I’m not an Atheist, Can I talk to One?

44 posts / 0 new

Sat, 06/30/2018 - 13:16

Peurii

@Joe OP
In the OP you asked to describe a life as an adult atheist. Like others have said that atheism only means without god. If I think how my atheism has affected my life, I think the most significant is the occasional fear of the endless nature of death. When the fear sets in, in the darkness of the night, I remind myself of Epicuros' words:
"Why should I fear death? If I am, then death is not. If death is, then I am not. Why should I fear that which can only exist when I do not."

The second thing how my atheism affects my life is not wasting time on religious rituals or worrying about magical things, like lucky socks or what ever. Maybe I roll a few eyes when a religious person bangs on about their favourite imaginary friend and it's special nature.

My atheism also affected my choice of university major and minors. I went to study the history of ideas and science, because I wanted to understand how people become to believe the things they do, and how science came to be, since it was mostly scientific arguments that started by deconversion progress in high school. My other choice was psychology, but I thought it would be to hard to get in, so I went with history instead. For minors I took philosophy and world view studies, for obvious reasons.

I teach religion to teens, among other things. That's sometimes difficult as an atheist, when they ask me if I believe in the tenents of Christianity (I live in a ~70% Christian country). Somehow for them the fact that I personally don't believe the things I teach diminishes the importance of the topics, and they question why I wanted to teach the subject, being an atheist. It's pretty silly, since I teach all world religions, and no one obviously could believe in all the world religions at once. Most of the students seem to be atheists themselves anyway, and atleast one other member of the faculty is an open atheist too, so it's no taboo here.

The final thing how my atheism has affected my life is, that I try to be nice to people, because I believe this to be the only life we have, so it makes this life all the more important. I mean, maybe the crunch model of the universe is true, and like the stoics believed, we are damned to repeat everything in an endless loop, but I think that model has been universally abandoned by physicists.

That's probably the extent of how my disbelief has affected my life.

Sat, 06/30/2018 - 13:48

#33

chimp3

I am an atheist because I do

I am an atheist because I do not believe the believers. If I ignore the believers nothing else ever brings up the topic of gods.

Sat, 06/30/2018 - 18:49

#34

Sky Pilot

Joe,

"I have recently come into the fold of Christianity."

What did Yeshua (Jesus) ever do that made him worthy of being worshiped?

And although you might worship him you will never, ever, believe in him to do what he said a person with faith can easily do. But don't feel bad, no one in history has ever believed in him either. It's just a feel good exercise without any real value.

Sat, 06/30/2018 - 18:49

#35

algebe

@Joe: why is it possible for

@Joe: why is it possible for minds to change?

Once I thought the sky was a blue glass dome. Then I started going to school and learned some science. I changed my mind about the sky. I've also changed my mind about physics, chemistry, anthropology, evolution, and of course politics.

When we stop changing our minds, we stop learning. That's why immutable dogma based on iron age holy books is so toxic to human intelligence and dignity.

Sun, 07/01/2018 - 09:58

(Reply to #35) #36

LogicFTW

@Algebe

Great short summary of my biggest issue with religion, strongly agree with your post.

Sun, 07/01/2018 - 01:12

#37

Old man shouts ...

In my experience theists read

In my experience theists read only the one book and then books (if they read any) that interpret that book as a reality.Even then they do not read thoroughly. They have a woeful ignorance of the history, context and meaning of the texts that they base their faith upon. Latecomers seem to have a reliance on cherry picking and spurious "prophecies" and even more reliance on second and third hand testimony from youtube theologians and other tv charlatans. Some attempt 'logical' arguments with laughable results. Most resort to preaching and get debunked very quickly.

So what event or experiences triggered you to believe in the version of the Jesus legend you embraced?

Sun, 07/01/2018 - 01:41

#38

Dave Matson

Joe,

I'd be interested in knowing how you became an atheist, and what led you to Christianity.

Sun, 07/01/2018 - 23:36

#39

TheBlindWatchmaker

I personally find the notion

I personally find the notion of a god laughable, this extends to jesus, muhammad etc.....

If one has to willfully ignore reality and suspend the laws of nature to allow this narrative to have any credence,
well then, I am afraid I cannot be that gullible.

This would be akin to telling a physicist, "oh the big bang? well stop all your hard work on your path of truth and discovery, I have the answer! Pixies did it!!! They cause the fluctuation in EM fields of the early universe, and put a giant mento into a galactic bottle of coke....."

You get the point.

Mon, 07/02/2018 - 10:29

#40

Sheldon

Typically Joe didn't last

Typically Joe didn't last very long.

Oi Joe, what objective evidence can you demonstrate for any deity?

Joe? JOE? You there Joe?

Mon, 07/02/2018 - 14:48

#41

Cognostic

The outlook wasn't brilliant

The outlook wasn't brilliant for Joe's conversation on that day.
The score stood four to nil and Joe had run away.
Then when Sheldon queried first and Tin-man did the same
A demonic pall silence fell upon the patrons of the game.

A straggling few got up to go in deep despair. The rest
Clung to the hope which springs eternal in the human breast;
They thought, “If only Joe could but get a whack at that—
We’d put up even money now, if Joe would just come-on back.”

But Cog added a word, as did Old Man Shouts,
And the former was a hoodoo, while the latter was a tout;
So upon that stricken multitude grim melancholy pouts,
For there seemed but little chance of Joe returning to the bout.

Oh, somewhere in this favoured land the sun is shining bright,
The band is playing somewhere, and somewhere hearts are light;
And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout
But there is no joy in AR —mighty Joe has just skipped out.

Mon, 07/02/2018 - 15:05

#42

Terminal Dogma

Did Joe leave with a gun in

Did Joe leave with a gun in his hand say he is going downtown?

Tue, 07/03/2018 - 11:06

(Reply to #42) #43

Tin-Man

@Term-dog Re: Is Joe going

@Term-dog Re: Is Joe going downtown?

Yeah, probably. I think I heard him mumbling something about his "old lady" and some other dude as he was leaving.

Edit to add: Oh, and he didn't seem too happy at the time.

Tue, 07/03/2018 - 14:53

(Reply to #43) #44

Terminal Dogma

Dang, maybe he caught his ol

Dang, maybe he caught his ol lady messing round. This doesn't sound like it will end well.

Hey Joe, chill out bro, smoke some tree. No need to shoot anybody, plenty more fish etc.

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