Why Do People Become Atheists?

Maybe, maybe not, since there's no way to get statistics of that, but people will catch a lot of shit for not believing in a god. I've witnessed more occasions where people catch shit for being atheist rather than being religious. An atheist most likely won't care if somebody is religious until it starts being forced upon them(After all, I've seen my share of Christians out there who think it's their duty to "save" people) Hell, an anime voice actor I really like has actually said that he feels it's his duty to "save" people through anime(He holds church sermons at anime conventions). I don't hear about atheists doing that kind of stuff or handing out pamplets on campus about why gods do not exist. I think there is more pressure on non religious people than religious people. That's how religion has always been(by the leaders who handle it's message irresponsibly). Forcing it upon others. "The bible is right and your way of life is wrong". If there is any pressure being put on religious people, it's being put on them by other religious people. There is pressure to be the "stand up model Christian/Catholic/Buddhist". I see it in church all the time and in my family. They go to look good for the other folks or try to act like they are so holy or whatever. Atheists don't put that kind of pressure on anybody. I was always pressured by other religious folk. I saw it at home and at school(I went to a Christian school).



Also, I'd rather do the right ting because it's the right thing, not to get into heaven. Heaven is not my incentive to do good in life.

On another note, the term "saved" pisses me off, as if people are somehow lost in life. But that's another story.

 

All instituitons require faith in an unseen entity that's represented by some type of figure head but for me faith in the unmeasurable is part of being human. We do it all the time yet when it comes to believing in something that's beyond our understanding so many of us reject it. What if I told you God was a person and I was talking to him right now?

 

Christians have been persecuted by many groups through out history we just happen to be living in a time where Christianity is dominate. Any dominate culture pressures the minority. If the majority believed in Neo from the Matrix you'd have people being persecute for not wearing trench coats and sunglasses. Its the nature of human fear to try to impose your ideology on others when you aren't sure about it yourself.

 

If you told me that you were talking to god, I'd say "good for you". I'm not gonna call you crazy or anything and I respect your beliefs. Not sure if you mean talking to god through prayer, or just chillin' and shootin' the shit. And to address the beyond our understanding, why is it that whenever something is unexplainable, people have to say it was god that did it. People need to place blame on something. And in many cases, it's caused by god.

 

Well in our lives all things are caused by God. We are all indivuations of the bigger source that is God. We are part of the all since all that is here has always been here and will always been here in one form or another.

 

You know that's actually one thing that really pisses me off. So called devout Christians who upon the first inkling of challenge, or difficulty, or tragedy immediately curse God and demand to know why He did this to them, or why He allowed it to happen to them. Those folks just completely miss the boat, and they make the rest of us look bad. IMO it isn't atheists, or agnostics, that make people question Christianity, it's false Christians. You want to know what anyone is made of, and what they truly believe, watch them in a crisis, only then do you learn the true measure of a man or woman. Some people will surprise you, but truthfully the majority I find to be wholly disappointing. Do not talk of faith, and hope, and then ditch it the instant the darkness moves into your life. People who just give up all hope, curl up in the corner and wait for someone to explain it to them and fix it, just make me want to kick their ass.

Personally I've never once in my life questioned God as to why the bad things have happened to me, I know that's not my place. However I do thank Him for the good, and I truly believe it is His grace whenever the sun shines brightly in my world.

 

Which is what I felt for 17 years. People imposing religion on me. Yeah, Christians have been persecuted by other groups but it doesn't really justify what has been done as a result of Christians forcing others to assimilate to their beliefs(although people were forced to assimilate to many other things besides religion). Religion may sound good on paper, but it's got a pretty poor execution, in my opinion. And something as major as religion will be used to control/persuade human. I'm not gonna ake something as major as a god seriously just because it was written in some book where the meanings have probably been shredded through translation and interpretation over 2000 years based on peoples cultural values or whatever.

 

I'll just call it nature.

 

Word.

 

Supersymmetry is a notion that in the beginning gravity, electromagnetism, strong and weak nuclear forces were in balance - nevermind how they came into being, and nevermind how they were in equilibrium. Then, all of a sudden for reasons unknown, 13.5 billion years ago - KABOOM! These forces immediately decayed into some monstrous Quark from Hell. No one has been able to prove this (LHC Epic FAIL) - and yet you guys believe it anyway. So, I would say that even though you don't understand Physics, you all still have faith. Imagine that...

 

Well put my friend. Most explainations for things aren't things we've discovered for ourselves but something others have told us is true and we just go along with it.

 

Just a shot in the dark, but I'm guessing that's why it's called a THEORY. Again, just a shot in the dark. You also assume that just because somebody doesn't believe in god that they must agree with the Big Bang(or in your case, KABOOM!) THEORY.

 

:smt042
Are you arguing against atheism or for it? lol. I kid, I kid.

But you're right. Anything is possible, just because we can't see it doesn't mean it's not there.

It's possible (and very likely) that life exists on other planets in other galaxies...

It's possible that the stars can determine personality traits depending on when we were born...

It's possible that some people can read minds and tell the future...

It's possible that vampires exist, going to your local high school and living "vegetarian" lifestyles!

It's possible that the Flying Spaghetti Monster answers our prayers!

Why not?? We don't know for sure? We haven't seen evidence, but we haven't seen evidence to disprove it either??

I'm not trying to ridicule, honestly I'm not. I'm just amusing myself... But the argument that there are things that exist in this world without proof can go both ways. To me, it's not a reason to give up sense and logic just because it's "possible".

 

Exactly! I can't rep you but this was exactly my point.

 

So, how did the universe begin?

 

But logic is subjective. Things that appear to be logical at a certain oint in time can be proven to be illogical later ie the earth is flat and its the center of the solar system. I'm not saying that our current understandings should be dismissed merely expanded to include the illogical because at some point it can and will change. Quantum mechanics is currently changing the way the scientific community has logically thought of matter and the universe is ever changing and ever expanding and so must our understanding of it.

 

Well when the day comes that God's existence presents with a logical argument I'll humbly kneel down before Him and ask His forgiveness for not subscribing to such a notion that makes little sense to me in this day and age.

 

I don't believe God requires that we ask for forgiveness that's man. I invite you guys to read Conversation with God an Uncommon dialogue and watch What The Bleep Do We Know. Both changed my life immensly especially when had questions and thought the way most of you do. Or you can completely ignore me either one is fine lol.

 

How is it subjective?

The perspective is subjective not logic. People's perspective of the world was subjective. No one really looked for proof for quite a while. They just accepted it to be flat. You need to look for proof of something. That's why it takes more work to not accept something and prove it over accepting it. You got to build a boat and go there. It is easy to just believe it is flat.

I am not to certain that there are illogical things in the universe. There are things that we do not have enough information about to explain. The thing about humanity is our understanding of the universe is minimal at best. Quantum mechanics has always been the way that it has been. The issue is people finding the rules to make it less mysterious to humanity. I think what you mean by illogical is more of a mystery. We need not eliminate everything until we find out evidence to prove it does or does not exist. I think that is more of what you mean when you say not to dismiss it.

 

As for the first part people did look for proof that the earth was flat and did look for proof that the earth was the center of the Universe and I don't know it was lack of technology or poor data but they came to false conclusions. As far as the second part I totally agree with you. We're on the same page fam.