Why are you an atheist?

[psychoslice]

More as an idealist, though I have a firm grasp of 'mystic'.

I see, if I had to label myself which I don't like doing, I would call myself a mystic also.

 

[s2a]

I grew up in a mildly religious family. I was baptised as a baby, went to
Sunday school through elementary school, and I had a fairly steady belief in God (as much as one can have at that age). I wouldn't say that I was a devoted Christian, but being an obedient child, I tried my best to follow what my church leaders told me.

At the age of nine, things started going wrong. One day while brushing my teeth before bed, I realized that I was going to die. It wasn't a fear that I was going perish immediately, but the knowledge that someday in the future I wasn't going to exist anymore-- and it scared me stiff. After that night, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I couldn't think about anything else but dying. My Sunday school teacher told me not to worry, that if I lived a good life I would go to heaven. When asked how she knew heaven was real, she replied that the Bible said it existed so it must exist. She also said that if I prayed, God would help me not be afraid.

My parents took me to a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which caused me to obsess over the things that made me anxious (in my case, the unknown). Every night I prayed and prayed for God to give me some reassurance that everything would be alright, but I was still afraid. I couldn't find proof of heaven so the question remained unanswered. It seemed as if every day I sank deeper and deeper into this chasm of doubt and fear. I lost weight, started doing badly in school, and had a lot of trouble interacting with kids my age because of the constant anxiety.lI wondered why God, as good and loving as people told me he was, would let a nine-year-old girl suffer like this if the answer was as simple as "all good people go to heaven".

Over a period of about four years, my belief in God deteriorated as I learned about evolution and the Big Bang theory. Scientific explanation of the universe made more sense to me than a belief based on a book of mythology written by humans. I remember a teacher lecturing about the Greek gods and goddesses and how they were created to . In short, I stopped believing because religion just didn't make sense to me anymore. Once I no longer believed, I began to look introspectively to relieve my anxieties. By drawing the strength from within myself, I was given a personal sense of accomplishment whenever I slept through the night or went a few hours without thinking of death because I knew it was a reflection of my own efforts and not the intervention of a divine power solving my problems for me. I dragged myself out of that darkness once I saw that it was my own problem to fix.

Losing faith in God has positively impacted my life. It has given me the opportunity to have faith in myself, to know that I have the power to shape my own destiny.

So my question to you is: why are you an atheist? I'm curious to see the comparison between people who were led to atheism by disappointment, etc. in religion and those who have always thought this way.

Yet another thread who's OP may question things, yet offers NO follow-up from the originator.

None.

*sigh*

 

[dgirl1986]

I grew up in a non religious family but was sent to a christian school and my friend signed me up for postal sunday school. I became a christian not long after. It was like an up and down relationship with the struggles I had with it and I tried to stick at it for about 11 years. I felt pretty betrayed when I found out that it was a religion and that there were other religions which were also claiming to be the way or be the truth.

I bounced a bit from buddhism to zen to wicca to paganism. I really loved the greek gods and worhsipped artemis and demeter. I had a moment when I realised that if stories about gods were there because they didnt have the science to understand how things work, then how can gods be real? It took a while but I finally admitted to atheist beliefs.

I still sometimes flirt with paganism when life gets slow or I havent other things to really engage my mind in a constructive way but I usually come to my senses. I think I do it because i secretly want it to be real.

 

[jonathan180iq]

So my question to you is: why are you an atheist?

...Because gods do not objectively exist.

I am an atheist because that's the way of the Universe.

 

[Revoltingest]

...Because gods do not objectively exist.

Aye, I'm an atheist because there's no good answer to "Why not be an atheist?".
It's the default view.

 

[jonathan180iq]

Aye, I'm an atheist because there's no good answer to "Why not be an atheist?".
It's the default view.

"Well, because, you know, I feel like there probably kinda sorta must be something.... What I mean to say is, it makes me feel good to think that there is so, there probably is.
And that's why I believe in God."

 

[Revoltingest]

"Well, because, you know, I feel like there probably kinda sorta must be something.... What I mean to say is, it makes me feel good to think that there is so, there probably is.
And that's why I believe in God."

I lack that feeling.
That's why the answer will vary from person to person.

 

[rene]

I am An atheist because it would seem to me that after a trillion or so people have lived and died throughout the course of existence, all prophesies would be fulfilled by now. I mean really!! How Many acts of evil have to occur before a just and loving god determines it is time for direct intervention. I gave believing a fair shot through some rough times in my life but after stepping back and watching more worldly events unfold and looking back at historical events, I determined for myself that we humans are solely responsible for all good and evil. Evil being clearly psychological damage to one degree or another.
It's the sheer numbers of lives that has put theism in perspective for me. This does not make me correct. It's only "my" understanding of life as I see it

 

[rene]

It's definitely difficult to get something from nothing.

