Why are you an atheist?

Bannasidhe

old hippy wrote: »

Have you heard the one about a nekkid couple, an apple and a snake?

I heard that one but it was a pomegranate not an apple.

endacl

old hippy wrote: »

PBroderick wrote: »

Jokes? Where?

Have you heard the one about a nekkid couple, an apple and a snake?

Eve was framed.

Corkfeen

I was actually somewhat religious when younger and was involved in the local church etc... But then I started considering all the viewpoints of the church and considered if I really believed them, this would have been shortly after my confirmation. I then reached the conclusion that most of the religious customs and beliefs seemed to be distinctly man made, for example: why the hell would an all powerful being give a crap about about people masturbating or being gay...

I then temporarily believed in some random deity separate from that of Catholicism... Then I finally decided that it was all a bit absurd and seemed to have no legitimate basis. It was a bit of a domino effect overall. Now I simply appreciate the world for what it is. And for those who continuously bring up Dawkins and Hitchens etc for developing this view and it being a popular opinion. I read The God Delusion years after becoming an atheist so that really had no impact upon my decision making process.

Bannasidhe

Corkfeen wrote: »

I was actually somewhat religious when younger and was involved in the local church etc... But then I started considering all the viewpoints of the church and considered if I really believed them, this would have been shortly after my confirmation. I then reached the conclusion that most of the religious customs and beliefs seemed to be distinctly man made, for example: why the hell would an all powerful being give a crap about about people masturbating or being gay...

I then temporarily believed in some random deity separate from that of Catholicism... Then I finally decided that it was all a bit absurd and seemed to have no legitimate basis. It was a bit of a domino effect overall. Now I simply appreciate the world for what it is. And for those who continuously bring up Dawkins and Hitchens etc for developing this view and it being being a popular opinion. I read The God Delusion years after becoming an atheist so that really had no impact upon my decision making process.

I started reading The God Delusion but I got distracted by a really excellent book on the Silk Road and never quite got back to it.
I am sooooo ****e at being part of a hive mind .

Enkidu

Three out of four of my grandparents were atheists (the fourth a deist), my parents are atheist, so I was raised in an environment with no real tradition of belief. I've never really seen a reason to believe. That's it really.

philologos

robindch wrote: »

Or philologos who, as far as I can make out, hold protestant beliefs because they similarly fit his pre-existing worldview. I don't get much of a sense of fear from either of those good folks, at least as far as their stated reasons go.

My preexisting worldview was agnosticism. You clearly don't know me at all

coffee_cake

you were brought up christian

Rasheed

endacl wrote: »

Have been following this one for a while now. My flippant sounding answer, for what its worth, is....

I'm an atheist because I'm a grown-up. I've no room in my head for illogical, fluffy, childish thinking. I grew out of it at the same time I grew out of the other childish silliness.

Doesn't mean I don't enjoy fiction and the suspension of disbelief. The recent Avengers movie was particularly enjoyable. Religious fiction, on the other hand is badly written, poorly plotted, and displays for the most part, a lamentable lack of character development. Just doesn't hold my interest.

I really can't engage with the question. For me, it really is like arguing with children over the existence of Santa*. I mean, the idea is attractive, but its impossible to take seriously anybody who seriously holds the notion.

*I don't argue the Santa question with children. That would be mean. But adults arguing the existence of god? FFS. Grow up. Accept reality. Get on with making the most of your finite existence. And for the noisy minority of ye, stop interfering in other people's finite existences. This may in fact be my main problem with the question. It reminds me of those pricks in youth defence, the taliban, orange knobends marching up and down, Omagh, no pints on ****e Friday....... etc........etc......

Rant done.

Sorry now but are you saying that by asking the question 'Why are you an Atheist?', I'm interfering in other people's finite existence?

Undergod

Because I don't believe in any gods.

GarIT

I actually never answered the op at all, I lost my Catholic faith when I realised my parents could lie. When I was 7 my 'girlfriend' told me that Santa wasn't real, so I went straight into mam and asked about it and she told the truth and because I highly associated Santa with religion I asked is god not real too? She said she didn't know and then I just knew.

Sarky

@Rasheed

Not at all, you're being really quite pleasant about the whole thing and I seriously doubt anyone thinks you're interfering by asking the question you did.

I suspect the rant is more about the people who don't take the civil option you have. Y'know, the ones who instead of asking "Why are you an atheist?" ask the rather more inflammatory "How can you not believe in God? Don't you you're going to HELL!?" sort of deal, where anyone who disagrees is an upstart teenager just going through a phase, or ramming their lack of belief down their throat. Or who even ask the question you do but already having made up their minds before anyone replies.

Rasheed

Sarky wrote: »

@Rasheed

Not at all, you're being really quite pleasant about the whole thing and I seriously doubt anyone thinks you're interfering by asking the question you did.

