Topic: What generally characterizes an atheist? (Read 1813 times)

Atheism is simply one of the methods that Satan deludes the minds of people with, to turn them away from God so that they won't be saved.

Religionists might want to work on being tolerant of atheists, because they are not.  Think they ever will?

This is not a God question.  This is a live and let live problem.  You do your thang, I'll do mine.

To whom it may concern: 

I won't intrude on you, burn your bible or Quran, or Torah, or any other 'holy' book, censor your speech, dictate your speech (like make you say a public pledge declaring you live under my sky fairies) take down your icons, dictate the terms of your healthcare, whether you are male or female, straight or gay or anything between;  dictate the percentage of your wealth you must give to charity according to my doctrine (assuming I have one), attempt to force you to obey govt laws based on my convictions or the convictions of my homeboys, or literally kill you if you don't agree with my ideas about the universe, or rhetorically condemn you to virtual eternal torture if you refuse to accept my way of seeing things.  I won't do any of those things; that is my pledge to you. 

One small exception:  I do not pledge that I will refrain from arguing and disagreement with your beliefs if I find them absurd.  It's a nuanced exception, but an exception nevertheless....disagreement is neither fear, hostility, or intolerance.  It is just disagreement. 

Would you fervent believers, you religionists make the same pledge?     

Here is the perspective of a converted atheist.

“The point of atheism as a belief is about logic and sense — and then you hit that juxtaposition,” he said. “If you’re using sense, then you can’t deny when something else makes sense as well.”

“There’s actually a comfort in denying God, ironically, in having things objectively happen as a matter of chance.”

Former ‘Militant Atheist’ Reveals What Totally Changed His Mind About Death, God and the Afterlife

British author Scott Coren once described himself as a “militant atheist” who believed in a “world that operated on chance and natural selection” — but then something profoundly changed.

Coren, a father of two, said his path diverted after his daughter was born in 2012 with a serious heart condition.

He began caring for her around the clock, spending a plethora of time in medical facilities and a hospice, where he observed some dynamics that changed his heart and mind.

When Coren saw the nurses, whom he described as “human angels,” caring for critically ill children, his views on God and the afterlife began to dramatically transform.

He found himself pondering death, in particular, thinking, ”It can’t be the end of things. It just doesn’t make sense.”

The “reason” and “logic” he had once used to deny God’s existence were suddenly leading him toward a belief in something more profound.

Despite his best efforts to avoid becoming a Christian, Coren said that his reasoning faculties left him with no alternative option.

“The point of atheism as a belief is about logic and sense — and then you hit that juxtaposition,” he said. “If you’re using sense, then you can’t deny when something else makes sense as well.”

Coren said it was “a very gradual and slow process” that evolved over the last couple of years, but that his daughter’s illness sparked an entire reworking of his views.

“My daughter was born with a heart problem. For two and a half years now I’ve been looking after her. She can’t be left alone for her for a second,” he explained. “My life is very much like a hermit. I’m awake all night, every single night. I’m living a very medicalized life.”

His daughter’s very serious condition means that she’s sometimes abruptly hospitalized and can go from being well to falling into a life-threatening condition in just a half hour’s time.

While some tend to blame God when loved ones experience illnesses, Coren has experienced quite the opposite, telling TheBlaze that his struggles have sparked an evangelical faith journey.

“I’m lucky because I have that Christian footprint behind me. I know the stories,” he said. “One of the usual byproducts of being a militant atheist is knowing what you’re militant against.”

While Coren had a good command over the contents of the gospels before, though, he said he’s now reading them through a very different lens: by viewing them as the word of God.
Scott Coren and his daughter


“It’s almost rediscovering my own culture. I think God uses everything some way to reach somebody,” he said, noting that he’s spent his life ignoring signs and revelations. “There’s actually a comfort in denying God, ironically, in having things objectively happen as a matter of chance.”

As for his daughter, Coren said that she still needs surgery, but that her prognosis is positive.

And though he’s been confined to his home and consumed with familial needs, the newfound Christian has found the time to pen a new book titled, ”Matthew 13:44” — a literary project that is loosely based on his struggles surrounding his daughter’s heart condition.

“It’s a catharsis. It was a way of analyzing the experience I’ve been through,” he said of the fictional story. “The skeleton is my story, but it’s also a mystery, a bit of a thriller.

Coren said he wanted to focus in the text on how bad things sometimes happen in life — but that people can and often do find the strength to pick up the pieces and move forward.

Find out more about “Matthew 13:44″ here.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/09/15/author-and-former-militant-atheist-reveals-what-led-him-to-christianity/

Zolace,if your own religion causes you this much doubt that you have to constantly keep verifying it with other people, and measuring it against what they believe, then it isn't much of a faith.   Is someone proselytizing you against your will? Just tell them to stop it.  Sometimes they go away, and other times they just won't.

Searching the internet, it does seem that atheists also (at least in the US) tend towards leftist/liberal side of politics.

Though, interestingly, 2nd likely area appears to be libertarian type groups.

Everyone deep down is agnostic to some degree. Even those that believe, must at some time have doubts...as goes for those nonbelievers.

The places with the lowest participation rate in religion and belief like New Zealand and many Scandinavian counties also have much less crime than the US.

97% of scientists believe in evolution (including categories like mechanical engineer).  The category of scientist presumably has  larger than average percentage of smart people....compared to most professions.  They are far  less likely to believe in god than the rest of the public.   I doubt they are all secret closet criminals.

There are numerous studies that link higher intelligence with lower belief.....copy these words and paste them in your google bar.

