Honest curiosity, what do atheists actually believe?

Question

You don't believe in God, or any gods, what do you actually believe? Destiny?? or... what is the purpose of life? Are you superstitious at all?? Chance? Coincidence??? What is worth living for??? Dying for??? These are real questions, please feel free to share. I do want to understand.
I respect you and your choices even though I do not share them... I want real answers, not some smart-allec dudes telling me off.


* Any jerk stumbles upon this page, please keep your jerky comments to yourself, and just sign in for the points - cuz that's what you're after anyway...

Ok,don't give me links, I can find them myself... I need your personal belief... / or lack thereof... I actually have an undergraduate degree...

Resurectionist, you're right on target... My question sprung from the idea that there as many kinds of Atheists as there are Baptists... :) Good work everyone, keep 'em comming!

I am a person that will always learn as long as I live, feel free to shed your light...

Answer 1

Me personally. The purpose in life to me, is similar to yours. To survive, be a decent person, be happy. In my lack of religion my goal is to enjoy a decent life, simply to have a decent life. Not because of any reward at the end of it. When I die, something might happen, something might not. I don't know, nor will I worry about it. If I am wrong, and some god condems me to hell for my lack of belief, well again, not someone I would have wanted to worship to start with.

I am not trying to tell you off, or be jerky. Just stating what I belive. I think any number of things are possible. As for what is worth dieing for, My country, my family are the two biggest things on the list. My personal opinion is that, if I am a decent person, things will work out allright.

Answer 2

Atheist here. But we prefer to be called free thinkers

Believe in god? No we do not believe in a god, deity, destiny superstition or anything else that does not follow a path of logic.

Purpose of life? there is no purpose in life other than to propagate the species.

Chance? Absolutely, roll a 6 sided die and you have a 1 in 6 chance of getting any given value.

Coincidence? Absolutely, things randomly happen all of the time, it does not mean that they are connected somehow.

Worth living for? Family & Friends

Worth dieing for? Family, Friends & Freedom especially religious freedom.

We do not have it all figured out, but we follow a path of evidence, logic and reason and we refuse to jump to a conclusion that has 0 evidence to support it. This goes for religion as well as for science.

For example string theory as we know it mathematically works but it cannot be tested or observed in action due to the fact that we do not have the technology as of yet to do so. Thus until we get some evidence other than an equation that we created by mashing two other provable equations (relativity & quantum mechanics) together, it is nothing more than philosophy.

See we are not evil, just different.
By the way thank you for a good courteous question.
It is way too far in between courteous questions on this forum.

Answer 3

You wont necessarily get the same answers from any two atheists. We're not a cohesive group, like catholics or jews. I can only speak for myself, but anyway;

Destiny? Mmm, sort of. I do think that the way everything is turning out was pretty much determined at the beginning, whatever that was. By random chance, mind you, not in any intelligent way. Since no one can see into the future, however, whether there's destiny or not doesn't really matter.

Purpose of life? None. Purpose is a human concept. Life has no concept of purpose.

Superstitious? No

Chance and coincidence I discussed above

Living for and dying for? Well the only thing worth living for is life itself, obviously. Nothing comes after so I better damn well make the best of it. Happiness is the best life has to offer. Not that I'm disappointed, I happen to like happiness. There really isn't much Worth dying for, obviously, then. There's a couple of people I care very deeply for that I would die to save their lives. That's about it.

Answer 4

I'm an athiest and I don't believe in destiny or fate or anything like that. I believe that there is no purpose of life, no deep meaning to anything, no mysterious force that controls or influences us in any way.

As for what is worth living and dying for, that is up to the individual to decide. Personally, I base such decisions on the impact the subject would have on my life, the lives of those I care about, and society in general. For example, I would risk my life to save a drowning child, but not to save a drowning serial killer because the child is just starting out in life and could grow up to become a great doctor or leader, but the serial killer is a drain on society.

It's difficult to explain specifics because I don't deal with specifics for the most part. I don't see the world in black and white, right or wrong, good and bad. I don't even see the world in shades of gray where sometimes something is wrong and sometimes it is right. I see the world in technicolor where the issue of right and wrong sometimes doesn't even enter into the picture and there are no rules and standards by which everything should be measured.

I hope this makes sense, like I said its kind of hard to explain.

Answer 5

Atheists believe lots of different things. Not all of us are alike.
Personally, I believe that there is no all-powerful being controlling the universe, that all life evolved by accident, and that when you die you are just gone. I am not superstitious, and I think that people who believe in ghosts/psychics/etc. are weak minded.
The purpose of life is what you make it. I consider it my purpose to love my family, provide a good life for them, and teach my children to be good people. The payoff is in life, not after death.
Things worth living for: family, friends, good food, sunset on the beach, or whatever else you love in life.
Things worth dying for: freedom (real freedom, not just the word politicians use), loved ones.
I figure I have basically the same morals and values as any rational person, regardless of religion. I just don't believe that bad things happen because it is "God's will". Bad things happen because the world is a messed up place, and a lot of people are selfish, stupid, or uncaring. I think this viewpoint gives me more motivation to try to change the way people act towards others, rather than explaining everything away by saying "Insh'allah".

