Question for atheists by an atheist, please read this if you are religious and have something against atheists

Question

Ok, so a lot os religious folk (not all so don't tell me I'm generalizing!!) seem to be under the impression that all atheists are just angry at God, so everyone please explain why you're atheist, try to be mature about it so they can take it seriously, I want to show them that we disagree with organized religion for what we see as blinding them because I'm sick of the "Can you really be an atheist" question.

I'll start it off. I became atheist when I was 15 although it started when I was 7 or 8. I asked my sister who is 10 years older than me a question about heaven and she said she didn't believe in it anymore, and I was like but what about God, and she said she didn't believe in him either. I did the natural thing, "But you'll go to hell!". At which point I started thinking. Religion really seems like a trap. They lure you in with promise of some grand place like heaven, then once you're in they doom you to hell if you dissent. Along with many other things, it seems like a lure.

Before you call me a jerk read this, I don't claim to know anything more than you, just experience and reason has led me to believe that there is absolutely no need for religion and it is a very basic instinct. Religion was created by man and there have been countless gods, it seems to prove that none are true.

And this line disgusts me:

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding

Doesn't that sound like, don't think about it too hard cause we want you to stay? I know that that statement is contradicted many times and God tells you to find him personally or whatever but lines like that should make everyone a little iffy on any religion.

Answer 1

I was raised Catholic and quite enjoyed the social aspects of it -- the music, the stories, and art and history, the fact that everybody around me enjoyed these things as well -- but I can't remember a time when I didn't have doubts about the dogma. Sometime in high school it occurred to me that going to church was not an expression of faith for me; it was just something that I did because my family did it, not something I would ever choose to do for myself.

Sure enough, I grew up and started living on my own and stopped gong to church. Missed it for a while, then didn't think much about it for years. I was in my mid-thirties before I noticed that I wasn't even pretending to believe any more; it had been years since I had bothered to describe myself as a "non-practicing Catholic."

So I thought about it, read the bible, thought about it some more, decided "this is nonsense," and poured myself three fingers of single-malt whiskey to celebrate.

I highly recommend it.

Answer 2

I was raised Presbyterian, but I was atheist for a few years after my dad died. Between anger at a "loving god" who would do that to a 9 year old girl and the bitter taste left by the Born Again Christian who told me that my dad must have done something bad and that's why he died and now he was burning in Hell, Christianity had absolutely zero appeal for me. So yes, anger was the trigger initially.

But the older I got and the more questions I asked, the more dissatisfied with the idea of Christianity I became. I'm not one who likes "Because I said so" as an answer, and unfortunately most of the answers that you get to the hard questions about God are "Because that's what the Bible says." Go ahead, ask me about my thoughts on the analogy of Christians as "sheep".

That being said, I found I didn't like the idea of a strictly atheistic worldview, both because it seemed pointless and depressing, and also because there were things that I felt science alone couldn't give an adequate explanation to (where did all the matter and energy in the universe come from in the first place, if it can be neither created nor destroyed?). I was agnostic for a few years, because I wasn't sure one way or the other if there was a God.

Eventually, through mythology and studies of other world religions and philosophies, I found myself on my current Path.

Answer 3

I am an Atheist because the concept of God seems to far-fetched to me, I am a firm believer in "if I can see it, I'll believe it" rule, and religion seems far to cruel to me.

For my first reason, I just have trouble believing that there is an all-seeing, all-knowing force somewhere out there. I mean, I have trouble multi-tasking with two things at the same time; what being could possibly listen to every person and see everything and still make sense of it?

And for my second reason, I have seen no evidence that there is a God. He's supposed to be gracious and forgiving, but then why do we have all this crap happening to us? Really though, if God is really the great benevolent Lord people prasie him as, then shouldn't we be living in some kind of Utopian world where there isn't any kind of environmental problems or wars?

And for my third reason, religion seems a little harsh to me. Christianity at least, anyway. For example, if you aren't baptized, you can't get into Heaven. This is odd, seeing as everyone is supposed to be equal in God's eyes, baptized or not. And the Seven Deadly Sins. Who hasn't ever performed an action that falls under the umbrella of the SDS? It's human nature. This means that everyone is automatically going to Hell. Gee, isn't that nice of God to do that for us?

