True atheism, does it exist?

Question

Imagine the person you love the most, the person you need and can't live without. Imagine you get a phone call 10 minutes from now saying that they have been in an serious accident. You rush to the hospital only to be told that they didn't make it. You cry and grieve. You will most likely think along the lines of "why did this happen?" and "please turn back time". But, who are you telling this to? Do you think someone will hear you?

Time goes by and you continue on with your life, but it's like there's a huge empty space that can't be filled. You will probably think "where did this person go? I know they're dead and all... but where did they go?" You will go to their grave and most likely talk to them, even though the person isn't there, you imagine they're somehow able to see and hear you. That maybe their spirit lived on. You can't understand the fact that death is final, just as you can't understand that the universe has a begining or an end.

hope is the last thing that leaves us.

hope makes us believe. Everyone has hopes, so, therefore there can be no pure atheism. Do you agree? [I call myself an atheist]

for crying out load people :P I'm not a christian!!! i'm just speculating :P

jikes, everyone misunderstood me *hides behind a tree* I didn't mean that atheists secretly believe in a GOD, i meant that they believe that death might not be final when push comes to shove, because that is how the human mind is built. Our brain shelter itself from things that could otherwise hurt us mentally. So I think everyone would hope that you could somehow meet that person again. You know you can't, but you hope. You guys didn't have to go into total defensive mood, I'm on your side :P! god is a fantasy, plain and simple.

Answer 1

Atheism is only the disbelief in gods...technically people's beliefs can vary beyond that.

As someone who has experience with that situation... no I don't believe any of the religious concepts. Talking to them and stuff I think is human nature, does not mean people believe in any of that stuff because I don't. A continued existence in some form is a nice idea, I think most anyone could agree, and I might be able to wish that it were real, but I don't necessarily believe in it. But IMO, were something like a form of an "afterlife" to be real, I don't see it as having anything to do with a deity or religion at all, I think it would still be very connected to this world.

Hope does not make me believe... I do not believe in your god or any gods, that is the foundation of atheism, I was raised who I am with no religion, pure atheist is the only way I was raised.

Answer 2

Actually I understand quite nicely that death is final, and I understand just fine that the universe does indeed have a beginning and probably an end. You're projecting your own fears and lack of understanding onto others.

In fact, if you look at it closely, the intense grief most religious people also feel when someone close to them dies is because deep down they really do NOT believe in any afterlife. They're afraid they're wrong, and that they'll never see this person ever again. Think about it: if the mythical tales of a wonderful heaven after you die were true, why would there be any sadness at all upon someone's death? They've gone to a wonderful place, and you'll go to that same place and see them again. No need for grief or sadness. Yet people universally DO feel grief and sadness upon someone's death. Because deep down they fear their superstitions are not true, and they'll never see their loved one ever again.

I don't harbor any secret hope that people who die are still alive, that they can hear me, or that I'll ever see them again. I feel sad because I will miss the company of those I love for the rest of my life, but I understand and accept death as both final and something that will happen to all of us. I'm very happy to make sure and live each day of this short life to its fullest, knowing that once it's done there's nothing more.

Peace.

Answer 3

Uggg... not again. Look I've lost alot of people in my life. My best friend when I was 12 (house fire), two of my cousins in oct. 1998 (car crash), my uncle in may of 1999 (car crash), my mother in 2003 (lung cancer).

I even almost died in 2004 myself. Very very close. I'm still suffering the lingering effects. I had bleeding in my brain in two places. My memory was really screwed up for over a year. For the first month, I couldn't answer "whats 4+3" with any certainty. Though at least my memory has recovered, my sense of smell is still very badly effected and I can't smell anything unless its right under my nose or EXTREMELY strong. I had a spleen injury and my left tibia/fibia was broken straight through so that I now have a titanium pin holding my left leg together.

I didn't see any evidence of any god. I haven't wished for a god. I haven't basked in my own sorrow. What it all did was ensure me that a god doesn't exist. Anywhere. Ever. What it did was sure make me realize that I have to cherish every moment of every day. To value everything and everyone I have or may have. It opened my eyes to the wonderful world around me instead of turning me inside like a spoilt little bratt.

