I see alot of you guys participating in a lot of religious questions. I would like to gain a better understanding of your stance. What is it that does it for you that you declare yourself an atheist? What are the pros of your belief or more accurately, disbelief?
2006-11-14 07:11:51 · 20 answers · asked by Rick 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Why am I an atheist? Because gods do not exist. That's why.
Pros:
Atheism offers the freedom to make up your own mind.
Atheism offers the freedom to tolerate others.
Atheism is an education in critical thinking.
Atheism relieves the need to defend the indefensible.
Atheism offers the ability to view yourself and others as equals.
Atheism offers happiness.
Cons:
Discrimination
Mistrust
Never being given the benefit of the doubt
2006-11-14 07:15:50 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 7⤊ 3⤋
The pros are:
1. I am responsible for my own actions.
2. I live my life in a moral way because of the conclusions I made, not because someone told me to.
3. I don't waste my time with rituals that are out of date/context.
4. I don't feel guilty when I make a mistake, instead I learn from it.
5. I feel free because I feel that I can practice free will without being controlled by an all powerful/all knowing being.
Those are some pros. But the main reason I don't believe in god is because there is no evidence for God. There is evidence for things that contradict what we learn in the bible, which is the only source for god, therefore I don't believe. This trumps any pros for not believing because they are merely what hapens when you don't believe. So it isn't like I said, "how can I feel this way? I know I won't believe in god." Instead I didn't believe and started to feel this way.
2006-11-14 16:03:07 · answer #2 · answered by Existence 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i declare myself an atheist bc to me the story of god and jesus is just that, no different then santa clause, easter bunny, tooth fairy, or barney the dinasour. All storys to make kids and irrational people feel better and give them hope or happyness.
The pros of my belief are that 1) i'm happy with things i can control and if i'm unhappy i blame myself instead of something that maynot even exsist. 2) instead of going 'why god! why' or prey for help, i get off my butt and do it for myself. its like the saying 'if you put wishes(in this case prayers) that came true in one hand and S#!t in the other, which one do you think will fill up first?' 3) i have enough to worry about and take care of without being held accountable or waste time, energy, and money to any of the many religions
2006-11-14 15:29:04 · answer #3 · answered by TJ815 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I'm a Taoist, which means I believe in an abstract energy rather than a personified deity. Deities, as far as I am concerned, are metaphors we've made up trying to define the indefinable.
I believe in Love. Always have, always will. But Love is not a god.
2006-11-14 15:21:23 · answer #4 · answered by KC 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I only declare myself an atheist on this site when some religious freak is trying to shove their religion down my throat.
I never try to convert people and if they leave me alone, i will leave them alone.
2006-11-14 15:21:16 · answer #5 · answered by Katya-Zelen 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
In as much as I was not around to see how everything came into being (and neither were you),I say, "I don't know ..... YET!" To assume that some god, my less than intellectual ancestors made up, instantaneously farted the universe into being, is absurd
2006-11-14 15:23:28 · answer #6 · answered by iknowtruthismine 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Most of us have an epiphany that everything we are taught in religion is ludacris. I think that most Atheists matured a lot faster than their peers growing and became more rational than most adults. I myself like to have a better understanding about other people's beliefs, either out of respect or to call them on their hypocrisy.
2006-11-14 15:15:20 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 2⤋
http://www.godisimaginary.com
That's a good start.
There are no "pros", btw... We simply don't deny the truth that religion is ancient mythology, which has been repeatedly debunked, and is laughably inaccurate.
There's nothing to gain by this. We haven't "beaten" you. We simply accept the truth. And the truth is not easy to hear, when you've been raised to believe in a god that takes care of you, etc.
I know. I used to be just like you. And losing my faith was probably the most frightening thing I've ever experienced.
2006-11-14 15:13:35 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 2⤋
It does the same thing as beliving in a certain religion. Nothing. The pros are, free will, freedom from slavery, lack of hate.
2006-11-14 15:14:42 · answer #9 · answered by Arcturus R 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
PROs: Get my sundays back, no more lies, no more wondering about the after life because there isn't one, no one telling me what is right and wrong, no more racism, or sexism. I can just live my life using common sense and be left alone by the religious nut jobs trying to steal my money
CONs: none
2006-11-14 15:15:11 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 2⤋