So anyway, that's why I am an atheist. I hope it was a suitable explanation.

Answer 4

I comfortably don't suppose the claims for Gods made by means of the religions. I believe they're all simply myths. I don't suppose in Brahma, Shiva, Zeus,Apollo, Allah, Ahura Mazda, Jehova, Allah, Jesus, Krishna, Kali, Odin, Baba Yaga,... some thing It is an overly lengthy record. I am now not a disbeliever for the reason that I am indignant at a God or the Gods. I could have neither the power or time to have sufficient anger to head round. I don't suppose in Gods for the reason that they're simply made up experiences. Take the Christian God as an illustration. The description alterations by way of the bible. It isn't constantly the equal God, now not within the attributes or within the behaviour. I don't suppose in Gods for the reason that there's no proof that they exist. The outlandish claims of the bible and the bible believers aren't proof, and so they under no circumstances furnish any proof. So the experiences aren't constant, there's a complete loss of proof and each faith claims that they have got the reality approximately their Gods. There is a further factor. God explains not anything approximately the sector or behaviour of the sector. In truth it complicates the exam of the sector and makes getting truly solutions to truly issues a lot more tricky.

Answer 5

Science, logic, reason, and critical thought have long been regarded (by religious people) as the enemies of religion. Considering that those are the tools of highly intelligent people, it should not come as a huge shock to learn that intelligence (or lack of it) has some connection to religious belief. In fact, there are about 40 studies, conducted over a period of 80 years or so, that reveal a statistically significant NEGATIVE CORRELATION between intelligence and religiosity. In plainer language, that means that they found that the more intelligent a person is, the LESS likely that person is to be religious... or, reciprocally, the LESS intelligent a person is, the MORE likely that person is to be religious.

If you think about it, those findings make a lot of sense. Intelligence tests mainly provide an indication of reasoning ability and problem solving ability... logic, reason and critical thought. These are the very qualities that see through religion, and recognize it for what it is; i.e., religion cannot survive the glaring light of reason and critical thought. This was well understood by important figures in religious history. This is why the early church destroyed all the 'tainted' (non-canonical) writings, which were in conflict with dogma... Greek philosophy, medicine, mathematics, astronomy, engineering... all the good stuff. By this means, Christianity dragged humanity directly into the Dark Ages.

Just to illustrate the point, let's see what Martin Luther, the 'father' of protestantism, had to say about 'reason' and secular knowledge:

"Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed. Faith must trample underfoot all reason, sense, and understanding, and whatever it sees must be put out of sight and ... know nothing but the word of God." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason is the greatest enemy that faith has; it never comes to the aid of spiritual things, but -- more frequently than not -- struggles against the divine Word, treating with contempt all that emanates from God." ~ Martin Luther

"There is on earth among all dangers no more dangerous thing than a richly endowed and adroit reason... Reason must be deluded, blinded, and destroyed." ~ Martin Luther

"Reason should be destroyed in all Christians." ~ Martin Luther

Christianity is essentially a criminal business enterprise... in fact, it is the world's longest running and most successful Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) scam. The product they are selling is the illusion of 'salvation'... and the 'pay plan' doesn't kick in until after you're dead. Meanwhile the victims (having been deceived into believing that it is their God-given duty) are out there recruiting MORE victims. What a racket! FORTUNATELY, it only works on those who are gullible enough, and sufficiently lacking in critical thinking skills, to fall for it. UNfortunately, THAT accounts for about 75% of the population of the USA. (There are a lot more people who DON'T know how to think properly than there are people who DO know how to think properly.) That is why there are a lot more religious people in the USA than there are 'Free-thinkers'... including Atheists. Also, Christians are generally too dense to realize that proselytizing (spreading the 'good news') is a key element of the Christian MLM MARKETING PLAN, which was instituted after Christianity lost the political power that had previously allowed them to simply torture and kill anybody who did not comply. Now, they attempt to just pester people to death, through persistent obliviousness and obnoxiousness. If you stop to think about it, you will realize that Christians are very much like the Borg, on Star Trek Next Generation: "You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile." I would not be surprised to learn that thoughts of Christianity provided the 'creative spark' for the Borg concept.