Less than productive? Because war and strife in the name of a god is productive?

 

[rene]

My atheism has nothing to do with my love of science, my religious or non-religious history, or any negative experiences in church. My atheism has nothing to do with choosing to believe or to not believe. I am an atheist because the philosophical arguments supporting the existence of God(s) are ill reasoned, the logical arguments have nothing substantial to offer, and there is no evidence that anything beyond the physical universe exists.

That and it allows me access to all those non-theist perks we get when we flash the secret sign.

Spoiler: atheist in the hood

Secret sign?? There's a sign??

 

[Vishvavajra]

The idea that the cosmos is run by a disembodied human consciousness never made sense to me to begin with. It seems too obviously a product of human psychology to want to project ourselves onto everything. Granted, there are more abstract and sophisticated ways of conceptualizing God, but those move further and further away from theism.

Fortunately, I didn't grow up in a house in which theism was pushed on me. We didn't belong to any religious institution, and my parents didn't talk about it much. It wasn't until I was an adolescent that I had to figure out where I stood on the issue, and by then it was really too late for me to develop a belief in a disembodied consciousness behind everything.

I appreciate myth and mythic language, but I also know that the universe functions according to natural laws that do not require supernatural intervention. God is a human concept. That in itself does not devalue it, as love is also a human concept, as is freedom, happiness, etc. But our concepts ought not to rule us.

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Less than productive? Because war and strife in the name of a god is productive?

@Kilgore Trout isnt around any more, more's the shame, so I'll take the liberty of responding, since I think we share a common view here.

Atheism says what you are NOT. It does not say what you ARE.
Atheism in and of itself is not productive. For example, you are ascerting that religion produces strife. Atheism produces nothing.

All atheists then have beliefs and understandings about the world that ARE productive, of course. But atheism only states what they are not.

 

[Marisa]

So my question to you is: why are you an atheist? I'm curious to see the comparison between people who were led to atheism by disappointment, etc. in religion and those who have always thought this way.

I'll start by saying that it's not possible to live in the US and not be exposed to religion, particularly christianity.

I was raised by atheists. Well, my mom was an unapololgetic atheist and my dad was more an apatheist, not caring one way or the other. Neither religion, nor religious answers, were proffered or endorsed in my home. I was baptized in and Episcopal church because my grandmother was driving my mom crazy over it, but that was my only experience with religion for some time. As a child, I was invited to many different churches by friends and was never not allowed to attend, but I didn't get much from them. Rather, it always astonished me how many people were there who didn't really seem to be there for much more reason than socializing.

Many years later, as a new mother and wife of an active duty soldier immediately after 9/11 (he got deployed), I looked around me and so many people were professing how much comfort they received from their faith, so I though I'd give it a try. And try I did, for 3 years. But it didn't take. It required too much of me. I had to give up things I was not willing to give up, such as the expectation that I should be capable of handling my problems on my own. And so, I found myself for the first time identifying myself, as unapologetically as my mother, as atheist.

 

[jonathan180iq]

I'll start by saying that it's not possible to live in the US and not be exposed to religion, particularly christianity.

I was raised by atheists. Well, my mom was an unapololgetic atheist and my dad was more an apatheist, not caring one way or the other. Neither religion, nor religious answers, were proffered or endorsed in my home. I was baptized in and Episcopal church because my grandmother was driving my mom crazy over it, but that was my only experience with religion for some time. As a child, I was invited to many different churches by friends and was never not allowed to attend, but I didn't get much from them. Rather, it always astonished me how many people were there who didn't really seem to be there for much more reason than socializing.

Many years later, as a new mother and wife of an active duty soldier immediately after 9/11 (he got deployed), I looked around me and so many people were professing how much comfort they received from their faith, so I though I'd give it a try. And try I did, for 3 years. But it didn't take. It required too much of me. I had to give up things I was not willing to give up, such as the expectation that I should be capable of handling my problems on my own. And so, I found myself for the first time identifying myself, as unapologetically as my mother, as atheist.

I really appreciate human responses like this.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I found out by revelation. There's no real story behind it. Wasn't because of Christianity, science, or anything like that. Actually, it was more psychology--the basic human need for companionship. Getting older, I also found that no one is exactly like us. So, we find ways to relate to someone who has similar values. Since we can't find that, we turn to God. It's a natural feeling and thought to turn to someone you can't literally define (therefore no justification that it is false) and personalize him or her to who you are and what you want to see in the God/s you believe in.

So, in short, god/s are personified perceptions of how we can relate to life's surprises. We find solace in life itself when we see blessings; and we feel that every thing has an origin, so "blessings" are so wonderful it can't come from humans but from something "greater."

