Do most atheists actually believe in God?

Question

Even though I considered myself an atheist but for a time I prayed in circumstances of great stress. Does this mean I'm not really an atheist?

One of my coworkers also considers himself an atheist but he believes in ghosts and alien visitors. Is his faith incompatible with atheism?

I don't believe in God but have prayed in the "off handed" chance that someone is there to listen. I stopped praying when I realized I could pass my tests without God.

I sometimes suspect the "God gene" gives atheists an excuse to pray.

Answer 1

Agnostics have an open mind on the subject. Anyone who has made a decision on whether there is a God , a devil, or ghosts is either a believer or an atheist.

Answer 2

By definition, atheists don't believe in supernatural deities. If you're still praying when the going gets tough, you're not a very sincere atheist. I think you're still making up your mind about atheism and should consider yourself an agnostic, until you finally decide one way or the other.

Personally, I think believing in ghosts is incompatible with atheism, in that most atheists would consider ghosts supernatural entities, which don't actually exist. As for the existence of alien visitors, they're a lot easier to consider real, since no magical thinking is required to accept that statistically it's a virtual certainty they're out there somewhere.

Answer 3

You sound more Agnostic then Atheist, an Atheist would have no reason to pray regardless of the circumstances.
As for believing in ghosts and alien visitors, sure those still mesh with Atheism, as long as the beliefs don't include a God or higher power=)

Answer 4

Well, most people don't really care about the difference, but technically you can believe in 'something' and not be part of any religion.

Maybe you're agnostic, meaning that you believe in some kind of higher power, or something that we can't perceive in our world, be it GOD, or some cohesion between all things in the way buddisht believe....

An agnostic says, there's something.... we will never understand it here, now, as humans. So I'll live my life according to my own morality/set of values and things will just work themselves out. DOes that leave room for prayer? I think so.

Answer 5

I don't believe that there is any sort of god that is interested in what happens to us. I had a near death experience when I was 14 and I was bleeding to death on the side of a mountain but I did not pray. I got with the job and save my life

Answer 6

And who/what did you pray to?

Seriously, I don't know what that makes you (an opportunist believer?) but not an atheist. Praying would be the furthest thing from my mind in times of stress.

As for ghosts and aliens and atheists - they don't necessarily conflict although it is a bit unusual.

Answer 7

Prayer is a pointless waste of time. It's like wishing Santa Claus were real.

There are better ways to mentally calm/renew yourself.

If your friend believes in ghosts, then I don't see how he can be an atheist, since ghosts imply life after death, which implies some sort of afterlife.

Answer 8

Personally, deep down in side I think most people believe something started the ball rolling, but it was trillions upon trillions of years ago, should there actually ever have been a beginning. But the god of modern day religions is much too much insane to be believable.

Answer 9

Atheism is simply not sharing the theists belief in God/Gods, it doesn't rule out belief in ghosts or aliens, usually atheists don't go in for belief in the supernatural at all however.

Answer 10

It appears to me that you are an agnostic - not an athiest. Agnostics believe that there is a God, they're just unsure who / what this God is so they don't practice an organized religion.

As for your friend, I don't think beliefs in the paranormal or aliens really have an affect on his religion - that is unless by belief you mean belief in the religious sense (as in worship).