Atheists/Skeptics: Don't want to believe?

[Nepenthe]

Per the OP:
As a kid I was fascinated by any hint of the supernatural. Ghosts and psychic phenomenon were fascinating to me. But as I learned more I began to realize that my preconceptions about the world were unsupported and I'd been ignoring the grandeur of the physical universe. It wasn't so much replacing a supernatural worldview with the beauty of the empirical world, it was more along the lines of realizing I'd been trivializing the wonder of the physical universe in favor of glamourizing superstitions and ignorance.

 

[imaginaryme]

I've picked up the phone before it rings all the time. And I've been thinking about someone and they just dropped by unexpectedly. I've also repeated what someone has said at the same time. Nothing particularly interesting about it given the statistical likelihood of it occurring. That is, the odds are such it would be bizarre if such things didn't happen.

eta: MSizer posted seconds before with the same thought but better stated! COINCIDENCE!?!?!?!?!

I don't believe in coincidence.

 

[MSizer]

I don't believe in coincidence.

Coincidences are among the few things athiests tend to "believe in".

 

[Perfect Circle]

I think my lack of belief comes down to human fallibility. There are over 1 billion people in the world who seriously think that a Jewish zombie somehow makes their life worth living... They're reasoning is that a 1700 year old collection of old scriptures cobbled together by Constantine to unite the Roman empire says so. No disrespect to anyone, but the thought of basing my entire life off of something like this just seems stupid. If I'm going to believe that, why not everything else...

 

[imaginaryme]

OK. Well, I can see how the general public's failure to understand probability contributes to their credulity, but I'm afraid if you whip up the equation for god, I'll have to act like the creationists do, and just say "well, I admit, I don't know much about math, but I just don't believe it though". 8D

Excellent! I would say that my religion is "I believe in convergence," but I have no desire to put god in the science. That's just dumb. God in the math is irrelevant, as math proves itself. Whatever it is I am on about, I'm not looking to get anybody hurt; after considering all the options, however, it seems that atheism would be "damaged" most by any fruitful results of my research. I kinda felt that it was a more resilient group than I was previously giving credit. Yet, in a very real sense, atheism is "beyond my understanding," so I depend on these on-line tete-a-tetes to keep ma tete screwed on properly.

*considered all the options that would fit into the stupid brain at once. I'm sure I'm missing something.

 

[imaginaryme]

I think my lack of belief comes down to human fallibility. There are over 1 billion people in the world who seriously think that a Jewish zombie somehow makes their life worth living... They're reasoning is that a 1700 year old collection of old scriptures cobbled together by Constantine to unite the Roman empire says so. No disrespect to anyone, but the thought of basing my entire life off of something like this just seems stupid. If I'm going to believe that, why not everything else...

Jewish zombie! Me and the neighbor were just playing left4dead. Ahh... the holy shotgun...

 

[Mister Emu]

If I'm going to believe that, why not everything else...

They're reasoning is that a 1700 year old collection of old scriptures cobbled together by Constantine to unite the Roman empire says so.

You're already on that track...

 

[MSizer]

You're already on that track...

History is history. Constantine's mom was a christian, and he was either a good story teller, or he had temporal lobe epilepsy. And, he knew the power of religion when it comes to rounding up patriotism. Throw a few respected religious figures into a room to vote on which 4 of 39 books were going to count from that point on (who cares which ones, just hurry up and make up your minds so I can know which ones to burn and which ones to get my scriptors to start reproducing) and voila, ah, the amazing political power one gains with cunning use of people's credulity. Same then as it is today.

 

[imaginaryme]

History is history. Constantine's mom was a christian, and he was either a good story teller, or he had temporal lobe epilepsy. And, he knew the power of religion when it comes to rounding up patriotism. Throw a few respected religious figures into a room to vote on which 4 of 39 books were going to count from that point on (who cares which ones, just hurry up and make up your minds so I can know which ones to burn and which ones to get my scriptors to start reproducing) and voila, ah, the amazing political power one gains with cunning use of people's credulity. Same then as it is today.

Yeah, buddy. Good storyteller, I'd say. Epileptics got stabbed.

 

[Mister Emu]

History is history.

Indeed it is...

he was either a good story teller, or he had temporal lobe epilepsy.

