• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Question for atheists...Do you feel baffled by the religious viewpoint?

frg001

frg001

Complex bunch of atoms
I'm sure I am not the only one who feels utter bafflement, bemusement and almost sheer disbelief that so many otherwise intelligent beings can actually believe in a divine being. And more so that some of them actually believe in the magical and miraculous events told in the bible and koran?
I mean virgin births, illiterate arabs writing books,virgins for matyrs, and heaven and hell?

The older I get, and the hopefully wiser I get, the less I can even identify with these people. The religious, mainly Islamic countries in the East, and the rabidly religious states of the USA make me wince. How can these people give up all they are in the blind notion that they are serving a god who must be worshiped and even more stupidly, be protected from the likes of me who have no problem dismissing them. I mean can't it protect itself!!!?

Again, this is for atheists only, I know many religious folk feel the same in reverse, but to be honest I don't feel that the reverse feeling is of anywhere near equal validity... ie Not understanding that someone DOESN'T believe in the paranormal carries no weight for me.

Sorry to come across badly here, but I had to get it out... ;)
 
LuisDantas

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
I see it as a failure to care for religion (which I see as important and needed) by allowing too much superstition to creep/remain in it, but otherwise I understand how you feel.
 
Phasmid

Phasmid

Mr Invisible
frg001 said:
I'm sure I am not the only one who feels utter bafflement, bemusement and almost sheer disbelief that so many otherwise intelligent beings can actually believe in a divine being. And more so that some of them actually believe in the magical and miraculous events told in the bible and koran?
I mean virgin births, illiterate arabs writing books,virgins for matyrs, and heaven and hell?
Click to expand...

Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.

frg001 said:
The older I get, and the hopefully wiser I get, the less I can even identify with these people.
Click to expand...

Well, you seem to want to understand, or identify, with religious folks, from your question. It may help to ask religious people, rather than stick to just atheists, as fabulous as they are.

frg001 said:
The religious, mainly Islamic countries in the East, and the rabidly religious states of the USA make me wince. How can these people give up all they are in the blind notion that they are serving a god who must be worshiped and even more stupidly, be protected from the likes of me who have no problem dismissing them. I mean can't it protect itself!!!?
Click to expand...

I can only speak for myself, but when I was a Christian, I wasn't defending God when the religion was attacked, I was protecting myself. I didn't much like the idea of my worldview being shattered. Imagine being given definitive affirmation of God's existence... I imagine you'd be affraid.
 
TurkeyOnRye

TurkeyOnRye

Well-Known Member
frg001 said:
I'm sure I am not the only one who feels utter bafflement, bemusement and almost sheer disbelief that so many otherwise intelligent beings can actually believe in a divine being. And more so that some of them actually believe in the magical and miraculous events told in the bible and koran?
I mean virgin births, illiterate arabs writing books,virgins for matyrs, and heaven and hell?

The older I get, and the hopefully wiser I get, the less I can even identify with these people. The religious, mainly Islamic countries in the East, and the rabidly religious states of the USA make me wince. How can these people give up all they are in the blind notion that they are serving a god who must be worshiped and even more stupidly, be protected from the likes of me who have no problem dismissing them. I mean can't it protect itself!!!?

Again, this is for atheists only, I know many religious folk feel the same in reverse, but to be honest I don't feel that the reverse feeling is of anywhere near equal validity... ie Not understanding that someone DOESN'T believe in the paranormal carries no weight for me.

Sorry to come across badly here, but I had to get it out... ;)
Click to expand...


Phasmid said:
Sometimes the truth is stranger than fiction.



Well, you seem to want to understand, or identify, with religious folks, from your question. It may help to ask religious people, rather than stick to just atheists, as fabulous as they are.



I can only speak for myself, but when I was a Christian, I wasn't defending God when the religion was attacked, I was protecting myself. I didn't much like the idea of my worldview being shattered. Imagine being given definitive affirmation of God's existence... I imagine you'd be affraid.
Click to expand...

No, I'm not baffled by them. I know why they believe what they do. Phasmid makes an excellent point; religionists build their religion into their sense of self. They create their identity through their religious beliefs and activities. Religion becomes all-pervasive in everyday life, so any potential threat that religionists see to their religion is a threat to their sense of self.
 
R

Rin

Member
I am not baffled at all. Do you only hold beliefs because they are true? I personally think that every human being only ever analyses a tiny portion of their total belief system but will happily throw their weight behind any part of it.

