For a long time I tried to be part of the main stream and not care on my stance for religion. Not that I wasn't aware that I was an atheist but not thinking about it just seemed to allay that decision until it began to overwhelm me to a point where I had no option but to acknowledge it or verbalise it to myself. I feel that once you realise you do not believe there is no going back. So is atheism really a choice, a way of life, a philosophy or is it something more.... I believe it to be an inevitability of my curiosity to learn.
I don't think I chose to be an atheist, I think it is hard being rational and skeptical all the time and those with faith seem happier, ignorant but happier. We are forced to confront hard truths and choices of our existence daily which is something theists take for granted. yet I must admit if I had to chose all over again I would pick the truth over a happy lie no matter how hard.
Which brings me back do you chose to be an atheist or is it something you have no choice over?
(I realise I didn't really answer my own question, but I would like your opinion on the matter).
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Choice? Yes and no. Some people are perfectly content following without question. Hence, the phase "ignorance is bliss." For many of us, it isn't enough to accept things that just don't make sense. In that way it isn't really a choice, it is our nature.
I certainly didn't choose to be an atheist.
"Which brings me back do you chose to be an atheist or is it something you have no choice over?"
Becoming an atheist is not a choice and that is why religion has failed in making it extinct regardless of how many it killed, at one point it resorted at making people illiterate so in the hope that they would not become atheists.(it did not work)
Atheism is a state of being.
You don't choose to not believe that father Christmas is real.
You are compelled to recognize what you know to be the the likely truth.
Since father Christmas never gave you reason to believe he exist, it is not your choice if you believe in him or not.
Basically the only way your compulsion can make you believe things is with information you currently have about the subject.
Basically theists are indoctrinated to reject any information that is not in accordance with the belief.
Doubt itself becomes a sin for this purpose.
This video is one of the best of DarkMatter2525 and hits this subject nicely:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-j8ZMMuu7MU&list=PLECD9ACF9D6F1F8FF&inde...
" I think it is hard being rational and skeptical all the time and those with faith seem happier, ignorant but happier."
I don't think they are happier, it just seems so to you. I suspect believers are in the majority where you are and non-believers are a small minority. That naturally seems to make you less secure or less happy. Perhaps it is easier for me as less than 750,000 people attend Christian churches out of a population of over 60 million (in the UK). Also, being the only non-believer in a crowd wouldn't bother me in the least, so perhaps that's why you may feel less happy than me.
The problem is that children are taught to regard religious faith as inherently good, a huge comfort and a support in life. In fact, that is just indoctrination and the concept of religious faith is harmful. That is not obviously true to everyone, especially when one's normal relationships with friends and even close family depend on regarding religious faith as good and important.
Children are also taught that "everyone has their beliefs", but it isn't explained to them that religious beliefs are based on superstition and tradition, not rationality and objectivity. Nor are they taught that everyone is entitled to believe what they wish but what we believe influences our actions and behavior for which we will be held responsible. So, I would entirely agree with you that their happiness is rooted in ignorance. To believe and have faith isn't a choice for a child, it must be relinquished as an adult.We can't all recover from the indoctrination and that isn't a choice.
Atheism is the null hypothesis. It's the base from which positive claims about theology spring from. Ergo, there's no choice to be an atheist. It's simply what you are as a matter of fact until you say that there is a deity. Theism is a choice.
And a terrible one, at that.
Exactly. Everyone is born an "atheist." You have to be brainwashed to be a theist!
Who can believe in the Easter Bunny? (Caution: this is not an equating of atheism with Easter Bunnyism!) If your mind finds the Easter Bunny to be silly, then how can you believe in the Easter Bunny? Many, perhaps most, atheists in America were once religious, but an increasing awareness of reality made it increasingly impossible for them to hold on to such nonsense--despite a wish to do so! Obviously, if they had a choice they would have remained religious.
