Most humans are aware they have a soul. That's the logic behind their opinions and feelings being more important than those of a chicken. Souless atheists are completely illogical when they blather their opinions. There is no right or wrong in the realm of rocks, worms, atheists or amoebas .

OP - I am with you on not getting atheism.
I think many of these atheists have never witnessed the miracle of birth.
People talk about the “randomness of the universe.”
It is not random at all.
The fact that so many, many things can go wrong with the birth of a child and most often, a baby is born nearly perfect proves to me that God’s hand is at work and that we have a good and loving God.
And, to think that a giant maple tree can grow out of a seed that is the size of a pea - simply miraculous.
I have witnessed miracles nearly every day.
There are some things that we simply cannot understand or explain through science.

Anonymous wrote:OP here, I get the feeling that because I'm religious, people are always viewing me as some unintelligent mongo and to the person who said I'm not a free thinking individual, why don't you go suck a big fat one.

Let's see. So you are "free thinking" but then you also can't see why people are atheists. Okay.

They might you're unintelligent for other reasons...

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, for me the question is... well which version of "God" should someone believe in, and why? There are thousands of versions of god that humans have created. Which one is the right one, and why are all the others the wrong version of God? For example - do you believe in a vengeful god or loving god? Why? How are you making your decision? What qualities and attributes are the right and wrong ones, and how are you making your decisions? Based on what?

There's an oft quoted saying: "I just believe in one less god."

Atheism is more than not believing in anthropomorphous gods. It is materialistic in its essense, i.e. if I can't see it, it must not exist. It is a lot more restrictive than many people realize. It's one thing to say you don't believe in, say, Christian gods. It's quite another to say that what we can't observe/explain in materialistic terms cannot possibly exist.

I don't find it restrictive to limit my world view to concepts and beliefs that are evidence based. There is no objective evidence for the existence of God or gods. God or gods was the explanation that pre-Enlightenment people used for events that they could not explain. There is no less wonder in the world if we rely on science instead of mysticism.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why?

I'm 23 and supposedly most my age aren't religious, but I don't understand how you can just say you don't believe in God anymore? Do you think you're more intelligent because you're an Atheist? I'm pretty free thinking myself, so I obviously don't let religion influence my thinking. So what is it about Atheism that is appealing to you all?

Some people never believed in God to begin with, so there is no "anymore" involved.
[b]
You are, it seems, not free-thinking at all if you cannot understand that people experience and try to make sense of the world and its mysteries and what happens to us (here and after we die) differently from how you do.

THIS.

OP here, I get the feeling that because I'm religious, people are always viewing me as some unintelligent mongo and to the person who said I'm not a free thinking individual, why don't you go suck a big fat one.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I lot of what religions teach is irreconcilable with the observable world and truth, contradictory, and deeply offensive. It's easy enough.

Well said. You don't get atheism? I don't get religion.

The randomness of the universe is easily explained.

+1000

The bible you clutch is a translation of a translation of a translation of stories that were fabricated and altered again and again over thousands of years. It's quite likely that many of your ancestors were forced to convert to the religion your family now eagerly celebrates. Religion and God are simply ancient control mechanisms to persuade you to follow your leader.

I get angry when Church dogma enters State matters.

I get annoyed when athletes talk about how G-d wanted them to win.

It doesn't go much farther than that. You want to believe in something, go ahead.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why so many DCUM atheists have anger issues?

Lol, and this is based on what?

This thread

I've heard this "atheists are angry" thing before, and I just don't see it. It's not a surprise that religion brings a lot of comfort to a lot of people. I wonder if *they* feel such anger, chaos, and frustration in their personal life, and feel like their emotions are very much tempered by religion (which is fine), that it's hard for them to understand that some people don't need the same pacification to their feelings. But what works for someone, doesn't necessarily work for someone else.

I'm an atheist. I comment on these thread from time to time. I'm not angry, and I don't see anger from other atheists. Discussion, even sometimes heated discussion, doesn't make someone angry. What a weird assumption.

Anonymous wrote:The best comparison is how you feel about the Indian (as in from India) pantheon and mythology. Not only are you unlikely to believe in those gods, you don't even consider them in your daily life.

As an atheist, I don't believe that a deity had anything to do with the creation of our universe (let alone the multiverse), and the concept of interacting with a deity or its opinion on my behavior has no impact on my daily life.

It would be a beautiful, wonderful, magical thing if there were actually a place where our souls go after we die and we are reunited with our loved ones, but I don't believe in such a thing and I don't believe in a soul. I'd be very happy to be surprised and proven wrong after I die.

+ 1. This is exactly my view.

I'm 30 and it's not that I don't believe in God anymore, it's that I have never believed. The stories don't make sense to me, the whole thing seems extremely implausible, and I have never seen an iota of proof or evidence that would even get me to start to wonder about it.

Nothing to get. It is the same way you don't believe in Zeus or what Scientologists teach or the wizard of Oz. Just never has seemed really to me even though I've heard the stories.

Makes much more sense to me that people have a cultural rather than a factual belief.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP, for me the question is... well which version of "God" should someone believe in, and why? There are thousands of versions of god that humans have created. Which one is the right one, and why are all the others the wrong version of God? For example - do you believe in a vengeful god or loving god? Why? How are you making your decision? What qualities and attributes are the right and wrong ones, and how are you making your decisions? Based on what?

There's an oft quoted saying: "I just believe in one less god."

Atheism is more than not believing in anthropomorphous gods. It is materialistic in its essense, i.e. if I can't see it, it must not exist. It is a lot more restrictive than many people realize. It's one thing to say you don't believe in, say, Christian gods. It's quite another to say that what we can't observe/explain in materialistic terms cannot possibly exist.

Atheism has a spectrum, just like any other religion.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wonder why so many DCUM atheists have anger issues?

Lol, and this is based on what?

This thread

The best comparison is how you feel about the Indian (as in from India) pantheon and mythology. Not only are you unlikely to believe in those gods, you don't even consider them in your daily life.

As an atheist, I don't believe that a deity had anything to do with the creation of our universe (let alone the multiverse), and the concept of interacting with a deity or its opinion on my behavior has no impact on my daily life.

It would be a beautiful, wonderful, magical thing if there were actually a place where our souls go after we die and we are reunited with our loved ones, but I don't believe in such a thing and I don't believe in a soul. I'd be very happy to be surprised and proven wrong after I die.