Belief System

L.Jenkins

As an Athesist, do you have a belief system? Personally, I've become incredibly disillusioned by Catholism and not because of the increase in scandel surrounding child abuse.

I feel that the church has completely ruined religion for me with what I feel is seriously oppressive views. I don't speak of modern day Catholism and the Church, but I refer to the past and their stance on every aspect of human nature including sexuality and family life.

As for my view on religion, the bible can be useful but not true guide to how one should life their life. One can only determine how best to live their lives through each circumstance that presents itself.

Now personally, I believe that one should live for the moment and seize each oppurtunity as it arises as along as it is not contradictory to ones commitments and obligations to friends and family. I do believe in the 10 commandments, they're a given, and the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". I simply haven taken from the bible what I need and put my own spin on what I've read so that I can live a life suited to being a law abiding citizen and self improvement and fullfilment. And thats as far as it goes.

sink

Atheism is simply the lack of belief in deities and as such has no beliefs which could comprise a belief system. However there are numerous atheistic philosophies Humanism being the most common.

strobe

Basically my entire belief system is "coercion is undesirable". It's that simple. If I need to give an example......Don't push people over unless they are trying to push you or someone else over. It works. I've yet to hear anyone put forward a convincing rebuttal of it. If anyone ever does I will change my beliefs accordingly. Nothing I believe is carved in stone. I work on the presumption I might be completely wrong about everything.

mikhail

I don't think anyone really sits down, works though a completely consistent belief system and applies it consistently from there on. Some people try to adopt a well known one, but I think your existing belief inevitably colour this.

I work on a hodge-podge of Catholic morality ingrained in me as a child and a much more liberal philosophy I've assembled as I went along, and occasionally I stress test this in a debate, usually on the internet. I try to be somewhat introspective about what I believe, and it holds up more often than not.

Dades

There is no atheistic belief system. An atheist doesn't adhere to any written, or universal moral code.

Religion is a set of rules as determined by someone else. Most religious take what they will and discard the rest. The same goes for atheists, only they don't credit religion for the social responsibility they do take.

There's some obvious social responsibilities in the ten commandments, but it's interesting to note which ones come first on the list...

1. You shall have no other Gods but me.
2. You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it.
3. You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God.
4. You shall remember and keep the Sabbath day holy.

The priority is a little, well, insecure, no?

Most atheists would probably have put the "shalt no kill" one as number one.

strobe

sink wrote: »

Atheism is simply the lack of belief in deities and as such has no beliefs which could comprise a belief system. However there are numerous atheistic philosophies Humanism being the most common.

Dades wrote: »

There is no atheistic belief system. An atheist doesn't adhere to any written, or universal moral code.

I don't think the OP was asking "do atheists have a belief system?". It was more, "you obviously don't have a religious belief system, but do you individually have a non-religious one?".





(Could be wrong, frequently am.)

Pygmalion

ItsThatManAgain wrote: »

I do believe in the 10 commandments, they're a given, and the golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you". I simply haven taken from the bible what I need and put my own spin on what I've read so that I can live a life suited to being a law abiding citizen and self improvement and fullfilment. And thats as far as it goes.

That's good, although only 7 of the 10 commandments apply if you don't believe in a God :P.

My belief system consists of "Don't be a dick".
It's simple, only 4 words long, and basically works as well as any set of commandments can.
Humanity developed a sense of right and wrong and the ability to feel shame, empathy, pride and the like for a very good reason, and I'd say 99% of people do fine relying on these alone. The other 1% are assholes with or without religion.

The problem, IMO, is when you get otherwise nice people who end up going against their instinct and acting in bad ways because of religion.

mikhail

Pygmalion wrote: »

My belief system consists of "Don't be a dick".

Your concept of dickishness is strongly informed by your culture.

Here's a terrible example from dating (I wanted to pick something trite). Some women expect you to hold doors for them, take their coat, and so on. Others find this behaviour to be patronising and old-fashioned. Now, I'd argue that both groups are being dickish, but then they'd argue that the guys they're criticising are being dicks.

Dades

strobe wrote: »

I don't think the OP was asking "do atheists have a belief system?". It was more, "you obviously don't have a religious belief system, but do you individually have a non-religious one?

Short of Humanism, what non-religious belief systems are there?
We're talking systems, here, not Golden Rule and whatnot?

Even the term "belief system" implies that there is a system that you believe to be 'right', when in reality we know 'right' to be completely subjective.

Mickeroo

mikhail wrote: »

Your concept of dickishness is strongly informed by your culture.

Here's a terrible example from dating (I wanted to pick something trite). Some women expect you to hold doors for them, take their coat, and so on. Others find this behaviour to be patronising and old-fashioned. Now, I'd argue that both groups are being dickish, but then they'd argue that the guys they're criticising are being dicks.