That need for authority or hierarchy, we humans find as we naturally compare ourselves to each other.

Point: I found I am atheist because realizing the psychology of the mind, in Buddhism, we step back from this and see it for what it is not for what we want it to be. We acknowledge what we believe as beliefs and not define them as facts. It is like a revelation to who we are not how someone else defines us.

Atheism is just an adjective that describes my absent of belief in deity. It's not a lifestyle or religious system; so, I never delved in why I don't believe in God; I just accept that I don't.

I grew up in a mildly religious family. I was baptised as a baby, went to
Sunday school through elementary school, and I had a fairly steady belief in God (as much as one can have at that age). I wouldn't say that I was a devoted Christian, but being an obedient child, I tried my best to follow what my church leaders told me.

At the age of nine, things started going wrong. One day while brushing my teeth before bed, I realized that I was going to die. It wasn't a fear that I was going perish immediately, but the knowledge that someday in the future I wasn't going to exist anymore-- and it scared me stiff. After that night, I couldn't sleep, I couldn't eat, I couldn't think about anything else but dying. My Sunday school teacher told me not to worry, that if I lived a good life I would go to heaven. When asked how she knew heaven was real, she replied that the Bible said it existed so it must exist. She also said that if I prayed, God would help me not be afraid.

My parents took me to a psychiatrist who diagnosed me with Generalized Anxiety Disorder, which caused me to obsess over the things that made me anxious (in my case, the unknown). Every night I prayed and prayed for God to give me some reassurance that everything would be alright, but I was still afraid. I couldn't find proof of heaven so the question remained unanswered. It seemed as if every day I sank deeper and deeper into this chasm of doubt and fear. I lost weight, started doing badly in school, and had a lot of trouble interacting with kids my age because of the constant anxiety.lI wondered why God, as good and loving as people told me he was, would let a nine-year-old girl suffer like this if the answer was as simple as "all good people go to heaven".

Over a period of about four years, my belief in God deteriorated as I learned about evolution and the Big Bang theory. Scientific explanation of the universe made more sense to me than a belief based on a book of mythology written by humans. I remember a teacher lecturing about the Greek gods and goddesses and how they were created to . In short, I stopped believing because religion just didn't make sense to me anymore. Once I no longer believed, I began to look introspectively to relieve my anxieties. By drawing the strength from within myself, I was given a personal sense of accomplishment whenever I slept through the night or went a few hours without thinking of death because I knew it was a reflection of my own efforts and not the intervention of a divine power solving my problems for me. I dragged myself out of that darkness once I saw that it was my own problem to fix.

Losing faith in God has positively impacted my life. It has given me the opportunity to have faith in myself, to know that I have the power to shape my own destiny.

So my question to you is: why are you an atheist? I'm curious to see the comparison between people who were led to atheism by disappointment, etc. in religion and those who have always thought this way.

 

[Kuzcotopia]

Hi, brand new here. Thought this would be the best thread to post on first.

I was raised at a Christian church in a very small town. My first instance of doubt was somewhere around second grade. The reverend asked me if I was a Christian, and I said I didn't know. It wasn't that I had doubts, or that I was being coy about it. It's just, at the time, I thought there were supposed to be requirements. Like you had to pass tests and get your theology license in the church before you were officially "Christian." When it was explained to me that I only had to let Jesus into my heart, and I would be a Christian, it just didn't feel right. How can something so important be so easy?

It's like an exclusive club but they let everybody in anyway. You don't even have to do anything, and it felt wrong.

That was my first seed of doubt, and when my dad lost his job when I was in fourth grade, we had to move to my grandma's, we quit going to church and my dad found an extremely stressful new job that made him completely miserable (looking back, at the time of course, I had no idea). The job required transfers about every 12-18 months, so I moved around alot. When I was in 10th grade, I had some friends who went to church, and they invited me. I didn't buy into the God thing much anymore, but I LOVED the youth group. It was a place to discuss ideas, and I kept going to church until I graduated high school, just for the youth group.

I went to college, and I never gave church or God much thought either way. But I was growing in Atheism the whole time. Of course, I would explain to others that I was an unhappy atheist as, at the time, I thought a universe with God would be more comforting than one without it. I just didn't believe.

Now that I'm an adult, I'm a strong atheist. I have friends who are atheists, and now that I have a six year old of my own, I a finally starting to see the physiological damage her peers go through being told these insane things by Christian adults. My daughter was playing with another little girl who told her to watch out for Satan. He was in her heart, and she better not listen to him of she'll get a demon that will make her do bad things.

I took my daughter aside, stopped the playtime, and took her home. I seriously could not believe it.

