Both my husband and I are atheists, but we are raising our child to be a Catholic. Why? Because the church offers many good things (community, morals, bible history, etc.) and we feel that our child will benefit from these things. And we are also hopeful that she will outgrow god in time, like Santa, Easter Bunny, etc.

I wish I could shout out to the world that I am an atheist, but I have to remain closeted.

Anonymous wrote:As an atheist, I don't hate believers. I think religion offers many people many important things. We teach our kids to be intolerant of intolerance, so we teach acceptance of differing views. Do I ultimately think believers are drinking the cool-aid? Yes, honestly I do. I actually hope I am wrong, because the idea of heaven/utopia sounds really cool. Too bad I'll be in hell.

Most respondents seem to be atheists themselves. As a Catholic I'll try to answer OP's question, knowing it probably opens me up to be slammed.

See the bolded part of PP's statement. She "hopes she's wrong", and I suppose that I feel badly for her that she doesn't have faith in something since I truly believe that she is wrong. It's more sadness on my part of how alone "you" must feel in times of great stress, wondering if you have moments of "all of this doesn't matter" since you have no faith in a God or heaven or afterlife or ultimate salvation. It's not condescension, so don't take it that way. It's more of a "wow, how can you NOT believe when you see the magic mystery that is creation, the universe, evolution, human development, structure of a snowflake, etc... How can you believe it's all just random without a *more* behind it?"

I don't judge you, although I do get tired of the many anti-Catholic, anti-Christian or unkind and offensive use of language that I've often seen by atheists on DCUM.
Does that answer your question?

Atheist, nontheist, agnostic....all those could apply. Not sure what the right term would be. I do believe there is "something" that makes us human that is worthy of awe, and have has experiences that seemed "spiritual" and there have been strange events in my life that seem divinely inspired. However, at the end of the day I lack the faith to believe in any real way in a god as we traditionally think of him or her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Einstein and Darwin would have belonged to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Fact is, you can't use logic to prove or disprove God's existence. Although many have tried. The question is more a question of your faith. As a secular humanist, I have no faith in deities.

     
“I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

- Albert Einstein

But, have you actually read Spinoza? Spinoza, himself, is often regarded as an atheist. He's certainly no deist. We could ontologically split hairs all day .... but I have laundry to do.

Yes, I read him extensively in an honors philosophy seminar. I regard him as a deist, as a later poster said. But I too have laundry to do, so 'nuff said.

That's great that you've studied Spinoza. You can regard him as a deist, if you like. I prefer using the term pantheist/naturalist. His writings were very, very controversial at the time, and many viewed his philsophies on religion/God as thinly veiled atheism which got him into trouble.

Your views would be more convincing if you had said you actually read Spinoza yourself. I'm the pp with the Spinoza-reading coworker, and I'm surprised to see this thread again. I'll reiterate that there are no thinly-veiled ambiguities in much of his writings. Maybe you have read Spinoza, but it sounds like your way of "regarding" him is based on faith ... in what you'd like to think about him.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Einstein and Darwin would have belonged to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Fact is, you can't use logic to prove or disprove God's existence. Although many have tried. The question is more a question of your faith. As a secular humanist, I have no faith in deities.

     
“I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

- Albert Einstein

But, have you actually read Spinoza? Spinoza, himself, is often regarded as an atheist. He's certainly no deist. We could ontologically split hairs all day .... but I have laundry to do.

Yes, I read him extensively in an honors philosophy seminar. I regard him as a deist, as a later poster said. But I too have laundry to do, so 'nuff said.

That's great that you've studied Spinoza. You can regard him as a deist, if you like. I prefer using the term pantheist/naturalist. His writings were very, very controversial at the time, and many viewed his philsophies on religion/God as thinly veiled atheism which got him into trouble.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Einstein and Darwin would have belonged to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Fact is, you can't use logic to prove or disprove God's existence. Although many have tried. The question is more a question of your faith. As a secular humanist, I have no faith in deities.

     
“I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

- Albert Einstein

But, have you actually read Spinoza? Spinoza, himself, is often regarded as an atheist. He's certainly no deist. We could ontologically split hairs all day .... but I have laundry to do.

I'm not that PP - but a coworker was reading Spinoza and kept reading quotes to me. Spinoza's obvious deism would actually knock your socks off. There isn't even room for grey areas in many, many of the Spinoza quotes my coworker read to me. This surprised my coworker. I suggest you read Spinoza yourself, because I have complete confidence, based on what you wrote above, that you too will be surprised.

As for faith vs. logic - faith is the whole point. Forget logic: if logic was able to prove things 100% in either direction, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation, and the world would have all the answers it's been seeking for millenia. Instead, we're talking about faith. Dawkins, Darwin and the rest can't say they "believe" 100% that god doesn't exist -- which makes them agnostics, not atheists.

Not the PP but atheism is the lack of belief in gods, not the claim to know that they don't exist.

Agnosticism is a knowledge based claim (the claim not to know/that we can't know). Both theists and atheists can be agnostic.

Anonymous wrote:There is one UU church in DC that is Christian--It is on 16th Street. Not All Souls but the other UU Church on 16th. All the rest of the local UU congregations are solidly Humanist. River Road UU even took Church out of its name a few years ago.

If you are looking for a place to gather with like-minded people and for a solid Sunday School experience for kids that doesn't teach them about the super-natural, then you should look at the UUs. There are enough UU congregations nearby that you can find an experience that works for you.