There is another possibility

Throw a few respected religious figures into a room to vote on which 4 of 39 books were going to count from that point on

Even if, for the sake of argument, we say that is indeed what happened(it is not), how does letting the Church leaders decide what books to accept equal "cobbled together by Constantine"?

Now for the history

The use of the four gospels we use today, and solely those four, dates, at least, to Irenaeus, he also includes most of the NT we have today...

A Roman Synod under Pope Damasus set the scripture in the West(it is the same as we use now) in 382, and the Synod of Hippo approved a full Canon for the African Church... Later the Council of Carthage restated it. All three were held after Constantine died. The Eastern Church was not finished until even later...

The Canon of the Bible began its composition well before Constantine and did not end until after him.

My previous statement stands...

 

[whereismynotecard]

Anyway, for the other atheists/skeptics: would you like there to be "magical" things or does the hypothetical existence of these things not appeal to you?

:danana: I'd love for there to be magical things! I remember when I was little and I believed there was a Santa Claus; that was so exciting! If I could actually live in a world where there were magical beings such as god and santa that would be amazing. I cannot force myself to believe in stuff I don't think is real though. That's just not how it works. I want for there to be dragons. I made a thread about it a long time ago.

 

[imaginaryme]

There is another possibility

...he was either a good story teller, or he had temporal lobe epilepsy.

Nice one. I like atheists, but I like Christians, too. The only thing I don't like is religious nonsense, even my own.

 

[imaginaryme]

:danana: I'd love for there to be magical things! I remember when I was little and I believed there was a Santa Claus; that was so exciting! If I could actually live in a world where there were magical beings such as god and santa that would be amazing. I cannot force myself to believe in stuff I don't think is real though. That's just not how it works. I want for there to be dragons. I made a thread about it a long time ago.

:sarcastic Don't dragons eat people?

 

[whereismynotecard]

:sarcastic Don't dragons eat people?

They probably just incinerate them.

 

[Amill]

Anyway, for the other atheists/skeptics: would you like there to be "magical" things or does the hypothetical existence of these things not appeal to you?

Hmmm, well I would love to have magical powers.

I am sort of an anti-theist when it comes to the holy texts and a personal god. I think reincarnation or an afterlife would be pretty cool, I just don't want there to be a god that is meddling around with stuff here. I just don't think it'd be fair to everyone, and it would make me upset knowing that a god is helping out folks in the western part of the world, but letting thousands starve elsewhere. Course that's one of the reasons I'm not convinced of a god's existence or of divine miracles. But I wouldn't like it if a god helped out everyone either, life would be boring. Suffering and pain are important parts of life's evolution, and it also makes the good things in our lives that much better. So if there's a god, I certainly hope it's just one that started the Universe or something.

I mostly would like for there to be a way to continue to observe earth and the doings of mankind after I'm gone. It's just disappointing thinking that I won't be able to see how far mankind gets, whether or not we find life elsewhere, if we can travel to other star systems, ect.

 

[imaginaryme]

They probably just incinerate them.

Yikes! I don't wanna be a nihilist.
Ya know, there are some "magical" things in the world. Fractal geometry, wave-particle duality, self-organizing systems; I mean, reality is only boring if one sits around and debates religion all day long.

 

[whereismynotecard]

It's not real magic though... My definition of magic is something that cannot really happen, but does happen! O_O Sort of like a miracle... so by my definition, neither exists. Maybe I'm just stubborn... Magic would be me moving things with my mind, or me freezing my glass of water by just looking at it. I guess anything that the X-Men do.

 

[imaginaryme]

It's not real magic though... My definition of magic is something that cannot really happen, but does happen! O_O Sort of like a miracle... so by my definition, neither exists. Maybe I'm just stubborn... Magic would be me moving things with my mind, or me freezing my glass of water by just looking at it. I guess anything that the X-Men do.

Yeah, you're stubborn. I've thought about having those types of powers, but I'd just get fat and lazy. I don't need any more help in that regard, with this dang sweet-tooth.

 

[Smoke]

Coincidences are among the few things athiests tend to "believe in".

Law of Truly Large Numbers - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[DarkSun]

Coincidences are among the few things athiests tend to "believe in".

"I don't believe God plays with dice." ~ Albert Einstein.