Maybe you could help me?

Question

I am trying to understand the concept of atheism put forth by contributors. I know you believe there is no God; does that mean the atheists here believe in no Higher Power or do you think there might be something greater than yourself. If you are an ex-Christian, what pushed you away? I am asking because I would like to know more about the choice you have made.

Answer 1

I believe in no *supernatural* higher power. But natural things more important than me, like humanity or the biosphere, I'd count, although I don't obey these things and look for guidance in them as one would attempt with God.

I dunno if I'd call myself "ex-Christian". I come from a moderate Methodist family, and had very minimal indoctrination. I found myself wanting to believe during my childhood years, but I realized that the Bible was written more or less before science and the times were more desperate, so I thought the people back then could more easily accept accounts of ultimate truth without too much basis.

Miracles and fantastic things occurred in these stories. I thought that by and large they expressed good morals but didn't really regard them as having much more objective weight than, say, Aesop's Fables. There was a sort of storybook quality about them, and even though I had an active imagination I realized that these stories were beyond reality, that people believed in them for emotional reasons rather than logical ones, and that the world I lived in would be a much different place if these stories were actually true.

Answer 2

Religious folks think of atheism as a religion. How silly! The concept of a supernatural world/power only occurs in the human mind.
The religious industry, and it is an industry, depends on indoctrinating, brainwashing, propaganda, fear and ignorance to prosper.
I do not express in public my thoughts concerning the above as it would not have any benefit to me. Quiet the opposite. Here though, I am anonymous.
Some day, maybe, you will explore the history of religion with an open mind. Religions are ever changing and sadly will probably be around for a long time.
Instead of using the terms religionist and atheist, I actually prefer the terms realist and nonrealist.

Answer 3

Thank you for your eloquent question. I have no idea what this universe is about, but I am doing my darndest to search into what is known. One thing that I believe to be true, though, is that religion is ignorance. It may seem like misplaced hubris, but if you do take the time to do the research, and if you have the faculty to appreciate the information that is before you, you will come to see that physicists can trace existence back to the very first fraction of a second of time. This is profundity of the first water, truly, and you do not have to take anybody's word for it. Just do the research.

As an aside, the prescient statement in the Bible of "Let there be light" is very profound and beautiful. Science, however, has shown that something may be quite beautiful but still be very wrong. "Light", according to high energy physics, did not occur until 300,000 years after the universe came into existence. You see, photons were not able to travel freely in the primordial quark soup. Light was re-absorbed. The universe was actually "dark" for 300,000 years since its beginning. It was not until the era of what is termed by physicists as "photon de-coupling" that light was able to spread through the universe. Proof of this is measured by the cosmic microwave background radiation. CMB is not a "theory", it is a fact.

Insofar as the Bible is concerned, that book wasn't even capable of recognizing that our sun is but an ordinary star in an ordinary galaxy amongst hundreds of billions of galaxies. Why not? Well, duh, the people that wrote it had not the slightest clue of what is really out there.

That said, your references to "higher power" leaves me unmoved. My belief is that the universe is NOT particularly about humans. We are but one aspect of the universe becoming aware of itself, and I give as much credence to the universal profundity of the content of a cat's eye, for example, than that of a human's vision. Silly me.

Your choice of words, "higher power," is too vague. The wind is a higher power than me, as is the sun, or a storm, or the force of gravity for that matter. I do not have to go and ascribe some human concept to those forces. While it would be nice to think the universe is all about us and that we will be well taken care of once we die, one should also consider that this may be the only life one has, and once you're gone, that's it.

It would also be nice if I continue to exist in my dreams for eternity, and who knows, maybe that's the case. But if so, we (us humans) have not the imagination to understand why or what could cause that to happen. Most likely it doesn't happen, but I would not rule it out.

I can easily rule out some stern father figure that watches every move we make. That is ridiculous.

You would like to characterize my beliefs in the terms of a "choice" I have made, which is telling. I submit it does not matter, and would strongly suggest that you endeavor to find all meaning and substance for the universe while you are still drawing breath.

Peace.

Answer 4

No god -- that is really all you can be sure we have in common.

No there is no higher power. I was raised Christian, but it wore off around ten. I was in Sunday school and they said that plants were here before the Sun. That got me thinking and then I read the Bible. There was nothing in it that gave me the slightest notion that it was anything more than a book written by goat herders in the Bronze Age. I had a tough time with that because I didn't know anyone who didn't buy it, so it took about three years till I was OK with it.

Answer 5

I am an Atheist therefore I do not believe in God or any Higher Power. I was bought up very strict catholic and that was enough to put anyone off religion and its teachings for life. But I would like to add that I do not push my non belief on those who do believe.

Answer 6

atheist dont beieve that there is a power at all. they believe that we were created by just mere earth elements and nothing is behind it. as far as people being pushed away from christianity i think that the teaching and the story about the world together "bible" is very questionable. people dont want to be a part of something that they are not sure of. i dont know if that made sense but good luck!!!

Answer 7

When atheists say they don't believe in god, it's with a small 'g'. That means they don't believe in any form of higher power, whatsoever, not just the Judeo-Christian God.

Answer 8

To say categorically, "There is no God," is to make an "absolute" statement. For the statement to be true, I must know for certain that there is no God in the entire universe. No human being has "all" knowledge. Therefore, none of us is able to truthfully make this statement. You need to admit you have limited knowledge about the existence of God.

Owing to a lack of knowledge on their part, they dont know if God exists. So they really can not be an atheist........<>< <><

Answer 9

A true "atheist" is one who believe in no higher power, or anything beyond "the physical". If a person believes there may be something out there, but it is either unknown or unknowable, they are called an "agnostic" (which in Greek means "no knowledge").

Answer 10

Most atheists believe there is no higher power. Nothing happens after death, and there is no god, heaven or hell. I have been an atheist my whole life, even though I was baptized Lutheran.