in written form and people have no problem with that when it comes to the same standard for Jesus, many people won’t accept it. Why the double standard?

I think you are mixing up something. There certainly where a lot of men whose names where "Jesus" (or, more exactly, "Yeshua", the name that was turned by a lot of language drift and translations into "jesus"), the name wasn't that seldom around that time around that place. I'm pretty sure, that at least on of these actually turned preacher. Did this Jesus preached everything nowadays ascribed to THE Jesus? Maybe, maybe sermons from other preachers around then and there where merged with the ones of this Jesus. Did this Jesus performed miracles (including this resurection story)? Rather doubtfull without further proof.

5. Lastly I would like to address some terms I have heard atheists use that make no sense to me so please explain. 1. "They believe in a talking dead guy" God is a spiritual being who has never lived a physical life so therefore he has never died. And if they mean Jesus Yes, we do believe in a ‘guy’ that died. No, in the 3 days he was dead, his body did not produce any speech however after he rose from the dead, he spoke. So who is the talking dead guy that we believe in? 2. "Magical sky daddy" those of us who believe in a universal creator don't believe God has any magical powers or that God lives in the sky. We believe that the spiritual plane that God exists in is in a whole other dimension.

Thats just dismisal terms used to mock. I don't use them, since I usually don't mock my opponents.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

1. I'm not exactly an atheist, but an agnostic. You cannot demonstrate the non existence of anything, you only can prove the existence. So, I have no evidence about the existence of the God that, Christians, Muslims, and Jewish believe. Also, I cannot assure it does not exist. But I don't ussualy thinks he exists. The same way I don't think Mr Spock exists.

2. The effort of convincing other people of the non existence is a terrible heritage from christianism. Christianis has good and bad things. The worst is its missional, evangelistic side. I see that effor in convincing as part of a disrepectfull atittude. If you believe... enjoy it. I you want to discuss it, I'd love it. But I'm not going to try to convince you.

3. I just don't see the necessity of a Creator. It's an unnecesary hipotesis. Laplace said it. But I think that it may exist one or several gods and they can be "created", and no "creators". So, believing or disbeliving in "creation" doesn't resolve the equation of god's existence or non existence.

4. I think there is enough evidence to say tha Jesus exists. But I don't think that much more could be said. I tend to think in him (not Him) as a man, as a religious teacher. Not more, not less. Of course, all about a divine conception or a rebirth from the grave... that's just nonesense.

5. 1. I never told anyone he believes in a dead guy talk. I believe christians believe in a tradition tha comes far form behind, from the Sumerians as first written origin, and from Egypt in many aspects. The literature evolved and create a story around the historical Jesus, and all the "supernatural" aspects that are absolutely unbelievable. I think christians believe in that literature.

5.2. "Magical sky daddy" is an unrespectful way to refer to the people who believes. Respect is the most important thing in human relations, whether you believe or no in god, respect is the basic thing to talk to other humans. Such being said, thar "spiritual plane" ¿what is that?. Thar , again, sounds as literature to me. Plato's like literatrue.

6. I want to add something. I don't believe in Chistians God, but I was raised as christian, and later on I study... a lot about religions. Many religions. Religions are an importan part of life and cultures. They produce emotional satisfacion. And it's important that satisfaction. I don't evaluate religions in terms of truth, but in terms of satisfaction.
Personally, I like atheist religions, as buddhism and taoism, but I see with simpathy the sincretic religions evolved in brasil from yoruba's beliefs, ussually called "Umbanda". I also see with simpathy the Unitarian Universalism: a group that says religion is more imporrtant than if you believe or not in god... have won a piece of my heart too.

I hope my english is not so rusty to make me hardly comprehensible.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

I won't follow the format that most of atheist/agnostics used to answer you.
I'll just write some random stuff. And I won't even spell check! Ha!

Why are you Christian? Only because of place of your birth and your upbringing I presume?
Why so close minded?
Why not Mormon or Muslim or Great JuJu of the Mountain Worshiper.

I sometimes joke that I am Pastafarian, but in truth, it's unfair to all noodly deliciousness.

I am open to every idea if it has merit, sure it would be great to have custom version of afterlife (and cherry picked religion - like you do), hell, gimme multiverse of afterlives, like levels on Donkey Kong. But, it ain't ringin' true brah.

You know what does?
Science. Maths, Physics. And best part?

They are not so astoundingly close minded and arrogant to presume to have all the answers.

Science isn't afraid to say - "We don't know" (But, hey we are damn sure proud to say we're working on it).
Science Works!

You remind me of my wife with your own version of custom cherry picked religion. We often argue about that, she can't accept that I believe that it's most likely that death is the end. i am not saying i am wanting it to be an end, I'd love to have astral body and will'o'wisp style zap around the universe. It would take me loooooots of time to get bored, and hell if I can continue to evolve, I would be god like one day. Where do I sign up? Oh wait, Mormons already have monopoly on that, and I don't feel like giving 10% of cash I don't have to nerds in magic underwear.
And I prefer Boxers anyway. They be chillin me nuts magically! I swearz!!11twelve

Someone will probably attack me for mocking religion. I say, WHY THE HELL NOT?
Question Everything - Mock Everything that is retarded.

Just remembered that website http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/ - sure give's you hopes to the power of prayer.


