Atheists and God

Thanks for asking this question. Here are my answers based on my experience as an atheist:

1. I don’t ask a lot of questions about God. I answer a lot of questions about God and religion because they are asked but I don’t ask very many myself.

2. I comment on God and religion a lot because these beliefs have a tremendous impact on society - and some of that impact is negative. A large portion of conflict between nations and between us as individuals has occured because someone didn’t conform to another person’s god-belief. I’m concerned about how these irrational beliefs will affect future generations.

3. I have no problem with people expressing their religion. In fact, it’s a basic First Amendment right for Americans and I support that right wholeheartedly. However, I have a big problem with government endorsement of ANY religion. I’ll fight against that until the day I die because it promotes tyranny. Also, while I support free speech, I also exercise mine by criticizing irrational thought and exposing logical fallacies. That’s the beauty of free speech in the public square - we are always challenged to learn and improve our arguments.

4. I’m not on a mission to disprove God because I think that’s pretty impossible. Rather, I prefer to show the more open-minded among us that what we’ve been taught as true all our lives may not be so black-and-white.

I don’t define myself by what I don’t believe in. I define myself by what I DO believe in and support which is science and rational thought and the morality dervied from these things.

Even though I’m an atheist I find religion as a subject fascinating. I try to show as much respect for other people’s beliefs as they show for mine. When somone has utter contempt for atheists and atheism it becomes difficult to have productive discourse. I will confess to the occasionally uncalled for snarky remark but then again I’m only human. I really am interested in what people believe and why.

I agree with Thomas Jefferson when he said that it didn’t mater if his neighbor worshiped 20 gods or none as it neither picked his pocket nor broke his leg. As long as religion is a personal conviction I have no problem with it. The problem I have is when believers try to force it on others through changing our government and laws to reflect their religious beliefs. Some have the religious belief that a soul magically enters the zygote after conception so nobody should be able to have an abortion. Some say suicide is a sin so even someone with a terminal dissease who is in constant pain with no hope of recovery is forced to suffer not even afforded the consideration that we give to dogs who are put down painlessly when they are suffering. Some say we should not teach evolution in schools because it goes against the way some influencial believers interpret their Bible. They want to teach “intelligent deisgn” in science classes even though it isn’t a scientific theory at all but rather thinly veiled religious indoctrination.

Firstly, there are philosophical atheists who have given tremendous thought and effort to god concepts. The one’s like them are more prone to answer religious questions than to ask them, because they have some degree of expertise to bring to the table. The theist camp has a similar minority.

Then, there are those who like to ‘stir the pot’, and ask questions just to get a rise, even though they have little interest in the answers. You see the same behavior from a parallel group of the theist camp.

Then, there are those who are atheists for reasons as shallow as most everyone else. This group, which is the majority of both theists and atheists, has no real idea why they believe what they believe. They simply assume their preconceptions are true. Their questions tend to be basic or emotional in nature.

I think the question you’re really wanting answered is, “why do atheists have an interest in religion”? The main reason that atheists who have an interest in religion, have that interest, is that we are former theists. You don’t lose interest in something that dominated your life just because it no longer does. If you have a former serious girlfriend, you can probably empathize with that. Obviously not all atheists are former theists, but most of those participating in religious forums are.

My own motive, is that I used to be a young earth creationist fundamentalist nutter, and only by dumb luck and perserverence on the part of others, was I able to escape from the mind control vortex. My interest in religion has not faded even though my beliefs have changed. Part of me also wants to help others suffering from the same predicament escape, just as those that went before me helped me. And finally, I have a political interest in promoting my religious ideas, just as everyone else does.

I mean if they don’t believe in God then why do they comment about God so much?

Simple, and if you need to ask this question…you need to take more history classes.

In EVERY major conflict, religion NOT atheism, has been at the center of the cause. Even the invasion of the middle east…we would NEVER have done that to a Christian country or Catholic. It would been played out like the Panama invasion of Bush senior, or the clandestine operations in Columbia & central America.

The US doesn’t since the cold war ended have an “enemy”…thus, the stirring the pot of the Muslim / Christian tensions & raping the middle east of it’s resources…how many times did Bush mention God?

Would this have had the same impact if the US was largely Atheist? Absolutely not.

Now, when the killing & door knocking stops, I’ll be happy. And nope, I’m not aetheist :) But I completely understand where they are coming from.

…How can you not believe in Scooby Doo? If you’re channel surfing and flip to Cartoon Network and Scooby Doo’s on do you shut your eyes and hit the power button screaming “He’s not real!”?

well, im atheist and no I dont talk about god all the time, nor do I push atheism on other people. However sometimes its interesting to learn about other religions are debate about it with other people, atheists arent the only ones who do it, thiests do it as well.

What’s ironic about this is, most of your questions and comments are about atheism in some way :)

I”m agnostic, but that doesn’t mean I don’t study all views and beliefs as much as I can out of genuine interest. It’s about searching for answers and learning new things, not some paranoia that I might be wrong.

that is so true I never thought of that lol nice thinking.

Scooby Doo isn’t real? Next you’ll be telling me the Easter Bunny and Santa don’t exist…