Why I'm an Atheist

[MiKuS]

I know lots of people don't really find these threads interesting, if you've made it this far expecting anything other than a mundane coming out story you may leave now. You have been warned.

First I'll go into some detail about my family's beliefs and more importantly, my parents. My grandparents from both my mothers side and fathers side are fairly religious, my mothers side is somewhat more aggressive in their beliefs and needs to pin down other people with them. My mother is extremely religious, but funnily enough does not practice much from the bible except intolerance and hatred. My father was much more passive in his application of religious doctrine to me (I've found out now that he is also Atheist).

Before my birth my parents split up. My mother won custody, I ended up living with her from the age of 0 until I turned 13, which was when I left due to neglect. At this time I was heavily religious and believed all of this was happening for a reason that I was yet to find out.

I moved in to my fathers house and soon started to become educated, mainly from school but I also asked my dad deep philosophical questions about existence, consciousness etc.. As I got older me and my friends started questioning faith, and if god really exists - at some point I asked my dad and he told me exactly what he thought - religion is a power structure, and a medieval form of government.

By this point I didn't really believe in any god, but that wasn't good enough - I had to have a religion, because I had a soul. I ended up practicing buddhism for a year and a half before realizing that I would be much better off following my OWN regimen, of what I believe. Re-incarnation is not verifiable, the dalai lama can never be proved to be an incarnation of a previous lama and I don't believe we have a soul, because there is no evidence to support such a thing.

I see religion for what it is, and I don't want anything to do with it. Faith is never better than fact.

I now read books about physics, philosophy and of course anything Richard Dawkins has written, to learn about being good for goodness' sake.

I don't have the heart to tell my grandparents from my mothers side I'm an atheist, but my grandparents on my fathers side know, but still practice parts of the religion they feel are beneficial to their lives. They left their church after the local priest tried to pressure my grandmother into having an affair with him. My grandfather found out and punched him in the face, obviously, legally he paid the price (community service and whatnot).

I've told my mother and she gave me the stock standard burning in hell response, we have now reconciled our differences from my earlier days and I'm currently in the process of deprogramming her (albeit slowly).

[robertkd]

An atheist, from Dawkins something like "we could accept not believing in god but an atheist!" :cool:

My partners mum is deeply religious, she keeps saying that she'll be lonely in heaven because pretty much the rest of the family is atheist.:eek:

[GenericBox]

Funnily enough the local religious leader (Priest or Pastor I forget) attempted, and succeeded, in luring my great-grandmother into an affair. The religious elder's wife then killed herself from the betrayal, my great-grandmother ended the affair, and the "elder" lived a short life by himself dying to Luekaemia.

Or so goes the story passed through our family.

Welcome.

[Jerry]

I know lots of people don't really find these threads interesting, if you've made it this far expecting anything other than a mundane coming out story you may leave now. You have been warned.

First I'll go into some detail about my family's beliefs and more importantly, my parents. My grandparents from both my mothers side and fathers side are fairly religious, my mothers side is somewhat more aggressive in their beliefs and needs to pin down other people with them. My mother is extremely religious, but funnily enough does not practice much from the bible except intolerance and hatred. My father was much more passive in his application of religious doctrine to me (I've found out now that he is also Atheist).

Before my birth my parents split up. My mother won custody, I ended up living with her from the age of 0 until I turned 13, which was when I left due to neglect. At this time I was heavily religious and believed all of this was happening for a reason that I was yet to find out.

I moved in to my fathers house and soon started to become educated, mainly from school but I also asked my dad deep philosophical questions about existence, consciousness etc.. As I got older me and my friends started questioning faith, and if god really exists - at some point I asked my dad and he told me exactly what he thought - religion is a power structure, and a medieval form of government.

By this point I didn't really believe in any god, but that wasn't good enough - I had to have a religion, because I had a soul. I ended up practicing buddhism for a year and a half before realizing that I would be much better off following my OWN regimen, of what I believe. Re-incarnation is not verifiable, the dalai lama can never be proved to be an incarnation of a previous lama and I don't believe we have a soul, because there is no evidence to support such a thing.

I see religion for what it is, and I don't want anything to do with it. Faith is never better than fact.

I now read books about physics, philosophy and of course anything Richard Dawkins has written, to learn about being good for goodness' sake.

I don't have the heart to tell my grandparents from my mothers side I'm an atheist, but my grandparents on my fathers side know, but still practice parts of the religion they feel are beneficial to their lives. They left their church after the local priest tried to pressure my grandmother into having an affair with him. My grandfather found out and punched him in the face, obviously, legally he paid the price (community service and whatnot).

I've told my mother and she gave me the stock standard burning in hell response, we have now reconciled our differences from my earlier days and I'm currently in the process of deprogramming her (albeit slowly).

Why do you require evidence in order to believe?

Don't we usually want evidence in order to *know*?

***
It makes sense that you don't now enjoy a solid religious expereince. Your parent's didn't give you other 'key agents of association' like a stable home, so why would faith be any different.

[MiKuS]

For the most part, things that I did during my religious period of life revolved around the usual tenants, basically being a good person. In that regard I would say my religious experience is typical.

As for the evidence required to believe part, as I mentioned in my first post "Faith is never better than fact".. I stand by that.

