A question for athiests?

Question

This is a serious question, and I will report any innappropriate answers.
What, exactly, do athiests believe in? One of my friends is an athiest, and he simply does not believe in the existence of ANYTHING--no supernatural deities or anything. So what do they believe in? Darwinism? I am honestly curious, because I cannot ask my friend, as he ends up insulting me because I am Christian. If you believe in a higher power, but not God, are you agnostic?

Thank you for adult, serious answers.

Answer 1

Your friend is most likely Agnostic. An Athiest has a very difficult challenge - why? Because an Athiest must prove that God does not exist. That is something no one has been able to do, at least not convincingly. An Agnostic however, believes there has not yet been enough evidence to convince them that God exists.

Athiests and Agnostics are truly foolish, because Scripture tells us that even the Serpent the Devil believes that God exists.

You have a lot ahead of you to help your friend. It isn't enough that he come to the realization that God exists, that alone will not save him. He must also accept Christ Jesus into his heart.

Your best course of action: Love him and be a good example to him. Don't preach to him, but if he asks, and he opens a door, inform him about the truth.

- In the Name of Above All Names, Christ Jesus

Answer 2

Atheists are a diverse lot. Technically, you can still be an atheist and believe in spirits and whatnot - supernatural stuff that isn't related to gods...and some people do. But they don't call themselves atheists; usually they have another name for the religion/philosophy.

You can not be an atheist and believe in any form of god; that's the very definition of the word.

People who call themselves atheists typically do not believe in any form of the supernatural, though. They typically don't accept the existence of anything that can't be empirically proven.

For an atheist, the concept of "belief" is largely irrelevent. When most people say they "believe" in something, they mean that they have faith in something that they can't actually prove happens or exists. Atheists don't believe any such things exist, therefore "belief" is not really a good word to use when trying to understand an atheist.

"Darwinism" is not actually a philosophy...it's not even a word; it's a term invented by creationists to denigrate people who accept evolution.

There's a similar (and real) term, called "social darwinism", but that's completely different from evolution.

If you mean, "do atheists accept evolution?" The answer is: "typically, yes". Atheists (along with scientists and other people who accept evolution) don't consider evolution a matter of "belief"; since evolution can be empirically proven, it's just a fact that they accept.

An agnostic is someone who doesn't have any belief in a god, but who thinks the concept could be plausible, since you can't prove a god doesn't exist.

An atheist is someone who doesn't have any belief in a god, and considers the very concept to be absurd; while most acknowledge that you can't prove that god doesn't exist, they don't accept that fact as a reason to consider the idea of a god plausible.

After all, just as you can't prove that god doesn't exist, you can't prove that I (the person answering) am not god. And yet, the very assertion is too absurd to consider - of course I'm not god.

That's typically how atheists feel about the matter, but like i said, atheism is a diverse lot.

Answer 3

Well, actually atheists believe in different things. I'm an atheist and I also believe in reincarnation, ghosts, magic, etc. Some don't believe in anything like that. The definition of atheism is disbelief in gods and goddesses (not just the Christian god).

I also believe in evolution, where humans evolved into how we are today, and are still evolving, but that we didn't come from apes or monkeys.

Agnostics are those who do not know if there is a God/Goddess/Higher Power or if there isn't, but is not taking sides.

If you're friend winds up insulting you, either you should not be friends or you both need to stop talking to each other about your beliefs. I have friends who are Christian, and we don't talk about the subject because we respect each other. I'm sure they pray for me, but they don't try to convert me, and I don't say I consider their beliefs mythology. (I don't mean to offend you, so sorry if I did.) If we do have questions, we do ask, but in a respectful manner.

Answer 4

Only Believing is not living my friend, questioning, exploring and growing as humans is why we are here. You will notice that most religions demand and receive unquestioning obedience and the new Pope is on record that the most dangerous "ISM" faced by society today is not Communism, Terrorism, Unilateralism, etc but humanISM. The fact that we are all one and share a common destiny.
Now why this noble thought worries ALL religious leaders (imagine the Pope, Mullahs, Rabbis, et-al share this common concern) is because they see that people everywhere will wake up and smell the truth thereby eroding their influence and importance.
I am an Atheist because I cannot accept the premise that an ALL-powerful being exists who would let children die of hunger or suffer in ANY way. There can be no justification or reason for lettng that happen, ever. Of what use be power if it not defend the innocent and protect the weak ?! ;-)

Answer 5

I'm not athiest, but what an athiest believes in depends on the athiest. Some athiests believe in evolution, others don't... they simply don't know how we got here, or don't care. Curiously, some athiests I know do believe in the supernatural (ghosts, etc.).

You're Deist if you believe in a higher being of some sort. If you believe in a higher power, such as a universal 'life force,' as Buddhism, Daoism, and other religions believe in, I don't know what you would be called exactly.

You're agnostic if you neither deny nor affirm the existence of a God.

Hope that helps.

