Questions for Athiests?

Question

These Questions are asked out of curiosity - I'm not trying to offend anyone for future reference.

Questions for Athiests

1. How do you think the Universe came into being?

2. When did you start to doubt or follow certain beliefs/religons?

3. What do you think will happen to you spiritually/physically/emotionally when you die?

4. Do you fear death?

5. What do you think of people who follow certain religons? (Christianity, Islam, Jeudism, ect.)

6. Do you enjoy questioning religons?

7. Has anyone ever tried to convert you? If so, how many?

8. Stupidist thing someone's ever asked or tried to do to you?

Answer 1

1. Other than the flat answer, "The Big Bang," I really don't know. The physics of the time before the BB would be different than they are now, and having no way to study them, it would be impossible to say what there was before the BB. What I can say is that not knowing how the Universe came into being is not a valid reason to believe in God. It is a logical fallcy.
Argument from Incredulity.

2. I had some brief moments of doubt since my teens, but I always walked away from it still a believer. I have been a believer all of my life, up until about 6 months ago, when I realized that I was an atheist.

3. Nothing will happen after I die. When my body dies, my personality will go with it. I will rot in my coffin, and my personality/spirit/whatever-you-call-it, will cease to exist.

4. Yes.

5. I think they are deluded.

6. Yes. I get entertained by the logical contortions they twist themselves into, to justify their delusions. I also find it strange that I used to use the same arguments for believing in God. It amazes me how fast things can change.

7. Yes, and more than can be counted.

8. The Top Ten Worst Creationist Arguments, from TalkOrigins.org
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# 10 CrzyboutGod: I feel sorry for you. You're all blinded by the TRUTH!

# 9 Trumpet57: If Noah didn't cause the seashells to be mountins then how do u think the fishes got up there by walking on the fins or flying or what? And I'm not ignorent I just want to show if you can't answer.

Under the "oops" category # 8 Livng4him21: If people evolved from monkeys why are there still people?

Under "OMG The Irony" Top Ten Worst Creationist Args # 7 Bleeding_Robot: You're the one who is doing the assuming here. It says in the bible that God made Adam fully formed and the stars the same way. So the light was already on the way to Earth. Anything else is pure guesswork on your part.

# 6 ashydad: How can you call evolution a science? I'm looking at a dictionary right now and there is no mention of evolution under science.

# 5 and the winner of the Utter Lack of Logic Award! Guest_byadamsite: You just said theories can never be proven. Since creation is the only theory that has been proven creation wins again!

Top Ten Worst Creationist Arguments of All Time # 4 InoUrButWhtAmI: Science shows God even holds the atoms together though some of the partcicles have been positive charges and would push on each other. So making the Earth would be a lot easier for him than you think.

# 3 Ko_Uraki : tell me how nothing came from nothing!?!

Top Ten Worst Creationists Arguments of All Time Arg Runner-up!! (Remember that if our winner is for any reason unable to fill their obligations as the poster person for Creationist Idiocy this runner-up will step in) new558 : The whole world uses the seven day week as was predicted by the bible!

And the #1 Worst Creationists Argument of 2002 is.... sweetheart5666 : if evolution is true, then how come horses exist?

El Chistoso

Answer 2

1. How do you think the Universe came into being?

Honestly, I don't know and it's one of the least things I ever give thought. Many, here, see it as significant? I don't.

2. When did you start to doubt or follow certain beliefs/religons?

Well? I can't recall a time when I truly believed in religion, in general. Some precepts, taught by certain religions, I have no problem with, but holding a particular religion is not a necessity to me.

3. What do you think will happen to you spiritually/physically/emotionally when you die?

Nothing spiritually or emotionally. Physically, my body will decay.

4. Do you fear death?

I don't fear the inevitable. I don't wish to die at the moment...but there could come a time when I do.

5. What do you think of people who follow certain religons? (Christianity, Islam, Jeudism, ect.)

Depends? I have no basic problem with people following a religion of their choice. I do have a problem with fundamentalism of any stripe.

6. Do you enjoy questioning religons?

I question most everything. It's my nature to question. I guess you could say I enjoy it on some level?

7. Has anyone ever tried to convert you? If so, how
many?

Yes...but they all quit soon after an initial attempt. I can be a bit ornery.

8. Stupidist thing someone's ever asked or tried to do to you?

Can't think of the stupidest at the moment?

