Atheism

john18061806Coping with death as an athiest vs. coping with death with belief in an afterlife.
I would much rather have a strong faith that is wrong than believe that nothing exists past that point. That being said I don't know what I want to believe in but I want to at least have something.

both athiests and religious people can be outgoingly annoying. Opinions are like dicks, everyone has one but don't go around shoving it down the throats of others.

S.J.WI'd rather cope with death as an athiest. Imagine sitting on your death bead thinking about all the fucked up things you've done in your life. You'd be thinking, ahh fuck God isn't happy with me. What if I put my faith in the wrong God? What if that one time I kissed a boy because I was drunk will send me to hell? Compare that to an athiest who will just be chilling.

shotvetBut say there is a God and an afterlife for a moment. That atheist may being just chilling during the dying process, but what happens after that? Perhaps a literal hell that I have to assume is far worse than the anxiety of a spiritual person on their deathbed. Just a thought from a Christianity standpoint. I don't know enough about other afterlives to make a comparison :0

shotvetBut say there is a God and an afterlife for a moment. That atheist may being just chilling during the dying process, but what happens after that? Perhaps a literal hell that I have to assume is far worse than the anxiety of a spiritual person on their deathbed. Just a thought from a Christianity standpoint. I don't know enough about other afterlives to make a comparison :0

S.J.WIf there is an afterlife, then I'll hapilly chill with the devil. The Bible is Gods book. The devil hasn't put out a book. So what if God is just really childish and tarnishes the devil? And what if Hell is just really cool where you do is party and fuck bad bitches because all that fun sinful behaviour. While everyone in heavan are just living boring lives by doing nothing.

Mr.noodleUm I see many people with "God" or "christain" in there instagram bios and never once seen one with "athiest". also why are you talking about athiests spreadimg their beliefs when you are saying its totally fine for christains to do it?

DaskiSomeone says something trivial "Oh my god ...." The response is "God doesn't exist. Its in twitter bios, facebook profiles, all over.

.Hugo.Loudmouth shove it in your face atheists and religious people are equally annoying. Who cares if someone is religious or not. Let them live their lives how they want to

Granite_StateNah because religious thinking is holding us back as a species.

DaskiI'm not trying to offend or convert anyone here, just trying to learn about another set of beliefs many people have. Im curious as to atheists' thinking, obviously religious beliefs, whether you are theistic or atheistic or somewhere in between, are more complex than just "yes" or "no." I'm trying to understand why atheists try to spread their team's ideology if, in effect, they are on the "we don't play this sport" team.

I get why religious people try to spread their beliefs: they feel a duty to because they heard it somewhere that they should. I am in no denial that religion plays too big of a role in politics and in other societal conventions today, and have no disillusions about the huge number of hyper-religious assholes who try to push their beliefs on others who want no part of it. I like those people no more than atheists who take it to far

shotvetIn what ways?

Granite_StateNah because religious thinking is holding us back as a species.

onenerdykidHere are 2 fun tests that have kept some of the most brilliant human minds perplexed for over 2,000 years:

1. Prove God doesn't exist.

2. Prove God exists.

Atheists are busy chasing the first proof, religious people are busy chasing the second proof. They are both chasing an answer that is equally beyond human understanding and incapable of being scientifically measured and verified.

You will never possess knowledge of either. Anyone who claims to know either is full of shit and confused about the principles of what constitutes knowledge. People can only have belief in either of the two.

In this sense, atheists and religious people are similar and their actions usually show it. Both are capable of acting in crazy hocus pocus ways, as many of you have already said ("atheists are almost evangelical" sometimes).

Belief can be a great thing, but don't confuse it with knowledge. If you do that, you usually end up with a lot of crazy on your plate.

onenerdykidHere are 2 fun tests that have kept some of the most brilliant human minds perplexed for over 2,000 years:

1. Prove God doesn't exist.

2. Prove God exists.

Atheists are busy chasing the first proof

J.D.This is clearly wrong. Atheists are not required to prove God does not exist and it is impossible to prove a negative anyway. The burden of proof with respect to an extraordinary claim like "there is a supreme being guiding all existence" rests with the person asserting that claim.

Once again, as every time this topic comes up: the correct response to "you can't prove God exists" is Russell's teapot. This argument has been over for decades, probably longer.

Next thing. Atheists should not be trying to actively convert anyone, merely challenging bad ideas as they are presented. Atheism isn't a belief system, it has no philosophical content. If you don't believe in astrology, you're not a non-astrologer. If you don't believe in alchemy, you're not a non-alchemist. There's no reason for the term "atheism" to exist. All "atheism" is is a demand for evidence for all truth claims. I don't care if you're talking about God or a monster living under your bed; if you say something is true, you must be prepared to provide evidence for it. If you want to impose a religious doctrine on society at large, you had best explain why it's a good idea for society. Hint to all Islamists: you're going to have a tough time selling Sharia to an atheist.

J.D.Atheists should not be trying to actively convert anyone, merely challenging bad ideas as they are presented. Atheism isn't a belief system, it has no philosophical content. If you don't believe in astrology, you're not a non-astrologer. If you don't believe in alchemy, you're not a non-alchemist. There's no reason for the term "atheism" to exist. All "atheism" is is a demand for evidence for all truth claims. I don't care if you're talking about God or a monster living under your bed; if you say something is true, you must be prepared to provide evidence for it.

onenerdykidSorry, no.
Atheists claim that God does not exist.
Theists claim that (a) God does exist.
Agnostics claim that it is not possible to know this.

