why are you an atheist?

Originally posted by Wesker
Atheism is just as presumptuous as being completely religious...

Which is why--when all is said and done--I try to take a practical approach (leaving aside, for the moment, what is meant by "God"😉...
1. If you're an atheist and you're right, you'll never know it 🙁
2. If you're a believer and you're wrong, you'll never know it 🙂
3. If you're an atheist and you're wrong, you'll know it 🙁
4. If you're a believer and you're right, you'll know it 🙂

Originally posted by Mindship
Which is why--when all is said and done--I try to take a practical approach (leaving aside, for the moment, what is meant by "God"😉...
1. If you're an atheist and you're right, you'll never know it 🙁
2. If you're a believer and you're wrong, you'll never know it 🙂
3. If you're an atheist and you're wrong, you'll know it 🙁
4. If you're a believer and you're right, you'll know it 🙂

So now just point us in the direction of the right religion out of the hundreds of thousands that exist and everyone will be happy.

Pascal's Wager wasn't convincing when it was firrst developed hundreds of years ago. It has not become any more convincing in the interim.

And MC Mike, you're being far too optimistic. Since there's no guarantee that, should a god exist, any human religion properly understands him, there are not hundreds of thousands, but an infinite number of possible choices.

Originally posted by Mindship
Which is why--when all is said and done--I try to take a practical approach (leaving aside, for the moment, what is meant by "God"😉...
1. If you're an atheist and you're right, you'll never know it 🙁
2. If you're a believer and you're wrong, you'll never know it 🙂
3. If you're an atheist and you're wrong, you'll know it 🙁
4. If you're a believer and you're right, you'll know it 🙂

Also, what the ****? Did you make that up? What the hell does that mean and is it true and why does it matter and how can you say that? That makes no sense.

Originally posted by Mindship
Which is why--when all is said and done--I try to take a practical approach (leaving aside, for the moment, what is meant by "God"😉...
1. If you're an atheist and you're right, you'll never know it 🙁
2. If you're a believer and you're wrong, you'll never know it 🙂
3. If you're an atheist and you're wrong, you'll know it 🙁
4. If you're a believer and you're right, you'll know it 🙂

yours is perhaps the only answer that gives a good reason for believing in relegion outof the wrest{even if it doesnt seem like it ot others} but i guess in the end it comes down to being blissfully ignorant or depressingly aware. i choose the later because i do not run or hide from life, no doubt many choose the former and its definately an easier choice{unless your so happy/high in life that you neither care nor think about the future} but for me, i can not see myself as week enough to hide from facts. and if i may say so, IF you do believe in what you have written then doesnt it also stand that in your gut you know that relegion isnt true and the only reason your going to follow it is for personal peace of mind and satisfaction.

Originally posted by Gregory
And MC Mike, you're being far too optimistic. Since there's no guarantee that, should a god exist, any human religion properly understands him, there are not hundreds of thousands, but an infinite number of possible choices.

I think you just answered the thread question. Religion is bullshit.

Originally posted by MC Mike
I think you just answered the thread question. Religion is bullshit.

Religion is a natural evolutionary development that can help stabilize a culture. It is the people who screw everything up.

Originally posted by MC Mike
I think you just answered the thread question. Religion is bullshit.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
That is why I call Atheism a religion.

Gregory: Pascal was a die-hard believer, so his position was, If you don't believe and you're wrong, you lose everything. It was something of a scare tactic. My position is neutral (I dont know if there is a God) and takes a pragmatic stance: ie, which map of reality (God/no God) gives the most practical benefits while alive? Since atheism is still a belief (if by default), I choose to "believe in a God" because 1) it provides a larger explanatory framework from which to understand the universe; and 2) it provides a tremendous resource for hope, healing and comfort in times of loss and suffering. Am I fooling myself? Perhaps, but you and I will never know for sure while on this Earth (and perhaps never). I could say to an atheist, with equal justification, that he/she is fooling themselves as well.

xyz: What I'm saying is, I might as well believe because I have nothing to lose.

MC: Right religion? My feeling is this: Nothing makes God happier than when we are nice to each other. Whichever faith(s) follows that is/are the right one(s) (again, religion is not to be confused with religionism).

leonhart: As I mentioned above, I choose my path because it seems to me to offer the most practical benefits. For what it's worth, I see myself as 50.5% believer, 49.5% skeptic, the deciding factor being pragmatic

Originally posted by HiddenPotential
Its mind boggling to me, so why?