Did Jesus exist? Doesn't matter really. Maybe he was The Dude V0.1, Maybe he had some really good ideas, like Douglas Adams said "Just about two thousands years after people nailed a guy to a cross because he said that it would be cool if we were nice to each other....(I'm paraphrasing)... Doesn't really matter, there is no real evidence for any of extraoirdinary claims, heck outside of bible there are like 2 or 3 (beside fakes) mentions of jeebus. And most of them are one-two sentences at best and they usually refer to christos - which means the Annointed one.

Take Islam for example, they are currently living in Dark Age, just like Christians did before Renaissance. I tell ya, if there wasn't oppression of free thought during the dark ages (in Christianity, and also in Islam, tho they had their 300ish year renesaince and still we use arab numerals, most of the stars have arab names, most of the work of ancients philosphers was saved thanks to arab/islam golden age, just prior to fundamentalism.

I tell ya my good, but deluded chap. If it wasn't for Dark Ages (and they didn't called it that wa because it was dark). We would probably have already colonized at least half Solar system.

The amount of crazy that religions of the world poured on poor people oer generations is astonishing.

To be honest, religion doesn't scare me much as Organized Religion does. Now that is some evil shizznit.

Cba typing any more, just wanted to find something to watch after 15+ hours of work (deadlines are a b..err Mother Theresa)

Just one more thing.

Most pathetic thing I read here was pascal's wager, why don't you join at least half a dozen religions, you got more chances that way.

Man I miss Hitch. Wish afterlife were real, just so I could hear him being awesome again. Carlin too!

Burp!

reply share

add reply

formatting help

First of all some basic knowledge. Religion appeared from IGNORANCE which was a good excuse for those times (stone age/middle age etc). Now we are in 21st century. In my opinion religion/church is the only REAL anomaly in a NORMAL world, the today one. Einstein said that god exist only in the mind of those people stupid enough to believe that. I agree with him totally, no offense. I don't even bother to ask the rest of your questions, there is no point in it.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

I'm afraid there is some confusion and inaccuracy in your arguments...

1 Atheism is not having a closed mind. It's simply not believing in deities.
Probability leans towards there being more than just us in the universe and there is no evidence for or against existence after death. However, the void left by lack of knowledge and evidence in such matters should be filled with rational conclusion through theory, investigation and proof. Religion, however, is speculation, belief and dogma which by it's very nature is always unprovable, irrational and immutable. To fill this void in awareness of the universe with such inward looking and constricting philosophy, is the anathema of ignorance.

2 What you pick up from Atheists as "bashing" is perhaps frustration or incomprehension at how a person can believe something that is so irrational and probably a little fear as to how they are likely to behave or react. If history shows anything it's that Religion is intolerant towards other ideas and those that hold them. Of course what you see happening in the world today in the name of religion is enough to make anyone question it's place in world. You experience is perhaps a reflection of the negative characteristics of religion.

3 A theory is based on proof. With a sceptical approach, if the proof cannot be replicated, the theory is abandoned and replaced by another one that fits the facts better. Evolution is such a theory. People may choose to believe in evolution, in that they don't follow the facts and logical constructs on which the theory is based to determine if the theory is correct, but that is their choice. However, others choose to examine the facts, reproduce experiment and verify conclusion to prove the theory. That is not belief, that is knowledge. Intentionally confusing the two to support the religious argument is a common ploy and is disingenuous.

The existence of a universal creator or God is not supported by facts or logical constructs and cannot be proven. It cannot therefore be considered knowledge and will remain as belief until facts arise to support it. Books in themselves are not facts and neither are the words they contain and so in themselves they are worthless and can only refer to facts or artefacts that can be examined in the universe. The Bible, Koran and other such religious texts are therefore worthless for the purposes of gaining such understanding and knowledge.

4 Again I think your missing the point about Atheists. It's likely that most don't care if Jesus existed. Also asking why four men wrote books about a person does not prove he/she existed. Lets face it, a great story is a great story and if by telling it, they can make a living or gain influence over others, then there are portentially two reasons they wrote their books. If their books refer to evidence or are themselves supported by independent sources then perhaps the existence of a person named Jesus could be asserted. However if such evidence exist, recent studies suggest that some stories of Jesus are based on other stories such as Horus or Mithras. That's not to say that a person named Jesus did not exist, merely that the stories that built up around him could have been based on previous death-resurrection and other myths.

5 The pejorative phrases you refer to and allege are Atheist in origin, when directed at you are simply intended to invoke an emotional response, but I assume you already know this and are simply using this section as an excuse to state your beliefs.

The bottom line here is that people choose to believe whatever they want. You or I have little influence over that. My hope is that gradually the Human Race will come to rely more and more on reason and knowledge and less on superstition and ignorance. My belief is that this is necessary for our long term survival. I also believe that for this to happen Religion needs to be left in the past where it belongs.

PS I'm not an Atheist, I'm an Agnostic.

Regards

reply share

add reply

formatting help

Theists get on my nerves too, but some atheists commenting here must have a death wish. I would never blatantly disrespect a theist, not even on the internet, because I know these are the people who are cuckoo enough to track you down and slay you in cold blood in an attempt to prove their point by sending you to an afterlife where you burn eternally in hell, and they won't even feel remorse because they think they'll be rewarded at the gates of heaven for carrying out god's work and destroying an atheist demon.

Stay safe and lock your doors my fellow atheists.

reply share

add reply

formatting help

this is not about Believers and Atheists

this is about those who don't think (Believers) and all the others who do think

reply share

add reply

formatting help