Now, for the first time in my life, instead of "you go your way and I'll go mine," I want to tear this ridiculous religion apart and destroy it's influence as much as I'm able. So I guess I'm here to learn.

 

[Musty]

I'm an atheist because I don't believe in God, aren't subject to strong social pressures to believe in God, and have no incentive to delude myself into believing that I believe in God.

 

[Deidre]

I'm an atheist because I don't believe in God, aren't subject to strong social pressures to believe in God, and have no incentive to delude myself into believing that I believe in God.

Hello, your signature caught my eye.
Curious as to how one's everyday life 'looks' as a 'secular Buddhist?'

 

[NewGuyOnTheBlock]

Think about the ramifications of ceasing belief in a personal God. When we confront our neighbors about their religious beliefs, think about what we are asking our neighbors to evaluate:

• Why was I lied to?
• Why did those I trust the most lie to me?
• If I am not a created child of a loving God, then who am I?
• What does it mean to die?
• What does it mean to live?
• But, if there is no personal God, then I have lived all these years in my life and invested so much into a lie!
• Have my years living that lie been wasted?
• Why am I here?
• If reality itself is not what I believed it was, then what is reality?
• Where do I go from here?
• It there is no personal God to watch over me, then who will be there when I am alone?
• What is my place in the universe?
• How do I know what truth is?
• How do I know what is right and wrong?

That is a lot to take in.
That is a lot to process.
That is a lot to reconsider.

For our theist neighbors, the answers to all of these questions are neatly packaged in the wrappings of religious doctrine with a belief in a personal God at the heart.

Take all of that away, then, at least for a time, the only certainty is uncertainty.

The more ingrained our neighbors are in their irrational beliefs, the more that statement is true.

In my journey from a bible believing, Calvinist-type, Pentacostal-based, faith healing, speaking in tongues nut to the atheist I am today:

1. At age 19, I was forced to admit that I had serious behavioral and addictive issues stemming from traumatic childhood. These issues needed "fixed" because I was doing harm to myself and to my fellow man. I set out to remove these shortcomings and called upon God.
2. I eventually realized that God wasn’t going to fix me for me. So I decided that I would do what I could do, and God would do what I could not do.
3. Then I realized that God wasn’t going to do anything, but I decided that he would help.
4. Then I realized that he wasn’t really helping, but decided that He was not helping me for my own good, so He was still taking care of me.
5. Then I realized that God wasn’t taking care of me, so I questioned why I even needed Him.
6. Then I discovered complete lies and fabrications taught to me by the Church.
7. Then I decided that the Christian God didn’t exist based on the evidence that the promises given were not kept, which should be impossible for the God that is taught in the Bible.
8. Feeling deep loneliness, betrayal and despair, I sought comfort and looked into other beliefs, hoping to find that false sense of security; of being in the palm of an omnipotent being’s hand; that Christianity gave me. I looked into Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witness, Asatru, Wicca, Buddhism, Hinduism and Toaism.
9. During my search, I discovered that most of the core values: Love, Patience, Mercy, Forgiveness; were echoed throughout most major religions.
10. I was caused to question the very notion of higher spiritual forces governing ....... anything.
11. I finally realized and accepted the truth of the intrinsic nature of life and morality that needed no creator and no God.
12. I turned to reason and realized that there was no evidence for any divine being. I was finally liberated from the maze of lies. I began my journey in 1989. It wasn’t until 2012 that I finally removed the remaining remnants of spiritualism and superstitions from my life.
13. I am simply a better person as an atheist than I ever was as a Calvinist Charismatic Nutjob who thought that the answers and solutions to everything was written down thousands of years ago by other nutobs. When I finally held myself (instead of "greater spiritual forces") accountable and responsible for me, I started functioning as a moral adult and I started living.

 

[jonathan180iq]

Think about the ramifications of ceasing belief in a personal God. When we confront our neighbors about their religious beliefs, think about what we are asking our neighbors to evaluate:

That is a lot to take in.
That is a lot to process.
That is a lot to reconsider.

We expect children to do this with little-to-no second thought, as they learn that their beloved holiday characters are little more than a globally repeated lie perpetuated on them by adults. Why then, when it comes to adults having to make the same kind of admissions, do we have to use kid-gloves? The adults are supposed to be better equipped to handle the realities of the world around them, aren't they? Or are they so entrenched in a particular framework that we have to treat them more delicately than a 5 year old?

I turned to reason and realized that there was no evidence for any divine being. I was finally liberated from the maze of lies. I began my journey in 1989. It wasn’t until 2012 that I finally removed the remaining remnants of spiritualism and superstitions from my life.

It's really surprising how long it can take, isn't it?