Do You Beleive In God?

[Baghdad Bob]

no i do not

[hzoltan]

I believe in God everytime I get into trouble

[Xstr8guy]

i remember a time when every athiest I knew seemed to be suicidal and/or were on anti-depressants

You're joking right?!

First of all, most atheists don't publicly announce their (lack of) beliefs. I find it very odd that you would know more than a few atheists to make such a broad generalization.

I am an atheist... I am not spiritual in the least bit. I don't believe in any higher power whatsoever. AND I do not suffer from depression, do not have a drug or alcohol addiction (except for tobacco), am a law abiding citizen, consider myself a very moral person, donate to non-religious charities, etc.

For other atheists or skeptics, required reading is a new book by Christopher Hitchens "God is not Great". I highly recommend it and it will make you feel like your not totally alone in your lack of belief.

[basschick]

i know plenty of happy, well-balanced aetheists. i'm more of an agnostic, myself - and i try to keep an open mind.

[JamesXR]

I've recently slid into fundamentalist agnosticism. I just really really don't know, and short of a blatant act of god, I'm not going to know. I had to go more hardcore in response to all the hardcore evangelical Christians. It doesn't hurt that agnosticism is the one true right religion. Sure someone else might be right, but I don't know, and I'll be right about that. Most other religions are winner take all.

[basschick]

*LOLOLOL*

"fundamentalist agnosticism"

omg, i love it! er... are agnostics allowed to say omg?

I've recently slid into fundamentalist agnosticism.

[Scooter]

i think someone can be exist on heavens but actually i'm not believing in god.

[Kushiel]

I've recently slid into fundamentalist agnosticism. I just really really don't know, and short of a blatant act of god, I'm not going to know.

Funny, that.

My House mate is a Agnostic Nihilist... he nearly jumped for joy when he was exploring the area around our house and came upon a "First Apostic Church"...
He glimpsed it from the corner of his eye and thought it read " First Agnostic Church"

Funny thing is.. It problly really -would- have been the first one. Oh well. :angel:

[JamesXR]

Agnostics don't have to worry about what they say. Atheists do because they often have some beef with god. I'd prefer that their were some benevolent creator of the universe and a place to go when we die. All that makes life so much more magical, but I can't quite seem to get excited about religion, especially all the needy asking god for things. I tried bible study for a while. Group prayer kind of pisses me off. It's all "Seriously people, I wasn't going to cure your mother's heart when just you were asking, I don't care how many people you get to join you. I'm not bailing out everyone who overindulges in bacon."
Also, the concept that god is this huge egomaniacal entity that really needs people to congregate and sing about how great he is, that also irritates me.
Worst is the idea that god will repay you ten times what you send to certain evangelists. If they packaged and sold all of those bad debts we'd have a serious economic crisis.
Too many people look at god as a chump who will give them things or some hugely vain entity that must be appeased with vast volumes of praise. On the other side is the one where he's vengeful and vindictive, casting people into the eternal flames because they didn't trust some corrupt religious official. None of these portrayals is the least bit flattering.
Then you've got Jesus who was all about love and forgiveness. I can get behind that kind of god, but I can't really see a point in all the worship, foofah, and hoodininny that goes along with the religion. So I try to make the world a better place by my actions and trust that if there is a god that he is neither a chump nor a jerk. Basically, I can't see me acting any differently with religion than I do now.
It certainly doesn't help that according to George W Bush, we should be bombing a lot of churches, as many are full of people who hate our freedoms and want to take them away.

[Lazer]

arsh. :argue:

[Xstr8guy]

Atheists do because they often have some beef with god.

This is illogical from an atheist's perspective. I don't have a beef with god... he just doesn't exist.

[fetishlad]

i remember a time when every atheist I knew seemed to be suicidal and/or were on anti-depressants

That is totally offensive! - Or it is not: when you refer to your time at Narcotics Anonymous.

But a remark like this is to be expected from a religious bigot. Why don't you just become a priest and work with little children ...
(just being offensive back here, as a happy atheist)

My quote: "thank god I am an atheist"

[JamesXR]

This is illogical from an atheist's perspective. I don't have a beef with god... he just doesn't exist.

I won't state it as a broad generalization, but I sometimes get the feeling that atheism goes from non-belief to the active belief that there is no god. This is the top listing on dictionary.com: "the doctrine or belief that there is no God"

So basically atheism involves taking a leap of faith. If you're strictly scientific about it, you can't prove something doesn't exist if you have no evidence one way or another. Anyone who points to the problems with the world as the reason for their disbelief in god, is most likely an "angry at god" theist. I just feel that atheism takes extra energy and conviction over agnosticism, and that there has to be some reason to invest that kind of conviction.

Two interesting things that I might add:
First, the story of how the Religion columnist at the LA Times lost his faith.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la...la-home-center

Second, for he hardcore atheists, or anyone else who enjoys controversy, this t-shirt design:


As a last note: Religion is a fascinating topic.

[Kushiel]

Thanks for that. It was an interesting read.

[Xstr8guy]

I won't state it as a broad generalization, but I sometimes get the feeling that atheism goes from non-belief to the active belief that there is no god. This is the top listing on dictionary.com: "the doctrine or belief that there is no God"

So basically atheism involves taking a leap of faith. If you're strictly scientific about it, you can't prove something doesn't exist if you have no evidence one way or another. Anyone who points to the problems with the world as the reason for their disbelief in god, is most likely an "angry at god" theist. I just feel that atheism takes extra energy and conviction over agnosticism, and that there has to be some reason to invest that kind of conviction.

I feel that agnosticism is kind of a cop-out. "I don't believe in god but I'll keep the door open just in case I'm wrong."

Maybe I lack some part of my brain that most humans have. I simply don't believe in anything supernatural. The real world is fascinating enough without believing in ghosts, afterlife, magic, god, etc.

I was raised in a vaguely christian/catholic family. When I was a small child, we went to church most Sundays. But religion was NEVER discussed at home. We had no religious icons on display. We did have a single bible that sat on an end table in an unused corner of the living room. Either my parents just didn't have strong beliefs or they wanted us children to make up our own minds... I've never asked. To this day, none of us 5 children have strong religious beliefs. I can honestly say that I've never had a discussion about god/religion with any family member... except for one sister that was born-again for about 3 months many years back. She finally came to her senses and I've never heard her mention Jesus ever again. Lol.

You know, I'm VERY lucky that my parents weren't super religious. Greg Riedle was a good friend of mine in elementary school. We went to the same catholic church. He was an altar boy and was molested by our priest and then went on to molest a little girl years later... a sad story.