Has anybody ever become an atheist/agnostic as a result of reading this forum ?

achtungbarry

I was just wondering if anybody has become an atheist or agnostic as result of (or partly as a result of) the discussions and arguments they read on this forum.

I am particularly interested to know if there is anybody who used to post arguments from the religious side of the fence and now finds themselves on the atheist/agnostic side of the fence.

Where there any particular arguments or posters that caused you to change your way of thinking?

Dades

We've had drop-ins who have admitted to being lurkers who have now made sense of their beliefs, after reading the forum. That is, default "catholics" who see there is another side to the fence and that it's okay to come out of the closet, as it were.

As for anyone who, say, used to post as a Christian in the other forum, I think definitely no.

Common as...

I believe in a spiritual side to life so I wouldn't consider myself an atheist, but I would say that i'll be ticking option No. 7 (no religion) as opposed to carelessly ticking option No.1 (Roman Catholic) on question No. 12 of the census, as a result of reading this forum.

Penn

I was already an atheist before coming here. The threads and discussions here just keep reinforcing my opinions.

Galvasean

I was atheist when I arrived here. Never see anything that mde me think otherwise. Every thread has me thinking, "Yeah, the atheist position probably is right".

I have noticed several posters in recent memory who said they didn't really believe in the theeory of evolution, only to change their minds from conversing here. It really wasn't so much that they didn't agree with the theory, moreso that they knew sweet buzz all about it / had serious misconceptions as to what it was.
The same can be said for atheism in general. I have seen quite a few ask what an atheist is, only to turn around after a bit and say, "Oh, i think i'm one of them!"

krudler

Barrington wrote: »

I was already an atheist before coming here. The threads and discussions here just keep reinforcing my opinions.

I found it was the "other forum" that reinforced mine.

robindch

Dades wrote: »

As for anyone who, say, used to post as a Christian in the other forum, I think definitely no.

Not yet, but give another year or two of debate, and I think we might have Jakkass's, Jimi's and antiskeptic's beliefs on the run

Galvasean

robindch wrote: »

Not yet, but give another year or two of debate, and I think we might have Jakkass's, Jimi's and antiskeptic's beliefs on the run

They're thinking the very same about you, Dades and Barrington

Dave!

Not to 'out' anybody, but I think panda100 (or whatever the numbers are...) used to be a Christian, and is now very much not.

I was an atheist before I started posting here, but the arguments on boards in general did help me to clarify my beliefs or lack thereof.

Of course that's not just true of religious/spiritual issues; debates in general force you to do a bit of research and form a coherent argument.

philologos

robindch wrote: »

Not yet, but give another year or two of debate, and I think we might have Jakkass's, Jimi's and antiskeptic's beliefs on the run

Perhaps on an April Fools Day morning :pac:

GLaDOS

I've gone from unsure about my beliefs to an atheist in the last few years, this forum was definitely an influence

ShooterSF

Never really believed myself but didn't know of "Atheism" until an older workmate explained it to me. Found this forum not much later and it reinforced my lack of belief and also helped me spot things like circular arguments, causation != correlation etc..

Also strangely enough I have learnt more here about religion than 13 years of catholic school!

pH

robindch wrote: »

Not yet, but give another year or two of debate, and I think we might have Jakkass's, Jimi's and antiskeptic's beliefs on the run

But on the other hand we're pretty close to losing Wicknight. :P

robindch

ShooterSF wrote: »

I have learnt more here about religion than 13 years of catholic school!

Nothing turns people off religion so much as a good working knowledge of it!

Mark Hamill

robindch wrote: »

Nothing turns people off religion so much as a good working knowledge of it!

Its quite like fast food in that respect :pac:.

vampire of kilmainham

achtungbarry wrote: »

I was just wondering if anybody has become an atheist or agnostic as result of (or partly as a result of) the discussions and arguments they read on this forum.

I am particularly interested to know if there is anybody who used to post arguments from the religious side of the fence and now finds themselves on the atheist/agnostic side of the fence.

Where there any particular arguments or posters that caused you to change your way of thinking?

no i make my own decisions about things:p:p

Rev Hellfire

I think only people with polar views typically read forums like these, hence the lack of movement from one camp to another.

Personally can't say I've seen anything either here or there that would sway my views either way.

Turtwig

Can't speak for atheism, but one thing this board this help explain to me was what ID theory as it was being proposed by "scientists" was and that it was bullsh1t.:D (Yeah I actually thought it had some merit at first.:o)

Lawrence1895

I left the Lutheran Church with 14 years of age, since this is legally allowed in Germany.

This happened in 1984, I joined Boards in 2010, so I guess, I was an atheist before I came here

Beruthiel

Mark Hamill wrote: »

Its quite like fast food in that respect :pac:.

Or how sausages are really made.

ShooterSF

Beruthiel wrote: »

Or how sausages are really made.

Don't you dare! *unsubscribes from thread just to be safe*

mmm sausages.

Goduznt Xzst

Due to "The Tigerwolf Effect", it is EXTREMELY unlikely that a proponent of theism would openly admit to changing sides to Atheism.