I don't need a god to have hope. I only need me. If you find your god the only reason to live then you must have a really terrible life.

Me, I don't believe in any god, and my life is much more full and wide than its ever been. I stopped living in my fantasies and started living in my life. Can you say you've done the same?

Answer 4

"why did this happen?"
- I'd ask HOW did this happen, not why.

"please turn back time."
- I WOULDN'T say this. How ridiculous.

"where did this person go?"
- The dirt. I know that. Why ask this question if I know?

"most likely talk to them"
- No. I'd talk ABOUT them. Not TO them. They're dead... remember?

"you imagine they're somehow able to see and hear you."
- If I was some deluded freak maybe.

"That maybe their spirit lived on."
- As an atheist I know that SPIRITS/SOULS do NOT exist.

"You can't understand the fact that death is final"
- I do. Plain and simple. I'd just be happy the person had a good life up until that point (if (s)he did).

Answer 5

For me there can never be belief in a personal God because I find the idea incredible and perverse- at most I might be open to the idea of some higher power existing in the universe but it definitely isn't a deity in the Christian sense.

Answer 6

No. Fear of death and the pain of "bereavement" do not in and of themselves imply "belief" in something beyond. Such sentiments explain WHY people will believe every kind of nonsense rather than accepting the facts, and it's true that practically all religions and all philosophies began with contemplation of mortality; but that doesn't mean that belief is a foregone conclusion.

Answer 7

I think your whole argument is based on the premise that Atheists somehow secretly think that there really is or might be a god. Those that I know harbor no such idea. They understand quite well that death is final.

Answer 8

Yes. A good friend of mine died very recently. And very suddenly. For days, I could hear his voice in my head. And I could see him out of the corner of my eye.

But that's only because there are memories of him permanently imprinted in my mind. What I experienced doesn't change the fact that god does exist, and ghost don't exist, and souls don't exist. Several times I've said "dude, why did you have to die?" But I'm only talking to myself.

Answer 9

Yes... yes it does.

When my Papa died, I was sad, very sad, but I didn't go through what you're describing.

When I was dying, I didn't pray to any god. The concept of a god wasn't any less logically impossible then and it won't be when someone else dies.

I'll grieve and cry, true, but it won't change what is and isn't possible... no matter how nice it would be for heaven to exist, that doesn't mean reality will acquiesce to my desires.

Answer 10

you want no longer throw the newborn out with the bathwater. A disbelief in the supernatural has honestly no longer something to do with a rejection of moral codes..... it really is only a distinct thanks to achieve at them. i imagine that their are many strong and in simple terms moral teachings specifically religions (no longer a lot in others) yet thier is not any favor for the perception in a perfect being to adhere to guidelines that are in and of themselves ideal. the most outstanding and maximum used code in present day society is the "golden rule" or do unto others as you should have them do unto you. That handbook IMO is the starting up for the guideline of regulation, even if it should be in simple terms as actual coming from a logician like Socrates because it really is coming from a diety verify. A primitive way of life ought to no longer regard them both given the authoratative enormous difference of presenters, yet a present day society can see the understanding of the concept with out the accoutraments of religion. Their is not any shame in living a life reminiscent of that of the teachings of Jesus.... there is in person-friendly words shame if that life is going unquestioned. Atheism is in simple terms the disbelief in the supernatural..... pretty in the perception of a god.... it implies no longer something further than that. The atheist ought to don't have any favor nor favor to reject each moral rule that occurred to be in lign with any faith if that rule had in simple terms reasoning and made logical experience for the strong of society. the concept that religions have some monopoly on morallity is pattently pretend and is a manufactured from confusion an opposing perspective fullyyt. also, couldn't an argument be made that faith oftentimes (if no longer continuously) is conventional alongside with the civilizations roots and ideas and under no circumstances the opposite as you said. the USA of a has its roots firmly conventional with assistance from the historic Greeks, and the philosophers of that aspect. Our democracy is an attempt to mirror theirs such as their guidelines and in lots of circumstances their moral codes. the historic Greeks were round lengthy formerly Jesus so your concept form of falls aside and is a interest with out benefit. even if admittedly religions oftentimes have effect on the formation or transformation of cultures so do philosophers.