what if you are an atheist, but it's not a choice you are making?
no matter how hard i try i cannot sincerely say i believe in any God. i want to, but i just can't. could someone of any variety of faith christian, muslim etc., please opine.
2007-12-08 17:50:47 · 14 answers · asked by the hump 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
i am educated iguess. I am a lawyer JD. under grad., English with an emphasis in Shakespeare. I think I have always leaned in this direction (atheist). my dad was an evangelical preacher. i always felt like the religion i was saturated with was, even if true, irrelevant. i think law school, and the exception to morality that is allotted lawyers has pretty much killed the part of me that could even consider God w/o feeling like i was wasting time. it's like now even the question is irrelevant. b/c i don't think about truth. i think about what i could argue successfully. you can't argue God successfully, not without leaving gaping ravines of unsupported conclusory statements in you wake. arguing for a specific religions authenticity becomes almost rediculous in my brain b/c they all have terrible problems with logic, and there is rationally no reason, other than cultural predisposition to beleive one is any more true than any other.
2007-12-08 18:24:37 · update #1
i think there has to be some level of fear of punishment necessary in order to believe in God. i don't have that fear anymore.
2007-12-08 18:30:39 · update #2
i think mad mac has a point. maybe it comes down to whether you Hope there is a God rather than if you know there is a God. I hope there is a God, and I guess I can't disprove God. i have never seen God, but I have never seen an empty room where he is supposed to be either.
2007-12-08 18:40:23 · update #3
I was trained as a scientist and raised before that as a Christian. I find it very hard to not believe in God even though I know from my training that most of what is the creation, Flood, Christmas, Easter and the predictions of Revelations stories can not possibly be true (primarily due to God's laws of physics and biology), It has to do with how you are raised and the basic nature of your will I think.
If you do not have a solipsist will (solipsism is the belief that their is no other reality but self) you can not truly assume there is no god. That is because as long as their are other consciousnesses than mine there is always the fact that some are smarter than me and some may be so smart as to be God. The fact that I have concluded solipsism is an impossible philosophy is to me proof that atheism is irrational.
Good luck with your gods, good mental health, peace and Love!
2007-12-08 18:27:40 · answer #1 · answered by Mad Mac 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Our mortality makes us try to delve into life and our purpose here on earth. I started doing that at six because I've always had a questioning mind.
In our search for answers, we may accept one religion over another. All mainstream religions, I believe, teach the core values of love, peace, tolerance and doing good deeds.
Being atheist just means that you haven't decided yet, but sooner or later on the roller coaster of life you will come to your own personal crossroads where you will want to decide.
As long as you're doing good, keep an open mind and the religion that will work for you will present itself.
Recommended reading, "To Cherish All Life," by Philip Kapleau, is thought provoking.
Regards, pat.
2007-12-09 03:16:05 · answer #2 · answered by Pat 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
'Belief' just doesn't happen out of the blue. If you are serious, find some 'believers' and question them. Find a good bookshop and look at evidence etc. That is, if you are really serious. 'Education' is not the only key to this, there are many very well educated people who are believers as well as atheists. If you really don't actively pursue this, you're not really serious anyway.
2007-12-09 01:59:07 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It starts with faith which means believing in what you can not see. That means don't try to find proof that God exists, just believe if you really have the desire. if you want the desire, then pray for it and beleive that you will recieve it and when it comes to you dont try to reject it. You can do that by saying out loud that you believe that God exist to yourself. I believe in Christ because the bible is true and applys to all persons lives but only if you allow it. read the bible and beleive with out questioning it. people that question are not leting the Holy Spirit to work. its just like when your boss tells you that he will pay you $15 an hour so then you don't ask how, why, where, when and why agian. most of the time we know what we are told so we better get what was promised to us. If you are doing what you are suppose to do, you will keep your job and you will get paid the amout you are told. Or you might be told that you will start at $12/hr but it will increase to $20/hr as you move up levels in your work. so if you do what you are suppose to do and then you do more and more you will get that $20/hr. so if God says believe and I will bless you then you believe and you will be bless. be patiant, which means know God will provide all things like blessing-money, family and friends, peace, joy, comfort, acceptance, pain that results in increase in faith but only if you don't abandon God (he will never ababdon you). when you start to believe in him, you will start to see the blessing you have been recieving all this time. God doesnt start to love or bless you when you start to think about him, he has been doing that all your life. the most amazing thing is that he gives us the option to choose if we believe, not to believe, believe and follow or believe and not follow. there is a difference to following and just believeing. Even the devil believes that God exists but he does not follow. The devil wants us not to follow so he will make us believe that we are not good enough to follow God cuz maybe God wants only people that are only good but that is not true. even when you dont feel like believing that is the best time to tell yourself to believe. ACTION: this is the hardest part- you have to start to let go of things that are in the way of God entering your life. If you have a boyfriend or girlfriend that you pay too much attention to, a job, hobby that takes too much of your time, or even if you pay too much time to yourselve then SLOWLY put more time to God. By going to church that is your style (age group), Go to bible study, talk to God (pray). I will pray that you will allow God to work in your life and I know He will because I could already see it. Just think about how others can do it - it just means that it is possible to believe. don't let logic and how your current life stop you from seeking God. purpse of life-Gene1:26-28, Job 5:8-9, psalm 14:1-2,19:14 (maybe your line of work is what is bloking you from getting to God, you may have to start to speak the truth rather that lieing, and you may have to start to defend the weak and the poor for justice rather than defending the wrong) Pray to God saying Psalm 51:10-13, read and meditate on *Matt 6:26-34*,16:24-28, *16:16. I hope you will read these even if you didnt find what i wrote good enough. Good luck.
2007-12-09 03:19:20 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
You really can't choose what you believe in, despite what some people like to think. It's more a result of your life experiences.
2007-12-09 02:01:26 · answer #5 · answered by Salvador 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
After starting my education, god just evaporated from my beliefs. I couldn't make myself believe in god anymore.
2007-12-09 01:54:08 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Right there with you, dude! You must be well educated, sensible, logical and literate. Be proud you're not a mindless, blind follower.
2007-12-09 01:55:19 · answer #7 · answered by The Kelda 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Congratulations on discovering rationale.
2007-12-09 01:57:31 · answer #8 · answered by =_= 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Well no atheists choose to be that way. It's just what you believe or don't.
2007-12-09 01:54:45 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
well, I am an alliance .... i want to share to you as what my pastor told me ..... that he met an atheist person saying, "Hey! why do you bring that bible, besides there is no God.
"if there is no God you gain nothing and I gain nothing, but If there is a God I gain heaven and you gain hell, the pastor replied."
2007-12-09 01:58:57 · answer #10 · answered by princess jeanelle 1 · 0⤊ 2⤋