Are you an athiest?

[LittleJem]

Hi … just curious about why you try not to believe in reincarnation?

I don't want to be reincarnated! I just want total silence and nothingness.

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

Guess I'm an "agnostic atheist" since that's the default state when you don't have any reliable information. I'm also a hard determinist and that doesn't really mix well with a lot of religions.

 

[Makko]

Atheism is a form of spiritual masochism on a much higher level than any ideation of hell could be.

 

[InterstateFlowers]

I don't think I'm an atheist? I believe that there is a god or that there are gods but who knows? I want to enter the afterlife with an open mind with no expectations. But I like believing that there is one where I can reunite with the souls I've always wanted to meet and comfort.

 

[soap]

No that's gay

 

[WhatDoesTheFoxSay?]

Personally, I think reality is what my five senses can perceive, and there is no way of knowing what lies beyond. Either that, or there are things Man is not supposed to know. Guess I can be called an agnostic?

I am only beginning to dissociate myself from father's religion. I can see why many are turned away from mainstream religion. I for one, would like to begin anew and discover my own spiritual path. However, to 'live and let live' is easier said than done. The human brain is not a computer—one does not simply remove unwanted information by hitting [Delete]. Much like an Orwellian dystopia, I am unable to shake the feeling something or someone is watching my every move, eager to dish out punishment in proportion to my sins. As much as I would like to deny existence of hell, the fact that none have returned from the other side to tell the tale is certainly reassuring. For as long as I can remember, I have been repeatedly told that it is a child's duty to reciprocate the care his/her parents have given. Those who fail do so will have hell to pay (pun intended) when they meet their maker. According to certain doctrines, suicides have a cat in hell's chance (pun intended again) at liberation. Perhaps if I were born in a secular family, things would have turned out differently.

 

[UseItOrLoseIt]

I think it all comes down to biological structure, archetypes and their interconnection. Most of the truth is unconsciouss. It's impossibe to literally translate something so ancient and singular as an instinct into a medium that fundamentally needs a fragmented reality to be functional, as the mind is. So when we get angry or happy, we write whole books about it but we can't seem to get to the center of anything. Even if we do, we are far of being on point.
When it comes to living, we are bewildered by life same as the first of our ancestors. Exactly the same. The human condition didn't become any clearer or easier to deal with.
We still can't catch water with our hands. We have just perfected the art of building ice castles. Which is fine. Give respect to the the water. Stand in awe of water. Celebrate the big H2O. But don't think you know water.

It's just water.

What I believe is we are born as bodies and that we die as bodies.

 

[EmbraceOfTheVoid]

I'm a Deist; I can't possibly believe that a reality as complicated as this one was created by random chance.

Personally, I think reality is what my five senses can perceive, and there is no way of knowing what lies beyond. Either that, or there are things Man is not supposed to know. Guess I can be called an agnostic?

I am only beginning to dissociate myself from father's religion. I can see why many are turned away from mainstream religion. I for one, would like to begin anew and discover my own spiritual path. However, to 'live and let live' is easier said than done. The human brain is not a computer—one does not simply remove unwanted information by hitting [Delete]. Much like an Orwellian dystopia, I am unable to shake the feeling something or someone is watching my every move, eager to dish out punishment in proportion to my sins. As much as I would like to deny existence of hell, the fact that none have returned from the other side to tell the tale is certainly reassuring. For as long as I can remember, I have been repeatedly told that it is a child's duty to reciprocate the care his/her parents have given. Those who fail do so will have hell to pay (pun intended) when they meet their maker. According to certain doctrines, suicides have a cat in hell's chance (pun intended again) at liberation. Perhaps if I were born in a secular family, things would have turned out differently.

If you look into determinism I think you'll find it difficult to believe in concepts like Heaven or Hell, karma, or reincarnation. In any case your parents sound extremely toxic and you don't owe them anything for bringing you into the burning dumpster fire known as life to fulfill their selfish desires.

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

I'm a Deist; I can't possibly believe that a reality as complicated as this one was created by random chance.

A counterargument I heard to this around ten years ago was something to this effect: "How likely is it that Madagascar is right where it is? I mean couldn't it have been anywhere else in the ocean, but it's right there." You can generate an infinite amount of these kinds of arguments, taking a fact and then saying that it's "unlikely" compared to an imaginary scenario taking place in the past where some die is cast.

