I have tried to be an atheist (page 2)

stillajwexelder

I still want to know why Jehovah loved the smell of burnt flesh - I don't believe in the "It is a restful odor " crap

I think I understand to some extent what you mean. I know I struggled just as hard to remain a believer. It can be very frustrating to want something so strongly and have its essence be so elusive... it feels like you can just about reach out and touch it... but then it's just not quite there.

Please, let go of the struggle. Believe in "something" if you feel that you must. But please don't waste too much more of your time trying to figure it all out - life is much too short.

It was in letting go of the struggle and focusing on living life and just being the best person I was able to be, rather than looking for the "meaning" behind it all, that I was able to have glimpses of clarity and realization. It was maybe five years ago that it dawned on me: wow, I guess that means I'm atheist. I hadn't put much thought into what, exactly, I believed for some time, but as my values and ethics developed, so did my beliefs evolve.

I hope that you will some day have your own dawning of clarity, whatever form it may take.

Scully

stillajwexelder:

I have a few questions for you. You can answer here, or just think about them a while.

I'm guessing that you don't need to be convinced regarding the non-existence of Zeus or Apollo or Dionysius, or of Marduk or Tammuz or Ba'al. Yet, people of those eras built shrines and temples to these dieties, convinced of the gods' existence and insistence on worship. What - if anything - convinced you of the non-existence of those and every other so-called pagan diety? Could it have been a cultural bias that it was just accepted that all of those gods were fictional? What if you were born and raised in place where Voodoo was the religion of your people? What would convince you that those beliefs were false, when it was everything you've known and believed and had been taught since childhood? Isn't what we end up being taught to believe in all a matter of the sheer accident of the time and geography of our birth?

SixofNine

actually the opposite is true - I really don't want to believe

.

ah. Why not? Being an atheist puts you in a rather small and looked down upon, even despised by many people, contingent of the population.

.

MissingLink

Keep trying. Your brain will kick in eventually.

THE GLADIATOR

I have tried to be an atheist - honestly, I have really tried.

As has been said, an atheist is not something you can become, it is just the absence of belief in the divine due to lack of evidence.

Atheism is the default setting.

In the same way a court of law considers us innocent until proven guilty. We are all athiests until god's existence is proven to our satisfaction.

Why worry about labels anyway. We are all in constant flux and our opinions, feelings and view of the world change on a daily basis.

reniaa

I can understand your problem look at the word 'Atheist' itself

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This a·the·ism
Audio Help / 'e??i??z?m / Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation [ ey-thee-iz-uhm ] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation –noun
1. the doctrine or belief that there is no God.
2. disbelief in the existence of a supreme being or beings.
[Origin: 1580–90; < Gk áthe(os) godless + -ism ]

It is still a belief defined by God but in this case the lack of. by definition it leaves an empty void that needs filling.

If you look at science simply it itself works with things taken on faith especially abiogenesis(stephen hawkins has worked on the origin and has had to admit defeat), science gives us evolution theory but it too is now coming up against problems because with all our scientific development the answers to how we got here, why humans are the way we are etc are not forthcoming and people are beginning to notice.

tijkmo

i still want jehovah to act in the way he promised he would through an organization i now know doesn't have his direction...

have you any idea how that messes with ya head..

esp at 2 in the morning..

i think you do.

the irony etc.....

talley

I too had been struggling with weather or not there was a 'god' in this universe. Then the thought occurred that the world around me was still going to go on; the wonder of this earth, the good and the evil of it's people. My belief in a god or lack there of would make no difference in the realities around me - so I gave up believing or not believing.....

Then I happened across this web page http://www.angelfire.com/theforce/uctaa-pa/ and found that I was not the only person that really just "Did Not Know". And what especially delighted me about this 'group' is their delightful sense of humor about the whole subject and about life in general.

If you go to the page, be sure to read the 'prayer' too, it's really humorous. And the UCTAA also has a 'forum' http://www.dallasagnostics.org/index.php?sid=7df12a5cd86186f69543f23a8120908e

Enjoy.

talley/Judy, who met you at the Apostafest in Stevens Point, WI, back in '05 (the one with out electrical power... remember?)

WTWizard

I believe that, if there actually is any God, that He is the most malicious, lowdown Scumbag imaginable. He creates beings just to entertain Himself by making them suffer for nothing, and then He demands full worship (which He isn't getting from me).

Not only will I not respect God in any way, but I am inclined to take Jesus away from God and give him to Satan. Simply, Jesus and Satan did pretty much the exact same thing for people.

I have tried to be an atheist

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