Do You Beleive In God?

[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.

[JamesXR]

Woah Xstr8guy, there is some truth to your copout theory. A dude has to have backup plans, but it's not so much as backup plan as a lack of commitment to the "there is no god" thing. I have no capacity for faith. I my wild experimental college years I tried bible study for almost a year. In the end it felt awkward and disrespectful to be there because I just wasn't feeling it. Then I realized that I wouldn't live my life any differently if I believed in a religion. Where in the commandments is "Though shalt gather together weekly, sing smarmy songs, and chant together."?
So yeah, I realized that I didn't need religion and I had zero capacity for faith anyway. So, perhaps there is no god, or perhaps god doesn't want me to join his religion and prefers that I stay a free agent. I'll subscribe to multiple conflicting world views at the same time. I refuse to shut out any possibilities. I just don't have the choice to believe. I'm just hoping the religions where god is evil are wrong, like Catholicism. Loving god who burns all those non-believers including protestants for all eternity. Either mercy isn't a value and torturing people is, or I'm morally superior to that concept of god. Point being, as an agnostic I've considered heavily the chance that I might be wrong. Then again I've considered what it would be like to operate an upscale gourmet pickle store, among umpteen million other stupid things. So, grain of truth there Xstr8guy, but not wholy accurate. Also, I like to consider myself open to all ideas.
Actually it's pretty intense considering the afterlife when some parties are bringing eternal suffering to the table. That is really vicious. This is one heavy topic. If just anybody threatened to burn you, or anyone you loved for just an hour, you'd likely hit that person in the face.