Atheists, How can carry on with such a depressing thought

reply to post by backinblack


Sorry this isn't the point I was trying to make. Reread what I wrote and try again.

Originally posted by The Endtime Warrior
reply to post by backinblack

 

Sorry this isn't the point I was trying to make. Reread what I wrote and try again.

So what was your point?
Seemed to be saying there's more weight in believing in God..

reply to post by Average Citizen


Not to go off topic on to another pointless creationism/evolution discussion but thats not correct. Evolution explains the bombardier beetle quite nicely. You might want to look into it a little more. Or not. Not judging either way.

reply to post by backinblack


Not at all. The "idea" of a soul suggests something "non-material" in that at least in this point at time, it is not able to be proven empirically. Religion teaches about souls and afterlifes, whereas the default position of Atheism is materialistic and requires empirical scientific proof for many claims. So long as the Atheist can remain open-minded are these concepts able to be discussed further. Now that I've further defined these "baskets" which are schools of thoughts do you see the point I was trying to make?

reply to post by The Endtime Warrior


I'm an atheist but still believe in a soul..
So no, I don't see your point..
We don't need a God/leader..We are all the same in death...

reply to post by backinblack


Thanks for telling me you are an atheist. I couldn't care less what you are.

reply to post by The Endtime Warrior


I'm an anti-theist, i hope you care

reply to post by awake_and_aware


To me, the suggestion that our conscience ceases to exist as soon as our bodies stop functioning is even more outlandish than the idea of an almighty creator. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed, only transformed.

There is no such thing as 'good' or 'bad'. Those are human words and ideas, not of a higher power.

Are Lions going to hell for preying upon baby antelope, that they ate while it was still alive? It's all about perception of one's reality.

That being said, we all benefit from morals and some of the distinctions between 'good' and 'bad', which is why we have them. They played an important role in our evolution, to get us where we are.

The same distinctions have held us back an incredible amount as well though. (The Crusades and many other religion fueled genocides)

Just because an idea is instilled into you from birth, does not make it 'right'. But then again, it depends on your perception of the events in your life and history to determine what 'right' is.

Too long; Didn't Read: In the end, no one person will be right, and more than likely it won't even matter. Believe in what makes you happy.

reply to post by HarmonicNights


Can you explain that some more? I'm curious.

I'm not sure what energy has to do with it. There is energy all around us. Its not alive, self aware, conscious.

You are a combination of highly complex chemistry and electrical interactions in the brain. Never static. You change from one moment to the next. When those chemical processes stop and the electrical activity ceases you are done.

Its true that there is no energy destruction. No laws of physics are broken. The energy in your body will leech to the surroundings though heat loss and decomposition.

I don't consider that an afterlife.

"The Gods envy us. They envy us because we’re mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we’re doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again."

still stands true whether you are an atheist or not. If this was your only life than wouldnt it make sense to live life to the fullest, i wouldnt be impressed if this was it and i wasted my entire life trolling a forum about things that i believed happen but the whole world sees the falsities of the media.

reply to post by arpgme

I'm saying that there is no motivation to do much since it will all be in vain

Atheists have the exact same motivation that theists do. You want to make the world a better place for yourself and future generations to make life easier, more enjoyable and more productive for yourself and others. Progress for society isn't a goal that requires a God, neither is self-improvement, and you'll find those in Christians and all kinds of theists as well as atheists.

As for the life after death thing you're right it can be a depressing thought but then again I can think of nothing more depressing than the religious idea of eternal punishment or eternal Hell. So while to you no afterlife may seem more depressing there are issues with an afterlife as well. Back when I was a Christian I found the idea of eternal life just as frightening as non-existence, think about it, it just goes on FOREVER without end, its maddening in and of itself.

reply to post by backinblack


First for you to be an atheist you must know every thing in the universe to know that there is not a God that created it all.

Your belief that there is not a God is a religious belief albeit you do not go to a place to worship, you do worship yourself or something.

As for religion being made by man who can prove such a statement????

Adam and Eve worshiped God from the beginning as that is what we are created for his pleasure and they did that which he wanted them to do.

reply to post by ACTS 2:38

First for you to be an atheist you must know every thing in the universe to know that there is not a God that created it all.

Spoken like someone entirely ignorant of the atheist position. Only one branch of atheism makes a claim to KNOW there is no God(s) and that is Gnostic or Strong/Positive Atheism. Most atheists, however, are agnostic, meaning that don't believe in God(s) but DO NOT claim to know for certain that a God does not exist. Most atheists I've met, researched, heard of, etc are all agnostic atheists, even Richard Dawkins admits he doesn't consider himself 100% certain there is no God. Your argument is a straw man plain and simple.

reply to post by HarmonicNights


Energy is still transformed, we're made of a collection of molecules anyway, without brain activity we have no interlect, we are no conciouss, it's as if we've been knocked out, or dare i say it: not even born.

You still get decomposition where we find ourselves back into the earth whence we came.

whence is my word of the day.

Originally posted by ACTS 2:38
reply to post by backinblack

 

First for you to be an atheist you must know every thing in the universe to know that there is not a God that created it all.

