Any Atheist And/or Agnostic Rt's?

I'm an atheist. Actually, I'm more than that; I'm quite the anti-theist. I hate religion and everything it stands for. Religion, including christianity, has done more harm than good. Any TRULY rational person can see that, whether they be religious or not.

Just to clarify..........I don't hate religious people.........I simply hate religion, so this isn't an attack on anyone.

Please do not turn this into a flame-war. Let's just have a healthy, civil discussion on the subject.

 

You might find atheism to be the norm in this little subset of the internet.

I found this little map.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-apps/imrs.php?src=http://img.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2013/05/atheism-map-1024x506.jpg&w=1484

Europe, once the center of Christianity, seems to be moving away from organized religion.

All in all, I think there is little to contribute to this topic that hasn't been said before, over and over again. It's a very tempting discussion to enter, but each thread ends up reading like a script of the threads before.

 

Personally im disgusted by religion and rebuke the atrocities most have committed. But just because I dont belong to the church doesn't mean I dont believe in god. I have no idea what god is, what it looks like, what it sounds like, what it feels like. I am a man of logic, and personally at this moment in time I can accept that god may not exist.But the one thing that I cannot accept, would be complete deterrence from faith; or sequential disbelief in any theory regarding an ultimatum.

I simply, pray.

I was speaking to one of my Masonic brothers a few months ago, he was talking about allowing faith systems into the fraternity. He mentioned how any belief system is a well welcomed belief and equivalent to say that of a Christians faith. Because when one believes in say for example the big bang, which I certainly support; one is theorizing creation. If you support creation, believe in it in any way, your doing the exact same thing as that of a religious man, though in a different way.

The other day as well, I was watching a documentary on Quantum Physics, Albert Einstein frequently mentioned god and as does Stephan Hawking in some of his newer documentations; talking about whether or not god is the creator of the universe. Hawking described the universe as having no creator besides that of the big bang, and that before the big bang; is what he truly strives to know.

 

well there's no physical thing beyond the purview of real science, but then there's no reason to assume existence to be limited to physical things.
so that still leaves rather a lot of room for something, or some several, sufficiently god-like, to exist.
just not a lot of likelihood for any of the dominant beliefs to be literally accurate.

well not when they're giving names and addresses anyway.

there is one thing they all get right, though their fanatics all seem to get wrong.

and that one thing, is that without the avoidance of causing harm,
and that means an honest effort to learn how, and more honest effort to implement it, there is no morality.

and i do have my own beliefs and love of invisible, by which i mean, completely non-physical, things, beings, people, whatever you want to call them,
all meaning reasonably well and none of them at war with one another, even if perhaps, they have little or no direct relationship to our physical existence.

as for harmful, we're quite sufficiently capable of that ourselves, not to require the fantasy of their assistance in that regard.

there is a problem with dominant beliefs, like christianity, islam and the rest of them, in that they're so self conflicted its not a wonder they've turned our world into an utter loony bin, driving people to drink and suicide and so on.

at any rate, i don't blame anything other then humans ourselves for their short comings, whatever might otherwise be claimed.
every book, priesthood, temple and church, on this earth, is the work of humans and not of gods.
and being so, i don't hold it against whatever gods, or god-like beings there might be, that these things exist.

 

I have an atheistic approach towards most of the 'perfected' (omni) human-like attributes that have been attributed to God(s). I would consider myself agnostic and I like to leave a bit of room from total convinction towards a specific belief in any kind of God(s). As I grow and/or learn from my experiences, I continue to draw upon others thoughts who I interact with as well as some of the great minds on this topic, which influence my notions of belief.

I just read philosophy from Thomas Aquinas who was a firm believer in God and priest, yet it was interesting for me to find out that even at a time prior to the Enlightenment, he exhibited alot of doubt about how much we can truly know regarding God. Understanding various viewpoints helps shape my viewpoint on the topic.

Even from my viewpoint, I would like to be able to manifest connections with a higher power. Alot of believers seem to use this term higher power interchangeably as connecting with God, I would like to find it in another light as there are many associations with God that I just do not particularly care to ascribe to. I think I've felt such connections of higher power in the peak of playing music for instance, but I would like to be able to connect in more reflectionary points too, perhaps via meditation or prayer.

 

I have had a lot of respect for certain individuals until I found out their religious ideology, or lack there of. XD

 

How could you base respect on someones belief?

 

I don't know first hand what happens after death but I'm going to guess that whatever it is....it will be the same for everyone. Even after years of schooling in whatever their particular faith is....any minister or priest, etc still can't say with any more certainty than anyone else...exactly what happens. If anyone can tell us more, it would be people who have actually died and have been revived. I have personally read hundreds of individual accounts and a good number of studies on the topic. It's interesting that the vast majority of accounts are basically the same idea described differently depending on the person. There aren't statistical differences based on religion, locale, socioeconomic status, race, gender, sex, age or anything else. Very rarely have I read one that had anything to do with demons, hell, etc. The few that I have read were also so different in other ways from other accounts that I questioned the validity of that account (and still would have even if they didn't mention hell).

