Is atheism a bona fide religion ?

Originally posted by marg6043
reply to post by riley

 

Interesting how the meaning of Atheism is differently view and interpreted by the believers depending how far that believe extend, be a Christian fundamentalist believe or just a higher source or creator believe and lets not forget the people that do not subscribe to a religion at all.

I agree.. it would be far better if people would just accept and respect the actual atheists explanations of what we are rather than trying to find loopholes and technicalities. Perhaps some just have alot of difficulty comprehending non belief which is why they are so adament it can't exist. Not sure how my disbelief can impact them so personally but I got people praying for me now so I'm guessing it must.

Reply to MajorMalfunction

I know it's hard to believe because the mind virus is so entrenched in your own psyche you can't think of life without it, but it's true. Just accept it like you accept your invisible friend -- you need no proof or evidence to believe in that. I'm an atheist and I'm actually telling you person to person and not through a cryptic thousands year old book that it's true.

Don’t you think the world is too perfect and balanced without a creator behind it?

Look at a building and a person thinks of the architect, at a sculpture and a person instantly comprehends an artist. But examine the elegant workings of creation, from the complexity and balance of nuclear particle physics to the vastness of space, and a person conceives of…nothing? Surrounded by a world of complexities, we as mankind cannot even assemble the wing of a gnat. And yet the entire World and the entire Universe exists in a state of perfect orchestration as a product of random accidents which moulded cosmic chaos into balanced perfection?

Some vote chance, others creation.

reply to post by Skyfloating


Even if you know the answer to 4 (because we all have it flash from time to time in dreams and random thinking) still your human body will deny that answer because our human brains are not prepared to deal with anything that can be longer than an earth life span or the infinite.

That is why religion is so appealing to many and rightly so.

Religion helps people cope with life and with a hope for after life, yes many need that link while others do not.

Personally I think that at one point in time an atheist will turn into spirituality (without religious bonds) because we all will face the need to find purpose.

Just an opinion not a fact

Reply to marg6043

Personally I think that at one point in time an atheist will turn into spirituality (without religious bonds) because we all will face the need to find purpose.

I agree matey.


[edit on 18-12-2007 by kangjia57]

Sprituality does not require belief in god.. an atheist can be spiritually fulfilled and find purpose in life without having to look elsewhere.

Just like anti matter is the opposite of matter, wouldn't it be reasonable to say that anti-belief is still a belief only in an opposite and opposing direction. And if so, doesn't it take a conclusion and act of faith to put a trust and confidence into such a belief or anti-belief?

Like this:

I believe in a God

or

I believe there is no God

[edit on 18-12-2007 by Fromabove]

i don't know if someone has said it here yet, but i've said it dozens of times before on ATS

if atheism is a religion, bald is now a haircolor.

in fact, this was brought up in the ATS mix that i did with MM.

can't be a religion, there's only 1 thing involved. it's a LACK of belief, a LACK of faith.

not collecting stamps isn't a hobby
not going to work isn't a job
not believing in god isn't a religion

• null
  

ok i was raised Christain,believed that jesus died for my sins, read the bible, went to church, fell asleep,could not wait to be dismissed .
And then i was in a horrible accident ,now at the time of the accident being burned alive ,actually cooked alive ,i realized im gonno die, no thought of God or jesus.I said this sucks. I got Mad ,tearing the ligaments in both feet ,ripping the tendons in my knees and hurting my back .i got out more dead than alive im here to tell u God jesus was not in my thoughts now im losing my religeon.

reply to post by Dazed


Do not feel like is something wrong with your religious belief is just that at that point in time your survival mode kicked in and staying alive was the most important thing in your mind.

We may be humans but we still part of the animal species regardless of what we have been told to belief that we are special.

You acted on instincts and preservation. Just normal.

Reply to marg6043

We may be humans but we still part of the animal species regardless of what we have been told to belief that we are special.

So you believe we humans are animals but more intelligent than other animals?

reply to post by kangjia57


We have the same instincts that other species in the animal kindom have for preservation. Is call flight or fight and is kicked in by your sympathetic nervious system when in a dangerous situation, this is part of your autonamic nervious system.

We either fight or fly in a dangerous situation and our minds just focus in one thought survival.

Originally posted by Fromabove
Just like anti matter is the opposite of matter, wouldn't it be reasonable to say that anti-belief is still a belief only in an opposite and opposing direction. And if so, doesn't it take a conclusion and act of faith to put a trust and confidence into such a belief or anti-belief?

Like this:

I believe in a God

or

I believe there is no God

[edit on 18-12-2007 by Fromabove]

How about this one:

I believe in God

or

There is no God ..

Truthfully, the attitude most atheists have is live and let live. You do your thing and the atheists will do theirs and n'er the twain shall meet.

I think life would be a lot easier if we just kept out of other people's business.

I always liked Penn Jillette's essay "I Believe There is No God".
www.npr.org...

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

Originally posted by tep200377

Originally posted by Fromabove
Just like anti matter is the opposite of matter, wouldn't it be reasonable to say that anti-belief is still a belief only in an opposite and opposing direction. And if so, doesn't it take a conclusion and act of faith to put a trust and confidence into such a belief or anti-belief?

Like this:

I believe in a God

or

I believe there is no God

[edit on 18-12-2007 by Fromabove]

How about this one:

I believe in God

or

There is no God ..

It would actally be:

There is a God

or

There is not God


Both are stating a belief as a fact. Neither can prove what they believe to be facts.

There may be a god(s) or there may not be a god; who am I you say?

It takes a kind of faith to be an atheist, so I would say that it is in a way.

I accept the arguments that atheism is not a religion, though I think some atheists believe in their conclusions as fervently as any fundamentalist believes in their faith. Some Christians threaten you with hellfire if you don't believe what they believe. Some atheists insist you are a fool if you don't agree with them. Both are zealots.

Atheism doesn't involve faith. Atheists just don't care one way or another about worshipping deities. They're indifferent to religion because they don't see it as applying to them and they're not concerned about what happens after death. They're simply not afraid of damnation or punishment, which are chief issues that believers deal with constantly as elements of their faith.

If you don't care, you're not invested, so faith is irrelevant as it relates to atheists.

As an atheist, I reject the god hypothesis due to lack of evidence.

When evidence is eventually presented, I will assess it again. I like Sagan's 'Dragon in my garage' story to describe the atheistic position.

Dragon in my garage

So, religion? No. Faith? No.

reply to post by Sestias


Except atheists are right.

We have to be very vehement in our stances, because otherwise we would be overwhelmed by the Xians intent on taking over our country.

Somebody has to speak out against delusional people trying to hijack the world with their invisible friend and the contradictory how to manual they use as "proof." It's a dirty job, etc.

[edit on 18-12-2007 by MajorMalfunction]