A question for athiest?

Question

do you look at religion as just needing proof of a higher power, or are you a "new atheist" that believes that religion is harmful and inspires hate and war. i am just wondering and not judging. this is something have have been hearing about so what better place to ask but here. thanks!

Answer 1

I don't really care to pigeon hole myself with the label of 'new atheist', however the definition you give includes some of the reasons I'm atheist.

I don't believe in God, or gods.  I also believe religion is very dangerous to society.

Answer 2

i see at as th perfect story for GOOD PEOPLE WHO ALL LOVE EACH OTHER TO DESERVE TO use as a thought provoking platform for forming lives togehter to share their lives together!.

my friends deserve more than a cheap t**d in the middle of space to be born on,., but you couldnt feel the same!

Answer 3

I am looking at religion, as useless and deluding.

It was used as tool in the middle ages, to keep the herd tidy.

Also, as a base for a theocratic government.

Similar as Iran, whoś laws of Quran are valid as laws of government.

It i way over the hill and misleading

I am simply atheist and i would be 500 years ago, given same brain.

The concept of god is nowhere near logic.

Answer 4

I would be the former. Religion is fine with me as long as it is kept personal and out of schools and government.

Answer 5

I think if you study any major religion deeply enough and with help from the right teachers, you'll find out why they all started: they all realized there is a god, or a higher power. They set down 'rules' that they thought people should follow so as to be in 'alignment' with the power, since the same very power flows through us as well.

  Of course, nowadays, 'lost people' use it to preach hatred and separation and wars and rumors of wars!

Answer 6

Let look at history, religion has inspired wars, hate, persecution, torture and genocide.  Currently, religion is and has been used as a justification to discriminate. Not to mention that religion is used not only as an excuse for willful ignorance but as a justification to teach willful ignorance. Draw your own conclusions from this.

But yes, without evidence to support the claims a religion makes about its deity or deities, it is nothing more than a man made institution.  While I don't view religion as harmful, the more I observe its effects on society the more I lean towards considering it as harmful.

Answer 7

I am an atheist because there is a lack of evidence. But my distaste with religion does not describe my atheism.

Answer 8

Some religion is harmful, but not all of it is.  I have religious friends who are intelligent, empathetic, kind people.  Unfortunately, there are also people who believe that their god compels them to blow people up or picket some poor person's funeral.

I heard someone one the radio talking about "New Atheism" and promoting a book about ways to "combat" it.  I don't think that atheists who oppose religion are anything new; they're just more in the media right now.

Answer 9

Both actually.

People need the idea of God as a security blanket so they don't worry about the world ending or just dying and nothing happening.

And religion does more damage than good.

Answer 10

I personally need more proof than my all-too-human emotions; I have no problem with religious people, I just have a problem with the extremists and the religions themselves.

Answer 11

I'm an old atheist.I look upon most religions as a disease of the intellect

Answer 12

It is harmful... but its not a very new concept... anyone who has ever picked up a history book could see that it IS indeed harmful... the Abrahamic versions in particular with their theocratic antihuman perspectives ARE dangerous.

Really... they are.

Answer 13

No need for proof of something which doesn't exist.

I see religion as a dangerous to the good of humanity and hopefully it can be wiped out one day.

Answer 14

Really, I just don't care.  I think that religion is the opiate of the masses.  It's just there, like country music.  Some people like it, but I don't.

Answer 15

ATHEIST -  someone who does not believe in a God – any God – not just the Christian one.  But that does not mean they do not hold strong moral or religious beliefs!  They can follow any religion that does not have a god and there are a lot of those!!

Like BUDDHISM – Religious teaching from Buddha and his followers that by destroying greed, hatred and delusion (the cause of all suffering) man can attain perfect enlightenment!!

Atheists and atheist religions are actually in the majority in the world!!

Answer 16

regardless of what you call yourself, religion (especially Christianity) does inspire hate, war, and ignorance.

The only proof you need to be spiritual is the observation that your mind is immaterial and only perceives the feelings and emotions in your body, and in fact is not actually a part of your body.

proof: the cells in your body changes every seven years, meaning what you are now is different from "who" you were seven years ago, and will be different from "who" you will be seven years from now. So if you technically don't exist, what is "I, me, mine, you, they, their, ours, we" supposed to signify?

keep in mind that "nothing" does not exist, so that what "I" signifies is actually a universal concept, not just an individual I.

Answer 17

I don't look at it either way. Some people like it and want it and it is even good for them. I don't need it. Just the way it is.

Answer 18

I think religion is, for some people, the way they round out their view of the world and address the afterlife.

It also plays right into the "Just World" phenomenon, where people who see injustice want to have a reason why it happened. (This easily leads to victim-blaming or juries who hold women responsible for their rapes because of the way they were dressed.)