A lurker may announce that they are now atheist having read this forum, but only if they hadn't defended their right to be wrong in the past.

Unfortunately though, users currently defending theism are in a bit of a pickle. By being theist on an internet forum they lose by default (e.g. God's Law). But if they where to switch to Atheism at any point they would be admitting they where previously wrong and, as stated, the Tigerwolf effect would be invoked, rendering any opinions they may have hence forth open to mockery and disagreement.

strobe

Goduznt Xzst wrote: »

Due to "The Tigerwolf Effect", it is EXTREMELY unlikely that a proponent of theism would openly admit to changing sides to Atheism.

A lurker may announce that they are now atheist having read this forum, but only if they hadn't defended their right to be wrong in the past.

Unfortunately though, users currently defending theism are in a bit of a pickle. By being theist on an internet forum they lose by default (e.g. God's Law). But if they where to switch to Atheism at any point they would be admitting they where previously wrong and, as stated, the Tigerwolf effect would be invoked, rendering any opinions they may have hence forth open to mockery and disagreement.

Gods Law: A variation of Godwin's Law which states that, in a debate, if you are a theist, you lose.





:pac:

Canis Lupus

Jakkass wrote: »

Perhaps on an April Fools Day morning :pac:

You missed what could have been an awesome thread there

Penn

Galvasean wrote: »

They're thinking the very same about you, Dades and Barrington

I have seen some convincing argument for becoming a Jedi

philologos

Canis Lupus wrote: »

You missed what could have been an awesome thread there

Its not too original considering what happened on "The Other Forum" this morning. I read to the first paragraph or two and I suspected that he was trolling, then I took a good look at the time on the post noted it was just at the turn of April 1st :pac:

Well im 15, and ive been atheist for the past 6 months or so. Ive been questioning my beliefs for the past year. This forum made me realise there are many atheists out there and that its not abnormal to be one. It made me accept who i am.

The only thing is, i'm scared of telling my Christian parents, especially my mum. i just don't know how. She wouldn't believe me. She thinks that ireland is a catholic country and thinks that people of other faiths or no faiths should have to put up with Chritianity related everything (e.g schools)
She said to me one day ''you should be happy you're not Muslim'' when i asked her why do we have to go to mass. (i'm forced to go to mass EVERY SUNDAY).
then asked ''when do i get the choice to go to mass or not?'' and she replied ''when you move out!'' and stormed off. I'l be over 19 years old when i go to college. I don't think i can put up going to mass for another 3 and a half years.:(



I like to give my thanks to all posters in the A&A forum. Much appreciated and i'm sure i will receive lots of guidance in the future.

rockbeer

Deleted User wrote: »

''when do i get to choose whether i want to go to mass or not?''

You get to choose whenever you decide to choose You just have to accept the consequences.

Galvasean

Jakkass wrote: »

Its not too original considering what happened on "The Other Forum" this morning. I read to the first paragraph or two and I suspected that he was trolling, then I took a good look at the time on the post noted it was just at the turn of April 1st :pac:

Didn't PDN say he was leaving the faith last April Fools?

rockbeer

rockbeer wrote: »

You get to choose whenever you decide to choose You just have to accept the consequences.

post edited.

AhSureTisGrand

Deleted User wrote: »

The only thing is, i'm scared of telling my Christian parents, especially my mum. i just don't know how. She wouldn't believe me. She thinks that ireland is a catholic country and thinks that people of other faiths or no faiths should have to put up with Chritianity related everything (e.g schools)
She said to me one day ''you should be happy you're not Muslim'' when i asked her why do we have to go to mass. (i'm forced to go to mass EVERY SUNDAY).
then asked ''when do i get the choice to go to mass or not?'' and she replied ''when you move out!'' and stormed off. I'l be over 19 years old when i go to college. I don't think i can put up going to mass for another 3 and a half years.:(

How far will you go to avoid Mass? :pac:

Dades

Deleted User wrote: »

then asked ''when do i get the choice to go to mass or not?'' and she replied ''when you move out!'' and stormed off. I'l be over 19 years old when i go to college. I don't think i can put up going to mass for another 3 and a half years.:(

Tough one.

You really need to get across that your lack of belief is reasoned and genuinely thought out. Otherwise it will likely be seen as attempted mass-dodging, or teenage rebellion.

I used to just "go" to a different mass to my folks for years which gave me a great chance to get out of the house for an hour a week and kick a ball about or play pool in some other institution.

liamw

My lack of belief has gone from strength to strength from witnessing the best arguments from Christians and realising how weak they are.

Calibos

liamw wrote: »

My lack of belief has gone from strength to strength from witnessing the best arguments from Christians and realising how weak they are.

What shocks me the most isn't that the average joe uses these arguements, its that they are the same arguements used by popes, Human genome project scientists and ex British PM's called Blair!!

I just always expected better arguements from the likes of them than from the man on the street but they trot out the same crap!!

