Why is there no consistency in atheists beliefs?

Question

I've met atheists that think science is 100% true and explains everything, but they get flustered when I point out contradictions and start talking about spaghetti and meatballs. I have found atheists that claim Jesus never existed, but they get flustered when I show them evidence otherwise. Does this narrow-minded (minority, maybe) group of atheists give the greater american atheist community a bad rep? So many of the atheists today are misinformed and eager to debate christians when they dont even know the basics of their own beliefs yet. If 1 atheist tries to debate a christian without understanding science, and gets crushed, doesn't this also embarrass the entire atheist movement? How can they convert the masses to their new brand of idealogy when their missionaries do not understand their faith completely?

Answer 1

i can't speak for everybody, but i fully accept that i don't have all the answers, and that i'm not supposed to know everything. i am only human, after all. as for "converting the masses", that has never been my goal. i believe what i believe, and others believe what they believe. if you want to waste your whole life worshiping mythology, that's your business, not mine.

Answer 2

There is consistency between the beliefs of all atheists. They do not believe in God. That is the thing that ties them all together. Some of them believe in science more than others. Being an Atheist isn't a part of a religion. It simply means you do not believe in the existence of a higher being. It doesnt' mean that every philosophy they have on life must be the same. Christians are very much the same. We have beliefs that differ greatly. Some people belief that the evidence of tongues is the evidence of the Holy Spirit, and others, don't believe it should be used today at all. Some believe in the trinity, while others, do not. Some are Catholics, and some are Baptists. Christians aren't all the same, but you do not sit back and say it is embarrasing to the Christian faith. Also, Christians are the ones that are called to spread the word of their faith to the masses. Atheists don't really care that much about that. It's not a goal to convert the masses.

Answer 3

I think most people agree that a man now known as Jesus existed, but was not God, the son of God, or even a demigod, just a man.

Also, science is a little harder to grasp than the Bible so you'll have to excuse most atheists for not having a degree in a field of science.

To be fair there are many inconsistancies in Christians too, don't believe me, look up "Is Jesus the son of God?" questions on here, matter fact, look in the Bible, even Jesus seems unsure if he's God or not.

More often than not Christians embarrass themselves when debating science with questions like "Why are there still monkeys?"

So better luck next time, but you're just a jerk, if you have a serious question about science i'm sure you could find a suitable answer online.

Answer 4

Atheism is no more a religion than bald is a hair colour.

There's no such thing as an atheist community. Each and every atheist is a completely different individual. Some are well versed in science, some are even well versed in theology and philosophy, while others are... well... just stupid.

There's no qualifying test or ordeal that must be passed in order to be an atheist, nor is there any way to excommunicate an atheist who doesn't believe the same way another atheist doesn't believe.

There is no faith for them to understand, completely or otherwise. Atheism is the lack of faith.

I'm assuming that you don't believe in Ra, Isis, Osiris, Set, Thoth or Bast, yet you don't need to have an intricate knowledge of the workings of ancient Egyptian theology to formulate your non-belief in those deities. Likewise with Zeus, Apollo, Odin, Thor, Quetzlcoatl, Amateratsu, Raven and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. You too are an atheist, it's just that avowed atheists refuse to believe in one more god than you don't.

Just because one atheist is unable to form a coherent argument doesn't mean that your faith is any more true.

Answer 5

See I think that problem is that some atheists do argue that really don't know the scientific stance on most matters. I'm agnostic-atheist, not because I think science is 100% right, but because I just don't believe in God. The concept of God seems absurd to me (no offense, just trying to simplify). I don't have any beliefs, per say, with regards to religion. I do NOT believe in God. Other than that I am willing to state that I don't have the necessary information to evaluate the merits of science to such an extent that I can explain everything away.

I also want to clarify that atheism is a lack of belief, not a system of beliefs, so there can't be consistency. In addition, it's not a faith or religion. I have yet to hear a Christian that totally "crushes" an atheist, btw.

Answer 6

Atheism is not a religion!! Atheists are generally free thinkers. Atheism is not an organization either; what atheists have in common (the only connection) is that they have predominantly arrived intelligently at the conclusion that the cosmos is too complex to support the notion of creation by a god. There is no atheist movement or community, nor do atheists have an agenda beyond endeavoring to encourage theists to contemplate other views of their world/universe and to question their mindless obeisance to religiosity. Atheism is not "a brand new ideology", as there have been atheists since ancient times. There is no attempt either among atheists to convert theists beyond an attempt to convince everyone to become educated and to think independently about theology and its viability in the modern world. There are no atheist missionaries!! Such a concept is laughable! Atheism is not, of course, a faith; atheism is essentially a realistic philosophy! There is currently no irrefutable proof of the former existence of Jesus other than the recently (and controversially) exhumed ossuaries which are being attributed to his immediate family, such claims unsupportive of many of the "divine" views held by Christians, particularly the resurrection...