You see the Just World Phenomenon on here whenever suicide or abortion comes up--the woman wants the abortion only, ever, because she had s*x for pleasure. I've read "shouldn't have spread your legs" from both sides. And when someone talks about suicide? Nonsense, only weak people kill themselves--good, strong people are never driven to it. Both examples of a fallacy.

Because of religion's insubstantial nature and the way people can use it for anything, as well as its placing a lot of belief that god moves through people and a very good speaker is likely to get his words and gift from god, it can easily be turned to very bad purposes.

I want more proof, but I can believe an intelligent person could also be very religious.

Answer 19

I believe that religion is destructive, yes, but that has nothing to do with why I'm an atheist, or at least an agnostic atheist. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and so far, none has been produced in favor of the claim that any kind of thing we could reasonably call "God" exists. If credible evidence COULD be produced, of course I'd consider it. It would be an act of intellectual dishonesty not to. I'd imagine that any such evidence would contradict all of the man-made conceptions of God that we've pigeon holed the idea into with the various world religions, I might add. But, I can confidently say that nothing meeting the standards of real evidence has been presented by anybody. It's still all about faith, and I have none to speak of, when it comes to the supernatural.

By the way, we really do appreciate it when you spell "atheist" correctly, and pluralize it when addressing more than one of us. Just thought I'd throw that in there.

Answer 20

I believe that belief systems came about to fill in the gaps of understanding of the natural world, to comfort, and to provide rules for society. Belief in the supernatural such as god is from a primitive culture. As society became more complex man has used beliefs to gain power and money. Additionally, in todays world you have extremist within all religions. This greed and extreme nature is what causes war. Belief systems are bad for a modern complex society. It will always lead to bloodshed.  

Answer 21

Both.

I ask for evidence for *anything* that somebody tells me is true.  No religion has ever come up with a single shred of good evidence, so I see no reason to believe the claims they make.

Religion is harmful, and has inspired wars.  It continues to do so in the world today.  A good book on European history or any good newspaper on any single day should be ample evidence for that.

Answer 22

Atheism is just a matter of stating: There is ABSOLUTELY NO evidence for the existence of ANY 'god'. None. Nada. Zip. Zero.  

Answer 23

"With or without religion, you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."

- Steven Weinberg –

"I’m not convinced that faith can move mountains, but I’ve seen what it can do to skyscrapers."

-William H. Gascoyne-

Answer 24

Bifurcation is a fallacy, if you understand what I'm saying.  Atheists don't have to choose, they can believe one or both.  Don't speculate on our motives in an effort to put us down.   We may have many motives, or none at all (which means we have no motive in favour of believing Invisible Sky-Daddy stories either, so the stable default state of mind is Atheism.)  To say for example that we are only down on religion because we've been abused because of it as children does NOT hide the fact that abuse did indeed take place, and we want to spare the world of that kind of thing.

You can spend hours reading atheism.about.com for example, and the page demolishing myths against Atheism will help eliminate hatred and prejudice against this most progressive and high-potential segment of humanity, those who live their whole lives in the Real Plane of numbers and not the Imaginary Plane, and whose efforts therefore benefit real people and institutions and not imaginary ones.  I'd rather surround myself with Atheist people than mysticists, they are not all there and their human efforts are being wasted.

Observe the pathetic Muslim praying 5 times a day, that's about 30 minutes a day including foot-washing time.  That is 15% of his waking life, gone forever!  What the h**l?  What benefit can muttering into empty space do?  All I can see is perhaps it has some self-hypnosis value, like if he wants to stop smoking he could PRAY or MEDITATE to stop smoking, and so a positive goal is achieved with the help of focussing the mind.  But surely there are secular ways to do that; it is no longer the domain of the witch-doctors alone.

Answer 25

"New atheist?"

I lack belief in gods because there is no evidence for gods.

There is no denying that religion has inspired hate and war, but football has inspired hooliganism...

Man is often hateful and warlike and will use almost any definition of the "other" as an excuse for hate and war.

Answer 26

I look at religion as being wrong. I do think they need proof of a higher power but all of the other junk associated annoys me.

Answer 27

Religion lacks any proof or reason.  It is dishonest and detrimental to the thinking of human beings.  Theists must engage in a curious doublethink that prevents them from making sound judgments (for example they must believe might makes right, or that genocide is good).  They misuse language in a most dishonest fashion (words like love, truth and justice in particular).  

Religion is very obviously a primitive and superstitious attempt to explain the universe around us.  But the individual believers are prevented from seeing this.  They shy away from reality at every point where it contradicts their chosen belief.

Theism strikes at our very integrity, it is literally wishful thinking and makebelieve.