Answer 6

The word 'Athiest' is applied in its broadest sense to a person who does not believe in the existence of a concious entity either responsible for or controlling our actions and destiny. Now applied in this broad sense, even Monists (not to be confused with Monothiests) are Athiests, for the concept of God has no place in Monism. That would make both the Advaitha School of Thought in Hinduism, as well as Buddism as Atheistic ! Yet they are classified as religion....So it is generally when they say 'Athiest' they mean in a narrower sense to a non-monistic athiest only. But already this demonstrates the difficulty in answering your question ! There can be so many types of Athiests. You cant club them all together except on the issue of their not believing in God.
As to the issue of Chance or Coincidence, it depends on a persons belief in the existance or non-existance of free will. That is still an open question ! Even the two great theories of Modern Physics- Quantum Theory and Relativity, seem to suggest contradictory answers to the question of free will. So we are yet to resolve it one way or the other. So an Athiest can take either position based on his temperment.
Now as to the purpose of life.......Well.....why should we assume life has a purpose at all? Should everything have a Purpose or Reason? If the answer is yes, then it can be asked - What is the reason that everything should have a reason? Or if you believe in God- Why should God bother to create this creation in the first place? So we cant go on searching for reasons to reasons. It has to stop somewhere. Where and how u stop asking questions depends on your temperment. An athiest might simply say that life is a phenomenon for which there need be no higher purpose. It is we who may attribute this and that purpose to our lives. And creatures simply strive to attain and retain a state of happiness according to their temperment. And the their success in this depends on their maturity to act in an ethical way- which simply means to act in a way that boosts their Spiritual (in a secular way), Mental and Physical well being. And this then might take care of the problem of ethics.
We must not forget that the existance or non-existance of God cannot be proved noor disproved. Ultimately, its a matter of faith. We can choose what we want to believe in according to what suits us. For our ultimate goal is well-being and Happiness. So long as we dont try and impose our ideas upon others, things will be fine.

Answer 7

hi. i become raised as a Mormon, and left that church at the same time as i become 21. I then became a Fundamentalist Christian, examining the Bible each day, and attempting to study Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek so as that i ought to extra effective understand the scriptures. I actually were an atheist for the perfect 4 years. The extra I studied, the added i began to work out the Bible as a selection of recorded mythology of the Semitic human beings residing contained in the middle East thousands of years in the past. I also began to question Paul's version of Christianity, because it diverged so a great deal from what Jesus taught, and the in hardship-free words component giving any validity to his authority, become his own insurance that we would want to continually. if that is the case, then we would want to continually also believe Joseph Smith, Mohammad, and David Koresh. In different words, purely because someone says they talk for God, does no longer mean they particularly do, and it is ideal to Paul besides as anybody else. There are issues i appreciate about Christianity, yet I no longer view Yeshua ben Yosef because the incarnate variety of the Semitic desolate tract god Yahweh. i imagine he become only a sensible and admirable guy.

Answer 8

An atheist is a person who believes what is concrete. Let's take for example, evolution and creation. Atheists believe in evolution because there is scientific data to back it up and is way more believeable than creation.....

Some people are atheists because most religion doesn't make sense and the stories are very far-fetched. .. Let's take for instance, the bible. ... It's written like a small child would write and the stories are not believable .. The stories in the bible have no scientific eveidence of any kind....

All in all atheists believe what is proven and are smart enough to know that if they have some disease to go to a hospital .. Not pray that the disease is cured miraculously

Answer 9

Atheists do not believe in God but most do believe in being a good person.

IMHO, if there is a God (Personally I think there is) he/she/it will be far more impressed by people who have done good simply because it was right than those who were only trying to build up points with him.

So Atheists will be at the head of the line on the day, I hope I make the cut

Answer 10

I am not an Atheist, but do know some. Actually, what they believe in is not bad. Not quite an Universal One, but more in the rhythm of nature. They have a respect that the majority of Christians do not.

Other than that, I would have to let a real Atheist explain themselves to you.

For myself, I walk a Shamanistic path and I am Earthbased...but am not an Atheist.

I am sure many are scratching their heads about now and saying ....Whaaaaatttt.....but this just means that you need to explore and do your homework. There are many sites on the net.
Have fun with your exploration. You may learn something about yourself you have never given yourself a chance to consider before.
Blessings,
Ansu