I suspect the rant is more about the people who don't take the civil option you have. Y'know, the ones who instead of asking "Why are you an atheist?" ask the rather more inflammatory "How can you not believe in God? Don't you you're going to HELL!?" sort of deal, where anyone who disagrees is an upstart teenager just going through a phase, or ramming their lack of belief down their throat. Or who even ask the question you do but already having made up their minds before anyone replies.

Oh okay, that fair enough. Kind of got offended there because it was a genuine curiosity on my part, not looking for answers that I would then contradict by shooting bible quotes at ye!

I didn't even want to make my beliefs clear because I didn't want people to think I was going to argue. I only stated I was a Catholic to prove to Pbroderick that it didn't matter what religion you were, this thread was about Atheism and people's reasoning behind their beliefs, not about Atheism vs. Theism.

So Anyway, long story short, thanks for clearing that up for me!

Turtwig

Apologies if I'm responsible for re-derailing this thread but Rasheed are you sure you don't know any atheists? I find it a little odd that you don't at least know one atheist. Not saying you ought to know atheists or anything though.

GarIT

Improbable wrote: »

It's metaphorical. That's the old testament. Of course that's not what it means, you've misinterpreted it.

Please pick one.

I don't understand this theory at all. The bible tells us that the adam and eve story is a fact, just like it tells us the existance of god is a fact. Both stories are told in the exact same manner.

Who decided which bible fact is a fact and which bible fact is a metaphor?

IMO you believe the bible or you don't. Its unlikely that parts of a story are facts and different parts of the same story are made up and even if that was the case it would be impossible for us to tell now.

Rasheed

Jernal wrote: »

Apologies if I'm responsible for re-derailing this thread but Rasheed are you sure you don't know any atheists? I find it a little odd that you don't at least know one atheist. Not saying you ought to know atheists or anything though.

Well you see i don't think I do! I won't ask everybody now, only my close circle of friends which are about 10 or so. These are all catholic because we usually go to mass together on Saturday evening after training!

Possibly I have acquaintances that are but I wouldn't like to bring up religion in case I offended someone.

Anyway, ye fine people give me very good, knowledgeable answers so my curiosity is sated!

fitz0

It's not really a topic that comes up often among my friends. Some are overtly religious and some overtly non-religious but most are just no-comments. I only found out one of my best friends was a Protestant last Wednesday despite knowing him for almost 10 years.

I, myself, have been an unrepentant heathen for about 7 years now. I reasoned that if a god made us all in his image and was omnipotent then he contains all the negative traits that are present in humanity. If he doesn't and created them along with us, that's just cruel. If he created them unintentionally, then he is not omnipotent. That's where it started and once the questions arose, they had a knock on effect of creating more questions that I couldn't answer and neither could Catholic teachings.

I don't label myself an atheist though. I have an atheistic outlook but the title doesn't sit well with me. I would call myself an anatheist, a fantastic word I heard on this forum. If there was conclusive proof of a god handed to the world in the morning I would still not worship that god. Any god that demands worship on pain of eternal damnation is not worthy of that worship.

Sarky

Hooray! Another happy ending!

Dades

Sarky wrote: »

Hooray! Another happy ending!

Only this one's free. :pac:

Sarky

Free? But I just gave... Hey! bluewolf! Gimmie back my tenner and pack of Taytos, you chancer!

philologos

bluewolf wrote: »

you were brought up christian

And to hazard a guess most of the people here were raised Roman Catholics. It seems very few of you are Roman Catholics today.

Bear in mind you're committing a genetic fallacy. A number of different reasons lead me to think that Christianity is true and I spent quite a bit of time mulling it over before I decided to follow Jesus over 5 years ago.

I don't doubt the sincerity of any of the testimonies written here, yet you and robindch claim to know more about me than I do!

Absurdity or what?

Vivara

Proxy wrote: »

The question is phrased in a strange way. Asking an atheist why they are atheist is to assume that the norm is to believe in a God and they have been somehow turned off it. Aren't we really born atheist, and raised/converted to be religious?

Actually, there are quite a few people who believe that our belief in a higher power is the result of an evolutionary coping mechanism to help us deal with our awareness of death. And it makes a lot of sense.

The first person to proclaim this idea was Matthew Alper, a philosopher who wrote the book 'The "God" Part of the Brain'. It's an interesting read, and I'm not sure of the scientific basis; there are some scientists who call it thought-provoking while others rubbish it.

But if it's true, it does explain why every society known to man, from the ancient ones to current day, developed some sort of religious or spiritual theory about the after life and how we came to be. This would suggest that humans, as a species, are genetically predisposed — that is 'hard-wired' — to believe in some form of a transcendental reality. This is further supported by an accumulation of genetic, anthropological, biological, and ethno-botanical evidence. Thus, one of the main premises of this book is that humans are genetically engineered with a dualistic perception of reality which compels the majority of our species to believe in some form of a spiritual reality. It is neither a social or historical construct but rather a biological one.

As far as I know, the book has been nicknamed 'The Atheist's Bible', so it's well worth a read!