No it's definitley the women in the wrong there. Am I right fellas?

strobe

Dades wrote: »

Short of Humanism, what non-religious belief systems are there?
We're talking systems, here, not Golden Rule and whatnot?

Even the term "belief system" implies that there is a system that you believe to be 'right', when in reality we know 'right' to be completely subjective.

"Right" is subjective. But that doesn't mean you can't have a selction of seperate things you believe are right at a given time. This group of things you believe are "right", as long as they don't contradict each other are a belief system. As long as they are interrelated interacting artifacts that work as a coherent grouping they would be called a system. You also at the time of asking believe in them. Hence, they are a belief system.


But this is really just games with words. It takes an awful lot of effort for me to be even slightly coherent in just basic English, so for my part I'll leave it there.

Pygmalion

mikhail wrote: »

Your concept of dickishness is strongly informed by your culture.

Here's a terrible example from dating (I wanted to pick something trite). Some women expect you to hold doors for them, take their coat, and so on. Others find this behaviour to be patronising and old-fashioned. Now, I'd argue that both groups are being dickish, but then they'd argue that the guys they're criticising are being dicks.

It is indeed informed by culture, but in general you'll find most people agree on the basics, that killing people is a dick move, as is stealing from them, beating them up for no reason and raping them (not matter what order you do it in).

If you're ever in a situation where you genuinely don't know whether a certain action will be considered good or bad it's probably not that important and/or too personal to be covered by any kind of general belief system.

Also, do women really get angry over men holding a door for them?
I hold doors for everyone, including strangers and people I don't like, if there are genuinely women who think it's being patronising and old fashioned I'd say they're the ones being dickish :P.

nozzferrahhtoo

ItsThatManAgain wrote: »

As an Athesist, do you have a belief system?

„As an atheist“ I do or have nothing. I rarely, if ever, use this term let alone to describe myself.

What I have is a belief system about the word, a very simple one, that leads OTHER people to call me “atheist”. It basically goes like this:

“If an idea or premise arrives before us devoid of any argument, data, evidence or reason to lend it even a modicum of credence, then we must proceed without that premise entirely until such time as it does”.

Simple is it not?

Now consequently… GIVEN that there is not a shred of even a scrap of evidence, argument, data, or reasons on offer to lend a modicum of credence to the existence of a non-human intelligence responsible for the creation and subsequent maintenance of our universe… I proceed without that notion.

This leads other people to label me as “Atheist” which to me is their way of labeling me as “Not one of us” as this is the only reason I can think of for labeling someone by what they are NOT rather than by what they are.

Beruthiel

ItsThatManAgain wrote: »

As an Athesist, do you have a belief system?

Nope. Isn't that the point of being an atheist?

Now personally, I believe that one should live for the moment and seize each oppurtunity as it arises as along as it is not contradictory to ones commitments and obligations to friends and family.

I believe the same.
You don't need religion to lead a good and happy life.

ShooterSF

No one system but I do set myself some standards to try and adhere to. First again would be the general don't be a dick rule and don't oppress as long as their actions harm no one (excluding themselves which is fair game). Second is to never take life too serious and never "grow up". Third ,and this one is pretty tough and has led to some lenghty inner dialogue about christmas and paedophiles who use pictures or the likes to stop themselves from acting on their "natural" instincts, is don't be a hypocrite.

The great thing about a personal set of beliefs (for want of a better phrase) as an atheist is they are open to debate and correction and subsequent evolution ;D

Ickle Magoo

No belief system, more of a play it by ear system which is liable to change according to circumstance.

My general aim is not to cause pain, to fight for equality and help where I can - the details are decided on a need to know basis.

CerebralCortex

I'm both an atheist and a transhumanist.

pH

ItsThatManAgain wrote: »

I do believe in the 10 commandments, they're a given,

It's amazing how many people say that, and yet can't list them when asked, could you? (without looking them up)? You believe in not doing anything on a Sunday, and only having one God forsaking all others? Really?

. I simply haven taken from the bible what I need and put my own spin on what I've read so that I can live a life suited to being a law abiding citizen and self improvement and fullfilment. And thats as far as it goes.

This many people argue is illogical. You either take the entire bible as a source of your morality, or as you describe, you take bits of it. However, the very act of taking bits means you *already* have some means of choosing one rule or passage over another, you already have your rules and morality, and finding those in the bible that you agree with doesn't mean the bible is anything special, a source of morality, or as you say you've "taken from it".

sensibleken

I would say I have a belief system all right. Im veggie, try my hardest not to buy anything that uses explotative labour. treat others with respect etc. my main guiding principle would be dont do un neccesary harm. no god involved but i do have to answer to the law, my peers and myself. much tougher critics than your man with the beard