EDIT: Eigelhorn has a good point in his post below. Buddhists would technically be considered athiests.

Answer 6

From reading the post below mine I guess I am somewhat a Agnostics and a atheist?

As a atheist I am very open meaning I wont tell anyone there religion is wrong or anything like that. I do not believe in a afterlife my self or reincarnation. I may believe in a higher power but I think if there is a god he/she or it does not care much about what we do or how we act. I know I could be wrong and everything or somethings maybe there is a god and he does judge us but not in the ways we think.

The thing that bothers me is lets say there is 30-50 religions. Everyone believes they are corretc and everyone else will go to hell ect.... But in that sense about 29-49 religion will be wrong? So if religious people know that what are the odds of there religion being the right one???

Maybe there is more then one god and as long as you follow what you believe to be your god then you will get into the afterlife or get reincarnated whatever your religion believes in.

I do not believer in spirits or ghosts , demons anything like that. If there is dragons or any other monster or demonish creature in our universe then I think they are just like us and not from hell , or heaven. I do not believe in magic or fortune telling but sometimes I am temped. I also can see though liars for example those people that say they , talk to the dead or have been abducted by aliens. They are all liars in my opinion or perhaps mentally insane to some point.

I believe in since and what science tells us the universe is extremely large or never ending. In that case I believe in aliens and other lifeforms equally smart and powerful to us or much smarter and more powerful!

I'm not sure any aliens have ever been to our solar system. I also believe that light speed travel might be 100% imposable to achieve.

Things involving aliens and space I am less sure about then god. but I do not believes aliens of any kind have been to earth in UFO etc....

That's about it. My mind is set on these things and it could take quite a bit to make it shift at all. One thing for sure I admit these are all my opinions and anything can be the Truth. I might rote in hell for eternity but I hope I am remotely correct because I don't want all but 1 religion to the right one.

There might be some small grammar or spelling mistakes. Sorry.

Answer 7

I am an agnostic - the "a-" meaning "not" and "-gnostic" which comes from the word "gnosis", which means "direct knowledge/experience of God"...therefore, an agnostic is one who believes that it is impossible to know whether or not God exists.

Someone who believes in a higher power of some sort, but not a personal God, would generally be a monist.

Atheists don't have anything in common with their philosophies other than the fact that they deny the existence of God completely rather than saying it's impossible to know, like agnostics.

A lot of atheists and agnostics feel that you don't NEED to believe in anything. As an ex-Baptist, this is definitely how I feel.

Answer 8

The question of belief as a basis for daily life just does not arise.
Atheists like to deal in facts not somebody else's version of the truth or lifestyles based on ancient mythologies.
When you look at the vast number of different gods who have been worshipped throughout history it is clear that the current most popular one is no more credible than any of the others
He is simply used to explain the inexplicable.
Atheists are realistic enought to realise that our state of knowledge is not far enough advanced to understand many of the mysteries of life but we are learning more year by year.
Most people no longer believe that the earth is flat or that a total eclipse means that the gods are angry and can only be persuaded to return the sun by a human sacrifice.

Answer 9

True science is agnostic. Science says: Man does not have the tools to test the existence of god, therefore, we cannot know if there is a god or not. Since the existence of a divine being cannot be tested emperically, it is outside the realm of science.

Atheists 'believe' in the scientific method, for the most part. Most who profess to be atheists TECHNICALLY are more agnostic than atheistic, because they measure everything by the scientific method.

However, there are a small set of atheists (myself included) who literally doubt the existence of anything, even those things we can observe. Since any system of facts cannot be self-proving (Godel's Incompleteness Theorum), you have to at some point simply agree on certain truths -- the rules of the game. Don't like the rules, play a different game, it's all the same. Since pure atheism is founded on absolute proof, and it is impossible to have self-proving systems of axioms (those unprovable, fundamental truths that are just... assumed), pure atheism says nothing actually can be proven to exist.

Answer 10

Being atheist means we believe in NO higher powers, that is the one sold universal thing about the term and is the same for all of us.

Beyond that we may have our own opinions about other things. The large majority though do not believe in anything paranormal or other similar things. Paranormal stuff interests me, but I don't necessarily believe in it. Not all atheists fully believe in evolution either.

Most of us can probably agree that the concept of an "after life" would be nice, we aren't against it, but we don't believe in such a thing. Although in my own personal view, if there was such a thing it would be very much connected to this planet still and has nothing to do with religion or deities.

Answer 11

I believe in what I can see, touch and know to be true. Agnostics believe in a Deity, sometimes even the christian god, they just do not belong to an organized religion. Too bad your friend insults you, it seems like he may be uncomfortable with his lack of faith. I read so many posts from atheists here & it make me wonder if it is just vogue or if so many have become victim of outside influences, I say that because so many of the atheist points of view posted here are anti-christian I am a rare atheist, I believe that organized religion and a base belief system is good for a majority of the world, most of you need that moral compass and comfort.