The Athiest thread

[BVS]

What if my suit goes out of style? I'm screwed. Oh well Jesus will be in a robe and pre-birkenstock sandals. How uncomfortable, his feet must me killing him. Maybe I'll pack a pair of Nike airs in my coffin as a gift. As a birthday/ Christmas gift. Poor guy has to share his birthday with Christmas.

Alright better leave before I get struck down for blasphemy.

 

[beli]

No I agree athiest is a form of religion. It's a set of beliefs. You deny the existence of God. Therefore you deny this, you deny that, and you deny the other thing.

Agnostic you're saying well maybe, maybe not.

To deny is to hold a belief.

It is a belief, yes, but its not a set of guidelines on how to run your life ie its not a religion. (except for Buddhists, etc)

 

[beli]

I don't want to be labeled an athiest because it is, in my opinion, a condtradiction unto itself. It is a religion based in the non-belief of religion.

So I'm an agnostic.

Athieism means no God. Religion has nothing to do with it. Some athiests are religious eg buddhists and some arent.

 

[beli]

I also am from an area that very heavily religious, so most people who are atheists here have actively rejected the religion/belief they were brought up with (almost exclusively Christianity). I think that background causes more of a tendency to trade the "religion" of Christianity for the "religion" of atheism.

See to me those peopke arent atheists, their exChristians and can be every bit as annoying as ex smokers / drinkers etc.

 

[beli]

an atheist's tombstone read: Here lies an atheist, all dressed up and nowhere to go.

Yes, agreed. Your point?

The whole burying / tombstone thing is a Christian thing to do. Most of my family are cremated to save on "landfill". Some are buried though. Its up to the individual if they want to be cremated or food for worms as there are no customs for atheists - except for Buddhists, etc. My family are irreligious atheists.

What exactly do you want discussed?

 

[indra]

See to me those peopke arent atheists, their exChristians and can be every bit as annoying as ex smokers / drinkers etc.

I think to be an ex- something you once had to be whatever it was. So to be an ex-Christian, one would have to have once been a Christian. I had to go to church as a kid, but I don't recall ever believing it...I have a fair understanding of it (had to do something while I was sitting there And I went to Catholic high school and Catholic and then Quaker colleges.), but not the belief. It just never made sense to me. So I think you can be steeped in the culture, but never be won over. You tend to get some of the baggage though....

 

[beli]

Indra, I mean the annoying atheists you mentioned. Sorry I fired that off pretty quickly as you can detect from my impressive spelling.

In my experience, and this has no academic basis, its usually Catholics that have been to super strict nuns with weapons schools that turn into those annoying pious "athiests" that everyone hides from at parties.

PS I agree with you on the agnostic bit

 

[indra]

Indra, I mean the annoying atheists you mentioned. Sorry I fired that off pretty quickly as you can detect from my impressive spelling.

Gotcha! And agree.

 

[blueyedpoet]

maybe my reading and studying buddha has left me ignorant (wouldn't that be odd?) but i could've sworn that buddhists are not persay atheists. the question of God or no-God is simply another attachment that one must break him/herself free of

 

[beli]

maybe my reading and studying buddha has left me ignorant (wouldn't that be odd?) but i could've sworn that buddhists are not persay atheists. the question of God or no-God is simply another attachment that one must break him/herself free of

Agreed, I agree with you completely. I was just throwing the "except Buddhists" bit in every sentence in case anyone picked me up on what I was saying. Which no one did.

That didnt make any sense.


But yes I agree with you.

 

[beli]

I meant I wanted to mention that not all athiests are irreligious.

I think that makes less sense

 

[A_Wanderer]

Exactly atheism, no deity which is not by definition areligious.

 

[beli]

Exactly atheism, no deity which is not by definition areligious.

Thank you. I have lost count of how many times I have said that today.

 

[AcrobatMan]

not sure if i am atheist, agnostic or believer of God ( depends on circumstance...yes you can call me a chameleon

but i surely dont believe in "God" - which is like ...punish the sinners or forgive the sinner or who has CCTV to see everything we do or who is VERY HAPPY if we pray 10 times a day.