RobbingBandit

I grew up reading ancient mythology and the bible at the same time and found many similarities in the Greek, Germanic and Biblical stories then at the age of ten I began to study with some Jehovah Witnesses who confirmed at least for me that no God exists, they are just stories told by clever people to those either desperate or ignorant enough to listen.

King Mob

I think the quickest way to answer the question is: for the same reasons you don't believe in fairies or ghosts or bigfoots or magic teapots in orbit between earth and the sun.

The reason why I'm an atheist rather than a lapse catholic was realising that God is no different to fairies or ghosts or any other non existent thing people believe in anyway.

Knasher

I grew up in a relatively rural part of Ireland, on a farm. Both my sisters and I were alter servers at some point, my Mom does readings and my Dad handles collections, as well as other stuff in the church, I have aunts who are nuns and uncles who are priests. I went to a secondary school run by the holy ghost order and I can honestly say that I didn't miss a week of mass until I was 17. I think it is fair to say that I was in pretty deep, but despite all that religion was just a part of who you were and not something anybody really thought (or was encouraged to think) about.

The reason I stopped being religious is down to a pretty simple realization. That given a group of people with an unknown world around them, over time they will try and generate explanations for the things in their lives; why it rains, why the sun comes up, etc. Without the scientific method and no way to evaluate the veracity of one explanation over another, which ever explanation gets excepted is down to how well it fits with whatever people already think they know of the world and how good the person who came up with the explanation is at pushing it. The explanations will become wrapped up with the peoples cultural history and be spread and intermingled as people interact with other cultures through war and trade. Eventually it will be codified into a religion.

I'm sure we could both agree that for at least all religions but one (as they are all mutually exclusive in one way or another), that this is a reasonable theory on how a religion could come about (although there are others, like the process gave us mormonism and scientology). And I hope you have a good enough understanding of history to see the hallmarks of it in your own (previously our own) religion. From the adaption of pagan festivals into christanity to the explanation of the universe, such as geocentricism (mostly, there are still a lot of people who believe that), that become relegated to symbolism only when we finally gained the ability to test these things.

What started me on my path away from religion was never the controversy around the church or any of that, it was the simple realization that the simpler explanation is that my religion was just one of many, with similar credentials, and that if it were true then it should be reasonable to ask for evidence to back it up. Yet all I had, and all anyone seemed to have, and what the church goes to great lengths to trumpet over evidence, was faith. Belief in something without a reasonable standard of evidence is not a virtue.

Rasheed

King Mob wrote: »

I think the quickest way to answer the question is: for the same reasons you don't believe in fairies or ghosts or bigfoots or magic teapots in orbit between earth and the sun.

The reason why I'm an atheist rather than a lapse catholic was realising that God is no different to fairies or ghosts or any other non existent thing people believe in anyway.

Actually do believe in fairies, I'm kinda half afraid of messing with them but I get your point, thanks!

Rasheed

RobbingBandit wrote: »

I grew up reading ancient mythology and the bible at the same time and found many similarities in the Greek, Germanic and Biblical stories then at the age of ten I began to study with some Jehovah Witnesses who confirmed at least for me that no God exists, they are just stories told by clever people to those either desperate or ignorant enough to listen.

Jehovah's don't believe in God?? Never knew that. Maybe I should read some of the stuff they come to the door with!

P.s. Please don't call me desperate or ignorant, the reason you became atheist is good enough for me, thanks.

King Mob

Rasheed wrote: »

Actually do believe in fairies, I'm kinda half afraid of messing with them but I get your point, thanks!

So why do you believe in them but not say bigfoot or ghosts?

And what's to be afraid of?

Rasheed

King Mob wrote: »

So why do you believe in them but not say bigfoot or ghosts?

And what's to be afraid of?

I don't know actually, I suppose stories my elders used to tell. I'd never ever mess with a fairy fort now, my luck does be bad enough!

King Mob

Rasheed wrote: »

I don't know actually, I suppose stories my elders used to tell. I'd never ever mess with a fairy fort now, my luck does be bad enough!

So then why do you not believe in ghosts or bigfoot which has just as many elders telling the same stories about them?

And why would messing with a fairy fort do anything? How do you know that doing so would have any effect on you at all?
Why do you believe that fairy forts are in any way connected to fairies?

Discodog

Vivara wrote: »

Actually, there are quite a few people who believe that our belief in a higher power is the result of an evolutionary coping mechanism to help us deal with our awareness of death. And it makes a lot of sense.

I agree but religion has always been an essential part of maintaining power. If you can make people believe in heaven & hell they will fear any process that condemns them to hell. So people used to fear excommunication more than death. The fear of hell & the allure of heaven are powerful motivators for example in the case of suicide bombers.

I have no problem in accepting death as a total end but many need to hang on to an idea that life goes on in some form. It makes dying less stressful. It's like the old joke about soldiers suddenly becoming religious when under fire. People also need to feel protected.

I went though a "hippy" phase of reading the bible & many other religious texts. I am happy to accept that God is an invention of man.