Atheist's Admission: What do you think?

Question

Professor Thomas Nagel in his 1997 book The Last Word wrote,

"I want atheism to be true and am made uneasy by the fact that some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers. It isn’t just that I don’t believe in God and naturally, hope there is no God! I don’t want there to be a God; I don’t want the universe to be like that."

Honestly, how many atheists here feel the same way as Thomas?

Answer 1

I feel like that! I ain't gonna lie, I'm a little drunk, so I'm going to dig up a quote from my collection to articulate my beliefs real quick...ah here we go:

"I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say one was an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow, it was better to say one was a humanist or an agnostic. I finally decided that I'm a creature of emotion as well as of reason. Emotionally, I am an atheist. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time." - Isaac Asimov, Free Inquiry, 1982.

And that, my friend, is how I feel - much akin to Thomas, in that, yeah, I would like to think of my atheistic beliefs as supremely rational ones, but honestly, I'm not a robot, and it's just the way I want it to be as well! It makes me happy that all this beauty and complexity is random chance...that we have no purpose, but rather we're living just to live. It's freakin' scary at times, but I don't think "scary" is a good reason to change my beliefs to anything! Anyway, to get back to your question, yes, I agree with the way Thomas puts things. I am a huge Ayn Rand fan, but I don't take her philosophy as extremely as she does; whether I'm drunk or not, we've all at some point got to admit that no matter what amount of thought we've put into things, our subconscious still has a say in SOME things ;-) happy seeking, if that is what you're doing... =)

Answer 2

Professor Thomas Nagel (University Professor; Professor of Law; Professor of Philosophy - http://philosophy.fas.nyu.edu/object/thomasnagel) got it wrong. In a scientific approach doesn't matter that "some of the most intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers". What is matters is statistics (http://kspark.kaist.ac.kr/Jesus/Intelligence%20&%20religion.htm).

This is a clasic example of misinformation.
I don't challange Professor's Thomas Nagel good faith because he is a Philosophy profesor not a sciencist but what he say might be inerpreted as most of the ''intelligent and well-informed people I know are religious believers'' ant that is not true.

About the fact that he ''hope there is no God'', that is his opinion.
U don't have to see the atheists as single minded cretures. Many opinions are accepted.

The botom line is that u can belive whatever u want but u must proove that what u think is better that what other people think.

I dont expect the 10 points because of my english ;-) and because this is not what u wanted to hear.

Answer 3

I am an atheist. I do not feel that anybody else's religious/non religious beliefs are any of my business. If somebody chooses to believe in whatever they want to believe in-- that is there decision and nobody should truly question it. I have my beliefs and my own reason for beliefs and I feel that it should be respected and not to be questioned or have another's forced down my throat. I think that a well educated, intelligent person can either believe in God, or not or the Buddha or whatever!! It doesn't make them any less intelligent than the other person who believes the opposite. human beings have free will. We will always be allowed to feel and think and behave what we want.
So basically, I really don't feel the same as Thomas and I don't judge him for what he feels.

Answer 4

I feel that there are an equal amount of intelligent people between religious and Atheist.Though I do find that more often people of a religious belief tend to be more likely to ignore science and embrace faith over empirical evidence.I don't hope there isn't God or wish there wasn't a God.I just can't stand many of the followers of a superstition that there is a God.

Answer 5

Everyone is entitled to his own opinions.

If I relied on others as a basis for my opinions, I would never have any opinions since most of the people I know have a wide variety of often contradicting opinions.

I find no reason to insert "God" into my life, or, into anything else.

Answer 6

Why does it matter what 'intelligent' people think? When it comes to something like religion where, let's face it, no one will ever be able to produce a scrap of scientific evidence either way, it all comes down to your point of view. And in this sense, everyone is equal.

Answer 7

Some of us, for very good reasons. If you read your bible with an open mind you would soon realize that God, as the bible has it, is a raving violent psychopathic mass murdering schizophrenic megalomaniac and should be locked up before he hurts more people. I mean it, He needs a rainbow in the sky to remind himself not to kill everybody and everything on the planet? That is very creepy.

Answer 8

It would be nice to think that an all seeing all knowing higher being will look after the good people and the idea of an afterlife/heaven sounds lovely but I don't believe it.

Answer 9

I agree, i wouldn't want there to be a god as we know him. He is unforgiving, he has no understanding, he does not permit any kind of change or growth, he is way to humanized, if there was a god i would want him to be nothing like the human ideal with have created.

Answer 10

Nope. I don't want the Judeo-Christian God to exist, because He's an asshat, but if a nicer god were to exist I would be perfectly happy with that.