I believe in natural forces, and science...and logic and rationale....
And if there was no Sun, so there would be no life.. But you can as well call Sun as another star ( which is ok with me)

But you can call me mildly religious

 

[DrTeeth]

Non-believer here

 

[U2Kitten]

athesiest?

LOL, I thought my daughter made that word up because she couldn't pronounce it when she read it! She told me she had an online friend who was an athesiest, and I said, a what??

 

[AcrobatMan]

I have a soft corner for non-believers..

I think I could be THEIR GOD

 

[A_Wanderer]

As I said before I only worship me.

 

[U2Kitten]

Buddhists don't believe?? I didn't know that. The Dhali Lama seems very religious.

 

[beli]

Buddhists don't believe?? I didn't know that. The Dhali Lama seems very religious.

He is religious. Religion is a set of principles, guidelines, and customs.

 

[U2Kitten]

Thanks, I have one more question: if Buddhists are non believers in the afterlife, and most Chinese are traditionally Buddhist, why do they pray to their ancestors/believe the spirits of their dead relatives will help them? Do they believe in ghosts?

 

[beli]

Buddhists believe in reincarnation.

Im really not full bottle on it. Im still trying to find a better way to explain the whole Buddhists = religious athiests concepts.

Tis probably better if a Buddhist answers your questions. We shall wait and see if we can catch one, err, one wanders into this thread.

 

[beli]

Kitten, in the mean time, try

http://www.buddhanet.net/

and click on the ebook

Good Question, Good Answers
by Ven. S. Dhammika
A very popular eBook - with clear answers to questions on Buddhism.

 

[AcrobatMan]

I doubt if there is any BUDDHIST on this board...

may be yertle.. dunno

 

[Popmartijn]

Speaking of taste...where are these damn cookies everyone's talking about?

My co-worker was just handing them out when I read your post. Chocolate... yummi!

Oh, I think I'll be on a lifelong search to find out whether or not I'm agnostic.

 

[U2Kitten]

Thanks for the link beli. Now I too can say, I have an online friend who's an 'athesiest'

 

[Golightly Grrl]

I doubt if there is any BUDDHIST on this board...

may be yertle.. dunno

I was raised Catholic, but lately I've become very interested in Buddhism and will read more about it now that I'm graduating and have the time.

Maybe I'm really a yogaist

 

[U2Kitten]

But if Buddhists believe in reincarnation, they must believe in souls, so therefore they must believe in some kind of supreme being?

 

[speedracer]

Where's the insomniac dyslexic agnostic thread?

 

[Judah]

Athiest here...or at least Agnostic, though i think most of the options considered are usually pretty limited (i.e. do you believe in a one God or no?).

What if you believe there WAS a God, but he blew himself/herself/itself up real good in order to make the universe that we have (i.e. the Big Bang was the Big Suicide)? That way, it's, yes, still the fact that God is in all of us (or his/hers/its remains anyway).

What if there are an infinite number of universes, "living" in parallel dimensions (think soap bubbles that stick to each other) and, yeah sure, there is a possibility that some of these were created in a way that there was first an all-powerful being that came about who then set about creating its own tailor-made universe which it ruled forever (or for a loooong time)? Maybe some universes came about on their own and are ruled by whatever cosmic laws (or their own physics) that are prevalent?

Maybe it is true that some things don't need a first cause...that they can come into being out of nothing (as some Quantum theories predict and physics experiments have measured, i believe). If yes, that's good news for everyone, believers and non-believers alike, because that leaves it open that a God can be its own first cause or a universe or particle (or anything) can be its own first cause...somebody doesn't necessarily need to make it.

I never felt at ease with the answer that "God always has been...he's infinite...nobody created him." If God doesn't need a creator, why does a universe? Why can't what IS, also have been that way forever?

Whatever the answer, all non-believers and believers can at least take heart in one common thing: there probably is an answer, and we're all part of it. How meaningful it is in the end is all subjective.