Topic: What generally characterizes an atheist? - page 2. (Read 1781 times)

Well, fuck that god then, for commanding/consenting child rape, and cancer, and AIDS...

All right, all right. Sounds like you got it made then. Lots of Christians have not forgiven themselves for all kinds of things that they have done, even though they know God has. And there are several places in the Gospels where Jesus says that if you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. Let's hope that all these unforgiving Christians finally forgive themselves before they die, even if it is on their deathbed.

The deposit was really only important if you were making it into the account of a seller of bitcoins (probably using BitQuick.co), bitcoins that he was going to transfer to you once he received the deposit.

It is not true. We cannot sin, because God is almighty and would never let their children sin. God exists, and there is no doubt of it. He is your father. He loves you. And he commands the world. He is all powerfull and nothing goes on without his consent.

Accept that you, as sons of God, are gods yourselves.

And be happy!

Haha, nice, but I don't think that's an extraordinary claim, you can take my word for it.

At one time Jesus' disciples said to Jesus something to the effect of, "Now we can see that you know all things, and that you don't even need anyone to ask you questions."

I still need people to ask me questions... at least much of the time.

In Mark 11:22-24, Jesus says that if you have faith in God, you can have anything that you say. Then He goes on to say that if we believe that we will receive what ever we ask for in prayer, we will have it. Then He says that if we don't forgive, we won't be forgiven by God.

The point is, an atheist knows that he doesn't have any sin. This produces an automatic self-forgiveness in him. Because of this, an atheist often gets what he asks for faster than a Christian. And what he asks for above many other things often is a peaceful life.

A Christian knows he is sinful. Knowing he is sinful makes it hard for the Christian to forgive the most important person in his life (next to Jesus, of course), himself. So, since the Christian won't forgive himself like he should, he gets what he is asking for... trouble in his life.

Now, I said this briefly. Think it over and put it into better wording for yourself. And if you are a Christian, start forgiving yourself. After all, Jesus and His Father both forgave you. So why shouldn't you forgive yourself, and start having a better life?

non sense

(I am skeptical about what you've just said)

No!

Atheists do not believe in god or gods, period!

I know a lot of people who are atheist and they believe in a lot of crazy conspiracy theories, astrology, homeopathy, Feng Shui and a lot of other pseudo-science or New Age bullshit.

Atheism is not the same thing as skepticism.

Atheists are reasonable people who are able to understand the world that surround them without the need to appeal to magic/mystic.

They have the clear mind to seek reason in order to understand reality.

TLDR, atheists are not lazy people: they use their brain.

For me it's the complete lack of any evidence of a God. The same reason I don't believe in mermaids despite the fact that some do. 

The lack of belief in god or gods... That's it!

A sane brain.

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

Atheists are the people who have given up on believing in any version of God for whatever reason. That's basically it though, naturally, some are more loudmouthed about it than others. If you want to see atheists in action, this is a decent subreddit to hang out in. http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism

I watched the Unbelievers last night with Theoretical Physicist Lawrence Krauss, Steven Hawking, Richard Dawkins and others.  At the beginning and end they interviewed celebrities...I have no idea why, but Ricky Gervais was funny." Someone tells me that everyone is entitled to their religious beliefs so just keep your atheism to yourself" that sort of says it all doesn't it?  RG.

 I need to read Lawrence Krauss Book the Universe from Nothing.  I saw him on Colbert and of course Colbert was brilliant and asked him if God was nothing, couldn't something come from him?

In any event, Krauss explained better than I was capable in this thread as what is fulfilling to an atheist.  A celebration of not being dead mentally.  A celebration of a universe much grander than the petty one described in our religion that we arrogantly believe was created just for us.  Celebrate the existence of these complicated brains that allowed us to contemplate the existence of this place that made us,  It is far more wondrous than any religion.....to us.   This is why it cannot be grasped or explained to someone who has a priori decided to turn off their brain and put a halt to any further investigation in that arena.  They started with answers.....why go any further.  To us, that is akin to being dead and far more full of hopelessness.

