A provocative question as usual...

[Macfistowannabe]

What has ATHEISM done for you?
How have you benefited from it?

 

[namkcuR]

I'm agnostic.

 

[VertigoGal]

It made me depressed/suicidal/unable to concentrate on anything/wondering why the hell I'm even here.

I finally submitted to the fact that I can't know either way, if there is or isn't a god. To say for sure that there's nothing else seems arrogant (in the same way that saying you *know* for sure your religion is 100% right is), and frankly during my little atheist spell I spent most of my time wondering what it's like to not exist, feeling there's no point in living, and thinking that I might as well end it now.

Now I'm going with "agnostic".

But then, many religions also seem arrogant if taken as the absolute truth (at least they tell ya where you're going!). So I guess in the same way religions are right for certain people, maybe atheism is right for some people...Just not me.

Even if there is no god, I don't want to know for sure.

 

[BassTrap82]

There is no god

 

[Irvine511]

atheism places unshakable faith in logic.

i respect it tremendously.

 

[Macfistowannabe]

There is no god

My question is simply what has this belief done for your life, and how have you benefitted from it.

 

[VertigoGal]

There is no god

Oh.

Thanks a lot.

I'll go run my head into a wall now.

hey, remember that simpsons episode where homer proves there's no god while working on a tax proposal. the one w/ the crayon in the brain. lol

 

[daygloeyes2]

Oh.

Thanks a lot.

I'll go run my head into a wall now.

hey, remember that simpsons episode where homer proves there's no god while working on a tax proposal. the one w/ the crayon in the brain. lol

And then Flanders finds the leaflet on his car, looks at it, figures out he's right, and says "We can't let this be getting around." and starts taking the other leaflets off of other cars.

 

[BassTrap82]

I don't think atheism is a believe. Believing in a god is stupid.
God doesn't exist, that's the truth!

 

[Macfistowannabe]

I don't think atheism is a believe. Believing in a god is stupid.
God doesn't exist, that's the truth!

There's not really any proving that, that's why I see it as a belief rather than a fact.

 

[BassTrap82]

no! you're not right, sorry!

 

[deep]

What has ATHEISM done for you?
How have you benefited from it?

i'm not an atheist


but I can add that they don't spend their weekends lining up with thousands of believers
waiting to view a sewer stain on a tunnel wall
believing that God spent his time
creating a concrete Rorschach test for the faithful

 

[Macfistowannabe]

VertigoGal:
It made me depressed/suicidal/unable to concentrate on anything/wondering why the hell I'm even here.

I finally submitted to the fact that I can't know either way, if there is or isn't a god. To say for sure that there's nothing else seems arrogant (in the same way that saying you *know* for sure your religion is 100% right is), and frankly during my little atheist spell I spent most of my time wondering what it's like to not exist, feeling there's no point in living, and thinking that I might as well end it now.

Now I'm going with "agnostic".

But then, many religions also seem arrogant if taken as the absolute truth (at least they tell ya where you're going!). So I guess in the same way religions are right for certain people, maybe atheism is right for some people...Just not me.

Even if there is no god, I don't want to know for sure.

Very good answer.

Irvine 511:
atheism places unshakable faith in logic.

i respect it tremendously.

It certainly does take a lot of faith (in atheism) to make that absolution. It relies fully on what we might know rather than what we might not know.

 

[melon]

What has ATHEISM done for you?
How have you benefited from it?

I guess the other question could be asked of religion. What has it done for you? How have you benefitted from it?

I'm not an atheist, obviously, but I'd imagine that people find plenty of fulfillment outside of religion. Personally, religion gives me nothing more than a huge headache.

Melon

 

[Macfistowannabe]

Re: Re: A provocative question as usual...

I guess the other question could be asked of religion. What has it done for you? How have you benefitted from it?

That's exactly what led me to start this thread. There have been numerous threads about what your faith in a diety does for you. I figured why not have some interesting discussion by reversing the question.

I'm not an atheist, obviously, but I'd imagine that people find plenty of fulfillment outside of religion. Personally, religion gives me nothing more than a huge headache.

Plenty of fulfillment.. hrm... Some dozen replies, and I still have no idea how it can be fulfilling at all.

 

[BassTrap82]

"Religion is what happens when the spirit has left the building"
--> Bono

 

[melon]

Re: Re: Re: A provocative question as usual...

That's exactly what led me to start this thread. There have been numerous threads about what your faith in a diety does for you. I figured why not have some interesting discussion by reversing the question.

Plenty of fulfillment.. hrm... Some dozen replies, and I still have no idea how it can be fulfilling at all.

It's a good thread, though. Don't get me wrong. I like asking a "provocative question" once in a while.

Melon

 

[Macfistowannabe]

"Religion is what happens when the spirit has left the building"
--> Bono

Bono is referring to the rules and regulations that are associated with the belief in God that often tangle up the message.

