how many atheist and agnostics on this site

by dannygwalsh 53 Replies latest jw friends

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  dido

  I don`t like to put a label on what i believe, i just like to keep an open mind, as things come along all the time to change my view on life.
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  Bonnie_Clyde

  I am not an atheist or an agnostic. However, I understand why the WT has influenced many people to become such.
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  iggy_the_fish

  I'm an atheist, but I really miss thinking there's something out there looking over us. Even when I was a believer of whatever description, I was not the happiest of souls but I used to feel comforted in the thought that at least there was some sort of referee looking down on us to ensure everything worked out ok in the end.

  Then I came to the conclusion there was no such person out there, and all that happened was I lost the comfort I had previously gained from my belief, which to be honest was a bit of a dissapointment considering the amount of hard work and painful soul searching which went into the decision.

  ig
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  slimboyfat

  I'm agnostic.

  Please see my thread on materialism.

  Slim
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  Little Drummer Boy

  Now that I have had a chance to think for myself since leaving the borg, I can't fathom why anyone wouldn't think that the bible is a steaming pile of crap, unless they are in a high control group of a religious nature. I have read too much evidence of the fakeness of the bible to ever believe it again. Same goes for evolution now that I have a better understanding of how it works. Life just can't logically have appeared any other way than evolution with all of the evidence there is.

  I do have a theory though about spirituality. Actually 2. And they are not mutually exclusive. Rather I think they would go hand in hand.

  Theory #1

  I wonder if our desire (as a species) to believe in god/s is related to the evolution of our minds. That in some way as we have become self-aware of our own existance as humans our minds have evolved to not want this physical existance to be all there is. Could it be an outgrowth of our most primal survival instincts. Our fight/flight response taken to the next level as it were. Subconciously, "I don't wanna die!" Out loud, "There must be a God."

  and/or...

  Theory #2

  e=mc2 (damn I don't know how to do a super-script on these posts)

  matter is energy, energy is matter, (all that cool physics stuff) and so as our minds have evolved over time, we are now (speaking within the time frame of invention of god/s, magic, etc. ) at the dawning of the next evolution of human. No more homo sapiens, but homo spirituous (please excuse the really bad attempt at latin). When we hear stories of the super-natural or of healing from god, or demon possesion, could it be us? All caused by our minds? I don't mean "made up" in our minds and imagined, but an actual phisycal effect being caused. Some humans more on the verge of taking that next evolutionary step and effecting the world around them. That is how natural selection works anyway. The whole species doesn't just "jump" up the evolutionary ladder, but individual members do and thereby gain an advantage which causes their genes to be bred on to the future eventually, ect.

  I would be interested to know if there are any others out there who have wondered along one or both of those lines and published anything (I know it sounds nutty)

  It would be nice to know I am not alone in my strange musings. At least then I would have some explanation for the voices my head.
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  Kudra

  Hey Little Drummer Boy!
  
  I have a theory too...
  
  I think that humans DO have a need for spirituality/god because of their evolutionary history:
  
  Back in the Pleistocene or when the human race was first showing up, when we didn't understand the mechanisms for ANYTHING (natural phenomena etc) we needed someway to make sense of the world... so gods of rain, thunder, lightning etc were created to explain the unexplicable and comfort people who were trying to survive and interpret the world around themselves.
  
  As humanity evolved over 10s and 100s of thousands of years, the things we didn't understand changed and so did the gods we came up with. War gods, gods of the harvest etc.
  
  I think this last iteration of deities is explaining one of the last things we collectively don't understand- suffering. We now have a really large world view and have developed empathy and knowledge that there is suffering elsewhere and also in our own lives. We are at a place in the development of our minds where we constantly contemplate our own eventuality. This calls for the savior/everlasting life thing that the most common of religions today claim to have the answers to (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism).
  
  I think that the last century or two has solved SO many questions that we humans have about our origins, the origins of the universe that on one hand we don't need to look to religion for answers to mysteries -because there really aren't any mysteries left, but on the other hand has left us with a huge problem: our minds/psyche has evolved over 100s of thousands of years to turn to supernatural powers for moral guidance and answers only to have that part of our mind come up against a brick wall in this 21st century.
  
  So we have this evolved NEED for spirituality in our mental development but now all of a sudden intellectualism and materialism have cropped up as an answer to all of our modern problems: questions about your origin or eventuality?- bam! evolution and no "afterlife". Feeling sad or lonely or unfufilled? -bam! buy more crap and if that doesn't work, go out and drink your worries away.
  
  I don't know if those ramblings were all too original, but thats what I've been thinking about lately on the subject of the need for god/spirituality...
  
  -Kudra
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  Kudra

  BTW, I am an agnostic (just because I can't definitely PROVE that there is NO god).
  
  For a belief system, I would say I am a secular humanist. :)
  
  I have been taking Buddhist classes for a couple of weeks but I see that they have a lot of teachings that are a little too paranormal for me to ever believe in. So while I enjoy the Buddhist philosophy, I could never be a "practicing Buddhist".
  
  Any Buddhists here truely truely believe in the whole kit n kaboodle of Buddhist teachings? Like, Maras, hell-beings, hungry ghosts, reincarnation, knowledge of past lives, existing enlightened beings etc ...?
  
  -K
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  tetrapod.sapien

  i am an atheist to gods other than the cosmos itself, of which i am a part, therefore a demigod by definition. an atheist to "supernatural" gods. a "theist" in respects the trillions of other demigods on this planet, namely all other organisms with whom i share common ancestorage in the genetic tree of life.

  i also practice buddhism and hinduism.

  empiricist by day, transcendentalist by night (or, to split the mind for purposes experience)....which is to ask in essence: "do you believe in magic?" not sure yet. agnostic to "the magic". still searching as honestly and objectively as possible. well, i should say objectively by day, subjectively by night. ;)

  and yes, i am happy when i find my Self, my being, in the moment and no where else. "peaceful" might be a better word for it. i find myself at peace more and more with the here and now, the world, and what is neither up or down, but always forward. and peace comes from a lucid understanding of our true nature, and the world's true nature. when we are at peace with these things, and the fight against them is finished, one might be ripe for expansion of consciousness. transcendence as some call it, to intuitive knowledges and cosmic symbology. this is a peaceful place because it's assumptions are harmonious with our most probable nature via evolution. and yes, this makes me happy, because for the first time in my life it feels like real progress.

  peace

  tetra
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  nicolaou

  Good to see you back TS.
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  tetrapod.sapien

  thanks bro. good to see you too. :)

  tetra