In this R+S section, I read this as an answer somewhere:
"Most of the atheists I've talked with say that they don't believe in God only because they don't want to be accountable to some higher being"
2007-01-07 11:01:33 · 24 answers · asked by ? 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I'd be very surprised. I've never heard an atheist say anything remotely like that. As you're suggesting, that claim is almost certainly just a lie told by the believer. It's obviously just nonsense, and of course it's exactly the kind of nonsense that a insecure believer would like to think that atheists think.
It's a sadly transparent lie, and it's really sad to think that the believers who tell it could honestly believe that anyone would be taken in by such obvious dishonesty (ditto for the obvious lie that "CVC" tells below).
2007-01-07 11:05:54 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
That sentence contradicts itself. Anyone claiming they don't want to be accountable to a higher being is acknowledging the possible existence of one - therefore they would be Agnostic, not Atheist. Atheists simply don't believe even in the possibility of God. For an Atheist, there is no God! It's not saying "I don't accept God", it's saying "I don't believe he exists"!
2007-01-07 19:22:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
I have never heard that from an atheistic person. It sounds like something a Christer would make up.
By the way, there is no need to capitalise the "A" on the word atheist. It is not like it is a religion or anything. The word simply means 'without any belief in the god myths.'
2007-01-07 19:07:52 · answer #3 · answered by Barabas 5 · 2⤊ 1⤋
Yes. On August 17th, 1964 at a bar on 79th St and Amsterdam Avenue in New York at 1:45 in the morning, a drunken atheist named Morris Bornquist muttered it into his beer in the course of relating a story about a very dim-witted thiest.
2007-01-07 20:18:28 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
That is not the reason to be an atheist. A god is supposed to take care of you. Not that I doubt that someone has said this.
Being an Atheist should mean contributing as much as possible to society and Earth in general. At least that's what it seems like to me...
2007-01-07 19:09:02 · answer #5 · answered by (-_-) 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No thinking person could say or think that, because if you're afraid God's there you don't escape by not believing in Him! (Worst thing you could do!)
That would be like me trying to avoid debt by imagining I had a couple of million pounds.
The logic is terribly, terribly flawed.
The reverse flaw also applies. Pascal's wager doesn't work. If you're only acting and saying that God exists because you're betting on it as a safety measure, and God does exist, He's not going to be that impressed.
2007-01-07 19:11:45 · answer #6 · answered by Pedestal 42 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I've never heard that from an Atheist. But I have read something similar from a "God" believer.
"If you believe in God and it turns out he doesn't exists, then you've lost nothing, if he does exists then your safe because you believe in him. However if you don't believe in God and he doesn't exists, then you've lost nothing, but if he does your screwed. Therfore I believe in God."
This isn;t the exact text but it's what I could remember, talk about hedging you bets hunh?
2007-01-07 19:08:09 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
those are not the true atheists. those are people who believe in a god but do not want to follow any religion. a true atheist does not believe in any higher being. so therefore..... maybe you have not met any atheists after all.
2007-01-07 19:14:41 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
YES..
An old respected scientist was an athiest and i don't know if he said those exact words exactly.... but he explained... at least for himself... that the only reason he truly wanted (and most other athiests) to be an athiest.. was because they didn't have to be responsible to a higher power, and they didn't want limits on what they could do, or feeling bad for doing whatever it was they wanted to do.
A life without rules.
2007-01-07 19:28:16 · answer #9 · answered by phitchic989 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
It doesn't make much sense if you think about it. To refuse to believe because you don't want to be accountable is to admit to believing.
The atheists I have met in my life don't believe because there is no evidence for belief, and being very logical people, they require evidence.
2007-01-07 19:05:55 · answer #10 · answered by Emmy 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