Here's what else Bono has to say:

"Explaining belief has always been difficult. How do you explain a love and logic at the heart of the universe when the world is so out of whack? How about the poetic verses the actual truth found in scriptures? Has free will got us crucified? And what about the dodgy characters who inhabit the tome, known as the bible, who claim to hear the voice of God? You have to be interested, but is God?

Explaining faith is impossible....Vision over visibility...Instinct over intellect...A songwriter plays a chord with the faith that he will hear the next one in his head."

 

[deep]

Re: Re: Re: A provocative question as usual...

Plenty of fulfillment.. hrm... Some dozen replies, and I still have no idea how it can be fulfilling at all.

Some might find it comforting, and maybe even fulfilling to be able to tune out all the many varied religious solicitors, even the subtle ones in the work place and all the other random encounters.

They can say, “No thanks, I don’t care about heaven, I have no greater plan.

I just want to do what is right, right now. For the betterment of society and humanity, to leave a better world when I am gone."

 

[Macfistowannabe]

Re: Re: Re: Re: A provocative question as usual...

Some might find it comforting, and maybe even fulfilling to be able to tune out all the many varied religious solicitors, even the subtle ones in the work place and all the other random encounters.

They can say, “No thanks, I don’t care about heaven, I have no greater plan.

Such as the rules and regulations aspect of a practiced faith. I can very much see that in a way, where we have the free will to make our decisions how we want to make them. I still don't see how the absense of God is a comforting thought.

"I just want to do what is right, right now. For the betterment of society and humanity, to leave a better world when I am gone."

That would be a good thing, but it's nothing out of the ordinary that a spiritual person is capable of accomplishing either.

 

[deep]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A provocative question as usual...

I still don't see how the absense of God is a comforting thought.

You don't see all the arguments and wars about whose God is supreme

and which Religion is the True Religion and only road to salvation?



well, not having to participate in that could be comforting

 

[Macfistowannabe]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A provocative question as usual...

You don't see all the arguments and wars about whose God is supreme

and which Religion is the True Religion and only road to salvation?



well, not having to participate in that could be comforting

I suppose so. But, is that the only benefit of being an atheist?

 

[deep]

extremely low odds of being recruited to be a suicide bomber?

 

[VertigoGal]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A provocative question as usual...

You don't see all the arguments and wars about whose God is supreme

and which Religion is the True Religion and only road to salvation?



well, not having to participate in that could be comforting

But that can also be said about agnostics, and even the more liberal branches of most religions. No one has to participate in that, and most people don't. Being an atheist goes much farther than that.

I guess I can see how it would give people a sense of comfort knowing they don't have some cruel god's rules to live up to, no one to be held accountable to. Also, maybe some people like the idea of order, of our individual insignificance, ants in the scheme of things. Personally, that scares the shit out of me, but maybe some people take comfort in that sense of nature, order, etc...

I don't know if that makes any sense.

 

[Macfistowannabe]

extremely low odds of being recruited to be a suicide bomber?

In the Middle East, they don't exactly have separation of church and state, and therefore they FORCE a belief on you that you might, in your heart, reject. So where does religion/faith come in to play on recruiting suicide bombers? Where does the aftermath of the PERSONAL - not dictated - decision to follow a faith get enforced?

If you know something I don't, I'd be glad if you could share it.

 

[sue4u2]

Maybe not having to account - Ever - to anyone here or where ever - for anything, makes some feel a great deal better about everything they do or don't do.
Some sense of total and complete freedom - in a way??
But I can't speak from an atheist point of view at all.

 

[Anthony]

Explaining faith is impossible....Vision over visibility...Instinct over intellect...A songwriter plays a chord with the faith that he will hear the next one in his head."

Its an interesting thread, and I think I should go away and think about it. Just to point out, however, faith and religion are not necessarily the same thing. You can have faith without religion quite easily, for many people.

Ant.

 

[Macfistowannabe]

Maybe not having to account - Ever - to anyone here or where ever - for anything, makes some feel a great deal better about everything they do or don't do.
Some sense of total and complete freedom - in a way??
But I can't speak from an atheist point of view at all.

That's not a bad explanation. It would make me wonder though, would it matter if I did something "wrong" like stealing if (a) I didn't like the person (b) I could easily get away with it? If you have no way of getting into trouble, what would stop you from such a thing? Would you have an attack of conscience, and if not, then what?

Just throwing that out there.

 

[MsGiggles]

I don't know what it would be like to be atheist....

 

[Miggy D]

I was listening to the radio some time ago, and the host hypothesized that if there were a way that science could prove without a shadow of a doubt that God didn't exist, the very day they announced their findings would be the day masses of people started looting stores and breaking laws, because they'd have no reason not to. If it were true that there were absolutely no God, no higher being to be held accountable to, no ramifications upon death...why not be selfish?

-Miggy D