As an atheist I have just questioned my beliefs, what do you think?

Question

I have always believe that humans have evolved like all life. And believe that life started in the sea and life expanded exponentially from there. But I just now realised that to be an athiest you must either belive that the first forms of life (bacteria) either got to earth by some runoff of an alien civilization, or that it was created naturally by inorganic material. I dont believe that anything living can be created by any mixture of chemicals or minerials. Nor do I think a floating rock with any substance on it could hit the earth and create humans. But a christian god seems too much like something humans would create to cope with existance. I just cant see a god testing his creation and throwing the failures into a pit of fire for eternity? That sound like a human created story because it is a drama and humans have always loved/needed drama. But on the other hand what else could it be. Just some thoughts

Answer 1

If you wish to find religious beliefs that are in harmony with Science and Reason check the Baha'i faith:
A small selection of writings

O SON OF SPIRIT!
The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee. By its aid thou shalt see with thine own eyes and not through the eyes of others, and shalt know of thine own knowledge and not through the knowledge of thy neighbor. Ponder this in thy heart; how it behooveth thee to be. Verily justice is My gift to thee and the sign of My loving-kindness. Set it then before thine eyes.

O COMPANION OF MY THRONE!
Hear no evil, and see no evil, abase not thyself, neither sigh nor weep. Speak no evil, that thou mayest not hear it spoken unto thee, and magnify not the faults of others that thine own faults may not appear great; and wish not the abasement of anyone, that thine own abasement be not exposed. Live then the days of thy life, that are less than a fleeting moment, with thy mind stainless, thy heart unsullied, thy thoughts pure, and thy nature sanctified, so that, free and content, thou mayest put away this mortal frame, and repair unto the mystic paradise and abide in the eternal kingdom for evermore.

Answer 2

I do agree with you although I have my own philosophy regarding the creation of life, some of it coming from Far Eastern schools of thought and it appears that many agree on one thing; that life comes from life. Now, I'm not religious but I am spiritual, reason being that religions have been dividing the peoples of the earth instead of uniting them. Any person with real common sense and analytical mind should be able to deduce that some of what religion purports is just too far fetched. Still, the disturbing question remains; where did we come from? Is it remotely possible that some type of spontaneous reaction was responsible for the creation of life since we do happen to contain many of the elements from the periodic table in our bodies, or that perhaps life always existed on the planet in one form or another regardless of the planet's catastrophic changes in the past? Some scientists have even gone so far to theorize that other lifeforms existed on the planet before the dinosaurs were on the earth. Perhaps some type of primitive protoplasma and that before those lifeforms, maybe a type of single cell entities, with each lifeform being effectively wiped out every time an asteroid hit the earth every so many millions of years. As we already know, the earth suffered an ice age millions of years ago when an asteroid impacted the planet, sending vast amounts of dust and debris into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun and destroying all life on earth as we know it, or did it? If the earth has really been hit so many times, how does life keep rebirthing? I can only speculate both scientific and religion wise and all I keep getting are more questions. By the way, would you happen to remember a few years ago when a probe to Mars yielded proof of a kind of bacteria, apparently dead for a long time, that existed on the surface of the planet? Like I said, I wish I knew more and I wonder if we will ever learn the truth. Peace.

Answer 3

Both happened, creationism and evolution (adaptation). Monkeys are amoral they can only react and be a monkey. The difference is conscience. Man has conscience and animals do not. This is why monkeys cannot sin they can only be an amoral monkey. There are no evil crocodiles, they are only crocodiles, being crocodiles. Conscience is what separates us from the animals and connects us to a creator. Going against our conscience is what causes inner conflict and trouble.. Sin is not the act of wrong such as murder, it is much deeper than that. When you can separate from your intellect by being very calm and still your conscience will "catch up" and show this to be true. The first man separated himself from the creator to be a god and know. From that moment he left his "conscience" connection to be a god and had to start using his imperfect intellect to try and understand and create memories. There are two "yous", your thoughts and your "conscience" or "soul". Trusting the "knowing of not knowing what you know" is faith and healing. You cannot run this through your intellect, you need to be still in a special way and discover it within you.
Man and animals were created. Animals were here long before man. They have been evolving to adapt. This is the way it should be. Everything eats each other. Big planets eat small ones. Tigers eat rabbits. And if they do not adapt they die. For example if the horses with the longest necks eat from the trees they survive and continue to breed long neck horses. Eventually you may have a giraffe. Man is devolving and has been since the first man. Devil- Devolve, get it?

Answer 4

If I was nt so tired and the topic so complex, I would tell you how to make life starting with inorganic components in theory and why no experiment has ever been able to do it. Type "abiogenesis" or "Miller-Urey experiment" into Google for starters. There is a wonderful proof involving the law of large numbers that is just a little to large to explain fully. Basically, if you let a planet-sized beaker of inorganic chemicals sit long enough and stirred gently and added energy, it is inevitable that you will eventually produce something alive just by chance.