Your belief that there is not a God is a religious belief albeit you do not go to a place to worship, you do worship yourself or something.

As for religion being made by man who can prove such a statement????

Adam and Eve worshiped God from the beginning as that is what we are created for his pleasure and they did that which he wanted them to do.

So to be a Christian you must know all there is to know in the universe to know a god created it? What kind of statement is that?

The absence of faith, in itself, is not a religious belief. You are confusing atheism with New Age type stuff, with the self worship. Some people are simply just not spiritual, and believe that the universe around us is purely scientific and mathematical.

The written religions that everyone here on Earth follows and worships was written by man.

As for Adam and Eve, the burden of proof is on you to prove that they actually existed and weren't just a parable or metaphor.

Once you realize why you don't believe in all of the thousands of other deities created by Man throughout history, you'll understand why I don't believe in yours. We are all atheists in a sense.. I just believe in one less god than you do.

Originally posted by ACTS 2:38
reply to post by backinblack

 

First for you to be an atheist you must know every thing in the universe to know that there is not a God that created it all.

Your belief that there is not a God is a religious belief albeit you do not go to a place to worship, you do worship yourself or something.

As for religion being made by man who can prove such a statement????

Adam and Eve worshiped God from the beginning as that is what we are created for his pleasure and they did that which he wanted them to do.

Every. single. thing. that you said in this post made almost no sense!

The first line can be said right back at you. "First for you to be a Christian you must know every thing in the universe to know that there is a God that created it all." Really? Now does that make any sense?

"You do worship yourself or something" This implies worshiping something is required somehow, as if it were a law of nature. I'm relatively sure most atheists/agnostics don't worship anything, especially themselves, that is the point. They don't know anything for sure enough to dedicate time to worshiping a potentially fake god. This would make it more of a philosophical or existential belief than a religious belief. Religion and faith exist only in the mind just as most other things do. Language only exists in our mind, our concept of time exists only in our mind, swear words exist only in our mind because we attribute bad meaning to word not because a swear word actually exits, you follow where I am going here? God is in your head, as is heaven and hell. I find it funny so many people think the concept of no afterlife makes more sense than some fantastical place where we get to see all our dead family and commune with some invisible being hell bent on a power trip and playing a game with our lives like we are chess pieces. Frankly, the idea of god creating us for his pleasure kind of disgusts me, and kind of makes me laugh, all at the same time.

There are many things that point towards religion being made by man. Why does the bible, new and old testaments, show god exhibiting feelings of jealousy, hatred, malice, racism, sexism, etc. If that's not evidence of something being man made than I don't know what is.

The bible itself was probably commissioned to be written by the Roman government to help keep it's people in check. To keep down the masses, to dumb everyone down, to spread ignorance. To give the sheeple rules to follow because they can't manage to gather a moral compass on their own. The Bible has long been an ignorance inducing tool used by many institutions and countries in their personal interest, usually for power or monetary gains. Open your eyes or don't come onto a thread about atheism in the first place.

Adam and Eve are not able to be proven any more than you could prove the bible is the true word of god. I think god would have had something smarter to say to us. The fact the you can be content with someone who leaves you on a planet in the middle of nowhere of the universe with nothing but some stone rules and a book blows my mind. That feels more painful of a thought than the though of no afterlife existing. Actually, just your whole post pained me. God probably doesn't want you wasting your time on a thread about atheism. So...

Originally posted by jessejamesxx

Originally posted by ACTS 2:38
reply to post by backinblack

 

Once you realize why you don't believe in all of the thousands of other deities created by Man throughout history, you'll understand why I don't believe in yours. We are all atheists in a sense.. I just believe in one less god than you do.

That is a really good point. We are all atheists in a sense, that is a nice way to put it. I got a little overwhelmed trying to respond to that post.

reply to post by SpaceJ


Few of my favourite quotes:-

We, on our side, are praying to Him to give us victory, because we believe we are right; but those on the other side pray to Him, too, for victory, believing they are right. What must He think of us?
~ Abraham Lincoln

A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.
~ Albert Einstein

Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.
~ Napoleon

Science has done more for the development of western civilization in one hundred years than Christianity did in eighteen hundred years.
~ Jeff Burroughs

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own; a God, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotisms.
~ Albert Einstein

All Bibles are man-made.
~ Thomas Edison

reply to post by awake_and_aware


Yes, those all hit the nail right on the head for me. Napoleon's quote gets to me the most at the moment, only because I can't fathom how people do not see that aspect of it. From the very beginning...it was nothing but a cage.

Einstein's respectful outlook on religion always gave me hope, I've tried to hold a similar regard, but sometimes it's too hard to keep it that eloquently stated. But then this is why I try not to click on threads like this, I gets me too worked up. I already am presently dealing with a friend who was a long time agnostic and now is magically Evangelical. It came out of nowhere and I was suddenly bombarded with zombie-like rantings that sound like they came off the televangelist channel. I'm like whoa, where's the kool aid, where's it at, don't drink it!? My brain hurts. Bad.

I always liked Mark Twain's quotes on religion they are amusing.

"Go to Heaven for the climate, Hell for the company."