Atheists, or any "non-believers", please answer honestly ans respectfully?

Question

"I am perfectly content as a nonChristian.I dont believe in afterlife & would never consider a religion so restrictive & exclusive as Christianity anyway." (Atheist quote)
You are content as you are, fair enough.If contentment is what you are after,the Christian faith may not have much to say to you for a while.But lots of things that bring contentment are not true.Would you be willing to consider something if it disturbed your contentment,but might actually be true?How do you know that there is no conscious existence after death?The main reason that people claim to not believe in an afterlife is that they think that the idea is a naive wish-fulfillment in the face of the fear of death.But disbelief in an afterlife could have the same intellectual status.It could be the hopeful wish that there might be no accountability to anyone after we die,& the hope that there is no intrusive authority in our lives before that time.

Christian exclusiveness starts with the idea that the Gospel of Christ is true in a way that will exclude some other claims to truth. Is this so arrogant? Everybody in the world who has any religious or metaphysical convictions believes that the majority of people in the world are wrong about their religious and metaphysical convictions.

For example, you exclude my convictions. But that's okay. We can talk about it much better knowing where we both stand -- two absolutists having a civil discussion.

(MISPELLED THE QUESTION, I KNOW...)
I'm not perfect, sorry!

Answer 1

It appears that you have somewhat missed the point. Atheism is not a philosophy that makes any particular claims about life after death or any of the supernatural beliefs held by any of the religions around the world.
The choice not to accept a particular belief or view usually arises from the fact that there is no evidence to convince said individual of a particular line of reasoning, and that the person in question chooses not to place blind faith in something that does not follow some verifiable reasoning.
Similarly, I do not believe in leprechauns, unicorns, pixies,etc. I do not just single out the Christian deity as a subject of disbelief.

It can also be argued that you too, are an atheist--if you choose for any reason not to believe in Vishnu, Krisna, Ram or any of the other deities which are worshipped by someone in this world at this time. You may not feel that you are an "unbeliever", but to them you are--and I'm sure you do not intend to offend anyone by not believing in their god--you are just making an affirmation of belief in your own.

Oh, and also atheists don't just complacently sit around "not-believing", we are active in our own pursuits of the truth--many of us are employed in the scientific communities, while others seek our truths apart from our vocations.

You are right--many people seek to refuse to believe something as part of an avoidance of fear despite the fact that there is a great deal of evidence in support of a particular argument. Christians who refuse to even consider the possibility of evolution is one such example.

I love dialogue with all different mind-sets, so I welcome open forum with you, any time you like--I always try to maintain a respectable attitude towards anyone I take the time to talk to or write-- I see very little point in wasting my time doing otherwise--and so do most other atheists that I know. But I likewise have to ask you the same question you posed in your letter: Are you willing to accept an argument that may shake you out of your comfortable beliefs?

Answer 2

So your positive version would be this:

"I am perfectly content as a Christian.I believe in afterlife & accept a religion as restrictive & exclusive as Christianity."
You are content as you are, fair enough.If contentment is what you are after,the Christian faith may have much to say to you for a while.But lots of things that bring contentment are not true.Would you be willing to consider something if it disturbed your contentment,but might actually be true?How do you know that there is a conscious existence after death?The main reason that people believe in an afterlife is that the idea is a naive wish-fulfillment in the face of the fear of death.But disbelief in an afterlife could have the same intellectual status.It could be the hopeful wish that there might be no accountability to anyone after we die,& the hope that there is no intrusive authority in our lives before that time.

Answer 3

Actually I am a wiccan. I do believe in a god and a goddess cause I believe that there is a duality in everything else around us so why not in the almighty? saying that you know where I stand. I am also of the belief, as are many other wiccans I know both solitary witches and those that belong to a coven, that no religion is wrong and no religion is right. if you have faith in something, anything whether it be God or a dollar bill (a friend of mine does in fact believe that money is god or his equivlent of god), then you will follow into whatever afterlife you want. Personally I would prefer to believe in reincarnation and believe that every life you are here to learn something before you can move on to a better place (heaven), to me this explains the wrongs that happen in peoples lives as well as the good things that happen. While I am perfectly content with my life at the moment I do realize the need to have something after death. not many people I know want to think that you die and it is over. especially if you think about the fact that the human races existence alone is a tiny spec on the tip of how long the world and universe have been around. so one life alone is an even smaller amount of time. The issue with trying to prove that one religion is true while another is not is that you cannot give any unbiased proof on anything. I want all to know I am not trying to offend anyone here just stating my opinion which I am entitled to have just like everyone else. But you can point to the Bible all you want or the Koran or whatever book you want to, and it still wont mean much of anything to me because these are not the words of your god they are the words of 13 or more people writing what they feel the words of god were meant to be in regards to. Therefore rather than trying to bash Atheists for thier lack of beliefe. why not focus on making your faith stronger with your god. thats not going to come by converting as many as possible and killing the rest (christians are notorious for killing what they dont understand look in the history books). AGAIN I am not trying to offend anyone here so if I have I am sorry. I speak my truth and from my heart for better or worse.