Because some people wouldn't believe anything even if it hit them in the face. lol.

Once upon a time there was an almost-extinct fish from the dinosaur ages, us humans thought it had died out, but recently we found it was still alive and even though it had almost died out it hadn't 'evolved' atall.

Originally posted by Storm
Which is a misconception.

Do you read anything I post? 😕 You can disagree, but to put it that way, is to disregard.

To not believe takes a leap of faith.

Do you have blind faith in Atheism not being a religion?

As a matter of fact, I have.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Religion is a natural evolutionary development that can help stabilize a culture. It is the people who screw everything up.

Well said. I believe as soon as humans became conscious of life and death we had to know more about where we came from.

I don't think we will be able to comprehend life in it's entirety untill....well maybe untill we start working and talking together instead of violently fighting and verbally abusing one another over our differences.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Do you read anything I post? 😕 You can disagree, but to put it that way, is to disregard.

To not believe takes a leap of faith.

Do you have blind faith in Atheism not being a religion?

>ouch< Sharp.

Acceptance too. You need acceptance...

Originally posted by Storm
As a matter of fact, I have.

Sorry, didn't mean to be so pointed. blow
It's one of those days again.crazy

Originally posted by leonheartmm
yours is perhaps the only answer that gives a good reason for believing in relegion outof the wrest{even if it doesnt seem like it ot others} but i guess in the end it comes down to being blissfully ignorant or depressingly aware. i choose the later because i do not run or hide from life, no doubt many choose the former and its definately an easier choice{unless your so happy/high in life that you neither care nor think about the future} but for me, i can not see myself as week enough to hide from facts. and if i may say so, IF you do believe in what you have written then doesnt it also stand that in your gut you know that relegion isnt true and the only reason your going to follow it is for personal peace of mind and satisfaction.

I was rushing before. Now I can address what you're saying a little more thoroughly.
I would not agree that those who believe are running or hiding (though I Would agree that people Can use belief-in-God to do so). There is even a psychological perspective which would say that atheism stems from (among other things) arrogance of the ego. That is, the ego is subconsciously threatened by the possible existence of a Superior Consciousness. Thus, egoistic security lies in believeing there is no God, in believing that it -- Ego -- is top dog (and who doesn't wanna be top dog?).

Regardless, my position is this (and I'm talking about "God," not religion).
1. I Don't Know (whether or not there is a God).
2. No One Knows.
3. Because of 1 and 2, I can Not make a decision based on fact. However, I can make a decision based on benefit/advantage.
4. I choose to believe because of the practical advantages (not "truth"😉 mentioned in my prior post.

Also, unlike Pascal, I am not trying to convince or convert others (as he was). I am merely examining the options available to me. Period.

As far as "religion" goes...as I see it, religion is just a system for defining a relationship between Man and God, this of course largely depending on what you mean by "God." And what one means by "God" is, IMO, the crux of whether or not to believe. If you do believe, then religion is just the thought system which bridges the gap.

Again, I'm talking religion, not religionism.

As Gregory already said, Pascal' s Wager isn' t free from problems.

thats all well and good, but the "i dont know if ther ISNT a god just doesnt cut it" take into consideration probability. how probable is it that there is sumthing out there, mystic in nature etc? very probable. how probable is it that this entity/existance thinks in a way that humans can comprehend, justifies itself through HUMAN reasoning, has to speak to humans, has CREATED humans in its own image, loves humans for no reason{love and creation are both HUMAN CONCEPTS}, CREATED the world in DAYS/TIME{more human concepts}, made the universe FOR humans that it itself created AFTER the universe, put the universe into such physical laws and circumstances that its own existance can be denied by humans, had a SON that it sacrificed FOR humans. made a heaven and hell FOR HUMANS, {giving, taking, punishing, rewarding, the types of rewards, the types of punishments are all HUMANS CONCEPTS}, and all the other evidence's against god's existance. how probable is it that this entity/being whatever is a CHRISTIAN/MUSLIM/RELEGIOS "GOD". not probable at ALL, the probability for THAT is non existant, so yes you can say that you cant disprove the existance of sumthing OUT THERE, but you CAN disprove the existance of a RELEGIOUS god. and we can see that the only reason a RELEGIOUS god is like that is because HUMANS MADE IT and their obvious self centred nature was shown in it and its very HUMAN limitations and characteristics and giving HUMANS such a high rank and priority in the grand scheme of things.