 

Great responses from everyone. You were all very articulate in getting your points across. I especially like your post GB. Thanks, guys

As for me, I was raised southern baptist, which, for those of you who don't know, if the so-called "fire and brimstone" style of christianity. As I got older and began to understand things more, I started to notice the contradictions and hypocrisy of it all. Did you know the bible actually says that my mom is supposed to kill me, simply because I don't believe in her god?

The bible also says that it would've been alright for my mom to sell me as a slave when I disobeyed/dishonored her when I was a child. The bible even said god sent two bears to slaughter 42 children and that god commanded Moses to slaughter thousands of people, including infants.

Check out this link. It's a list of "gods" who pre-date Jesus, and they share MANY similarities. Some of them werebelieved to have been born to virgin mothers and crucified(or sacrificed in another way) for the salvation of mankind. Some of them were even believed to have been the "son of god". Anyway, I'm not gonna keep rambling.

Here's the link:
http://listverse.com/2009/04/13/10-christ-like-figures-who-pre-date-jesus/

 

The two bears story is not that difficult to believe. Paul Bunyan and his ox carved out the Grand Canyon, after all.

 

I don't know why all of the videos would embed, but this is a very interesting presentation, with some comedy thrown in and audience participation(Q&A and whatnot). His name is Greydon Square, obviously. He's an orphan and grew up in a group home. His father was actually one of the founding members of the Hoover Crips. He served in Iraq when he was still a christian, then he majored in physics in a university(I'm not sure if he's still majoring in physics or not).

Anyway, he's a very interesting and articulate person, and I'm fairly certain that anyone who watches the entire presentation will be glad they did, and I strongly encourage that you do so.. Let me know what you think. BTW, I omitted the first part of the presentation because it's just an introduction by a VERY boring individual. lol Enjoy.

[media]http://youtu.be/uBApftBrziM[/media]

[media]http://youtu.be/8Sz_pDVNiB8[/media]

http://youtu.be/jQGRVIVkAP0

http://youtu.be/gSANS2gedIg

http://youtu.be/LdxlZMc3oqM

http://youtu.be/3Bh-Jrh29KM

http://youtu.be/O6L8uscAt9c

http://youtu.be/Mgl19sxz5DI

http://youtu.be/XE5UEsAq1nw

 

Indeed. Religious people only believe what they believe because it's what they have been told that they're SUPPOSED to believe it, and that's been drilled into their heads since they were old enough to understand words.

 

I figured it all out... give me another balloon..

hold on , I figured it all out... give me another balloon.. no wait..

this time I got it, I figured it out...

Im serious this time.. Im going to remember it all. give me another balloon ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkPb61luwEs

 

But you don't even realize you sound just like a fundamentalist, evangelical religious person when you talk like this.

If I hated everyone because of their beliefs -- or even hated a belief itself -- I would hate almost everyone (which some will say I do).

People can have their beliefs, and why should I hate them or even care what their beliefs are?

I know you don't hate religious people, but c'mon, you do. Otherwise you wouldn't give a shit.

I just don't understand Atheists. I am open to the fact that there are some things that are unknowns. Atheists and the religious are very much alike because they both insist that they're right and that the other side is wrong. Each side would like to silence the other. Where is the truth in that? I have always said that Atheism is, in fact, a religion.

Because organized religion is bullshit, does not mean a divine presence in the universe is. And I am not saying there is or isn't a divine presence -- I'm just saying.

 

You're wrong about me hating religious people. All of my friends and family are very religious. I don't judge them for their beliefs and they don't judge me for being an atheist.

I want people to believe what they want to believe, whether they land on islam, christianity, hinduism, or whatever they feel is best for them.. I just don't like the indoctrination of children. It's brainwashing, plain and simple. As I said before in this thread......I don't want people to believe in something just because they're told that they're supposed to. I want people to find the religion and/or philosophy(or lack there of) that that makes them happy. Most people are told to believe in god(s) have been force-fed their parents' religion since they were old enough to understand words, as I said in a previous post. I believe people should be taught about ALL religions and that they should be able to decide for themselves what they believe and what will bring them the most happiness.

 

THE POWER OF JEEBUS COMMANDS YOU! SEND PAT ROBERTSON MONEY, OR BURN FOR ETERNITY!

 

LULZ

 

I think anyone that understands the scale of the universe and tries to observe it objectively, cannot be sane and at the same time believe in a spiteful god that needs followers and watches every move you make.

 

That's really not true at all. When an atheist finds a path to enlightenment, what made up story do you tell people? They "drilled" themselves with the opposite of what you speak.

lol.