Answer 4

Thank you for allowing me to finally express one of my main beefs with Christianity. It is too obsessed with "the individual". Judgement after death doesn't make sense for many reasons (the age limit of children, people who haven't heard the gospel). Anyway, you're picking a fight with one guy's statement about not needing it. So, if God is truth (or whatever), why is it so easy to be happy without him?

Atheists are generally WAY more willing to be shown how what makes them content may not be true. They listen to the arguments, and don't buy it. Oh well. I would describe most religious people as the exact opposite. The problem is that there is no "threat of atheism". No one cares if atheism is right, it doesn't matter once you'd find out.

The afterlife IS wish-fulfillment. it existed before the major religions, for no real reason. That is a fact. SO the atheist position on that is just an extension to the newer, more successful religions. As far as disbelief being wish-fulfillment, i don't get it. If anyone wanted wish-fulfillment, they would hope heaven existed and try to get there. Period. There is no "wish" for no afterlife. I kind of understand the idea that they would want to do whatever they wanted while alive with no punishment, but at the end of your life, do you really think atheists are going, "Awesome, i got away with so many bad things, and now i'm free, CROAK". No. They're reflecting on positive emotions, and pondering the afterlife, just like everyone else. And wishing for some form of heaven, even if they don't believe it exists. So, i think the religious hope that they live on and see dead friends and family and that somewhere else, the wicked are getting what they deserve is much more childish than the atheist "hope" that they get away with their sins. I hope that was respectful, i tried.

Answer 5

- agnostic

wow. hold your ponies...of course there might be an after life and so on, you know the other parts of religion such as gods, etc. let me answer your question with a question of my own.
Why do you not pray to a piece of birch tree that is really old and valuable to some people? Why do you believe without question or little question that there is an afterlife? Why does the possibility that there is an afterlife exceed the possibilty that I am god? that i am you? that you are in my dream? that there is an invisible baby on your lap? on your shoulder? What i am getting at is that I can think of multitudinous scenarios or ideas that contradict your eyes and smell, you taste and you will not have faith in those things, you will insist their improbability or even impossibility? why are my suggestions so silly, so insane, and less probable than your idea of an afterlife?

Keep in mind that I don't discount the possiblity of there being an afterlife? I wouldn't know. You don't really know either. After all, isn't there only one all-knowing being? Can you name it? You call it Jesus, God, etc.

Unless you are Jesus, how do you know for sure, beyond doubt, in contradiction to empirical evidence generated by countless men, that Jesus is God, that there is an after life.

I believe that the possibility of an afterlife is extant and is just as probable as yahoo answers being a type of milk that has gone rotten.

It seems then, a logical move to sort out all these endless countless scenarios from one another. It can get confusing with all these possiblities. What is true? What is not? Well, I suppose if evidence of one or some of the scenarios were presented that I might lean in the direction of evidence. What type of evidence, what would make evidence qualified to sway my beliefs? It would take a lot of practical evidence and even then the scenario could not be proven true but merely shown to be a theory that has not yet been discarded, such as that of evolution or that of gravity.

What evidence is there that a god exists? Why is the possibility of that more than the possibility of me being an undiscovered god? A book?

If you found a book under some debris, (an unpublished manuscript) It says that you can stab yourself with a kitchen knife while saying "gooreeaah" you won't die, would you do it? What if it said you can do the same thing but prick your jugular, or your finger? or just tap your shoulder with the knife? How convincing is just one book that contradicts science? Along this spectrum, where do you stand?

With regards to contentment...I am content. I live a good life, full of family love. etc. a lot of the things people often hope for. And, because I am fortunate and way past the "survival stage," I can afford to question ideologies that run the country, the world, that inhibit the progress of stem cell research, that promotes the imperialism of Christianity, etc.

that there might be no accountability to anyone after we die? what are you suggesting? that some of us are scared of being judged? i don't quite understand.

Now that I feel I have touched upon the logic above, ill continue with logic....why the need to indoctrinate children with godly ideas? Is it because the proof for god is so delicate and not really there that you need to "teach" Sunday school and so on (not just Christianity) at early malleable ages. If the proof is so obvious and it is very clear that god exists - some people say: how could all the rivers flow and the little and big animals and the earth rotate and so on without an all-powerful creator who is the intelligent designer- even more so than Nate Berkus - won't your kids find god themselves, won't the children, assuming that they are as smart as you, discover the obvious, what millions have found and believe? I don't understand the need to "teach" religion if it is a perspective, a choice fo lifestyle? If the possibility of your god's existence is far greater than the possibility of a piece of Godiva chocolate resting on your knee or a pink elephant in the corner of your room, what's the worry? If you, of faith A, are so clearly right, then bury your kids faces in faiths B and C; they should come back to A, the faith that is so clearly and absolutely correct? What are you so scared of?

