Related Information to Atheists Not To Be Feared!

Atheists Not To Be Feared! - Page 8

O.K. I am going to make as simple as I can then I guess we are just going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

If someone said to me I am going to try and prove there was a god I would walk away uninterested however if someone said to me they had proved there was a god I would show interest as would I have to, if I didn't how could I be certain (which I am) that God doesn't exist.

Feared To Atheists

There are some serious misunderstandings about atheists and agnostics here.

Agnostic - One who does not believe we can have knowledge of gods.

Atheist - There are actually two types of atheists. The most common one is an implicit Atheist - meaning that you don't believe in gods. The second and less common is an explicit Atheist - meaning one who denies the existence of gods.

In fact, its not uncommon for an implicit atheist to also be an agnostic, both not believing in gods and believing that you could have no knowledge of gods. Of course, explicit atheists make the step to 'know' that god doesn't exist. They believe that if gods did exist we would have knowledge of them, that they would make knowledge of themselves very obvious without any reason to question, not the philosophical and man written 'evidence' we have now.

Someone said earlier that there is a difference against atheists and those who have lost their faith. I can say with no doubt that that is usually not true. At least half the atheists I know used to be believers, and indeed are very well versed in the Bible. We both lost our faith and determined that there is no evidence for god. Thus is it not our job to prove he or she or they don't exist, its on the person who claims god exists to show evidence of it unless you are an explicit atheist who makes the claim that gods don't exist. The majority of atheist/religious discussion would go like this.

"why don't you believe in god?" Religious person.
"I don't see any proof." Atheist
"What evidence do you have to claim that no god exists?" Religious person.
"I don't, but what evidence do you have that proves god exists?" Atheist

See, implicit atheists make no claims thus it is the burden of the religious person to prove their point since we don't have a point to prove.

Atheists Not To Be Feared! Beliefs Religious General

Isn't belief in an afterlife a human trait as old as any other?

I wonder if there is no life after death then why are we programed in such a way to make this is a fundamental question of being human?

The debate over wether there is a higher power or beings that are more advanced than us, that could be influencing our lives is not really a question to me. In the vastness of the cosmos I am 100% sure that there are beings more advanced than us. I also think those more advanced beings would fall under the category of godlike.

As far as life after death, I will put it as simply as I can. Atheists will debate that we evolved from bacteria and our souls are actually mechanical parts. Nothing about us is spiritual, we have just as mutch soul as a rock or chair or plankton.

I then ask why, if evolution only allows the things that work to survive, meaning the parts of us that serve valuable functions, and if we are only a pile of complicated mechanics. Then why did we evolve with emotions and a desire to have an afterlife. Why is explaining, or seeking a higher power so important to us. If there is nothing after death and no higher force / entity. Then why do we spend so mutch time and energy seeking it.

I would ask Atheists to try a experiment. Take out everything from a room save a chair. Sit there in that empty room and do nothing at all, don't think or ponder anything. See how long you will last, I am pretty sure you can't do it longer than a day. If you do you will have to try at it very hard and it will probably be uncomfortable. This to me shows we are not without soul. We need to feed ourselves not only with food, but also with knowledge and art. We as humans in our very make up crave this as mutch as survival.

If that doesn't show that something is there within us beyond the physical mechanics I don't know what does. I think a person who claims they don't believe in god because there is no logical proof. Must also make a strong argument to combat this logical point. Otherwise you are picking and choosing what is logical mutch in the same way you claim religious people pick and choose truths.

Page 8 Feared To Atheists

I don't agree with your reasoning or mataphor. Restlessness and comfort in a chair in an empty room =/= proof of existence of God.

That said, I'm merely an agnostic, though I find no real true empirical evidence for belief in a supreme being. But from my personal observations and experiences, possibly just misguided interpretations of pareidolia in the form of "omens" or significances for lack of a better word, I can see myself clear to go as far as considering "God" as a force, a cosmic consciousness, THE cosmic consciousness, of everything, of existence itself, natural law and sequence, at once objective and from our perspective, mostly "alien", but potentially in some situations, for reasons I'm still not sure why, personal and intimate.

Atheists can believe in an afterlife without believing in god, apparently, as I read an article the other day, well, the title, but I don't recall any specifics.

Feared To Atheists

I quess I am trying to say if you starve yourself of things that you crave emotionally you will feel discomfort. Many times this pain (which is not physical) can be so powerful to lead a person to collapse mentally / spiritually, and can cause actual physical damage.

