I have a friend who is an atheist---she says so all the time. But she is also superstitious! That just cracks me up.
Are you an athiest and why?
by LouBelle 100 Replies latest jw experiences
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Giordano
I became a non believer when I was pioneering and holding down three congregation positions and giving a public talk in our circuit 6 or 7 times a year. Bascially I stopped beliving in the 'truth' and all the claptrap JW'S believed in. I became an Atheist/nonbeliever when I realized that god, if he existed, did not care about human suffering, that the bible was not inspired. From that it was a quick leap to come to the conclusion that god didn't exist at all. At that point I decided to take total responsibility for my own actions and deeds and get rid of the training wheels.
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truth_b_known
I think that only the Islam-Judeo-Christian religions are hellbound on convincing everyone that life, the universe, and everything was created by an almighty being. This all stems from the belief that their holy writings are true. Science proves otherwise.
The flood account of Noah is physically impossible as is the chronology of man as depicted by the Bible. That is the loose thread that starts to unravel the whole garmet.
Religion is mainly an emotional experience. It is the crutch that so many use to help them cope with life. The real issue is believing there is something wrong with your legs. This comes from the human myth known as "imperfection". Man is no more imperfect than nature. Nature never "sinned" against a god. Nature lives and nature dies in a cycle that repeats. If an animal grows old, gets sick and dies was it because it was imperfect?
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undercover
I have a friend who is an atheist---she says so all the time. But she is also superstitious!
That reminds me of people I know. I call them "lazy atheists". Technically, in my book, they're not true atheists. They're atheists, in their sense, not because they saw firsthand the errors/failings of the churches and/or studied/comtemplated faith vs logic. They're atheists because they weren't raised in a religious household or had no training at all in anything even remotely Biblical or religious, and as they grew older they drifted toward a secular lifestyle never having considering faith at all. They chose a label only because they thought it fit or they needed to belong to a group to validate who and where they are. They may still hold to other superstitions or beliefs even that aren't compatible with someone who claims to use logic and reason as a guidepost in life. They're not at all dissimilar to lazy Christians/church-goers who "believe" only because that's the way they were raised and have never, ever considered that there may be errors in their faith-based system.
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thetrueone
Gods were created out of human ignorance of the world we live in, the same world the ancients lived in many thousands of years ago.
This ignorance along with fear and superstitious psychological awareness still manifests itself today in most of todays religions.
These human belief systems have throughout history proved damaging and stood in the way of mankind's endeavorers to improve upon
his own human life experience, in a provable real sense.
Regrettably there is no obtainable power offered for men in atheistic beliefs, as long as the gods are available to men to try indulge toward
empowering themselves, religion and the gods will remain and mankind will not be better for it.
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cofty
It is neither faith nor prayer that prevents people from feeding the children. A great amount of charity work on feeding children/housing homeless, etc, is faith based. - Tec
True. Faith provides bad reasons to do good things when much better reasons exist.
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compound complex
Thank you, LouBelle, for asking. This is my first time responding to such a thread.
Since I am now free from former unreasonable restraints, I am reading books such as 50 Reasons People Give for Believing in a God, God Is Not Great, The Age of Reason. The salient point for me from these diverse writings is the logic, reasoning and lack of ranting and raving. Religion (with few exceptions) employs fear, unrealistic expectations and coercion to gather the sheep into her fold.
For the most part (though not yet entirely), my fantasies and hopes for better times reside principally in my stories and the writings of other authors of fiction. Why our hearts and minds are so wired for fantasy I don't know, but believers in evolution (whose works I am only now reading) have provided some fascinating explanations.
CoCo Unused to Logic and Reason
[authors for the above: Guy Harrison, Christopher Hitchens, Thomas Paine]
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tec
True. Faith provides bad reasons to do good things when much better reasons exist.
Now how did I know someone would play that card, lol.
Not that anyone has the abilitiy to judge the motives of an individual person in the first place, but I highly doubt the children who are being fed care one way or the other. At least people are helping them.
Peace,
tammy
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iCeltic
Cofty - True. Faith provides bad reasons to do good things when much better reasons exist.
Perfectly said.
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NewChapter
They're atheists because they weren't raised in a religious household or had no training at all in anything even remotely Biblical or religious, and as they grew older they drifted toward a secular lifestyle never having considering faith at all.
Actually this person was raised in a very religious household, and made a conscious decision to become an atheist. I simply chalk it up to emotion, and our tendency to not always act with reason. I tease her about it, and she gets it. She just hasn't explored it yet. It's a journey.
NC