atheists, do you cherry pick your ideas?

Question

1. ideas on the reason for life / origin of life
2. moral judgments
3. your idea of a perfect world or future world
4 do you follow a particular movement or philosopher.
5 Is happiness your main aim?
6 Do you have faults / double standards
7 other comments

Answer 1

7) I would say Hana woo (first answerer) is a model atheist.
buddhism appeals to athiests becuase its so open to interpretion, free of any real dogma, and leaves you to draw you own conclusions and pratice in your own way - really more of a philosophy than what we would call a religion today.

atheists by our very nature cherry pick our ideas - thats what makes us athiests - Not subscribing to any particular brand or flavour of religion. And our opinions, views,etc. can be rivised, changed or even reversed completely at any time.

Its great.

Answer 2

1. Can we pass judgement on the reason. Will we ever know? Origin= evolution

2. We all do. It's human nature the trick is to be tolerant- live and let live as long as no one is harmed.

3. There will never be a perfect world. There will always be tragedy even in a perfectly harmonious world. Everybody's idea of perfection is so different it wouldn't be possible to co- exist.

4. No, why should one person determine how you live or act.

5. Yes, without the thought that one day I'll be happy I'd think life would be such a trivial experience.

6. Many faults but don't we all. Double Standards I'll like to think not.

7. Live life for what you have today. Not what happened in the past or what may happen in the future.

4.

Answer 3

Not at all.

1. The origin of life. We don't know, we weren't there. Science includes speculations, guesses and theories.
2. Moral judgments are just that judgments. I do what I can to reduce my judgments of you. It would be nice if you could reciprocate. I don't expect you to live by my code, but the converse can not always be claimed by the religious. I am atheist and I have never killed anyone. All the religious cannot make the same claim.
3. Perfection is an illusion. My thoughts about the future are based on speculation and observation with the proviso that I could be wrong.
4. No. I don't follow a specific philosopher.
5. No. Happiness is not my main aim. There are many aspects to a human life over the course of many decades. Any expectation to be happy and to be happy all the time is rather childlike.
6. Faults are judgments. See above. Any double standards that I do have, I am open to reconsidering and evaluating.
7. Praying to gods and the like is rather primitive behaviour.

Answer 4

1. ideas on the reason for life / origin of life, no cherry picking, just the latest observations that are recordable, verifiable and have at least common sense. Yeah the reasons do change over time, but that's a result of improved technology and science.

2. moral judgments, I'm good for the sake of being good and others should live that way to, otherwise society would be in chaos, so i'm not sure where the "cherry picking" comes from.

3. your idea of a perfect world or future world, Our quarrel is with irrationality, wishful thinking, superstitions, intellectual dishonesty, and all other forms of thinking that keep mankind mired in darkness, ignorance and hate, ie, a theist world.

4 do you follow a particular movement or philosopher, i like to read books by Carl Sagan, does that count?

5 Is happiness your main aim? Isn't that a natural instinct? We atheists are nothing like what the church leaders are fond of charicaturing us as. We are freethinking individuals who are able to see the Big Picture without the blinders of religion. We do not live in despair, quite the contrary; freethought is incredibly refreshing, liberating, and empowering. We are not nihilists, but lovers of life who see it as all the more precious because there's no eternal afterlife. We do not need the bribe of heaven or the threat of hell to be good people, we believe in being good for its own sake. Through science and reason, we know more about the true nature of the world we live in than your religion could ever hope to offer

6 Do you have faults / double standards; we're human therefore we have faults. We try not to have double standards, of course i can't speak for all.

7 other comments: none

Answer 5

ALL people take positions for one of three reasons.
1. Following. they may take the same positions of people who are influential over them, without reasoning about the issues (often seen in religious communities but can also happen in non-religious ones!) -- these are followers. Followers make for a cohesive, homogenous society and this is why religion used to be so successful. It isn't anymore because our culture is too complex.
2. Hypocrisy. they accept and like things about their life and choose positions that morally justify these things, and for things they dislike or can't accept they choose positions that say those are wrong things ("Cherry-picking" also seen among religious folk, an example being the choosing of which Biblical prescriptions are the directives of God and which are not -- for example someone who would kill to prevent abortion, or someone who fails to make the prescribed sacrifices and stonings yet rests on the Sabbath)
3. Integrity. they take positions rationally based on their personal values & experience -- but in a diverse world this causes social conflict because our values differ. We must respect each another to get along even when our values differ, which is very hard for followers.

