Fellow atheists...?

Question

People are atheist for various reasons and everyone's journey through a life without god is different. What are your thoughts on atheists who've never believed versus atheists who were once believers and have since rejected faith? Do you think there's added value in having seen the issue from both sides of the fence? Or does the former belief somehow weaken the overall philosophy? Just curious what you all think.

Answer 1

I've went from luke warm belief in Christianity to total disbelief and it has broadened my spiritual horizons. Buddhist philosophy has opened up a whole new set of ideas to explore that I would never have encountered had I remained a believer. My former belief is a non issue to me now but I tend to see it as a complete waste of time when I was focused on something irrelevant when I could have been exploring far more interesting philosophies and beliefs.

Answer 2

Do you guys believe in "worm holes" an event horizon predicted by Einstein (a type of Theist) and also accepted by Stephen Hawkings (a type of Atheist).

An event horizon in which you step through it and come out on the other side of the universe, trangressing trillions of trillions of miles in a instant.

Alice throught the looking glass.

No one, of course has even found one or seen one or gone through one.

But the Phsycists say they can exist and that space can be folded.

Do you teach your little children about worm holes? School will if you won't!

I'm just curious because it seems as much a fantasy to me as does Santa Claus.

Atheists as logical, sensible people, should have something sensbile to say on these matters!

This is a matter of belief or disblief from the Religion of Science. The people that once brought you Pluto as a planet and then changed their minds about it all.

Answer 3

I think having formally believed helps the atheist to understand better where the believer is coming from. It also sometimes helps the atheist speak in a language the believer can understand a little better. It might also make for more persuasive arguments, because the former believer knows the thought processes of the believer, and has heard (and even believed) most of the arguments the believer might present.

Answer 4

I think to fully believe or disbelieve something you must understand what you are believing and disbelieving.
Most of us were believers in a faith at one point in our lives. When we were small children we were told there was a God, and he was great and he created the earth, Adam and Eve and all the animals. We also believed in Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny too, just some of us grew up and realized that none of them were real.
But the really fun Atheist to sit down and talk to is the born again Atheist. The person that grew up in the religious household and had the beliefs crammed down their throat.

I don't consider myself an Atheist. I simply don't know who is right and who is wrong I just listen to the argument and investigate what makes the most sense.

Answer 5

After a long time - a decent question.

I think atheists who were never religous are far more tolerant and open-minded.

An atheist who was once religous , must have had a strong reason to reject his or her faith - its never easy to just drop your faith totally.

(note : by religous I mean a strong believer & someone who practised religon seriously)

This phenomenon is also seen in people who reject their original faith & convert to another faith - more often than not, these converts are determined to prove their switched loyalty to their new religon & carry some irrational guilt for practising their old original religon. Hence you will find converts are sometimes the biggest fanatics.

In the same way when someone becomes an atheist, he or she is blinded with fury against all religons & also people who practice any sort of religon.

Answer 6

Well it is tough losing a god. It happend to me at around 10. It is tough to think that your parents are delusional at that age. Overall I wish I had not had to go through it.

There is some value in it however. I went and actively looked for the ability to believe. I probably wouldn't have if I wasn't in the situation. I read the Bible and that really sealed it. The Old Testament is horrible and I lost the concept of wanting to follow that god.

I think that overall, it strengthens your arguments with the religious. The first thing they say is you don't understand. I actually read their book, unlike most of them. I do understand and think that it is awful. That bothers them more than me just not believing.

"It ain't the parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand."
-- Mark Twain

Answer 7

I respect atheists that were once "believers" as well as those who have never believed.
We can't do anything about the way we were brought up and children will believe anything they are told by grown-ups so there's not much you can do at such a young age except go along.

Answer 8

I remember the exact moment that i strayed away from religion. I was sitting in church at the age of 14, sitting in church quietly, half dead since it was 6am on sunday and i listened to the priest. It hit me out of nowhere, that this was craziness. Later that day, i went to the library and started reading about christianity, jewish and other religions on my own. I wanted an answer, and at the age of 16, i realized that religion was a waste of time, but i knew i had a weapon, knowledge. Now, i have a basis of information to try and help me understand that my life is just that, my life. I only owe my life to my mother, she gave me life, not some invisible parent figure looming over me in the sky

Answer 9

"each time I see an atheist asking a troll question, posing as a Christian (continuously a bigoted one), " or you basically choose to think of that. because of fact there are some very bigoted very idiotic persons on the Christian facet. yet i assume it somewhat is extra easy to easily call them atheist trolls. "and not the Christians." Uh huh. "his question does not even sound like what a Christian might say." i've got seen Christians spout the main hateful drivel which you are able to imagine. people like NCWJ.

Answer 10

i see no difference between ex-believers and never-believers. as long as they know the truth now, i dont feel their philosophy differs at all. I'm a never-believer myself, i attribute this to my parents never pushing any beliefs on me growing up. i think ex-believers where raised to believe in god, but realized through rationality that no such thing exists. same thing with never-believers, we just never accepted religion to begin with. the only atheists i have trouble with is the ones that dont know why they dont believe in god, because "it's just stupid", i dont want these people representing us, wether they were ex-believers or not.