What Makes People NOT believe In God? (Atheists Come!)

Greyfan...I certainly guess as you do on the issue of the gods currently in favormost especially the Abrahamic God.

It is my guess...based on the evidence available to me...that the stories in the Bible (the book that chronicles the Abrahamic God) are myths and fables.

And I am not an atheist.

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Thanks for all those who replied XD Helped me with my RE stuff.

I suddenly realised that I'm not an atheist... I'm agnostic. Worse, eh?

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much worse

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I think its harder, and far more honest, to be agnostic than religionist or atheist - ya gotta admit to yourself there's somethin' you Don't know.

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Yeah, I can see where that'd be a chore for some.

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Rosslyn wrote:

Thanks for all those who replied XD Helped me with my RE stuff.

I suddenly realised that I'm not an atheist... I'm agnostic.

Good for you!

Quote:

Worse, eh?

Not by a long shot.

In fast...better.

Make that BETTER!

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When you learn about the way the world works, in the purely unadulterated academic sense, you realize that it has nothing to do with the way that religions describes the world as working.

Religions exist as a social structure. They work pretty well as a social organizer, a written and agreed upon common moral guide system, a place for community functions, a way to be comforted and deal with difficult times in your life.

However, these beneficial qualities which draw in believers in so fervently does't make religious works accurate. And many religious folks feel like they can't have the benefits without the whole shebang (like, believing you have to be dunked to go to heaven, or that muhammed knows god really cares how many times a day you pray, or that noah LITERALLY piled all those animals on the ark and adam and eve are our incestual predecessors.)

I know that the scientific method works, and trust it more than I would someone's opinion in a book written thousands of years ago based on zero evidence. I take what benefits I can from religion (holidays, family gatherings) and leave the negatives (bigotism, closed world view, dogma over intelligence.)

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Yeah, when i celebrate christmas it is for the great colours, the giving, the cartoon specials and the family dinner. Not Jesus. KInd of like how christmas was in Rome, before christianity and before it was called christmas.

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There never has been, never will be, a god of any sort.

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How do you know, edgar?

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god came before him in a vision and told him

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snood wrote:

How do you know, edgar?

Can't tell you how often I've asked Edgar that same question, Snood.

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edgarblythe wrote:

There never has been, never will be, a god of any sort.

Of course there is a God. People have conjured him up, prayed to him, and killed for him. It has happened throughout history, that the greatest works of art, music and literature have been created in the name of this God. God has also been the catalyst for some of the most heinous atrocities ever thought up by humanity.

Is God real, or a collective figment of imagination? Who knows? It's all blue potatoes to me! :wink:

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Frank Apisa wrote:

snood wrote:
How do you know, edgar?

Can't tell you how often I've asked Edgar that same question, Snood.

...I'm sure, but I ask tongue in cheek.

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snood wrote:

Frank Apisa wrote:
snood wrote:
How do you know, edgar?

Can't tell you how often I've asked Edgar that same question, Snood.

...I'm sure, but I ask tongue in cheek.

Yeah, I know.

But I've got the guts to ask it as a reasonable, appropriate question.

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You insinuating I ain't got guts (Naw you wouldn't do that, as sensitive as you are to such insinuations, would you)?

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Besides, Frank - what seems to one man to be a totally reasonable question might appear to another as just inability to comprehend the discretion of letting something go. You will never rest until you've convinced everyone that the only reasonable stance is your perfect agnosticism. So you will never rest - that's totally fine with me - I just don't like it when you get petty and lash out at those who won't fall between your petty lines.

I find in my life Frank that there are often between otherwise totally whole people the occasion to just not be able to settle on something in a way pleasing to both. On those occasions, I find that the ability to not take oneself so goddam seriously is an indispensible gift, and one that makes some semblance of even friendship possible.

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snood wrote:

You insinuating I ain't got guts (Naw you wouldn't do that, as sensitive as you are to such insinuations, would you)?

Me???

Why Snood, ole friend...I thought you would, by now, be aware that I tend not to "insinuate" anything.

If I have an "insinuation" that I want to get out in the open...I throw the idea of "insinuation" out the window...and say exactly what I mean.

For instance (as mentioned up above), when Edgar says "There is no God"...I ask in a very out-front way, "How do you know?"

I don't pussyfoot around...or ask it "tongue in cheek."

That's not my way!

And as I said...I'm surprised you don't realize that.

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snood wrote:

Besides, Frank - what seems to one man to be a totally reasonable question might appear to another as just inability to comprehend the discretion of letting something go. You will never rest until you've convinced everyone that the only reasonable stance is your perfect agnosticism. So you will never rest - that's totally fine with me - I just don't like it when you get petty and lash out at those who won't fall between your petty lines.

I find in my life Frank that there are often between otherwise totally whole people the occasion to just not be able to settle on something in a way pleasing to both. On those occasions, I find that the ability to not take oneself so goddam seriously is an indispensible gift, and one that makes some semblance of even friendship possible.

I think you've got me wrong, Snood...but there seems to be no way to repair whatever strands have been torn between us.

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What Makes People NOT believe In God? (Atheists Come!)

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