Reply to Why don't you believe in God?

Forum Index » Religion

Reply to "Why don't you believe in God?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here...thank you for your thoughtful responses...please keep them coming...I just wanted to clarify something important:

I did not mean that atheism=unhappy lives. Rather, I meant that many weighty topics are hashed out here on a daily basis, but almost wholly lacking from these discussions is faith.  People seem to face the hardest issues of human life on their own, without any sense of a Truth larger than themselves.  So I wondered why.  Was that a deliberate, thoughtful decision?  Or something that just never seemed important?  And if it was a conscious decision, what motivated that choice?

I hope this makes sense.  And I will gladly answer the opposite question, just not this moment.  I really just want to hear from y'all for now.[/quote]

I think that you are posing an interesting question but one that may be more relevant to someone who has now, or has had in the past, at least some degree of faith.  As someone who doesn't believe in God and never has, it doesn't enter into the equation.  I guess I fall under the category "never seemed important" but even that is assigning too much thought to it.  It would be difficult for someone who has strong faith, as you describe it, to understand the total absence of it - just as it's difficult for me to really understand the presence of it.

But, everyone reaches their beliefs differently.  Some people who don't believe in God may have come to that via a deliberate, thoughtful decision.

So, I guess you may be looking for people who aren't "born atheists," if I may coin a term.  Other posters have commented on their religious upbringing, usually in the negative, as to why they have the belief system they currently have.  I have had no such upbringing and no real negative connotations with the religious community, outside of what is normally found in any community of people (i.e., all groups of people have their bad apples and their slightly off ones).

My DH is one example.  He was brought up in a religious household and has plenty of negative things to say about the whole business.  I know deep down, though, he still is impacted by it and he can't completely shake the beliefs taught to him as a child.  I've been non-religious my whole life and I'm far more tolerant than he is.

In sum, there are many different types of atheists or nonbelievers, or what have you.  Accordingly, you'll get a lot of different answers.  But, that doesn't make the question not worth asking![/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics