Why is it often said that Atheists don't beleive in anything beyond the self?

Question

I'm an Atheist, and I am annoyed at this misconception. Helping others and making positive change in the world is very important to me. Yes, I have my own personal ambitions, but those are not what my life is about. My life is about my friends and family. Maybe I'm just misunderstanding the statement....though it is more frequent that the religious population misunderstands the Atheist's point of veiw.....

Answer 1

You may consider it a biast opinion, as I am an Atheist now, but I was once a very convinced believer, extremely wrapped up in the concept of god and afterlife. So you could consider me of knowing both sides, and of the the two sides I find myself as being very much less selfish now than when I was a christian.

As a christian, I believed that doing good to help the fellow man (or woman) was getting ME brownie points. The idea of helping reflected back to me and the idea of pleasing sky daddy.

Now that I am Atheist I can commit what would appear to be truly selfless acts of helping. What I gain the motivation to do these from I havn't quite figured out, maybe it's just the idea of creating a society that somehow reflects back to my own safeness and well being in my sub concious mind, but another side of me wants to believe it's more than that. That there may be some sort of way to commit a truly selfless act if you concentrate on the value and purpous of each human life. And yes, there is value and purpous to life without an afterlife or a sky daddy, you just have to find that purpous yourself.

Answer 2

Possibly because Atheists don't identify themselves as a group and have not been taught to uphold the specific tenets of a given faith.

Personally - I cant get my head around faith - I think its a yes or no thing - you cant choose to believe, you just do. Saying that I do believe in people:

I don't need the threat or eternal damnation or the promise of eternal paradise to be courteous and generous. Humans have come up with some great concepts over the years - community, honour, self-sacrifice, hope, mercy. (There is no evidence these exist anywhere else in the universe, even if other beings exist out there!)

If we can just get over ourselves long enough to realise that the whole religion thing is a non-issue.

God - i sound like a hippy...

Answer 3

I believe you are misunderstood because many people have never actually had a conversation with you.

Before I started participating here, I knew nothing about atheists except Madelyn Murray O'Hare. I am a God believer but I have never cared for religion. I have since met and conversed with many of the atheists on here. I find them to be intelligent honest people who just think differently than I do. Some do not believe in a soul or afterlife. I totally cannot see that concept but to each his own.

Answer 4

You say family is important to you, yet you reject your heavenly family, your Father who Created you and loves you very much, and all your brothers and sisters who would join you in Heaven. Your earthly father is incapable of creating anything...all he did was have sex with your mother. God was the one who put you together cell by cell in your mother's womb, with a complexity that astounds every scientist on earth.
In light of this, the atheistic viewpoint seems very prideful and conceited, who would have the audacity to believe that he knows exactly how he was put together, and knows everything that happened in the past, and knows exactly how the universe works. It's like a tiny ant in a colony saying, "I'm the king of the universe!"
You say that your family is very important to you, but one day, all your family will be gone. What will you have then? Only your prideful ambitions, which will chase any love out of your heart. Don't get too attached to the things of this world. They won't last. Instead, hold fast to the Rock of Ages - only He stands forever, and can always be trusted.

Answer 5

Yeah, we might "believe in" ourselves, but only in the sense that your guidance counselor tells you, "you've got to believe in yourself." Is that a problem? We may also believe in the indomitable human spirit. We just definitely do not believe in you invisible man-in-the-sky telling us what is good and what is evil.

One thing that a lot of theists don't seem to get is that you can have morals without believing they were written on stone tablets by God. Why do we have morals? Because they allow society to function. We do unto others as we would have done to us because that's how you get people to do unto you, not because it says so in some book.

Answer 6

The propaganda explanation is the correct one. In order to persist, religions need to convince their adherents that they're superior. Since belief in invisible beings that have no influence on the world is so obviously wrong, they have to denigrate others. Hence the attacks on nonbelievers - it's how religions persist.

Answer 7

Most often its the lack of being able open ones mind to so much more then old books, scared of what they dont understand, the list goes on but not being able to open there mind to things they dont understand is the main reason I find.

Answer 8

It's because christians believe that god is everything, and that if you don't believe in god, you don't believe in anything but yourself.

I would have to disagree with this as well. Being an athiest does not limit you from any spiritual knowledge. I for one believe in the astral plane.

I just don't believe in god.

"Me and you aren't so different. We're both athiests, aren't we? I just believe in one fewer god than you" ~ someone

Answer 9

Good post. For some reason, they seem to think that believing in yourself is an insult of some sort. But yes, we often believe in other things as well.

Answer 10

all religions were written (or whatever you think) by some influential persons, who are dead long ago or in heaven/hell (what a joke)

In those days since most people were illiterates ( lack of knowledge of science and things like that), so rumours about wonder cures, miracles spread easily faster than the disease itself.

people (those days) were mainly simple (dependent on agriculture, animals etc, etc) so could be easily manupulated by influential persons( something like our present day politicians/leaders or gods)
they tought them how to live, and these people easily became their
soft preys, spreading their messages (guidebooks or whatever) for free. they became big brands (like coke)
or we all are psychologically weak , that we need a deadman's "how to guides" to live our lives. (there are lot of free self-help articles,stories out there)don't we know how to use our brains?(or trash your brains) please don't tell me rain, forest theories.why are we advertising fr free