I'm in Category 3.
1. the origin of life (physical) is unknown. The origin of life (metaphysical) is irrelevant. The reason is, it just IS. You could metaphorically say it's all "god's will."
2. morality is relative. We must make ethical judgments based on interpersonal respect as best we can, using reason and compassion.
3. there is no perfect world, although in a sense, the world is already absolutely perfect and always will be (since it is what is, and is as "god" wills it)
4 no
5 eh, sort of. Depends what you mean by "happiness"
6 I have faults (everyone does) but I am pretty careful not to have double standards. If someone points out where I have a double standard, I think it through and change my beliefs so that I will have integrity of belief. Integrity means internal consistency (consistency with my values and with logic).

Answer 6

1)No real idea - I do not have the answer.
2) Do not be an nasty idiot etc.
3) Perfect future or world is too grand a vision. Perfection is a loaded word.
4) Not really, I plough my own furrow.
5) Not happiness, good freinds and good times.
6) Loads of faults, probably a few double standards - that is for other people to comment upon, I would be biased.
7) We are going to die, get over it.

Answer 7

1. I do not conjugate the reason for life,
1a. The origin of this planets lifeforms arose from
the combining of specific elements, and the
dynamic known as specialization.
2. It is not my role to judge anyone morally.
3. Perfection does not exist. However, it is my
idea that a global agreement can be
achieved which will respect and nurture the
needs of each global community.
4. No, my ideas and theories are my own, which
arise from my intellectual and physical
experiences.
5. Happiness? Hmmm. I think not, really. My
main goal is to achieve a level of harmony
created through my interactions with my
environment.
6. Sure I have faults, but I have learned
change is beneficial, and necessary for
adaptation. As for double standards, I don't
believe so, but I do have unacceptable
behavior standards.
7. A question for you. Do you cherry pick your
ideas?

Answer 8

Atheism is not a structured belief in the context of how religion is structured, its a word given to people who don`t believe in a God. Every Athiest will have their own personal beliefs on creation and why we are here.
For me personally i looked into the scientific reasons, and read alot of books on religion and have come to the conclusion that science offers more than religion ever could.
So no i don`t cherry pick my ideas. but from what i have read most forms of christianity cherry pick ie: jehovahs witnesses.
I don`t follow a movement or particular philosopher and happiness is always my main aim, as it is for most people religious or not.
Yes of course i have faults as does every human being, none of us are perfect.
Atheists see evolution for what it is and it makes great sense to us, my soul is happy living with this if the soul actually exists
The world is perfect anyway it is only humans that create imperfections.

Answer 9

I am not atheist, but I am agnostic and do not believe in God. I share many thoughts with atheists, but I do not claim that God does not exist. I simply believe what I will and leave others to believe as they will.

1. Origin of life is evolution. The reason for it is to better the world around us before our time comes to end.

2. I have morals and do the right thing if not all, then most of the time. I have morals because my parents taught them to me, not because a books says I have to be nice.

3. A perfect world cannot happen, but if it could, there would be no poverty, hunger, wars, etc. Everyone would get along peacefully and would live with the Earth, not just on it. But again, that cannot happen, and I am fully aware of this.

4. No. I follow myself. I believe what feels/seems right to me and what makes sense in my head. I think about different ideas and proposed purposes and come up with my own conclusion based on my observations of the world and my research of the subject. I do not claim that I am right. All I know, is that what I believe makes sense to me, and that is all that matters.

5. No. My main aim is success. Not success as in having money, but success as in raising children who make good citizens and living in a good relationship with a person who I believe is worthy to share my life with. Completing my goals would also make me successful.

6. I have faults, yes. Everyone does. I can be judgemental when I initially meet someone and I judge others based on my observations of their actions, hardly ever taking into account the reasons they have performed such actions. As for double standards, no. I do not. I am very aware of myself and all of my faults and will admit them to anyone who asks. I have never expected someone else not to judge me.

7. By asking this question, are you presuming that Christians and people of "faith" don't choose their ideas and leave out the ones they don't like? Do you think that every single Christian believes and practices every single word in the Bible? No, of course not. Everyone chooses what seems right and wrong to them.

Answer 10

The exact same question could be asked of people who believe in god.
Notice that the answers to nearly all the above questions would have changed over history for any religion. For example 100 years ago many christian place would have turned away all gay ministers but this is not the case now. In this way religon cherry picks just as much as atheasim. And anyway cherries are nice
Whatever you believe or not, dont believe that what you think is absolute

Answer 11

geeeeez, i dont know! i just dont believe in god.

ok, here goes.

1. origin of life, evolution. reason for life, to reach the end.
2. too many to come up with, just be a good, moral citizen.
3. a perfect world, where everyone can just get along regardless of belief
4. i would follow buddhism if i had the self discipline, and not one philosopher, but philosphy as a whole.
5. yes, i like to be happy.
6. ofcourse i have faults, but not double standards.
7. no other comments.

phew.