General opinions on atheism.

Interesting. What exactly have you seen with your own eyes that causes you to be "thoroughly and completely convinced" that your God is real and not a myth? What does your God look like?

I'm not saying I saw God standing in front of me, like he was in the cookie aisle at the grocery store or something. But it's not something I discuss, other than to say that I myself have seen a few things that were not possible without some outside intervention, and those things have been enough evidence for me. So there isn't a complete lack of evidence as some would think, but it's on a personal level.

I doubt they would be anything other than a vaguely interesting story for anyone else and I don't generally feel like putting my experiences up for analyzation from people who were not there.

Suffice it to say that I have a very analytical mind and, though I have been open to alternative explanations for a few decades, I have found none.

We are all atheists in terms of someone's god or gods. Science does not expect anyone to accept anything without evidence. Religion does. There is no evidence of any kind that proves there is a god of any kind in or outside of the universe. In the absence of this evidence many intelligent people have opted to not believe in god or gods. Those wishing to change their mind will need to first tell us what is god and what evidence they have that this god is real or exists. They won't do this by trying to tear down science especially when their posts reveal they know little or nothing about science.

In short, if you can't prove it, it doesn't exist. End of the religious story.

Even if one or more of the various gods worshiped was proven to exist I will bow to no god. (That always gets religionists in lather!)

Beliefs have consequences. Your beliefs define your vision of the world, they dictate your behavior, and they determine your emotional responses to other human beings. Once a Christian really believes that her religion is true and her holy book was inspired by God then she cannot tolerate the possibility that others might perish before hearing the "good news". Unfortunatly Its beliefs like these that lead believers to force creationism into public schools, block funding for stem cell research, and attack science. If religious beliefs were held privately there would be no need to speak out against them. The problem is that many Christians want their sacred beliefs to be reflected back to them in the school curriculum, in laws, and in the public square etc. This is a problem because now everyones life is being effected by these narrow religious ideas. I reserve the right to criticize any idea that doesn't make sense, religious or not.

I cannot separate my beliefs from myself so easily- so I am not sure that can be done for other people either. So I can’t personally say they dictate my behavior, but I can say that I am responsible for that behavior. I try to act in such a way that I can be proud of it.

The thing is, I can understand this Christian wanting to save me. That’s a rather well-intentioned idea, isn’t it? If one really and truly believes these things, then the consequence of that belief might lead to that person going to great lengths to prevent another’s eternal dangnation to a really hot place.

But that hypothetical Christian is not immune to the responsibility that you and I share- responsibility for our words and actions. She cannot be responsible for me and mine, any more than I can be for her. A line is crossed when we try and change the behavior of others against their will. I am not talking about the parent to child “don’t track mud into my kitchen” or the policeman to driver “if I catch you speeding again you will get a ticket.” I am talking about seeking to change another’s beliefs which do no harm to me.

The thing is, I don’t see the need to proactively defend my honor here. So far, not one person on this site has tried to convert me, ridiculed me, or done anything to seriously disturb my calm on this issue in well over a year. When I see an attack on these things, or me personally, I will respond to it.

I believe it is best to respond to each malus individually as it arises, however. Our two recent Christian visitors, Chawks and Lindseyk, have both stated that they aren’t here to convert us. I don’t see a need to try and convert them to my opinions. However, when we criticize what makes no sense to us, we bring up things that they perceive as attacks on their beliefs. It likely makes no sense to them that we cannot see God in all things- ah, I know I won’t be putting that right, but you get the idea.

This thread seems to be intended to get responses from everyone about what they think of atheism. To me, it is both more than a lack of belief in the Christian God and less than a full scale assault on Christianity (which is how I’ve seen it perceived before). I’m not upset by the responses, but I will try to respond to those who seem to misinterpret what atheism means to me. Lately, we’ve been talking more about Christianity. That’s more what I’m trying to avoid- there are other places to talk about general opinions on Christianity.

To me, atheism is totally non-threatening. I’m not out to tell anyone what to believe, what they should believe, or what they shouldn’t believe for whatever reason. Their actions, however, those I can get a handle on. Discrimination on the basis of *not* being Christian? I can fight that. Telling me I am going to Hades for pre-marital sex, not donating to the Mother Church, and not being to confession in twenty five years? I can respond to that. Requiring my hypothetical child to learn Creationism? I can get my hands on that one, too. But none of these things are in the present forum, unless we first allow them to be.

For my own opinions, I’d just as soon tackle those issues as they come up in my local town council meeting, PTA meeting, election year, and so on. And for this thread, I’d like to keep it focused on responses to atheism. To be fair, this means that anyone who wants to can respond to any of the posts on the subject here. I don’t expect we’ll be changing anyone’s mind about their own faith *grin* but I do hope we can clear up some misconceptions about what it is to simply not believe in any god or gods.