I don't see how this is a beneficial tool to a living thing other than in the spiritual realm. In fact I would go further to say it actually hinders the physical body, creating hurtles and hoops that must be overcome mentally / spiritually before the body can perform optimally.

I was under the train of thought that Atheists believe there is no god or life after death. I have seen a few documentaries on atheists and this tended to be a reoccurring statement. I thought Agnostic was describing people who don't believe in god but believe in life after death, and or some form of higher power. I can see how atheists can claim to believe in life after death, but then I would ask, does that not imply in its very nature that their is a higher power?

So then my question becomes how can a situation be looked at logically in one area, and exclude logic in another. To me this does not add up. If there is a god force or natural law. Where did this law come from, why does it exist, why do we care and not just ignore it? If you have a law are not there enforcers of that law? Is there not a system set up to punish law breakers and reward those who follow it?

Do you see how I am confused about logic being applied in one area and excluded from another?

Atheists Not To Be Feared!

As I said, I can't recite the specifics offhand as it's been a while since I've been in a thread on it, and I'm not an atheist, but on the paranormal site I mod for, I've seen more than one "atheist" (not just the "I'm an atheist cuz I hate God" type but the 'real' ones) that claim to believe in an afterlife. I don't think it necessarily follows that afterlife = higher power, anymore than this life = higher power. If you're already predisposed toward that belief, yes, but if you're not, then it's just another part of evolution - for whatever ineffable reason, part of Man's journey involves going from physical to non-physical existence, that may have nothing to do with some supreme being.


I'm also not used to thinking of atheists as believers in anything out of the ordinary, usually, from afterlife to ghosts or anything else, but there are quite a few on the paranormal sites.

From my own use of the word, which perhaps would be better qualified as agnostic deist (or maybe theist), I think of it like, I suppose there could be a/n god(s)/God, but maybe not - there isn't any proof OF it, but there isn't anything just harshly ruling it out, so I consider it open, overall, and I'm okay with it either way.

I believe that the etymology and root words of agnosticism really means "not knowing" or "without knowledge", basically meaning if there is a god, we can't know for sure, or we can't know him/it completely or with certainty - such a force/being is not something we can truly comprehend to its full extent.

Though I WILL say, no offense to anyone intended, that I don't think it/he/she/they is anything like portrayed in organized religions - those are simply interpretations that have been mistaken to be absolute or concrete identifies or realities/forms.

As far as where god came from or why it exists, that's the whole chicken/egg, beginning/end koan - it might be something to be contemplated in meditation, but not as a serious philosophical or intellectual discourse - it has no possible conclusion - it is zero sum, pointless, like knowingly playing solitaire with 48 cards - sure you can get CLOSE and feel good about it...

I personally don't think anyone or anything "created" "God" and/or everything/existence - I think it always has been/was/will be. I don't think there was a moment of "Creation" and I don't think it will "End", because as I currently understand things, *something* cannot come from *nothing*, and if it CAN, it is beyond our knowing how, and so it doesn't matter anyway, for any effect it can have on how we live our life or understand anything else. How "it all started" is irrelevant to me, as is the alleged end, because both are so far removed from me as to be fiction.

Why do we care and not just ignore it? Because we've developed the way we have, for whatever reason, under whatever influence or lack thereof. Because we love a mystery. We love to dream, hope, wonder, believe, we're hardwired for religion, to speculate, to philosophize, to find greater significance and patterns where none may exist. It's our nature.

"Natural Law, enforcers, system, rulebreakers, reward, etc." Again, this is misplaced metaphor that really has no place in this discussion, as Natural Law bears only the slightest passing resemblance to man made legislated legal policies. Natural Laws don't have enforcers to punish lawbreakers because nothing breaks it - everything follows it, that IS the "system".

Atheists To Feared! - Page 8

America hates Atheists :

"If 'Guess Who's Coming to Dinner' was remade today, the 'shocking' guest would no longer be a highly accomplished, educated and sophisticated black man (Sidney Poitier) but a highly accomplished, educated and sophisticated atheist." Ref. Source 5

Atheists To Feared! General Religious Beliefs - Page 8

When an Atheist can explain to me why I feel, in the core of myself, then understand myself, I will listen.


When an Atheist can explain to me why after all these years of evolution that is the most important thing, I will listen.



Edited: Oliron on 8th May, 2010 - 8:13am