If it gives meaning and governance to their lives then good. You know what's scarier than religion? The notion that the only thing stopping many people from acting like total barbarians to each other is the belief that god is watching them.

I'm an atheist, but I think Afro has mentioned this before but the average punter is partaking in Pascal's Wager:

It posits that humans all bet with their lives either that God exists or does not exist. Given the possibility that God actually does exist and assuming the infinite gain or loss associated with belief in God or with unbelief, a rational person should live as though God exists and seek to believe in God. If God does not actually exist, such a person will have only a finite loss (some pleasures, luxury, etc.).

Too many people are happy to live an believe in God for fear of the afterlife.

By the same token, if God's love is truly unconditional then it shouldn't matter if you believe in him or not.

For me atheism is the same as a religious belief in God but on the flip side. How can one know with certainty that there is not higher power that connects everything in this universe? You cant. Being an Athiest is just as narrow minded as being a religious person. Be a good person and live your life and keep an open mind.

Firstly it's atheist, no capital.

secondly, it is not that I am not open to the possibility, but that I require evidence, proof if you will, blind faith is not enough.

from the ancient religions grew Judaism, from that Christianity and from that Islam (not the country) all picking and choosing what they needed from the ancients to get the people to follow them. show me proof of the one true god and I'll join you next Sunday for communion and mass. But until then, I'll still be an atheist.

But...WHAT IF THE NORSE WERE RIGHT?!

Ahhh the age old question. Love it.

I don't go to church and I'm not a dogmatic follower of any religion. I think you missed the point. An atheist does not believe in any type/version/form of God. The door is closed on that subject. So to keep an open mind means you are not atheist.

If you get past the guy with the beard in the sky image and view it more as an ultimate power source that connects everything there is some merit to that theory. I don't believe it as absolute truth, but I'm open to the possibilities.

Listening to Amon Amarth is a great way to learn about it :lol:

Choosing not to believe in something due to lack of evidence is equal to believing the rehashed scriptures about people who lived over a millennium ago?

But God needs your love Afro, he craves it. That and he takes pleasure in making innocent people suffer to teach others a lesson. What a champ!

Being an Atheist doesn't mean that you are certain that god doesn't exist. That would be a "gnostic atheist" or in laymans terms a stupid atheist. Where as the vast majority of atheists with a working cerebral cortex are agnostic.
The word atheist meaning to rule out the possibility of a god is a myth created by religious people.

I'm an agnostic atheist, and therefore to me a creator of the universe as it was 13.8 billion years ago sounds like a perfectly reasonable possibility.
But to me there's also no more chance of Christianity or Islam being true than Scientology or the Spaggetti monster.
All clearly made up to control people and fulfil their desire to understand the universe or in many cases to feel comfort in death.



True but there's better philosophy available to live your life by than religion.
It is important for people to live by some kind of philosophy though because it gives them direction and a sense of who they are which is very important for the self esteem.

Edited by neanderthal: 4/11/2013 04:34:15 PM

uggh... now I have to answer this.

No. All I am stating is that having an OPEN MIND means you are not an atheist. ;)

It worries me that so many people created a homophobic-sadist-murderer to assist with their self esteem :-s

I'm open minded but a non-theist :-s I will entertain the possibility of spirituality when something convincing can be presented reasonably to me.

I think I covered above why this is utter nonsense.


You are an atheist. These guy's just don't know the different between a gnostic and agnostic atheist. I feel a little bit embarrassed for them.

You've missed the point entirely. The only thing stopping these people from committing heinous crimes is the idea that they're being constantly watched by an all-powerful and judgemental deity. If that's what it takes, good.

There are plenty of other more rational philosophies to live by, but these people clearly aren't rational if a deity is the ONLY thing that stops them from committing murder.

Personally I don't like labeling myself anything for that matter. If people ask me I just say I'm open minded to new ideas but I know what I don't believe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheism Read the first sentence.

I'm not here to argue semantics. Broad sense, no God never was.

Edited by leftrightout: 4/11/2013 04:55:29 PM

Hah okay. But I think they generally just use the murder thing for arguments sake. I'm pretty sure we could have a functioning society with something other than fear of a God stopping them.

I may be wrong, but I think Christians believe in the trinity. Jews and Muslims are probably more similar in terms of their believing in one god and so on.

Most Christian religions believe in the trinity but not all. This was the reason this thread was resurrected.

The trinity is still god though, so they believe in the same god.

This is my god:cool:

[youtube]lrvGbRpvTQY[/youtube]

Yes it is correct that I do not believe in god, it doesn't mean I won't believe in one if shown proof of ones or many's existence. I don't believe in string theory either but research may prove right and therefore I will believe!

I wish we knew more on pre-roman Briton religion(being of british heritage)

That doesn't seem to contradict what I said.
I think you may have misread it as "Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of...existence of deities". Entirely different. Poorly worded actually.

Yes all atheist's including myself "reject belief in a deity". That doesn't mean we rule out the possibility of one. It just means we choose not to believe in any.
The narrower atheist it refers to who is the gnostic atheist. A rare creature.


The fact is that most people who call themselves atheists do not reject the possibility of a creator.
It's a big straw man argument that religious people talk about in their little circles while ignorant to what most atheists actually think.

Edited by neanderthal: 4/11/2013 05:21:40 PM

I concede - but people should be more specific when claiming they are an atheist.

Though this was a good quote from that page which reaffirms why I don't like labeling myself...

In fact, "atheism" is a term that should not even exist. No one ever needs to identify himself as a "non-astrologer" or a "non-alchemist." We do not have words for people who doubt that Elvis is still alive or that aliens have traversed the galaxy only to molest ranchers and their cattle. Atheism is nothing more than the noises reasonable people make in the presence of unjustified religious beliefs.

And funny enough that was Sam Harris who was on Joe Rogans Podcast last week.



Edited by leftrightout: 4/11/2013 05:29:27 PM

Your god was raped by a horse, impregnated and gave birth to Odin's 8-legged Steed.

If it takes the threat of an all powerful being to stop them from committing murder, I don't think much else will cut the mustard.

Christadelphian checking in here, there are quite a few verses in the Bible which show that the trinity isn't from the Bible itself.

Probably the best verse to show the difference between God and the son of God is 1 Timothy 2:5.
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"

Thought I'd chip in with a bit of explanation of why we don't believe in the trinity. There are a couple of other verses as well which I could look up if people were interested enough.

this thread has turned into a huge crapstorm of opinions...


but anyway, no "study" can convince me that either side is smarter. However I am an atheist, and I still acknowledge that there could have easily been a man called "jesus christ", but I do not believe in there being any sort of god/deity that is open to having people die in his name, or supposedly "loving all", but hating anyone that does not believe in them, or homosexual.

And how does conforming to a broad sweeping statement about something you clearly have no understanding of rank in your intelligence scale?