Atheism is generally defined and agreed upon as the position that there are no deities. If you claim that there are no deities, you are in the position to prove they don't exist. True, not ALL atheists are out to do this so I should have said "some" or "a lot". Proving a negative happens all of the time in logic, and it can happen in the real world but it is extremely difficult to do.

Atheism therefore typically falls into trap of (trying to) claiming to possess knowledge that God is dead or God does not exist. There are philosophies and systems of thought behind it, namely practical atheism and theoretical atheism. To say that atheism is not a belief or system of thought is not accurate.

The main point I was trying to make was that it is a mistake to say you know that God does or doesn't exist. Rather, a meaningful position to have is to believe that God does or doesn't exist.

louie.miragsWell, people saying they know "God doesn't exist" sounds just as ridiculous as saying "I have faith in God". Just using God as the reason behind everything sounds just as comical

onenerdykidAtheism therefore typically falls into trap of (trying to) claiming to possess knowledge that God is dead or God does not exist. There are philosophies and systems of thought behind it, namely practical atheism and theoretical atheism. To say that atheism is not a belief or system of thought is not accurate.

CheddarJackAtheism exists because the belief of a god - theism - doesn't necessarily imply a certain religion, or one at all.

S.J.WIf an athiest does crossfit and is on a vegan diet. Which one do they tell people they are first?

Wattshahaha crossfit, definitely.

But to answer your question, OP: Atheism is much younger as a movement than Christianity is. After a few centuries and after killing millions of people and ruining the lives of countless others, Christians eventually learned that forcing your beliefs on people who don't hold them isn't the best thing to do. Atheists are just going through that process now, so be patient with them. Let's just hope they don't kill millions of innocents and burn down some of the world's greatest cities while trying to spread their message the way Christianity did.

J.D.You literally do not know what you are talking about.

There's no way you'll actually take the time to watch this, but Sam Harris is arguably the most prominent atheist in the world right now aside from Richard Dawkins and I guess Bill Maher, and he explains quite succinctly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMa-0Fjn2sU

Atheism has no belief structure. It is an absence of belief. A refusal to believe things without proof. If it were a belief system defined by an attempt to prove the non-existence of God, that would be idiotic, because it is LOGICALLY IMPOSSIBLE TO PROVE A NEGATIVE.

TheBigAppleI'm betting a similar percentage of religious folk always bring in god.

"God saved that airplane"
"Thank God"
"I'll pray for you"

saskskierI will absolutely agree that terrible things have been done (and are still being done) in the name of Christianity, but singling it out as if it's the only religion to have committed atrocities is ridiculous and even to generalize that religion causes war is, at best, misinformed. People have always done and will continue to do terrible things to each other, regardless of whether religion is involved or not.

louie.miragsI always find this odd because nobody ever says, "God caused Hurricane Irene", "god guided those planes into the WTC", "God guided that bullet in that drive by into the innocent kid"

WattsPlease tell me where I said Christianity was the only religion to commit an atrocity. I'm singling out Christianity because I assume OP is Christian, because he lives in a country and a world where Christianity is the dominant religion, and in my experience, it's always Christians who complain about Atheists talking about how they're Atheists, or at least the ones who feel strongly enough to start the conversation. If this is not the case, OP, then I apologize. Please tell me where I generalized that religion causes war. The spreading of Christianity may not have been the main motivation for the people in power of starting the Crusades and going to the Americas the destroy the cultures that existed there and replace them instead with Christianity, but it sure as hell is what they told the people who actually went to the middle east and the Americas to do these things.

In the future, I would appreciate it if you would read and reflect on the actual words I write, instead of assuming that I'm making assumptions, or talking about/referencing things I'm not actually talking about or referencing.

saskskierMy bad. It was a knee jerk reaction and I did make some unfair assumptions and I'm sorry about that.

It seems to be the case (and likely is because of our western/North American context) that inevitably the discussion around people's beliefs/religion/atheism/etc turns to pointing at religion (and often singling out Christianity) for all the tragedy and death throughout history, which is simply not the case.

WattsFor sure, and I agree with that. And you're also right that it isn't fair for me to assume OP is a Christian in the first place. I guess the point I was trying to make is that it's pretty ridiculous for Christians to complain about Atheists pushing their beliefs on others considering the cultures that have been either completely destroyed or vastly changed in the past because of Christians wanting to push their beliefs on others. Again, OP, if you aren't a Christian and this doesn't apply to you, then I apologize. Obviously other religions have done this too, and obviously most wars, especially the more recent ones, aren't religiously motivated, but I still find it a ridiculous thing for a Christian to be upset about. It would be like me, as a white man, complaining that black people and women talk too much about wanting to be treated as equals to white men, or spend too much time and energy trying to make this happen.

ndyeI call myself an atheist because I find it illogical that a God would exist. There is comfort in the belief of an afterlife sure, but there is also comfort in the idea my dog actually moved to a farm when I was a kid like my parents said. I would rather accept my reasoning, that neither an afterlife nor my dog prancing around beside horses and cattle are true.

The most likely answer hurts, but its always better than believing something illogical.