Interestingly, statistics on supernatural beliefs count the USA on a par with backward, developing Third World nations, rather than among modern, advanced industrial powers.

Answer 6

I would like to point out something that seems to be overlooked by certain atheists. If you don't like "religion" or "organized religion" or "the church" or whatever synonym you want to use for that collection of people, then don't go. That isn't the issue. Nobody ever said you'd go to hell because you didn't go to church. . . and only a fool would think that salvation could be bought with money. If you never contribute a penny to any church or even attend one, who gives a rip? The real issue has absolutely nothing to do with that. It has to do with the factual question of whether God exists or not, and if He does, then what His nature may be and what your personal relationship with Him is. Nobody elses- just yours. Do you not see that if the entire church ceased to exist tomorrow and everything it had said and done were utterly forgotten, that one question would still remain? Now, since it's quite impossible to prove that something doesn't exist, I'd think it would be foolish to believe in atheism, for it requires unsupported faith in an unprovable statement. You can be an agnostic without being illogical, but never an atheist. And to answer the gentleman who seems to think that faith and reason are mutually exclusive and that only unintelligent people could believe in God, I would mildly remind him that Hooker, Pascal, Newton, Galileo, Boyle, Faraday, and even Darwin were all Christians. I would also point out that I myself am a professor of molecular biology with genius-level intelligence, and it would be much more becoming in him to display a little more humility before slurring the motivations and reasoning ability of other human beings simply because they happen to have reached different conclusions about the nature of the universe than he has done.

Answer 7

Religion....
It keeps us from coming to our truths from experience and wisdom. But it also helps us find truths. Even those of us who are not religious.
Though once Faith gets in the picture we are told not to think just do and the world is too complicated to make good choices that way. It could go as far as to mean you would have to memorize the whole bible word for word and follow it, and some of us where not born with physical ability to do so.
Christians say we need the bible but if we are "good" people I can not see why.
"Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, `Men of
Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; for as
I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to the unknown god. Therefore, The One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you" (Acts 17:22-23)
Though many religions do not believe in God as well.
Belief in God is not a requirement for it to be a religion.
You can answer many questions about life and death without a God involved.
My least favorite thing about religions that coerce is that when members fall from grace from logic alone, they wish they were giving wisdom instead. Often the first few years "without" God are scary and the old belief needs to be replaced gently, but instead we are kept ignorant to that which would help us understand and feel right again.
Its ok guys we are good people, who follow internal laws of right and wrong, I even knowing we will get no reward except the reward that comes from goodness. That’s Love too.

Answer 8

Christianity didn't add up when I started asking questions. I started to look at other religions, saw similarities (mostly in ancient religions and "mythology") and dismissed it all. I could se the "evolution" of religion. The most religious people, the ones that wanted to make sure I was religious, had the most to gain from my religion.

that is the short of it. You just can't philosophize about religion.
Philosophy is questions that can not be answered.
Religion is answers that can not be questions.
These do not go together like peanut butter and chocolate.

Answer 9

I can't remember when it started but it was at high school before then I just accepted it. But then I started learning about science properly and how everything had evidence to support it and about the big bang and evolution and all the evidence to support them and why they are true and I started thinking what is the evidence to support god? and I couldn't see any. All there was was a 2,000 year old book that had been edited over time and contradicted itself many times that was it there is no evidence to support the theory that god exists so if there is no evidence to support a theory it isn't true so god isn't true so there is no god.

Answer 10

I suppose it was around third grade. I asked myself if my life was like a movie or TV show that I was the only one unaware of. Yes, like the Truman show or that episode of the twilight zone (late 80's revival).

I decided that the idea made the world too complicated, that I wasn't important enough or entertaining enough to justify the trouble. Only someone who liked tedium and petty torment would enjoy watching the show.

The idea of a scaled up cosmic version fell apart for the same reasons. Science had better answers to my questions about the world, ones that weren't sentimental and self interested.