I don't get Atheism
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Anonymous
Have you talked to a young fundamentalist Christian lately? Sounds like they have the the same characteristics |
Anonymous
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Let's take a step back from the hyperbole and insults.
The OP asked why it seems like so many people are turning to atheism, which is a reasonable sociological question. There's a consistent correlation between economic and educational status and a lack of religiousity. While correlation does not equal causation, there are some drivers that lead to the conclusion that economic development and education tend to lead to a reduction in religious participation and belief. From a scientific perspective, deities have historically been invoked to explain natural phenomena. Gods were responsible for the seasons, weather, birth, death, the sun, the moon, etc. Over time, science has pushed back the boundaries of the inexplicable over and over, removing events from the realm of mystical phenomena and placing them in the realm of the explicable and comprehensible. When you can explain how things happen, that removed mystery and the need for a deific cause. Science is on the verge of pushing those explanations back to the initial creation of our universe, and many of the leading hypotheses also lead to the conclusion that ours is but one "universe" in either a much larger space of an infinite number of "universes" or a "meta-space" of an infinite number of other "universes." Either way, we've been demoted over time from being the center of the universe, to one of several planets in a solar system, to a small planet orbiting an unregarded yellow sun in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, to one planet within one of an infinite number of "universes" in a multiverse. With each step, the odds of an entity sufficiently powerful to sit outside the applicable "space" and create it grow increasingly incomprehensible, and if such an entity were to exist, the reasons why it would have any interest in us as a life form are similarly incomprehensible. At the same time, we are discovering more and planets that could harbor life. Again, we are losing the idea of uniqueness, and that makes it less likely that a creator, if it exists, would consider humans particularly special. So the promulgation of all of that scientific knowledge is one reason people are turning away from deities and religions, because they don't feel the need for the religious explanation of how things happen. From a sociological perspective, historically a community had one religion, and expressing doubt or questioning that religion was incredibly risky. When a king ruled by divine right, questioning religion was questioning that divine right, and was a very unhealthy thing to do. Even leaving the king out of things, questioning the religion of your particular community could lead to excommunication - exile from the community - which was effectively a death sentence since everyone relied on their communities for survival to a much greater degree than they do now. So in the past questioning religion was a much greater personal threat, and there was no way to identify similarly doubtful individuals with whom to discuss your questions. In another vein, historically, people couldn't read and, in the case of Christianity, the holy texts were written in Latin, which only the priests and the most educated classes could read. The Bible contains numerous contradictions and errors that once an educated society is able to read for themselves, without the need for a priestly class, cause people to have doubts and consider thinking for themselves. In the modern era, education about other religions and other cultures, as well as historical study of the mythologies than underlie Christianity (e.g., similarities to the stories of Mithras, for example), cause people to question the authoritative nature of any single religion, and modern communications via the internet give those who question a place to find information and others who similarly question and doubt the various religious traditions. When you're not at risk of being excommunicated and socially isolated for doubting, you're much more likely to continue exploring alternatives to the belief structure of your parents and community group. So, more education at a societal level means people lose the need for deities to explain natural phenomena and also enables people to read the religious texts themselves and make their own decisions about their flaws. More education also exposes people to other religious traditions, leading to doubt about the authoritative nature of their own traditions. More economic development means better communication and opportunity to move within the society, lessening the risk of excommunication as a result of questioning the dominant paradigm, and also provides better opportunities for meeting others who share those doubts and can provide a separate community of support for doubters. |
Anonymous
Maybe you're just hanging out with immature people. I'm don't believe in a god because I don't. It's not a "position" or a belief system or an insult to the intelligence of others. |
Anonymous
That's not the definition of a free thinker. Your beliefs about what is true in the world should affect your other beliefs. If you think God commands you to care for the poor, do it. If you think God says something is murder, you should outlaw it. Signed, An atheist whose morality affects my beliefs. |
Anonymous
| For me it because excavation shows all the stories of the Bible really are from the Mesopotamia period. At least a thousand years before Hebrew mythology. |
Anonymous
How can you have morals if you're an Atheist? |
Anonymous
Wow. Do you really think that atheists don't have a moral structure? It's no harder than having them while religious. Do you think murder is wrong? Do you think that only because God told you so? Think about all of the Ancient Greek philosophers whose work was largely focused on what was the good life, the right life, and how man should decide how to act. God was not the answer. |
Anonymous
Morality and ethics are not necessarily derived from religious belief. Is the only reason you behave morally because your God tells you to do so, and if you don't then you risk punishment? If so, that's just adhering to a code of behavior out of fear of the consequences, not because you believe it's the right thing to do, and it's more like a commitment to do what's right just because the "policeman" is always watching. At its simplest, look at the so-called "Golden Rule" of do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That code doesn't require the involvement of a deity. There's a great deal of writing on the construction of moral and ethical codes that don't require any divine involvement. |
Anonymous
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OP here, I just want to say that I objectively look at the world and find myself still believing in the Lord, albeit less and less recently, but I still believe.
I'll be honest since you guys seem like nice folks who don't judge; a part of me has known since I was 15, that God is not real and that religion is just a joke. Logically, God cannot exist at all and the proof is in the pudding. I try not to let that part of me control my thoughts on the matter because I honestly don't know if can become an Atheist. It just seems so wrong and icky to me and I'm perfectly fine believing in God and what Christianity stands for. I am not the kind of guy who likes change because it scares the living shit out of me and forces me to adapt to something I've had no experience in. With respect to religion, the devil you know is better than the one you don't as far as I'm concerned. |
Anonymous
There are some amazingly rich religious traditions based on humanism which do not require a belief in god. Ethical Culture has a remarkable moral structure without requiring a belief in god. The same for Unitarians. |
Anonymous
| I would also argue that people who live by the Golden Rule because it is the right thing to do instead of because of a fear of reprisal from an angry god are better people. |
Anonymous
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I think of myself as agnostic, not as an aetheist, but here's my take ...
I was raised as an Orthodox Jew and I never felt a connection to that faith. I considered myself "spiritual" and believed in a higher power. It was not based on evidence, but a feeling. I guess you call it faith. The older I got, the weaker this faith became. Sometime in my late 20s, I realized that I had lost that faith. I do not know why, and it actually is very sad for me, and lonely to a degree. I have tried to recapture it, to no avail. My beliefs, or lack thereof, are not a choice. If I had a choice, I would have faith again because it did give me a sense of peace. I contemplate returning to temple in kind of a fake it till you make it approach, but, honestly, I doubt that would work. To me, it's not about evidence or rationality, but more of a pure feeling. |
Anonymous
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OP here, I just don't feel like I can accept it anymore and I drift further and further away from religion each year. I don't want to be like that because it doesn't seem right at all to become an Atheist.
Even though my father was one, I could never understand why he chose not to believe in God. I cannot make that choice because my conscience wouldn't let me. |
Anonymous
If your belief structure works for you, that's fine. Letting go of religion means letting go of a lot of things, but you've done that your whole life. When you were little you believed in Santa Claus, magic, ghosts, fairy tales, etc. You didn't distinguish between "real" and "magical." Over time you let go of each of those things, and you accepted that your parents were Santa Claus, fairy tales were stories - sometimes with a moral, and magic (unfortunately) didn't exist. If being part of Christianity helps you deal with life right now, that's fine. No one is forcing you to do otherwise. |
Anonymous
Why would your conscience urge you to believe something that isn't true (by your beliefs)? You can be a good person who does good works still. Are you worried that you won't be a good person without the threat of eternal punishment? |