For the Atheists, I am curious as to why you made your choice?

Question

I am not interested in scientific theory as that is all it is...theory. I want to know from the depth of you what made you choose? Some of the Atheists I met have an inner early conflict with their father or some other important figure that claimed religion and disappointed them in some way. Some have hurt feelings about so called religious people that did not live up to their faith. Others cannot believe in a loving God when there is so much hardship in the world. Some are scared to death of their own emotions so they shut them off and never learn to be intimate. The last group are ones that don't want to believe in God because it means they would have to change a lifestyle they have learned to cherish. Why? I am sure there are many different reasons out there. Mmm

Wow! You guys are giving me some really good answers. I "read and listen not to believe or disbelieve but to weigh and consider". It does seem to me though that many answers still rest on the evil actionsof man so now I am curious you history buffs as to the history of atheistic nations committing terrible acts to other people.

Answer 1

My reasons have nothing to do with ANY of the reasons you listed. I'm not trying to be rude here, but next time you ask a question of a specific group, don't speculate about what group we fit into or psychologize too much, ok? Seriously. In statistics and polling that is called "biasing your sample." Look it up if you need to. Your best bet is to just ask your question, get out of the way, and let people answer.

On a personal level, I don't believe in god because of simple logic.Here is my basic logical problem with god and the conception of god .

God is described as being infinite in every way. Omnipotent, omnicient, etc. Human beings are finite in their mental capacities.
How would a *finite* being ever be able to make sense out of a being that is BY definition...beyond comprehension, quantification, or qualification?
If god manifested himself to you (via miracle, a burning bush, talking to you, whatever) how would you be able to logically differentiate from god talking to you or a unicorn? How would you logically know it was god and not Lucky the Leperchaun or an evil demon? How would you know you weren't going insane?
The answer religious people give is that you are supposed to know via faith. You are supposed to "feel" your way to the right answer. The fact is, the way us finite humans deal with the world and progress is through our mental capacities NOT via our feelings. Just because I decide one day that gravity is a tool of the patriarchy (or some other post modern crap) doesn't mean that I'm exempt from it's power if I jump off of a bridge.
Simply "believing" or using "faith" to believe in god seems to be about as silly as believing in Santa Clause simply because you want to.

My question to people of faith is,"How do you know Andrea Yates wasn't talking to god when she killed her kids?"

That is a completely rhetorical question, but I ask it to illustrate a point. If you believe in the Judeo-Christian tradition, god asked Abraham to kill his only son...Issac and an angel intervened. So even by Judeo-Christian standards...god does at times ask parents murder their children. That alone makes it logically possible (if you buy into the Christian world view) for god to have asked Andrea Yates to kill her kid even by Christian standards. You pretty much have to "take god's word for it" that he wouldn't want little kids drowned in bathtubs and that isn't good enough for me.

I wouldn't accept a whacko on the street telling me that Puffy the Magic Infinite Clown told him to rob a liquor store...so why would I buy some whacko telling me that god wants me to do X,Y, and Z? Even if X, Y, and Z are MORAL things...those things can be logically justified without having to bring god into the picture.
If a wealthy guy on the street says that Puffy the Clown told him to donate 10% of his earnings to charity (I would consider that a noble endeavor) that is fine. No harm, no foul. However, you don't need some nonsensical mystical influence (whether you call it "god" or "Jesus" or "Puffy the Clown) in the picture to justify or rationalize good behavior. Why not simply cut out the mystical middle man?

Thinking through all of that is why I don't believe in god.

As far as my background goes:
My parents weren't religious at all and didn't try to enfore any religion or spirituality on me at all. They didn't talk down about religion or believers. It was just kind of not an issue in my house. I started thinking about these things in great depth when I was about 17 and I realized I just could never bring myself to believing. Once I realized that, I made my choice and never looked back.

Answer 2

I've never believed in god...even as a child.

I spent 9 years in a christian school. While I recieved a better education (on the secular subjects) than the public school offered, I never once experienced anything that the church hierarchy described.

I spent another 6 years studying the bible, both the stories within and the history of the book itself, and found appalling discrepancies. The stories of the bible lacked archeological evidence to support them (nothing can be found to support Hebrew slaves in Egypt, or a mass exodus for 40 years in the desert; the great flood has been proven to be a localized event: a king sailed a barge of goods down the Euphrates river, surviving their annual flood season). The morals taught in the bible are questionable at best (the book calls for the stoning of disobedient children, preaches hatred towards those with "unacceptable" lifestyles, advocates slavery as honorable, etc.). The foundations of the faith were suspect at best, so how could the stories within contain any truth?

A lot of the things you give as reasons are falicies, I'm sorry to say. One doesn't quit believing in god because of the hypocrasy of the faithful...one spurns the faithful. The claims of "how can god exist when hardship is so prevalent?" are more examples used to debunk the god myth. Claiming that there are those who don't wish to give up their lifestyle is the worst lie of all. If one refuses to believe in god for that reason, one has to acknowledge that he exists. At best, that type of person only denies god having any power over them.

Answer 3

I considered myself an Atheist for a while, but now I consider myself a spiritual seeker. I do not buy the idea of paternalistic judgemental God who commands obedience. I have no need for a big daddy.

Religion is nothing but control.

I now beleive that God is love. It is our own higher state of being - it is our capacity for compassion - what happens when our puny little egos get out of the way. It is not something outside of ourselves.

The teachings of Buddhism and earth-based philosophies like Wicca and Native American spirituality come closer to this ideal than the monotheistic religions of Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Hinduism.

Jesus was an awesome teacher too. It's unfortunate that his message has been so badly distorted.

Answer 4

I take offense to your comment of not being interested in "scientific theory as that is all it is...theory."

There's more to science that theory. There are laws and facts. There is logic and reason.