Intelligent people are more likely to question things that don't make sense and seek answers to difficult questions.  Hence, they see the inanity in our religious beliefs as well as the likely path to their evolution.  They also see the reality of our existence in terms of our Universe's and our biological origins.  If divine intervention occurred at any point, it has yet to be evident.  It remains possible, but the likelihood your childhood stories about religion are correct stand at 0.00%.  Just my opinion.

I also believe in evolution.  It doesn't matter what form creation takes, there still has to be something that creates it.  The original chaos isn't just there without a creator.  How else could original chaos start?  By itself?  No matter how far back I travel, something or someone had to create a something.

I imagine people like Krauss and Dawkins look at people like DC, Curm, Freebird, etc etc  much like a scientist looks at his lab rats, or the kids look at the baboons at the zoo. "Oh look Lawrence, there is one of them in a WalMart parking lot, hand me the binoculars.  I understand American polls suggest 47% of these people believe Jesus is returning in their life and a full 13% of them believe the antichrist is currently alive as president Obama....."   That they lost to cretins like us has to be a huge embarrassment for all eternity to Britain....but they could use some understanding of dentistry as well...among other issues (pronounced is-use).
I guess that is my answer.  While many smart people are theists, more smarter (pun intended) people are by and large atheists or at least question all those mountains of horseshit in everyone's special religious books from the Mormons to the Christians to the Muslims.

Another thing that both Krauss and Dawkins spoke about that was interesting is the "why are we here" question that is an origin of religion evolutionarily and very much ingrained in our species. That question, while ingrained into our evolution, it a very silly question.  In a Universe that came from nothing, in the darkness of space in areas of no matter, where things pop in and out of existence continually and "nothing" turns out to be far more interesting than we thought.  "Why we humans are here" is a very silly question.   Live well.   "How are we here" is the question.  How did this happen, how did these things evolve?   When God is the answer then you have stopped to seek.  What was once plausible has been proven possible so many times.  Plate tectonics was at first plausible before fact, evolution was plausible to Darwin long before it became fact, the earth revolving about the sun was plausible to galileo, life from matter in a universe from nothing is also quite plausible and frankly, approaching facthood.   Not that the Universe from nothing theory precludes the multiverse theory.

If we ultimately find "god," it aint gonna be the god of the bible with any of the hoakster "prophets" at his side.

Atheism is not the same as religion.  Religion is crap, makes no sense, and is an intellectual dead end.  Belief in a higher power is not so, it allows continued questioning of the "how" of our existence and doesn't settle on an answer written by stupid people a few thousand years ago.

Of course, then there is the rest of the deep examination, that concludes that there are many determinations found through examination of the same things. The consensus that is agreed on isn't always even near what is the truth.

That last paragraph is good, though.

Human brains have a flaw that is left over from our ancestors - we see patterns. We are so sensitive to recognizing them that we see them even where they don't exist. This pattern recognition isn't something that is conscious; it is the processing that tells us the grass is moving because a predator might be there, that the strange shadows could be holding something that will pounce on us. There was little evolutionary disadvantage to being too paranoid or seeing things that weren't there. This insatiable patterning gives us boogie-men when the lights are out, makes us susceptible to illusion, but more importantly, it makes us ascribe meaning and causality where there is none.

We are often able to reason our way out of our misperceptions using our intelligence, but for some, there is no examination of how intellectually a conclusion was reached. Even worse, we can apply attention to something (as the above quote does), and even though we have given it thought, our brains cannot overcome the dissonance that there must be a pattern, a reason, a bigger plan, a conspiracy, or a creator of all things. Superstitions are fun to mock unless they are our own, then we will defend them to our deaths.

An atheist can see that religion is a series of con-men taking advantage of this, telling stories about how failure to think certain things upsets a man in the sky who will punish you in a magical land after your die, or alternately you go to a happy place with clouds and only the dead people you like. He will get extremely mad if you believe in the other gods or make the wrong choice or don't follow the rules of the correct book. Good religions are ones who's "Darwinian" rules include converting others, having lots of kids/disciples (along with rules against parental planning), and of course coming to power and eliminating competition. Money is usually involved. A good atheist rejects religion not because they reject morals, empathy, or kindness, but because they seek the observable truth.

Atheists are probably more tolerant of religion that religious people are of each other. We will usually let you believe whatever you want up to the point where your self-righteous ass-hattery fucks with our lives.

As Heinlein said in Stranger in a Strange Land, "Thou art god." Do you grok it? 

I don't know who you are talking about? I am an ATHEIST not an agnostic. I do not live in some demon haunted world full of Gods and magical ferries. I have no doubt whatsoever about it.

Not believing in imaginary friends.

In Isaiah in the Old Testament, there is a place where Isaiah explains that once this world has passed through the Judgment - he doesn't say that it is thrown into the lake of fire, but that is the time he is talking about - none of this life will be remembered or brought to mind. It will be taken entirely out of history, even of God's remembrance.

Remember how Jesus is called the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end? There will no longer be any middle. There will no longer be anything left of this life. It will all be the New Heavens and the New Earth. Even the people who don't get saved will be entirely forgotten.

Now, I don't like pain any more than anybody else. But I expect that I will die just like everyone else. The pain of death will probably come for me. So, I am not going to deny God in anger for two reasons:
1. I don't want the pain of everlasting hellfire;
2. And, more importantly, I don't want to miss out on that new, wonderful life in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

Atheists have only convinced themselves that they do not believe in God. This makes all true atheists liars, lying to themselves, mostly.

Well, this is absolutely true. Nobody has seen God except the one and only Who He has sent. So, since we haven't seen God, there certainly are aspects about Him that we do not know. What else could this produce but a touch of agnosticism?

The funny part about this is that, if God really is real, then what they have done is to put themselves up into the place of god by attempting to be more powerful than He through denying Him.