To me, an atheist is someone who consciously rejects theism. Others view an atheist as someone who is not a theist, which would include babies. The "atheist way," then, has little meaning unless you have some group such as secular humanists in mind.
It's not fully a choice, because your underlying mindset has genetic and developmental components. By the same token, religiousity is affected by those same develpmental processes as well, so in a similar sense, general religiousity (as opposed to a particular religion) is not a 'choice' either. We are all influenced by our biology.
We are all a combination of emotional and logical components, which is why you will find some otherwise rational people (scientists, lawyers etc) that still are religious, just as you will find some otherwise rational people who buy into health fads or conspiracy theories.
There are also people who logically realize there is no evidence for a god, but simply cannot give up the hope that there is one.
No. It isn't a conscious choice. It's natural for a person to be compelled toward that which represents truth, and truth is sanctioned only by empirical proof. Without proof, even in the midst of the most atheist-threatening scenarios, we will privately harbor our convictions while we outwardly oblige the apologists.
People who utilize religions for personal gain seek and hold power and sway over others who do not. That's still the way of the world.
Then, there are the true believers and these are the pathetic people of the world we can only extend our sympathy to. But, because they truly need their beliefs, which is not unlike a natural habitat for any animal species, we should allow them to thrive undisturbed. Please assume I'm speaking of the peaceful believer who only needs his/her belief system for sustenance. Those who abuse religion I mentioned above.
Belief is a conscious choice. It requires a motivation other than truth to influence a believer and that influence is hope. Hope alone will not sustain the believer so the religious mind follows a meme system designed to provide for the sustenance hope feeds upon. This meme is known as a doctrine, which by simple definition is a structure that is not based in fact. It follows that believers are then instructed in this doctrine, or indoctrinated, which will always remain a fancy word for brainwashing. We do not outwardly address believers as being the brainwashed demographic of the world in our discussions of religious divergence. It's inflammatory and counter-productive to continued peaceful discussion. We use the word apologists instead.
So, no, the human condition is to believe only that which one or more of its 5 senses give evidence of.
I agree with all of you and especially ZeffD (about the part of coming from a place where believers are a majority and honestly I never felt happier than when I became a heathen).
However I wonder if disbelief isn't a choice shouldn't more people be of a similar disposition and shouldn't the irrationality of the theists be in the minority. Yet as Tzeentch says "Theism is a choice" wouldn't that also imply that people either chose to believe despite knowing all too well it is false or are so ignorant as to not be able to judge what is true and what is not.
(Ofcourse I am not accounting for the closeted atheists like me)
So considering atheism is not a choice as is the overwhelming majority here would it be safe to assume that as more of the world becomes educated ew are expected to see a rise in the atheistic population so much so that it may soon become a majority.
Yes! Education is both the root of, and the enemy of Religion. It is the root of it because if such superstition (about afterlife and god) wasn't normalized in childhood the mass of people would no more believe Jesus was real than they would fairies. It is the enemy of religion because a genuine education teaches us critical thinking skills and the value of objectivity and detachment. Note the language I used there: I didn't write "would no more believe in Jesus than". I think the very idea that we "believe in" things is rooted in religious training, at least sometimes. I don't "believe in" anything. There are things I believe and things I do not.
In the UK, the current Tory government are trying to impede humanist and other world views from being taught in "religious education" classes. These are run in school time, at public expense. They understand that "a boy under 7" is key.
Religion is a choice, but what if you are raised to value it above all else? Sharia above One Law for All? What if you are taught from childhood to believe religion leads to more morality? And that "they" are less moral or even "damned"?
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/709859-give-me-a-child-until-he-is-7-and-i
Give me a boy under 7 and I'll give you a Catholic for life - usually attributed to Jesuits.
No. The choice is made when a believer ignores everything that contradicts their beliefs. This is not seeking truth, it is accepting a lie. I do not choose to dis-believe lies, I choose to seek evidence of truth.