Answer 5

First of all theories about the origin of life is not strictly "evolution". Darwin was trying to explain the origin of species; where all these different kinds of life came from - expanding the question to where life comes from gets out of evolution to a point and requires that we speculate about how life came to exist in the first place. You have trouble accepting random chance as the cause and that is fine but let me ask you have you ever considered whether or not it was possible that life is a natural process that was inevitable? Consider that according to the observed laws of thermodynamics - free chaotic energy tends to get bound up in chemical compounds, it is a slow process where free energy gets converted into progressively more complex structures. The most complex structures tend to be organic molecules and these arise naturally by inorganic processes - methane and complex hydrocarbons form even on the gaseous giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn and there are planet-sized moons that have seas of rich hydrocarbon gases cooled into liquids and continents of methane ice. As you get closer to the sun you have yet more energy - and here is where life appeared. To me this suggests that perhaps what we call life is just a way to describe the process by which order arises from chaos. Ordered molecules dissipate the most energy so life is just an efficient way for energetic compounds and molecules to reach a more or less stable and balanced state. It is not that nature prefers stablity and balance - It is simply that those are the things which remain to be observed. Unstable compounds by their definition would tend to break down and so they are not around to be observed. This is why the process is not really random it is more acretive and progressive than random chance could ever be.

Look at the structure of a one celled organism, or the genome of a bacterium and you can see in it's DNA characteristic patterns and proteins that mark us as having evolved on the same planet - even a virus has RNA in common with some of it's hosts, and they both are made up of the same amino-acids. Some say that a virus is not quite a form of life - that they are more intermediary. Smaller than a virus is the Prion. These are the folded protein fragments that are implicated as the cause of mad-cow (Cruezefeldt-Jacob) disease. Prions are not really living creatures but they do replicate themselves by tricking our bodies into make more of them - like a virus but even simpler. A simple organic chemical that reproduces itself has not been found but it is possible for slightly more complex ones like amino acids to form from the primative organic chemicals that
abounded in earth early prehistory. If the compounds and structures that make up living organisms are a conveniently stable structure - then it follows that they will continue to exist and continue to emerge from a very energetic environment. In time they need only enough mud and salts and sugars to form a substrate and you have the base from which DNA an RNA could begin. After a few million years these compound could easily become simple prebiotic life and after a billion years why should the process stop? If you take that view it becomes quite probable for life to begin. We like to think being alive is something special - but what if it is not? What if life itself is inevitable as a part of entropy? Life is a form of matter that is very effective as a structure which dissipates and binds large amounts of energy in increasingly more complex compounds - perhaps we are just part of the inevitable diminishing of the light released in the first flash of the big bang. Now, if there was a God who said 'let there be light' - then that was the only thing they needed to do to make it all happen. Was it an intentional act or is even that just more Drama? Insuficient data... but I do think you should keep asking questions - this one was excellent!

Answer 6

there is a God. this is true, otherwise where did earth and matter come from? so which God to believe in? there is one book that is different from any other book in the world and none like it has ever been writen.

the Bible has repeatedly fullfilled prophecy and is currently fullfilling present day prophecy such as the Jews return to Israel. http://www.100prophecies.org/ these are just 100 prophecy that have come to pass. these prophecies are very clear. read for yourself.

Jesus was asked what a person must do to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus said love God and love your neighbour. does anyone who doesn't do this deserve to go to heaven? does that sound like a cruel God? one that demands love?

i would suggest you read Mathew in the New Testement of the Bible. it will put everything into perspective for you.

Answer 7

The truth is only a demonstrable theory. Until it is, there is no last word. I don't believe in magic either. Somewhere there is a good explanation of how everything began. Taking sides before anything is proven is jumping to conclusion. I can only deny what seems to be too farfetched but i'll be damned (sorry for the pun) if I can give you a definitive answer about where we come from. But I can tell you this: nobody does... At least that's a comforting thought.

Answer 8

This is exactly the way I think!!! I don't call myself an atheist- I believe that something had to have made us- that there had to be a beginning, but I'm the type of person that wants more proof, and I ask for that almost every night. I say to whoever could be listening, "Please, just show me proof" and until I get proof, I won't believe anything else. I don't think there's anything wrong with having questions.

Answer 9

you say that you don't believe that anything living can be created by any mixture of chemicals or minerals, but everything living is just a mixture of chemicals and minerals. on the most basic level, everything is just atoms and molecules. in the study of evolution there is a concept called "deep tI'me". this refers to the fact that earth has been around for SO long that so many different combinations of things have occurred - so many steps could have led to life. i guess that im trying to say that i think evolution is a good idea.

Answer 10

There are no easy answers. However, having said that, religion is an easy way to explain things without having to think about it or really prove anything: God did it, that's all you need to think about. Now pass the collection plate.
And by the way: The human body contains many minerals you wouldn't necessarily connect with life: Magnesium, Zinc, Iron, among others. All things contain all things.

Answer 11

You're right, it might be a little hard to believe that living things ever resulted from non-living things. But I mean, if that's not a convincing explanation, then what is? That aliens did it? That a deity did it? You REALLY have to stretch to make those sorts of claims... so I think it's a safe bet to say for now that it was all just the result of natural processes.