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What is it like being an Atheist? Do you find, that you have a better grasp on your purpose or knowing the meaning of life? What sort of things do you talk about, when discussing this topic? Do you belong to groups that share your views? Are you from a family of Atheists? When you drive past a cementary and have read of stories of what these people last thoughts before they died, how do you relate? Is being an Atheist have any redeeming aspects to it? Just am curious, personally I am totally against organized religion, but not quite throwing in the towel on God yet.
being an atheist is not something out of the ordinary, it's just the fact that you don't believe in god or religion at all, and you just don't find religion/important in your life, mostly because you don't share the beliefs, and I personally can't accept the idea of a superior force.I don't belong to any group, and my family is not atheist, they don't have a religion neither but they believe in some kind of god.
Did you arrive at the conclusion on your own or were you raised an atheist? Or did reading authors like Richard Dawkins help you decide?
I just ask because I found a audio book version of Dawkin's "The God Delusion" and half way into it I am not any less agnostic than I was before I started listening to it.
I think affirmations work, so if you make an affirmation and you include the name of deity or saint in the affirmation, then while that affirmation is still the same affirmation, by including a deity's name, the affirmation becomes a prayer. Used in this manner I become more convince affirmations(prayers) work and consequently it makes me think Dawkins is but another philosopher and there is no incontrovertible proof he is totally correct in his thinking.
Naturally not all "prayers" work. I can say "[insert name of deity] make me rich today" and with or without a deity's name it is very unlikely I will become rich today. Conclusion: Prayers don't work.
Yet if I make an affirmation: "I will not fall flat on my face at the dance." Just by making this affirmation there is automatically a better than 50/50 chance I won't fall, just as there is the same chance if I change the affirmation to a prayer: "[deity] please don't let me fall flat on my face at the dance tonight." Then, if I don't fall, it is easy to come to the conclusion prayer works. And if I do fall flat on my face at the dance then I am left thinking, well, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, maybe [my Deity] is trying to tell me something. Maybe, stay off the dance floor? XD
It is because of things like this that, after a lifetime of using affirmation-like prayers, or prayer-like affirmations, even after discounting all of the religious dogma / ritual normally associated with "Belief," that shaking one's desire to believe is so hard. This is especially true if you were indoctrinated to believe when you were at home with believing parents or guardians.
[2 points]3 years ago by ChipmonkReplyEdited 3 years ago by Chipmonk
I didn't become an atheist after readind Dawkins, no, I just found myself that I couldn't believe in any superior force cause it just didn't make any sense to me, I think it would be pretty good or maybe easier pray for something when you're in trouble or facing a terminal condition, and trust me, I would love to have something supernatural to rely on, but I just simply don't believe in that and god(all of them)doesn't make any sense to me, that's why I don't care about religion, and I don't understand fundamentalist that say the whole adam and eve story is real, and deny evolution and stuff like that.I wasn't raised an atheist, it was my choice when I grew up.
Atheists are not widely hated in Sweden. They (we) are probably in a majority or somewhere close to it. Certainly most people who live together and have children do not now get married.
I'm an atheist - or more precise an agnost - I do not feel hated because of that, though I have to add that one can be in situations where it can feel awkward to say how you think about it because a lot of people tend to take it personal when you reject their "holy" faith. I do not want to offend people, but on the other hand many religious people find it completely normal that everyone repects their beliefs. Respect should go both ways of course so if they want me to respect thier faith they should also respect that I see it as an insult to rational thinking and a source of a lot of evil in this world - and that is not always easy...
United Kingdom
Most groups are hated by someone.
I don't know if we're hated but we're rejected for sure.
What is it like being an Atheist? Do you find, that you have a better grasp on your purpose or knowing the meaning of life? What sort of things do you talk about, when discussing this topic? Do you belong to groups that share your views? Are you from a family of Atheists? When you drive past a cementary and have read of stories of what these people last thoughts before they died, how do you relate? Is being an Atheist have any redeeming aspects to it? Just am curious, personally I am totally against organized religion, but not quite throwing in the towel on God yet.
being an atheist is not something out of the ordinary, it's just the fact that you don't believe in god or religion at all, and you just don't find religion/important in your life, mostly because you don't share the beliefs, and I personally can't accept the idea of a superior force.I don't belong to any group, and my family is not atheist, they don't have a religion neither but they believe in some kind of god.
Did you arrive at the conclusion on your own or were you raised an atheist? Or did reading authors like Richard Dawkins help you decide?
I just ask because I found a audio book version of Dawkin's "The God Delusion" and half way into it I am not any less agnostic than I was before I started listening to it.
I think affirmations work, so if you make an affirmation and you include the name of deity or saint in the affirmation, then while that affirmation is still the same affirmation, by including a deity's name, the affirmation becomes a prayer. Used in this manner I become more convince affirmations(prayers) work and consequently it makes me think Dawkins is but another philosopher and there is no incontrovertible proof he is totally correct in his thinking.
Naturally not all "prayers" work. I can say "[insert name of deity] make me rich today" and with or without a deity's name it is very unlikely I will become rich today. Conclusion: Prayers don't work.
Yet if I make an affirmation: "I will not fall flat on my face at the dance." Just by making this affirmation there is automatically a better than 50/50 chance I won't fall, just as there is the same chance if I change the affirmation to a prayer: "[deity] please don't let me fall flat on my face at the dance tonight." Then, if I don't fall, it is easy to come to the conclusion prayer works. And if I do fall flat on my face at the dance then I am left thinking, well, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, maybe [my Deity] is trying to tell me something. Maybe, stay off the dance floor? XD
It is because of things like this that, after a lifetime of using affirmation-like prayers, or prayer-like affirmations, even after discounting all of the religious dogma / ritual normally associated with "Belief," that shaking one's desire to believe is so hard. This is especially true if you were indoctrinated to believe when you were at home with believing parents or guardians.
I didn't become an atheist after readind Dawkins, no, I just found myself that I couldn't believe in any superior force cause it just didn't make any sense to me, I think it would be pretty good or maybe easier pray for something when you're in trouble or facing a terminal condition, and trust me, I would love to have something supernatural to rely on, but I just simply don't believe in that and god(all of them)doesn't make any sense to me, that's why I don't care about religion, and I don't understand fundamentalist that say the whole adam and eve story is real, and deny evolution and stuff like that.I wasn't raised an atheist, it was my choice when I grew up.
This comment was deleted.
[-2 points] 3 years ago by deleted user ReplyNo we hate Christianity. There is a difference, you know.
we "hate" fundamentalism.
This comment was deleted.
[-2 points] 3 years ago by deleted user ReplyAtheists are not widely hated in Sweden. They (we) are probably in a majority or somewhere close to it. Certainly most people who live together and have children do not now get married.
I'm an atheist - or more precise an agnost - I do not feel hated because of that, though I have to add that one can be in situations where it can feel awkward to say how you think about it because a lot of people tend to take it personal when you reject their "holy" faith. I do not want to offend people, but on the other hand many religious people find it completely normal that everyone repects their beliefs. Respect should go both ways of course so if they want me to respect thier faith they should also respect that I see it as an insult to rational thinking and a source of a lot of evil in this world - and that is not always easy...