Answer 7

Atheism is not a new ideology. If someone does not believe in god then they are an atheist and that has been around as long as we've walked the earth. Why do you need everything explained to you? Aside from science, there is no real explanation for anyone's religious beliefs. I believe Jesus was born and lived, I do not believe he is Jesus "Christ" (christ being the distinction after his death).

Answer 8

I would never inter into a debate with a religious follower because I don't believe in his bible nor read want to read it. Actually it is a trick everyday Christians use to discredit other point of views to push their agenda. Christians can't see this it is taking advantage of someone not so indoctrinated in a their belief.

Christians feel If you don't read or understand their bible you are an ignorant, stupid, and a lost soul. Of course they don't see the opposite. They also don't have an understanding of your chosen beliefs.

It must be nice to have a delusion so complete that it give you the power to feel superior and oblivious to other ways of thinking.

Answer 9

Oh please......If the evidence you say existed, science would be studying like crazy, and the Nobel committee would be on high alert.

More likely, in any debate you throw some discredited idea in the fray and they look at you, realizing they are debating someone who doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about (I'm being polite here).

We've seen your evidence and it doesn't hold up. Have a nice day.

BTW the Grand Canyon was not created by the flood either.

Answer 10

No two Atheists are the same. It's like that with every group so it's wrong for you to generalize the whole group based on the actions of a few.

Answer 11

There is next to no consistency in atheist beliefs because atheism is not a creed, but rather a very diverse group of different beliefs that happen to all share only one characteristic: no God. There is next to no consistency in theist beliefs either, or in religious beliefs, yet you wouldn't say that that, in itself, implies that theism or religion is wrong. For the same reason, a lack of agreement between all atheists is not evidence against atheism.

"Atheism", really, is a catch-all term. People who self-identify as atheists may be anything from humanists to Satanists to nihilists to Unitarian Universalists to Buddhists. Because atheism is merely not believing in a certain thing, it is perfectly understandable that there would be no unity in the views of atheists, for the same reason that all people who don't believe in reincarnation ("areincarnationists") or who don't believe in the Loch Ness Monster ("anessyists") don't share a single ideology. If anything, there is probably even less consistency among atheists than you imagine, since the vocal people who you most commonly see around here self-identifying as "atheists" are only an extremely small sample of the vast diversity of nontheistic views, and often specifically leans towards scientific skepticism, naturalism, humanism, and in some cases militancy and antireligion, much more than many other types of atheists do.

As for the specific issues you raise as being atheist ideas: any self-respecting scientist or philosopher of science will tell you that science can't be 100% certainly true, because science is a methodology (and methods can't be true or false, only useful or useless) and a body of empirical evidence (and empirical facts can be very close to certain, but never absolutely, 100% sure). Science is one of the best, if not the best, tools for learning about the world around us that man has ever created; but it is not infallible, and its body of knowledge is limited, meaning that it is always improving, but never "finished" or "perfect". If an atheist claims that science is infallible or certain, then he is either ignorant of science or resorting to hyperbole.

As for whether Jesus existed, we can't know for certain whether he did or not. There is significant evidence that he did (I'd estimate that there's around an 80% likelihood that Jesus existed, though certainly others will disagree), though his life may not correspond all that closely to what is described in the Gospels; but there is a small minority of historians who feel that Jesus probably didn't exist. Some atheists have been rather too hasty in endorsing this minority view, which has minimal evidential support; rather than trying to overreach and deny that Jesus existed at all, atheists would be wise to just humbly state that if he did exist, we have very little reliable information on his life.

Atheism is not a movement, nor is it an ideology. (Though many of the atheists here may be closely connected to certain movements and ideologies, like scientific rationalism and humanism.) It is simply the nonbelief in God's existence, no more ideological than the nonbelief in reincarnation or Satan or unicorns. I agree that there are far too many misinformed atheists out there and that they give other self-described atheists a bad name, but it is important to remember that the broadness of the term "atheism" makes generalizing from one to the whole lot of them an even bigger mistake than generalizing from one religious person to every religious person in the world.