Answer 3

1. Read "Big Bang" theory. Makes more sense than some mystical, gigantic god thingie snapping everything into existence.
2. Never, ever believed in the religious nonsense. Biblical fairytales, legends, myths...makes for good reading - like Aesop's Fables or Grimm's Fairytales. The whole god/miracle/Jesus thing is ridiculous..and sometimes, very funny.
3. When the heart stops and the brain stops functioning, one is simply dead. That's the end of the story.
4. No. Death is the end of life. Everybody does it. What I do is enjoy every moment of my life knowing it will end. Don't worry about the when or where.
5. I respect everyone's right to believe anything they want - as long as they don't try to push it into the public arena or try to force their beliefs on others. Unfortunately, that's what they DO.....
6. I enjoy reading other peoples thoughts and ideas. I find it interesting how so many so-called "religious" people act and talk in a way that can only be called hateful, bigoted, arrogant and self-important. I can't find one religion where those things are primary virtues.
7. I've had people try over my lifetime. Most think that their way is the ONLY way and feel it it their duty to "show" the way. They only approach me once. I have a great command of the language and am pretty darned smart. I use words of more than 2 syllables frequently...they don't understand what I'm saying to them so they go away - and don't come back. I have had to be insulting on more than one occasion because some will not be deterred.
8. I think the door-to-door whackos are the most annoying. My response? I don't say a thing; just shut the door in their faces.

Answer 4

I'm a Deist, not an atheist, but I'll play:

1. How do you think the Universe came into being?

I don't think anybody can prove anything for 100% sure, but I think the Higher Power did it by using the big bang and evolution.

2. When did you start to doubt or follow certain beliefs/religons?

As soon as people introduced religion to me, I started doubting. I did try to stifle my doubts and actually believe, but that just didn't work out.

3. What do you think will happen to you spiritually/physically/emotionally when you die?

I don't know. I might reincarnate, I might go to some "afterlife" or I might just rot in the ground.

4. Do you fear death?

No. It's going to happen sooner or later. I believe in cooperating with the inevitable.

5. What do you think of people who follow certain religons? (Christianity, Islam, Jeudism, ect.)

As long as they don't use it as an excuse to make my life difficult, I don't care if they believe in Santa Claus.

6. Do you enjoy questioning religons?

It's one of the joys of my existence.

7. Has anyone ever tried to convert you? If so, how many?

Too many to count. Ultimately, none were successful.

8. Stupidist thing someone's ever asked or tried to do to you?

In Christianity, I encountered some people who believed in "speaking in tongues" and they tried to tell me that I should be able to do it, too.

In Wicca, I participated in a ritual where the leader was stating that she could see "fairies" all around us. I didn't see anything except woods and trees.

Answer 5

1. I will go with Big Bang in the absence of a better explanation.
2. I was in school to become a minister and when I really began to study the bible it was like an awakening. I thought, have I really been believing this stuff.
3. Nothing.
4. Not at all.
5. Whatever gets them through the night.
6. If someone wants to debate, I will. Otherwise I keep to myself.
7. Sure, true christians have a duty to try. Do they not?
8. I am not sure I have an answer to this.

Answer 6

1. I think energy created the Universe.
2. I was raised a Christian but could not reconcile the fact the an all loving and merciful would do all the things the book of revelation mentions. It seems like the bible authors gave God human qualities and faults.
3. If I am able to transform myself to a higher level I will rejoin the source from which I came.
4. No in the least bit
5. I feel sorry for them really
6. Yes I do
7. Yes my parents, some friends and folks I have met on the Internet.
8. Ask me to convert to Christianity.

Answer 7

1) Big Bang.
2) Did a brief stint into organized religion when I was 30.
3) I'll become a cadaver and rot.
4) Just the actual dieing part.
5) They are brainwashed, some more, some less.
6) I enjoy studying about them.
7) About 10 people worked on me, became a Jehovahs Witness for about six years.
8) Can't recall anything that stands out.

Answer 8

1). The Big Bang theory is the best explanation that has been offered so far.
2). When I was about 10 years old.(doubting)
3). We will become organic materials and be used by some other living thing as the building blocks of amino acids, etc.
4). Only when I feel that the threat is imminent.
5). I think that they are willingly refusing to believe the obvious--which is sad, since they often use technologies and medicines that are the results of science, not faith--but offer only criticism and condescension to those who have given them so much!
6). Normally I don't feel it's a very smart expenditure of time--kind of like questioning a fairy tale!
7). Dozens--unsuccessfully.
8). "If you don't believe in God, then what do you believe in?"--this would presume that one must believe in something in exchange for something else--I always reply, "Well, what do you believe in in place of unicorns and fairies...?"

Answer 9

1. I think the origin of the Universe is unknown as of yet.

2. I was raised Catholic but never truly believed. I started to openly doubt my 'beliefs' in my teens.

3. What happens when we die is unknown.

4. I do not live in any constant fear of death. If I were faced with death right now, I would be afraid. But on a daily basis, death is not something I concern myself with and is not a constant fear.

5. I prefer not to generalize.

6. I enjoy learning about and questioning pretty much everything.

7. Yes. Too many to name.

8. Again - too many to name. ;-)

Answer 10

1. Don't know (but I don't want to make up answers for things I don't/can't know).

2.Always doubted, as far as I can remember. Started to try to become a Christian at age 8. Became an atheist at 37.

3. You will die. Cease to think and be aware (so make the most of this life).

4. Not really.

5. I think they are normal people with some delusions.

6. Why else would I be here?

7. Many times... too many to remember but I would guess over 200.

8. See Pascal's Wager.