I reckon, and I have no evidence for this, that it is advantageous to our survival to have confidence in our beliefs even though they are not necessarily true. In other words, there are other attributes that beliefs have that can be useful other than their truth. The way they make us feel. The impact they have on the world. Their content. So it doesn't baffle me at all that so many people are so convinced about a belief system which is false because the same is almost certainly true for me also.
 
Willamena

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
Rin said:
Do you only hold beliefs because they are true?
Click to expand...
Yes. I have a hard time believing in something, knowing it as false.

Rin said:
So it doesn't baffle me at all that so many people are so convinced about a belief system which is false because the same is almost certainly true for me also.
Click to expand...
How do we know it is false?
 
rojse

rojse

RF Addict
I must admit that I do not understand the religious viewpoint either. However, there are two ideas that stop me from dismissing it altogether. The first is that I must consider that I might not be as intelligent as I would like to be. The second is that the situation with the religious and the non-religious might be analogous to the blind man and the sighted man, and any attempt that the sighted man takes to explain sight to the blind man must either be met with simple acceptance, or sheer disbelief.
 
frg001

frg001

Complex bunch of atoms
rojse said:
I must admit that I do not understand the religious viewpoint either. However, there are two ideas that stop me from dismissing it altogether. The first is that I must consider that I might not be as intelligent as I would like to be. The second is that the situation with the religious and the non-religious might be analogous to the blind man and the sighted man, and any attempt that the sighted man takes to explain sight to the blind man must either be met with simple acceptance, or sheer disbelief.
Click to expand...

Good answer.
But... I regard those who believe in certain aspects of religion in the same way as those who end up being locked away in mental institutions claiming to be historical figures.
If some of the beliefs that are now ingrained in our major religions was claimed
today, the claimant would rightly be regarded as a bit mad.
 
frg001

frg001

Complex bunch of atoms
Jayhawker Soule said:
You paint with to wide a brush.
Click to expand...

The truth hurts.

Of course not all religious devotees are responsible. But those who are do it in style. Richard Dawkins couldn't have helped the anti-religious cause anywhere near as much as Osama Bin Laden.
 
Last edited:
Willamena

Willamena

Just me
Premium Member
frg001 said:
The truth hurts.

Of course not all religious devotees are responsible. But those who are do it in style. Richard Dawkins couldn't have helped the anti-religious cause anywhere near as much as Osama Bin Laden.
Click to expand...
Ah, but then it's not Bin Laden doing the denegrading; the denegrading happens in your eyes.

To respond to the OP, I was and still am baffled by many aspects of it, but since coming to this forum many other aspects (the underlying mythology, for instance) make a lot more sense.
 
Luminous

Luminous

non-existential luminary
rojse said:
I must admit that I do not understand the religious viewpoint either. However, there are two ideas that stop me from dismissing it altogether. The first is that I must consider that I might not be as intelligent as I would like to be. The second is that the situation with the religious and the non-religious might be analogous to the blind man and the sighted man, and any attempt that the sighted man takes to explain sight to the blind man must either be met with simple acceptance, or sheer disbelief.
Click to expand...
but what if it is clear that we are all blind(too many versions of what sight is). Would you believe a blind man telling you what sight is like because he believes the person that told him was not blind and did not lie?
No, probably not. you would be skeptical. that is why i am agnostic.
 
Last edited:
frg001

frg001

Complex bunch of atoms
Luminous said:
but what if it is clear that we are all blind(too many versions of what sight is). Would you believe a blind man telling you what sight is like because he believes the person that told him was not blind and did not lie?
No, probably not. you would be skeptical. that is why i am agnostic.
Click to expand...

The trouble with the word 'agnostic' that many people believe it to give equal credence to there being god(s) as not. In the end that particular theory is one of the most fanciful ones. I call myself atheist as it shifts me away from that. In the end no human knows for 100% certainty. My certainty is probably only about 99.99999999999999999% give or take, as I am always willing to be 'proved' wrong.

Saying that, if some being presented itself to me, created a world, and intelligent creatures on it as proof of godhood, it would simply prove the existence of far more intelligent and powerful beings, not gods.

oh and
YouTube - Why does faith deserve respect?

What a guy ;)
 
Last edited:
Luminous

Luminous

non-existential luminary
I agree with J... frg you should take that 0.000000000000000001 chance and chose 'naturalism' or something instead of atheism!:sarcastic
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top