In any event, Dawkins said he doesn't think nearly as many people believe as claim to believe.  He made a few good points.  Ask someone if they believe when the priest says "body of Christ", that it turns into the body of Christ?  Of course that can be argued as a symbol, but why do so many more people sob uncontrollably at funerals then when they say goodbye to their kids who they go off to college or to live abroad for instance.  If you truly believe you will be together again, what is the difference really?  Why the need to sob uncontrollably at a funeral if you believe that a) they are in a better place and b) you will see them again in this better place?   What the hell are you all crying about if you really believe?

Dawkins was also asked what the future of atheism is and he said he hopes it dies. "We don't call ourselves Ahorists or Azeusists any longer, why should we continue to call ourselves A-theists as we become enlightened?

The other interesting point Dawkins brought forward is that the common misperception that new species come out of old.  They don't.  Every species ever born was the genetic offspring of its parents.  Its the imperceptible change over time ......when applied to 3.5 billion years.  So there is no "first man"   There can be no first man.  So religion teaches us Jesus died for the original sin of first man who we now know never existed.  Brilliant.  God gave man free will but will send him to hell for using it.  Don't question it. He works in mysterious ways.  Ricky Gervais also asked what is the difference between a god that allows all the horrible things to occur (works in mysterious ways) and no god at all?  None of course because he aint there.

One funny but not so funny point Krauss makes in his book is that while the Universe can make something out of nothing, religion can make nothing out of something.  It happened in the 1100s in Islam, the then center of art, music, mathematics and culture and the islamic relgious fundamentalists turned it into nothing.  Likewise the enlightenment of europe was turned into the dark ages.  It can happen again as other threads portend.

It was an interesting enough documentary with excerpts from Hawking and others.  Some of it was crap but I would love to sit down with those guys.

No, not intelligence.  But they may know how to get away with crime.

Well, today I learned that by definition, I'm an atheist. I originally thought that atheism meant that you didn't believe in anything other than what you can prove through science, but apparently it just beans that you don't believe in deities. I'm a scientist primarily, but if I know something in my heart and have seen personal evidence that I cannot prove, I classify those views as spiritual views.

I know through personal evidence that the cosmos does speak, (not verbally, of course) and you only need to know how to listen. For instance, the other day I was debating what happens when you realize karma for what it is. Does the karma become invalid if you're happily going through it so that no longer have that karmic consequence to deal with even though negative karma is not supposed to be enjoyable? I had to deal with perceived karma that would overdraw my bank account. My ATM pin wasn't working, the bank was closed, and everything was blocking me from making a deposit. Usually when something isn't working no matter how hard you try, it's a sign that it's not meant to happen. I realized that that was probably karma from something that I did. (I know what it was that caused the karma.) I called my dad and he suggested making a night drop deposit. I needed an envelope to do it, so I stopped into the store behind me and got a gift card envelope to deposit the funds and I used a blank check as the deposit slip.

So, I debated that if I didn't make the deposit, then the karma would be purged. If I made the deposit, would it still complete the karmic consequences or would it mean that I'd have to revisit those consequences another day? Well, while I was thinking about it, two people walked past talking about investment banking and I took it as a sign that I was meant to make the deposit. I went and made that deposit and the next day I found out that the bank gives me a $5.00 cushion before they start charging me fees up the wazoo, so being over by a few pennies wouldn't have hurt me. My guess is that sometime that knowledge will come in useful, so I needed it as a dependency for some future project rather than as a lesson to be leaned in karmic consequences.

Atheists are people who don't want to follow a religion because it's a pain in the butt.

*waits for sana8410 to chime in with a response too*  .

Also, some one,in other topic has noted that the percentage of atheists in American jails are well below the percentages of them found in the American population as a whole.  Be that causation or correlation - it is a characteristic.