ShooterSF

Deleted User wrote: »

The only thing is, i'm scared of telling my Christian parents, especially my mum. i just don't know how. She wouldn't believe me. She thinks that ireland is a catholic country and thinks that people of other faiths or no faiths should have to put up with Chritianity related everything (e.g schools)
She said to me one day ''you should be happy you're not Muslim'' when i asked her why do we have to go to mass. (i'm forced to go to mass EVERY SUNDAY).
then asked ''when do i get the choice to go to mass or not?'' and she replied ''when you move out!'' and stormed off. I'l be over 19 years old when i go to college. I don't think i can put up going to mass for another 3 and a half years.:

It's a tough one. I was lucky it was only occasional masses for me as my parents werent very strong catholics.

Maybe if you could explain to your mom that while you can't prove that you don't believe and it's not just a rebellious phase ( ) either way her pushing it on you is just going to make you resent christianity even more and diminish any future chance of reconciling with her belief (you don't have to actually believe you'd ever go back )

That or go a full 180. Start reading the bible and ask her about some of the more insane passages she's probably not even aware of like (editted - not sure I should be bringing up that topic with a 15 year old lad...)

rockbeer

Deleted User wrote: »

post edited.

??

ShooterSF

ShooterSF wrote: »

That or go a full 180. Start reading the bible and ask her about some of the more insane passages she's probably not even aware of like (editted - not sure I should be bringing up that topic with a 15 year old lad...)

reading the bible is one of the reasons I started to drift away from Christianity! I was completely gobsmacked with all the bad things "god" supposedly did... slavery, torture, stoning, rape, mass murder, beating...the list goes on.
that was the real turning point in my beliefs. how can Christians just pick the bits they like out of the bible and pretend the bad bits don't exist?
if I mentioned one of these incidents to my mum, she wouldn't believe me.
this will come as a shock, but she thought all her life, that dinosaurs were a myth, until 2months ago when I said they weren't!!:eek:

antiskeptic

robindch wrote: »

Nothing turns people off religion so much as a good working knowledge of it!

+1

Goduznt Xzst

Deleted User wrote: »

I don't think i can put up going to mass for another 3 and a half years.:(

Get a job and work Sundays, then pay your parents rent. If there's one thing parents love to see more than their child worshipping their God, it's seeing their child doing an act of obeisance to money.

Really all Church is is to get you prepped for being punctual, pretending to listen to your boss, sitting in monotonous environments, then paying a percentage of your money back at the end for the pleasure.

I see quite a few Atheists who speak about how lucky they are to be free of the dogmas of Theism, only to work in bland air conditioned offices, sit in cubicles and listen to morons in coporate meetings preach. I always look at them and say "yeah... you're the lucky ones?"

virmilitaris

I doubt it or at least I would doubt that reading this forum or any kind of rational argument against a belief would make any difference to most people specifically because of the nature of said belief.

This is innate in all of us. Each of us can probably come up with a belief we hold which we have some pseudo evidence for. For example when I was young I used to be quite opinionated on certain political / spiritual issues and no amount of rational argument to the contrary made the slightest bit of difference because at the end of the day, my reasons for these beliefs had nothing to do with the pseudo evidence I had accumulated for them, rather they were formed for very basic primal reasons. In my case my views simply felt good and I latched onto anything and everything which could possibly reinforce those views.

I'm not ashamed to admit that I very nearly did not grow out of them and they were growing stronger the longer I held them but thankfully I came to find reason and logic and when put through the process of rationality my views failed miserably.

I'm not saying for a second that I am completely free from this phenomenon now as I consistently make mistakes in the heat of the moment but I now always endeavorer to look back on and research into the reasons for any and all views I have and I'd hope that most of the time that rationality comes out on top and I make the right decision.

This, to me, is the greatest difference between the religious and free thinkers, although I'm not saying that free thinkers are totally immune from it either. No rational argument or evidence will change the beliefs of the religious. The goalposts for what they believe are in constant motion.

One need only look at the arguments from apologists like William Lane Craig. Arguments from design or from the creation of the Universe. Right now they latch onto scientific evidence such as the evidence for a finite Universe for example and use this in their arguments while at the same time everyone here knows that if this was disproved tomorrow it would make absolutely no difference to their views. The goalposts will simply be wheeled further back.

Contrast that with a scientist for example, who having worked his whole life on a theory only to have it disproved, accepts it when the evidence falsifies it.

The vast majority if not all of religious arguments are meaningless to us and they are even more meaningless to the religious. Evolutionary Biology could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that life came about through natural means and it would make very little difference to the religious. "Ah but god created the chemicals and set it all in motion."

At the end of the day, when you take away all of the nonsense that surrounds it, religion is a personal belief that there is 'something' out there. Everything else, including the Bible or any supposed characteristics of a deity are disposable.

You see examples of this all the time everywhere. Almost all Christians are ala carte Christians because they take what the majority have deemed to be 'true' about their god and dismissed the rest and then they further take that subset of 'truth' and interpret it how they wish.

When they say they have a 'personal relationship' with god there is some truth to it. Their beliefs are personal, they agree with what they want to agree with and disregard the rest.