To atheists: What do you believe in?

Question

For example do you believe in hope, love, and joy.

What do you believe in, not what you don't.

Answer 1

Truth, justice, love, joy. Evidence, proof, reality, rationality, reason, logic. Knowledge, education, fact, fun, the movies, cheese.

Answer 2

It depends on what you mean by "believe in". If I say "Suzy believes in space aliens", that's not the same thing as "Suzy believes in her husband". In the first case, "believes in" means "I agree with the claim that this thing EXISTS". In the second case, "believes in" means to have trust or confidence in something. Granted there can be some overlap between the two meanings, but I think it's important to show with questions like this that there can be two different meanings.

In the first meaning, there are many things I "believe". I believe Antarctica is a real continent, even though I've never seen it. I believe Elvis Presley is dead, even though a wild fad sprung out in the late 80s claiming otherwise. In the second case, I first and foremost believe in myself. I am my own redeemer. I am the one who ultimately decides my fate. I am the one who will drive my goal or an assigned task through, who figures out how this world works, and learns from his own mistakes.

Answer 3

Nothing. I do not accept things without evidence, and if you have evidence, it's not belief.

There are three things I hold as valid, but I do not consider them 'true'. In fact, because they are axiomic, that means they cannot be proven. They are simply the rules of the game, as it were:

1. Mathematics and logic are valid. Truth is an inherantly logical proposition. Without logic, the truth-value of any fact could never be known, there would be no way to distinguish between a true fact and a false fact. Without logic, knowledge would be unattainable.

2. Observations, unaided and aided, are valid. However, aided observations must be supported by prior observations and mathematics. For example, before the theory of optics was discovered, a microscope would have been invalid; but through study of unaided observations of lenses and beams of light, the theory of optics was mathematically formulated, so the microscope is valid. A crystal gazing ball is still invalid, but if a way to define the effect mathematically and in a way that could be verified with unaided observations was found, it would become valid as well. Without being able to trust our observations, we could aquire no data on which to operate, and thus knowledge would be unattainable.

3. The supernatural, if it exists (note: no statement is made of its existence or non-existence, just a conditional), does not in any way interact with the natural world. If a supernatural involvement can be had, then nothing can be assured as true. If the deity that oversees gravity decides to change the universal gravitational constant, for example, all things we know will suddenly be invalid, and thus knowledge could not be attained.

It is important to recognize that none of these things is considered true; they are axioms. An axiom is a statement that must be accepted or not accepted on its own merits. However, as each of them can be shown to be necessary for knowledge, one must either accept these three things, or, one must accept that nothing at all can be known, let alone known to be true or false. So these axioms must be 'accepted' or 'held' to attain knowledge, even though their axiomic nature means they themselves cannot be proven.

Answer 4

Of course, atheists believe in almost all the same things everyone else believes in. Atheists just don't believe in some sort of spiritual entity. Atheists are just regular human folk, just trying to live their lives. Kindness, hope, love, joy, generosity, peace, sympathy, etc. It means the same thing to atheists.

Oh...I believe in cheese, too.

Answer 5

The key word is "IN". It's the "THATs" I have trouble with. I believe IN cooperation, in compassion, in forgiveness, in honesty. I DON'T believe THAT God is this way, or THAT Jesus did that, or THAT this other thing is always wrong. I suspect the world would be better off if more people believed IN ideas than THAT certain mystical things happened in the past.

Answer 6

I hold out for hope in the future, of course I believe in love, though it certainly does NOT conquer all,
and joy is something we all strive for, but seldom see much of, we all get to be 'content' most of the time at best.

any questions?

Answer 7

The Dharma per the Buddha's teachings. The 4 Noble Truths, The Path of Liberation, emptiness of inherent existence, altruism. etc.

_()_

Answer 8

hope love and joy are not associated with religion, it is within human nature, atehists are just as capable of feeling hope, love, joy and numerous other emotions, why would you think otherwise?

Answer 9

I don't believe in anything. But 1 atheist does not represent the group in issues like these.

Answer 10

Everything except for souls, gods and prophets.