[Sir Patrick Crocodile]

I know lots of people don't really find these threads interesting, if you've made it this far expecting anything other than a mundane coming out story you may leave now. You have been warned.I bet it is a lot more interesting than random reptile rants. ;)

First I'll go into some detail about my family's beliefs and more importantly, my parents. My grandparents from both my mothers side and fathers side are fairly religious, my mothers side is somewhat more aggressive in their beliefs and needs to pin down other people with them. My mother is extremely religious, but funnily enough does not practice much from the bible except intolerance and hatred. My father was much more passive in his application of religious doctrine to me (I've found out now that he is also Atheist).My parents are *sort of* like that: my dad is "less religious" than my mother, but only a little less.

Before my birth my parents split up. My mother won custody, I ended up living with her from the age of 0 until I turned 13, which was when I left due to neglect. At this time I was heavily religious and believed all of this was happening for a reason that I was yet to find out. Ouchies.

I moved in to my fathers house and soon started to become educated, mainly from school but I also asked my dad deep philosophical questions about existence, consciousness etc.. As I got older me and my friends started questioning faith, and if god really exists - at some point I asked my dad and he told me exactly what he thought - religion is a power structure, and a medieval form of government. BOOM! That is a good point! The important thing is that it is a medieval form of government. It is no good now. People should learn to move on. That is an excellent point!

By this point I didn't really believe in any god, but that wasn't good enough - I had to have a religion, because I had a soul. I ended up practicing buddhism for a year and a half before realizing that I would be much better off following my OWN regimen, of what I believe. Re-incarnation is not verifiable, the dalai lama can never be proved to be an incarnation of a previous lama and I don't believe we have a soul, because there is no evidence to support such a thing.I have tried to understand this whole "soul" thing. I often wonder what it feels like to be nonexistent and I'm still thinking about that one. I do not believe in a "soul" either.

I see religion for what it is, and I don't want anything to do with it. Faith is never better than fact.I agree too. People use religion as a stress mechanism but little do they realize it will do more long-term harm than good.

I now read books about physics, philosophy and of course anything Richard Dawkins has written, to learn about being good for goodness' sake.

I don't have the heart to tell my grandparents from my mothers side I'm an atheist, but my grandparents on my fathers side know, but still practice parts of the religion they feel are beneficial to their lives. They left their church after the local priest tried to pressure my grandmother into having an affair with him. My grandfather found out and punched him in the face, obviously, legally he paid the price (community service and whatnot).Ah those sneaky priests! One can only conclude that they still don't learn very much. I guess the Church covers their rubbish up for them eh?

I've told my mother and she gave me the stock standard burning in hell response, we have now reconciled our differences from my earlier days and I'm currently in the process of deprogramming her (albeit slowly).Then you can tell her that you would rather be in Hell since it isn't full of religious mass murderers, serial killers, rapists, con artists, thieves, liars, or even proselytizing pricks who have accepted Jesus Christ in their lives - unlike Heaven of course. ;)

---------------------------------------------

Why do you require evidence in order to believe?

Don't we usually want evidence in order to *know*?Probably for the same reason I require evidence to believe that Santa Clause comes on an aerodynamic sleigh with 500cc reindeer and ABS brakes, along with a built-in GPS and cruise control in order to deliver presents perhaps?

***It makes sense that you don't now enjoy a solid religious expereince. Your parent's didn't give you other 'key agents of association' like a stable home, so why would faith be any different.What is a "solid religious experience" to you? To me a "solid religious experience" is about getting my eye poked with a stick coated with honey (apparently I was born with a squint and cross-eyed) because a religious crackpot told my mother to do that, being forced to go to madrassa and being bullied because I wasn't doing things in madrassa right, and being forced to wear some stupid hat type thing that itched me, and forced to do umrah because it was my parents' will, and being forced to deprive myself of sleep thanks to laylat ul qadar and much more.

Let me assure you, I didn't enjoy it.

Also what do you mean by "stable home" too?

[wearestardust]

Hi MiKus


By this point I didn't really believe in any god, but that wasn't good enough - I had to have a religion, because I had a soul. I ended up practicing buddhism for a year and a half before realizing that I would be much better off following my OWN regimen, of what I believe. Re-incarnation is not verifiable, the dalai lama can never be proved to be an incarnation of a previous lama and I don't believe we have a soul, because there is no evidence to support such a thing.


My son, whom I regrettably tried to bring as an xian, is almost through a similar thing. He's abandoned xianity, and for a while was of the view that, well, everybody has to have some religion and toyed around with Buddhism and Judaism. He's now come around the rejecting the idea that everyone has to have a religion, but hasn't quite conciously got to the next stage yet.

___________

Why do you require evidence in order to believe?

Don't we usually want evidence in order to *know*?



Why do you think belief is in any way satisfactory or meaningful without any basis for it? If you are a theist, do you think it is worthwhile having a faith that is entirely arbitrary, with no reason whatsoever to believe at all, or to choose this belief (say, Christianity) over that (say, Zoroastrianism)? Because that is what you are saying, in asserting that evidence is irrelevant to belief.

Not quite sure what distinction you are making between belief and knowledge either. I understand the distinction that some people make, but that distinction requires evidence to form either.

It makes sense that you don't now enjoy a solid religious expereince. Your parent's didn't give you other 'key agents of association' like a stable home, so why would faith be any different.

http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f98/patsydog1000/bunny-pancakewithtext.jpg