why are you an atheist?

well, I choose to believe in Jesus because he died for the well being of mankind.
With his death the brought mercy, forgivness, and love into the world (all things that we take for granted everyday).
It was such an impact, that the church lives on today

Reguardless of religion, I dont see how people choose to believe that human existance is just happenstance and has no purpose.

I mean when you walk outside and know that you have freedom to do anything and your surrounded with this chance world, it dosent seem like a beautiful gift to you.

You guys sound like zombies.
If i thought like that I would never get out of bed.

i tend to reply to all philosophical arguments from the point of view of a nihilist so here is my reply-
"f*ck you!!! that's why!!!!"
this is a valid argument because the tenents of nihilism are that reality is a state of mind and therefore morality, reason, and order are obsolete.

Originally posted by Syren
Age/experience theory. Simple really, but I did think that agnostic became atheist as experience grew.

Heh, I must've skipped the agnostic waiting period and gone straight to atheism. 😛

And HP, it think you've got the wrong idea about atheists in general. Of course life is a beautiful thing! And so is personal freedom. It's just that personally I don't believe there is any divine or universal purpose to it all.

If you dont believe in anything, where do you found your basic moral reasoning?

Common knowledge and personal experience I suppose. Empathy has a lot to do with it too, the ability to put yourself in another persons shoes.

Yeah but you pick and choose without any real instruction, whos to say whats right and wrong... really I mean who cares is theres no point to life. I mean it sounds to me like thats weak atheism.

Whats your self appointed reason for living?

Why do you need someone to tell you what to do? Why do you need an artificial reason for being?

Yeah but you pick and choose without any real instruction, whos to say whats right and wrong...

The very definition of personal freedom...

Have you ever heard the saying 'man is a useless passion'? An idea of the famous existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre. Basically he meant that the problem with man is that we want to be free. We want to live our lives and make choices as we see fit. But at the same time we want guidelines to follow, someone or something to approve of what we're doing. We want to make our own path in life but at the same time we want a set path to follow, approved by our peers or god/s.

I don't understand what you mean by weak atheism.

And my self appointed reason for living would be to just be happy without negativly impacting on other people's lives.

If you dont believe in anything, where do you found your basic moral reasoning?

Whats your self appointed reason for living?

I find it interesting that a person can't make their own decisions....

guess thats what its like to be more like a drone

That's what people who are caught in religious dogma or who otherwise don't think for themselves remind me of......

Originally posted by WhiteEagle
Heh, I must've skipped the agnostic waiting period and gone straight to atheism. 😛

And HP, it think you've got the wrong idea about atheists in general. Of course life is a beautiful thing! And so is personal freedom. It's just that personally I don't believe there is any divine or universal purpose to it all.

Then I must have done the same. Except whilst thinking I was atheist, it wasn't until I had experienced life much more that I truly believed myself to be atheist, and at this point I realised that I was more agnostic beforehand 😄 And that makes no sense.

Originally posted by Cipher
I find it interesting that a person can't make their own decisions....

Does the idea of fate tie in at this point?

Originally posted by HiddenPotential
If you dont believe in anything, where do you found your basic moral reasoning?

We just discussed this in my philosophy class (ethics)...and many people's morals do NOT come from religion. It seems that many religious people only follow moral reasoning because they think that if they don't they'll go to hell -- it's out of fear. However, an atheist has no such worries, so we don't have morals out of fear of what could happen if we don't, it's because we know that there's some things you simply shouldn't do and some things that you should do.

I find it interesting that a person can't make their own decisions....

So you're a determinist, huh? I guess that means you believe in fate/destiny? I personally like to think that we have free will...(another thing we discussed in philo).

No, no, I wasn't speaking of fate at all....
What I meant was that some people (a lot of people) use someone else's version of right and wrong to make their decisions rather than doing it for themselves. I'm all for free will, too.

I think the basic moral reasoning in religions comes from the people who wrote the stories long ago. Almost everyone has a basic sense of what's right, they just don't always follow it......

Common sense huh...
its all soo weak
It seems to me that atheism is a club for bashing religion, really thats the only time you guys come together.

Really you obviously wouldnt have anything in common with each other cause each of you makes their own rules, if you were following your own version of "common sense" and "Empathy". Cipher said we dont always follow our sense of whats right, and why would an atheist

But whats worse is your all the same religious ethic stealing people we all are, but you claim to hate religion.

so you like to use the ethics and live by them but never acknowledge where they came from. Thats weak.

Except morals and ethics existed BEFORE religion, so they can hardly come from religion, now can they.

Originally posted by Silver Stardust
We just discussed this in my philosophy class (ethics)...and many people's morals do NOT come from religion.

That is absolutely false, there has never been a civilization apart from religion, but I guess since you learned it in school it must be true even if its obviously a lie.

Not everyone follows a religion, where do you think they got their morals from? You don't need a religion to tell you that murdering or stealing is wrong, that's just obvious.

I like how you always say something but never have anything to back it up...I'm taking an ethics class right now in college. So this is the primary thing we discuss. Meaning I daresay I know more about it than you do.