Additionaly, dismissing something as "just a theory" is highly ignorant. A "theory" is an established and experimentally verified fact or collection of facts about the world. Unlike the everyday use of the word theory, it is not an unproved idea, or just some theoretical speculation. The latter meaning of a 'theory' in science is called a hypothesis.

So sorry, but scientific "theory" is exactly the reason I became an atheist. Also because of ignorant people like you who beleive all atheists were abused by their fathers or something.

Knowledge and reason trumps overhyped storybook any day.

Have you ever thought that the reason YOU haven't become an atheist is because of issues with YOUR "important figure that claimed religion?" Because you'd have to change YOUR lifestyle?

I assure you, we atheists are eejust like you, only we don't harshly judge others or feel pity for them for not living the way we want them to live. Also, we have to take responsibility for our own actions and find solutions to our own problems, since no is there to back us up or help us our but ourselves.

I suggest you try it sometime.

Answer 5

Firstly, the only religious influence I've ever had was Anglicanism. Only my mom practiced it, my dad wasn't bothered with religion. But I wasn't ever forced by my mom to go to church or read the Bible.

I went to a Christian school (not that it was based solely around religion). All my life until age 13 I was really indifferent to religion. Then I read the 1st few pages of the Bible and then put it down, knowing I'd never believe it. It seemed like fiction to me and I didn't like the fact. Also my views of life on Earth went agianst intelligent design and I saw myself preferring athiest views much more than any other.
And some of the rules of the Bible went against my personal living code, like loving god more than your family and friends and having to worship something like a follower. None of it was for me. Also I see religion as been nothing more than a source of control over people.

And I'd just like to add that this is the best Q from a Christian I've seen on here. It's original for once and not in the least bit insulting. Keep it up.

Answer 6

I am not an Atheist, but looking over the answers given, I see that a couple of people actually have an open mind and ability to read something without being offended, and to respond without trying to offend. I chose to follow God from an early age...I learned from my experience and relationship with my Heavenly Father, and Heavenly Brother and Heavenly Guide that everyone has the right to choose, and that in choosing our duty is to share, without force, or being obnoxious; and to learn as much as we can about God and science...and personal relationships with our fellow human beings. I know many who claim to be Christians but they don't know very much about these things, and their attitude shows it. I see some rather un-Christ-like mud slinging from people in this forum of Yahoo! Answers all the time. How would Christ respond to the insults of an atheist? He responded to the insults of the religious leaders of his time with questions that forced them to reflect on their own lives...they didn't like that because in truth, they were both egocentric, and unbelievers living a lie.

Answer 7

Nothing like that. My parents were moderately religious. I have a better relationship with them than I ever have before. No failed attempts to reconcile a belief in God with evil. I just think it's all very far fetched and simply dismiss it as such.

My "loss of faith" happened years and years, but the last time I remember *really* believing in God was when I was a maybe 8 years old. (I'm 27 now.)

Answer 8

It isn't a choice, any more than liking chocolate over vanilla is a choice. It's an innate inability to believe the illogical. I was born an atheist, and knew all of my life that what my parents were trying to teach me didn't sit right, even before I knew what an atheist was.

Answer 9

I was a former Christian, and the day that my pastor told me that people who have never heard of God or any religion, will go to hell.....I left the church. I, then, started reading on the history of christianity and all the bloodshed and violence in it.
On a more personal note, I was never more depressed than when I was a christian. I felt guilty all the time because I felt like every thought that came into my head was sinful and I felt like a bad person all the time. It depressed me so much.
By the time I became an atheist, I learned to appreciate life more. I learned to appreciate what I have (my family and friends, etc.) And I'm happier this way.

Answer 10

When I was eight years old, it became apparent that the biblical tales could not be reconciled with science, and since science is obviously correct (it works!), the bible had to go. I have never encountered any evidence to either support or refute the notion of a god, and it is provable as a result that no theory of god has any predictive power: all such theories are useless. As a scientist, I require evidence to believe in anything.

Answer 11

They Obviously don't read the past and defenitely don't understand it if they do, which means that they would not believe in God because they wouldn't even know what he is or why the things that happened in the past happened why they did because of NOT PAYING ATTENTION or not reading the Actual Holy Bible.

Abby C,

Why do you people blame god WHEN IT'S LUCIFER/DEVIL/SATAN who is doing all the bad stuff. God is good, Lucifer isn't and is the one causing all the pain and suffering in the world. I'm sorry about the pastors you people had in the past but if I was yours I would have never talked to you like that, I mean giving you a comment like that without a reason for it, if there was one. The truth is that if you were on a deserted Island with a person your age of the opposite sex at a really young age suddenly left all alone, then grew up having a wonderful life with that one person having a baby and dying at an old age, you would probably go to heaven even though you didn't even know it existed.
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Basically what I'm trying to say is that EVERYTHING ALL OF YOU ARE TRYING TO SAY ABOUT THE HOLY BIBLE AND WHAT'S IN IT MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL. Some of you people think that the Bible is fiction but what's not to believe? If we evolved from monkeys, and monkeys evolved from dogs, then mice, then fish, then microscopic organisms, what did they evolve from and the dirt, water, rock, elements...? If any of that stuff was always here and evolved from nothing then so could have we. If you believe in the Big Bang Theory, then what did it evolve from? It didn't evolve, so if nothing was before the B.B. because it was the creation of everything, then nothing could have created it, therefore the Big Bang came from GOD, and is stated in the very beginning of the Holy Bible.
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As for moral beliefs, if God said not to murder people, but you believe it and not in God because you think that it's not necessary to believe in God for such simple things like it because murdering someone is OBVIOUSLY not a good thing, then who's to say that it isn't a bad thing? The fact is the idea of murdering someone being a bad thing along with stealing and so on came from God.