You might ask that of me. I am scared of the fact that people believe in afterlives and gods, and so on. When people say: haha, that boy still believes in Santa. I say: you, an adult, believe in an invisible force that created everything, even without proof. I am scared of the fact that religious people, in positions of power, but in a democracy the people have the power...religious people show lack of reasoning skills; they, without solid evidence, promote their religious ideas as more probable than ideas that they have not considered: pink elephants, etc. To do so is illogical. Explaining the importance of logic is hopefully unnecessary.

Answer 6

By "non-believer" I'm guessing you're meaning non-Christian (since you describe yourself as such) and will answer as such. My apologies if that wasn't what you were looking for.

Considering things that disturbed my contentment is how I got where I am now. Christianity promised me a blissful afterlife. The problem was I stopped believing in it. It wasn't my path. And while I am now Wiccan, I do not believe in any afterlife or reincarnation because I have no evidence to support the existence of either (although I'm more than willing to admit it can exist without me personally seeing evidence).

I'm terrified of dying. If I think about it too much my chest starts to constrict. Oblivion is a scary concept. But I haven't seen evidence to the contrary. So, yes, I'm more than willing to consider unplesant ideas. And I don't feel liberated from moral judgement. I believe my actions are rewarded in this life, not the next.

Answer 7

"But lots of things that bring contentment are not true.Would you be willing to consider something if it disturbed your contentment,but might actually be true?"

That pretty much sums up why I am not a believer. Honest questioning lead me to conclude it was unlikely. How about you?

"How do you know that there is no conscious existence after death?"

I don't claim to know but I usually don't just believe things without evidence. There is no meaningful evidence for life after death.

"It could be the hopeful wish that there might be no accountability to anyone after we die,& the hope that there is no intrusive authority in our lives before that time."

This implies I live my life as though I were unaccountable to anything and were immoral. This is not true. I still have consequences for my actions. If I were to use drugs I could end up wasting my one life as an addict. If I were to cheat on my spouse I would wound someone I care deeply for and maybe lose a relationship I am deeply invested in. I don't need a deity to guide my morality although I realize since I don't give the Bible authoritative precedence my moral code may differ from yours a bit. I believe in equality for all regardless of sex, race, creed, or sexual orientation for instance. Otherwise comparative to many religious people I know my life is as or more on the straight and narrow. After I die if there were a deity a decent one would judge me for my efforts not condemn me for not believing in it or worshipping it. I find the concept of a deity who commands worship or condemns rather human like, I couldn't worship such a deity.

Answer 8

Set Apart, as an atheist, not only am I content, but I'm able to experience moments of extreme joy. I have no fear of death, or any idea of an afterlife. I have even less fear of a Deity who would have me tormented for eternity for not believing in he/she/it. I am a very good person and I have an exhilarating freedom from dogma, doctrine, or any other binding religious construct. I live a life that requires no god concept whatsoever, and I have more purpose and meaning in my life than I have ever had. There is no way you or any other well-meaning religionist can tell me that what I have is not real. I have a very satisfying life and am convinced that what religion has to offer will only provide baggage, and perhaps a ball and chain, that I would have to be completely insane to take on.

Answer 9

Atheism is not about contentment. That person was simply conveying that they are content in what they beleive. But, Atheism is simply the disbeleif in God or gods...

That being said, would I "be willing to consider something if it disturbed your contentment,but might actually be true?" Mmmmm...honestly, I would rather use my time exploring that which IS true, not which "might be". I prefer knowledge over mysticism. We can pretty much be certain that there is no conciousness after death because the body's ADP immediately beings to break down into ATP, causing rigor mortis. All activity in the brain is electrical - and this ceases to function upon death.

Its like the idea of burning in hell - if I dont have a physical body, there is nothing to burn, and if I do not have a brain, there is no way to sense that pain that I cannot sense without a physical body.

Answer 10

There IS NOT accountability after we die. We're dead. Thats the end.

Now... I know ghosts exist. But I'm not going to be stupid enough to try to convince you of the truth of that. However, I'm Atheist. I think that ghosts come from a very few peoples energy beings able to hold together for a short time after death. The energy dissipates at some point or another, however which is why you don't see 5000 year old ghosts. Why? I don't know and our technology and knowledge level is not yet strong enough to explain it. But it means very little.

Just because YOU want there to be accountability after death for your actions while you were alive, that doesn't mean there is. Desire doesn't truth make.

There is no one that is going to slap your wrists after you die (or burn you in hell for all eternity for saying the words "oh god" as a swear word and not being apologetic for it) for doing wrong. When you're dead, you're dead.

The universe is not about justice, its about survival.

Btw, stop calling people nonbeliever. Its an insult and its really getting old. How about I start calling you "Non-regular-human". After all, you're not Atheist, you're religious right? So you're not like the Atheist humans are you?

That makes you "Non-regular-human".

So how about you knock off the insults or it will get thrown back into your face?