Yes, that's Universalist National Memorial Church. It's part of the UUA but is a Christian church. Again, just my experience, but I've met very few Christians at other UU churches. Mostly I've encountered humanists/atheists and the occasional agnostic. Jesus is typically mentioned only as a great teacher or prophet, and even that is rare in my experience.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Einstein and Darwin would have belonged to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Fact is, you can't use logic to prove or disprove God's existence. Although many have tried. The question is more a question of your faith. As a secular humanist, I have no faith in deities.

     
“I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

- Albert Einstein

But, have you actually read Spinoza? Spinoza, himself, is often regarded as an atheist. He's certainly no deist. We could ontologically split hairs all day .... but I have laundry to do.

Yes, I read him extensively in an honors philosophy seminar. I regard him as a deist, as a later poster said. But I too have laundry to do, so 'nuff said.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Einstein and Darwin would have belonged to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Fact is, you can't use logic to prove or disprove God's existence. Although many have tried. The question is more a question of your faith. As a secular humanist, I have no faith in deities.

     
“I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

- Albert Einstein

But, have you actually read Spinoza? Spinoza, himself, is often regarded as an atheist. He's certainly no deist. We could ontologically split hairs all day .... but I have laundry to do.

I'm not that PP - but a coworker was reading Spinoza and kept reading quotes to me. Spinoza's obvious deism would actually knock your socks off. There isn't even room for grey areas in many, many of the Spinoza quotes my coworker read to me. This surprised my coworker. I suggest you read Spinoza yourself, because I have complete confidence, based on what you wrote above, that you too will be surprised.

As for faith vs. logic - faith is the whole point. Forget logic: if logic was able to prove things 100% in either direction, you and I wouldn't be having this conversation, and the world would have all the answers it's been seeking for millenia. Instead, we're talking about faith. Dawkins, Darwin and the rest can't say they "believe" 100% that god doesn't exist -- which makes them agnostics, not atheists.

there's a book by Frank Schaeffer called "Crazy for God" -- interesting read about how "hardcore" atheists are really no different that "hardcore" evangelicals. i'm catholic, i go to church, i don't agree with a lot of the church, but i haven't found a church i agree with 100%. but i do like the community that comes with going to church. and i do believe in God and the bible (though not literally). from a historical perspective, Jesus was a real person. and the bible provides some great stories. and if Jesus is God -- i'm fine with that and accept that. and if God doesn't exist, then oh well, i don't feel as if it's time wasted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Einstein and Darwin would have belonged to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Fact is, you can't use logic to prove or disprove God's existence. Although many have tried. The question is more a question of your faith. As a secular humanist, I have no faith in deities.

     
“I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

- Albert Einstein

But, have you actually read Spinoza? Spinoza, himself, is often regarded as an atheist. He's certainly no deist. We could ontologically split hairs all day .... but I have laundry to do.

There is one UU church in DC that is Christian--It is on 16th Street. Not All Souls but the other UU Church on 16th. All the rest of the local UU congregations are solidly Humanist. River Road UU even took Church out of its name a few years ago.

If you are looking for a place to gather with like-minded people and for a solid Sunday School experience for kids that doesn't teach them about the super-natural, then you should look at the UUs. There are enough UU congregations nearby that you can find an experience that works for you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd say, "Hey, let's start a non-church!" as a fellow secular humanist (a.k.a atheist) . While I do enjoy our lazy churchless Sunday mornings, I would really enjoy the community aspect of shared potlucks, ethics discussions, doing community outreach, and validating atheism for our kids outside the home.

I would love this! And I'm serious!

It's called Unitarian Universalism. Well almost. We do have a service. But you don't have to come.

But you guys have Christianity/Jesus pictures. I don't want my kids to see any of that to be honest. Where do we go to find pure atheism as community? I'm thinking philosophers instead of religion.

My parents go to a UU church. My ex-Catholic husband came once with me (an atheist) and he couldn't believe there were no Jesus pictures for a "church".

I've heard Christ mentioned, but it is in more of the aspect of him being a great teacher/humanitarian, definitely not as the son of God (and this was for the Christmas pageant). I'd be willing to be that most of the congregation are agnostic/atheists. Then again, I only join my parents there once or twice a year, so I don't have a good sample. My parents definitely go for the sense of community, not the religious aspect. I suspect they are closet atheists.

Anonymous wrote:Einstein and Darwin would have belonged to the church of the flying spaghetti monster. Fact is, you can't use logic to prove or disprove God's existence. Although many have tried. The question is more a question of your faith. As a secular humanist, I have no faith in deities.

     
“I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings."

- Albert Einstein

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'd say, "Hey, let's start a non-church!" as a fellow secular humanist (a.k.a atheist) . While I do enjoy our lazy churchless Sunday mornings, I would really enjoy the community aspect of shared potlucks, ethics discussions, doing community outreach, and validating atheism for our kids outside the home.

I would love this! And I'm serious!

It's called Unitarian Universalism. Well almost. We do have a service. But you don't have to come.

But you guys have Christianity/Jesus pictures. I don't want my kids to see any of that to be honest. Where do we go to find pure atheism as community? I'm thinking philosophers instead of religion.

I've been to a number of UU churches and have yet to see one with Christianity/Jesus pictures!