Atheism? are you atheist and what exactly does that mean?( to you) enquirering minds want to know?

Question

ok I am a Christian and with all due respect, am in no way looking to challenge or judge anyone.just the opposite.I am hoping that someone will be able to help clear up my ignorance on the topic.i know very little about atheism and am intrigued and curious.what makes you tick and why? what are your related thoughts on the world? any insight will be welcomed and appreciated

Answer 1

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!!

Great religions 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!!

The reason I am atheist though is amply demonstrated if you read a  sample of Christian postings on here!!!

Intolerant, egotistical, hate filled and bigoted!! Eschewing education, science, evolution works of fiction and much, much more. Christians are the only religion opposing human rights and persecuting g**s, pro choice and so much more - but far worse whilst they demand freedom of religion they deny it to all non Christians and persecute them!!!

With followers who behave like that there simply cannot be a loving god!!

Answer 2

I bet you half the atheists are gonna say "fundies" make them tick. Maybe not now that I posted this...but they would have.

Answer 3

I am an atheist because I do not believe in Gods (not because I don't want to believe).  Atheism is not something you choose.  It's something you become, generally after a good deal of honest inquiry into the matter.

I am an atheist because gods do not appear to exist and religion appears to be makebelieve.

I'm too honest to lie to myself, which is what I would be doing if I were to say "God exists".

Atheism allows me to accurately judge the moral and ethical considerations of a situation.  I am not forced to accept anything on authority and can puzzle it out myself, nothing is "sacred".  I am not forced to create complicated apologetics to explain things that otherwise do not make any sense.

As an atheist I can honestly appreciate the beauty of the universe without reducing it to the result of a cosmic conjuring trick.

Hope that helps!

Answer 4

hmmm.. well im an agnostic athiest.  I dont know for sure if there is a god or not, but im willing to bet that there isnt one.  I personally believe that the christian god (im sorry this might get offensive) is no more than a tyrant.  I like what jesus says and all his teachings, but your god is just completely different than jesus.  frankly, i dont know how you can say jesus and god are one.  They are nearly complete opposites and contradict one another on countless issues.   But anyway, there is no proof of your god nor is there proof of gods like Allah, or Zues, or anyother god.   Humans have been worshipping gods for over 70,000 years.   Christianity/Judiasm was created about 4,000 to 6,000 years ago.  So i just dont see out of the countless gods that came before and after, what makes your god the TRUE god.  There are countless other reasons why i dont believe in god, but it would take to long to write them.  But anyway, i hope i didnt offend you too much.  i did not mean to.  i was just saying my personal beliefs.  And by the way, athiesm doesnt have a set belief.  Athiesm is all about the individual.  There is no right or wrong athiest belief.

Answer 5

I'm an atheist.  It means I lack belief in gods.  I see the world as a naturalistic place, no spirits or miracles or anything of that sort.

Answer 6

What makes me tick?  the knowledge that this is my one and only chance at life.  That my being is now.

Answer 7

I'm an atheist.

Atheism = lack of belief in god(s), nothing more.

Answer 8

"enquirering[sic] minds want to know"

a = negates what comes after

theo = god

ist = one who gets off on what preceded.

Theist = godster

A-theist = NOT a godster

There is NO such thing as 'atheism'.

Regardless of what many fundie say - a-the-ism is NOT a religion.

We don't do scripture, trinkets, songs and worship, etc.

I was seven when I first heard about the invisible critter thingie; I was amazed that adults believed in such an obvious fairy tale; I am even more amazed these days cos knowledge is so easily found and the gaps that 'gods' fit into are getting smaller.

~

Answer 9

I don't believe in gods.  

Answer 10

What's in a word? I lack belief in any gods or supernatural world. It is a reflection of my native skepticism. What I believe, I feel, should have sound reasons to be believed. Though the lack of belief fits the definition of atheist, I do not identify with any sort of atheistic dogma.

Answer 11

wow, finally an honest person looking for an honest answer. ok, well I used to be catholic and I turned atheist some years ago. Atheism, well what I think it is anyway, is actually a lot like excestentialism which actually started after WWII. Excestentialism pretty much goes against the belief that everything happens for a reason. After WWII, people saw the atrocoties committed by people like the n***s and really just in war. They asked themselves what good could really come from this and came to the conclusion that there was no higher reason for it to happen, and no higher God that condoned it either. from what I have seen, that's how a lot of atheist start. me, idk, it took me a while to decide whether or not I believed in a God and while I looked all over for reasons why, I know that it was just because I couldnt believe anymore. Thanks again for asking an honest question.

Answer 12

Mostly it's the suffering of little children and how it doesn't jive with an all powerfull benevolent being. It's just that what I believe is easier to believe if it makes sense. It might be nicer to believe in God but the illogic of it makes it almost impossible.

Answer 13

Excellent question! In fact, I was so excited about my own conversion from Christianity to atheism that I wrote an entire book about it. Basically, I find it impossible to believe in the ancient stories of the Bible, especially when science tells us otherwise. And because I don't believe in the really old stories of the Old Testament, I can't accept the New Testament either. That means, by definition, I'm no longer a Christian. It's only recently I've started using the word "atheist" to describe myself (I mean like in the last month). To me, the word fits simply because I see no reason that I should believe in the god of any religions.

Answer 14

An atheist is a person who lacks belief in any type of god or deity. Like the theist, the atheist arrives at his conclusion based on the culmination of his experiences, events and acquisition of data. Where the two differ is in the conclusion: the theist has concluded that what he has seen and knows can only be possible or true due to the existence of some god/deity; however, the atheist concludes that no god/deity is necessary for what I have seen and know to be true. It's really that simple.

By the way, don't let some atheists try and tell you there is no such thing as 'atheism'...while it is absolutely true that atheism is in NO WAY a religion of any kind, it still rates as an 'ism', due to the fact that the suffix 'ism' means a state or condition of something, a distinctive trait or mannerism.  Many atheists try and bulldoze over this as they don't want to be an 'ism' because they think-wrongly-that this somehow creates a connection to being a religion or religion-like.

Answer 15

Atheism is the lack of a belief in deities. Atheists like myself do not believe that there is any type of god authority that watches over the universe.  

Answer 16

Atheism: lack of belief in god/gods.  That's all it is. Nothing more, nothing less.

Answer 17

I think most atheists would agree that the basis for selecting  a godless view of the universe is that it requires a willful rejection of reason to support "faith." That is, "acceptance induced by feeling in the absence of evidence or proof."

Christian spiritual superiors instruct their followers that "blind" belief is the only kind of worship that gets you into heaven. But why would a god give us rational minds, then expect us to be irrational in our homage to him?

And furthermore, if a god were capable of creating a universe, why would he care what we think? Wouldn't he have better things to do than play puppet master in the sky? Giving babies cancer and hitting puppies with cars...

So maybe he doesn't care what we think, only what we do. But "good deeds alone don't get you into heaven." Why have a heaven? What does perfection even mean? And why don't those poor tribal people in the jungle get to go to heaven, just because they haven't heard his name?

AND... if god created the universe, who created god?

Atheists have wrestled with those questions and a bunch like them. Once a person realizes that he or she won't be struck by electric bolts from the sky... that many of the justifications for "belief" are based on fear and authority... it becomes a snap to decide once and for all, "Nope, not buying it."

The world opens up to FREE THINKING once you reject the notion of a god. That's what makes me tick. I like being responsible for my life.