God made me an atheist

[Revoltingest]

Mother Therasa , selfish ? Huh which world do you live in she was very religious.
Imho anything less than 100% disbelief is doubt ,not atheism is only a tiny minority that can call themselves athiest imho .

Your definition of "atheism" is too restrictive.
We don't need to be certain.
In fact, very very few of us are.
It's only logical...if gods cannot be disproven, then they are possible.

 

[Milton Platt]

With atheism, we do not know 100% for sure whether God exists or not. I know that many religious believers are selfish and harmful. So if you were once a religious believer who has become an atheist, do you sometimes wonder if there could be a God who made you an atheist so that you no longer commit your selfish and heinous religious acts? I know that possibility is almost completely none with atheists. But do you sometimes wonder anyway?

That is a possibility even more remote than the existence of the god n the first place. The universe does not work on the basis of possibility so much as probability.

 

[Desert Snake]

Congratulations. Now as long as Satan isn't trying to make you anything...

 

[delizzle]

Define selfish and heinous religious acts.

 

[Thief]

Your definition of "atheism" is too restrictive.
We don't need to be certain.
In fact, very very few of us are.
It's only logical...if gods cannot be disproven, then they are possible.

Then why not, be positively minded?
your social graces might improve!!!!!

 

[Thief]

Define selfish and heinous religious acts.

AH! a newbie.....

hold that frame of mind....and good luck!

 

[Revoltingest]

Then why not, be positively minded?
your social graces might improve!!!!!

But I am positive...
"I don't believe in gods!"
How much more positive & optimistic can one be, eh?

 

[Thief]

But I am positive...
"I don't believe in gods!"
How much more positive & optimistic can one be, eh?

dude......with all due respect....
you're confusing a stubborn position with a feel good emotion....

that makes you very human......good for you.

but I would hate to see you end up a small pile of dust in a box.

 

[Revoltingest]

dude......with all due respect....
you're confusing a stubborn position with a feel good emotion....

that makes you very human......good for you.

but I would hate to see you end up a small pile of dust in a box.

I plan to be a pile of ashes fertilizing some giant hostas.
Pretty good end, eh?

 

[Thief]

....sigh......

 

[Demonslayer]

I have not noticed religious people and non religious people behaving very differently. Atheists just use different reasons for their misbehavior than theists do.

I'm going to mostly agree with you here in that there are certainly the same percentage of nice atheists & religious people, and ******** atheists and religious people. Being religious doesn't make you good, or bad, nor does being atheist.

However there are some very specific maladies that affect relgious people that don't affect atheists. An example is this war on homosexuality that is admittedly getting better, but is still raging in the more religious parts of America. When 200,000 people ran to Chik-Fil-A to support their anti-gay stance, it was all religious people. Atheists and other non-religous people aren't out there protesting gay people, or saying things like some of the popular pastors and religious politicians are saying about gay people (the government should kill gay people, we should put gay people behind fences, etc) Ask people why they feel this way, they will always answer "it's against my religion." So this is one example of a problem very specific to religion.

Another example is parents being upset that their child is dating or marrying someone outside the faith. This is getting less common as generations get less religious, but it's still far too common. I told the story about my Catholic grandmother refusing to come to my wedding because I happend to fall in love with a woman raised in a Jewish family. I know many stories like this and I'll wager most of you do too. Again, this sad problem only affects the religious.

Being atheist or religous doesn't make you good or bad, but there are some very specific bad behaviors that affect only the religious. And I blame the religion not the people themselves. I was raised very religiously and my father passed on terrible attitudes to me about gay people, explaining that it was against God. When I got out into the wider world I became ashamed when I realized I was bigotted against gay people and I realized it was based on my religious upbringing. I don't really thing there are any specific things like this associated with atheism. If someone thinks there are, please explain.

 

[Thief]

I have not noticed religious people and non religious people behaving very differently. Atheists just use different reasons for their misbehavior than theists do.
Tom

not sure if I agree.....
believers are sinners....ask them...
and if your hand does anything at all, it's because you thought you should, or felt like it

When we do harm......we are typically thinking of ourselves.
eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
greed leans to stealing or cheating
jealousy leans to revenge or regret...
human misbehavior is common to all who are human

but when we do good, believers point to God
and nonbelievers point to social grace....
these two motivations are worlds apart....in the same world.