Dear Atheists..

ted the grass said:
errrrrr...The Book of Genesis. [1:1] In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth
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Oh if you are going to take everything as gospel. ......
What he means is there was a planet but it was not a nice place to live in, volcanoes and all that shit. He made it safe for us to live on.
 
johnny crossan said:
I think most folk have worked out that it's not a choice, immortality is an added bonus for some of us meaning-seeking animals looking for a happy ending.
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We're all looking for meaning, atheist, agnostic, theist and deist alike.

When you accept that there is no (theistic) God you get to choose what is meaningful.
 
KS55 said:
Churches and religions of all types have been obsessed by sex and sexuality since the year dot. Of course it’s always somebody else’s sex they are focussed on. Weird doesn’t begin to describe it.

But why is the view so many of them have so weird? Even the good old C of E supported African bishops anti gay stance against US anglicans appointing gay bishops. The C of E apparently says it’s ok to be a gay vicar, provided you don’t tell anybody. Muslim women should be dressed in all covering black so as not to cause men to sin. And so on…
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I am as baffled as you by institutional religion.
 
Here's my take, for what it's worth.

There are many unanswered questions to which I do not know the answers but if I were a betting man I would bet that none of the many religions have those answers. I see religion as a coping mechanism, invented by man for many reasons but which serve mans need to square the circle, to give meaning to life.

My feeling is that there may be forces in the universe which are beyond our comprehension but in all likelihood the human race will destroy itself long before gaining the awareness necessary to understand.
 
Maybe it wasn't an asteroid that killed the dinosaur. Maybe the cavemen, and women, simply ate them all. I mean, settlers in the early U.S. nearly wiped out the buffalo so, well you know.

I'm just sayin'
 
KS55 said:
Churches and religions of all types have been obsessed by sex and sexuality since the year dot. Of course it’s always somebody else’s sex they are focussed on. Weird doesn’t begin to describe it.

But why is the view so many of them have so weird? Even the good old C of E supported African bishops anti gay stance against US anglicans appointing gay bishops. The C of E apparently says it’s ok to be a gay vicar, provided you don’t tell anybody. Muslim women should be dressed in all covering black so as not to cause men to sin. And so on…
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THe old Norse ,Roman, Greek and Celtic deities were all about the poontang man...
 
johnny crossan said:
Wrong conclusion, you can believe both but not if you are an atheist of course, which requires you to believe something came from nothing.
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To all intents and purposes I am an atheist but strictly speaking I'm an agnostic.

Nobody can prove or disprove the existence or non-existence of a deistic God, so there's doubt. But the overwhelming probability is that Einstein's god (the one who doesn't play dice) doesn't exist.

When we are talking about a theistic god we're on firmer ground. Jesus was not the son of God, the Jews will wait in vain for the second coming and Mohammed invented the verses in the Koran.

I don't believe 'something came from nothing' I know that the current state of scientific thinking can take us no further back than the Big Bang.

I also know that just as Einstein's model of the Universe supplanted Newtons, current orthodox thinking will be modified as we learn more.
 
Blue Mist said:
He didn't create the earth. He created us and of that we should be thankful.
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Hope this is a joke!

I question the intelligence of anybody who spouts this. Billions of species' have never believed in a god and they have lived and survived without any need to be thankful for it.

This proves the real function of religion which is control. Religion is not necessary for humans to function and one day hopefully we'll come to reject it entirely.
 
inbetween said:
Hope this is a joke!

I question the intelligence of anybody who spouts this. Billions of species' have never believed in a god and they have lived and survived without any need to be thankful for it.

This proves the real function of religion which is control. Religion is not necessary for humans to function and one day hopefully we'll come to reject it entirely.
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Good but heavy.
 
I might, just might..... bring this topic up at work in the morning and rest assured it will be like pulling out the pin and lobbing the grenade into a nursery. We've got 2 Jehovahs Witnesses in from 9 am. I, meanwhile, will be out till dinner in the van....should be some interesting flak flying around upon my return.
 
GortonBlue62 said:
To all intents and purposes I am an atheist but strictly speaking I'm an agnostic.

Nobody can prove or disprove the existence or non-existence of a deistic God, so there's doubt. But the overwhelming probability is that Einstein's god (the one who doesn't play dice) doesn't exist.

When we are talking about a theistic god we're on firmer ground. Jesus was not the son of God, the Jews will wait in vain for the second coming and Mohammed invented the verses in the Koran.

I don't believe 'something came from nothing' I know that the current state of scientific thinking can take us no further back than the Big Bang.

I also know that just as Einstein's model of the Universe supplanted Newtons, current orthodox thinking will be modified as we learn more.
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Being agnostic, theistic or atheist about this doesn't really matter, the world exists around us independent of our beliefs. You either choose to believe what can only be seen and observed or you don't. If it's the former then there is no need for god or religion to explain things, if it's the latter then you can choose to believe whatever you want.

People often say that something cannot come from nothing but that is a total misunderstanding of the start of the universe. Something did come from something because everything was located in one place. We can't be taken back to before that because there was no before, it was all there in one place frozen in time.

A lot of people think that we actually live in a simulation and there's more evidence for that than a random creator, especially in the context of 21st century popular religions.
 
GortonBlue62 said:
We're all looking for meaning, atheist, agnostic, theist and deist alike.
When you accept that there is no (theistic) God you get to choose what is meaningful.
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Exactly so, that's why I said some. Inceasing numbers of folk do indeed have no religious faith - globally now around 12% according to some sources. Like you they find sufficient meaning and purpose to live contentedly in what they see as an ultimately mysterious universe without needing recourse to supernatural assurance on what is good and what is evil. The societies they inhabit and seek to change were however all created and continue to be sustained by received moral values whose authority they now no longer recognise. Providing a secular alternative culture based on a moral framework determined by individual choice looks as problematic now as it has proved in the past tbh.
 
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