I'm very unsure about both your argument and this counter, tho. This definitely gets the noggin joggin for me...

 

[EmbraceOfTheVoid]

A counterargument I heard to this around ten years ago was something to this effect: "How likely is it that Madagascar is right where it is? I mean couldn't it have been anywhere else in the ocean, but it's right there." You can generate an infinite amount of these kinds of arguments, taking a fact and then saying that it's "unlikely" compared to an imaginary scenario taking place in the past where some die is cast.

I'm very unsure about both your argument and this counter, tho. This definitely gets the noggin joggin for me...

I think God created the reality that we know and the laws that govern it but I don't believe that such a being is directly involved in our lives or anything of that sort. I simply find it hard to believe that evolution, gravity, cells, the trillions of galaxies, and everything else you can think of came into being without God being involved as the foundation of them. The idea that these things exist by chance is an absurd notion to me, much less the fact that they coexist with one another and interact with one another in such a complex way. The reality we exist in could've just been nothingness or blobs of matter or whatever but instead it's far more complex than that and I can't chalk that up to chance.

I also didn't understand the Madagascar example as a counterargument to the existence of God and I'm not sure if it's because I'm dumb or because I just woke up.

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

I think God created the reality that we know and the laws that govern it but I don't believe that such a being is directly involved in our lives or anything of that sort. I simply find it hard to believe that evolution, gravity, cells, the trillions of galaxies, and everything else you can think of came into being without God being involved as the foundation of them. The sheer fact that these things exist by chance is an absurd notion to me, much less the fact that they coexist with one another and interact with one another in such a complex way. The reality we exist in could've just been nothingness or blobs of matter or whatever but instead it's far more complex than that and I can't chalk that up to chance.

I also didn't understand the Madagascar argument and I'm not sure if it's because I'm dumb or because I just woke up.

Well, in hard determinism there is no such thing as chance or probability. So if we accept hard determinism, statistical arguments of that kind would not be valid, right? The Madagascar shit is to emphasize that basically everything can be made to be thought of as extremely unlikely when looked at from certain angles.

 

[EmbraceOfTheVoid]

Well, in hard determinism there is no such thing as chance or probability. So if we accept hard determinism, statistical arguments of that kind would not be valid, right? The Madagascar shit is to emphasize that basically everything can be made to be thought of as extremely unlikely when looked at from certain angles.

Determinism is based on cause and effect but I believe a supreme being started the initial falling dominoes. There's of course nothing to back my argument and something being unlikely doesn't prove or disprove the existence of something else(in this case the existence of God). My belief has no more merit than anyone else's tbh but it's just the most plausible explanation I've come up with in my fucked up head. These types of conversations are way over my head anyways, I should've just left it at "I believe in God."

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

the most plausible explanation I've come up with in my fucked up head.

Did you, though?

 

[EmbraceOfTheVoid]

Did you, though?

While I do believe in Determinism I also pretend it doesn't exist because it makes my life easier to believe I have some control, shrug.

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

While I do believe in Determinism I also pretend it doesn't exist because it makes my life easier, shrug.

Well, you have done / are doing / will do it or not and it's already decided which you'll do :)

 

[EmbraceOfTheVoid]

Well, you have done / are doing / will do it or not and it's already decided which you'll do :)

Determinism truly is a mind fuck and still a hard one for me to accept as I still want to hold people morally accountable for their actions. I hope you don't say what you just did to a normie; their mind might break, lol.

 

[GenesAndEnvironment]

Determinism truly is a mind fuck and still a hard one for me to accept as I still want to hold people morally accountable for their actions. I hope you don't say what you just did to a normie; their mind might break, lol.

Lock a normie inside of a room with me and I'll have them begging for pentobarbital within minutes, just by talking.

 

[Superdeterminist]

I think God created the reality that we know and the laws that govern it but I don't believe that such a being is directly involved in our lives or anything of that sort. I simply find it hard to believe that evolution, gravity, cells, the trillions of galaxies, and everything else you can think of came into being without God being involved as the foundation of them. The idea that these things exist by chance is an absurd notion to me, much less the fact that they coexist with one another and interact with one another in such a complex way. The reality we exist in could've just been nothingness or blobs of matter or whatever but instead it's far more complex than that and I can't chalk that up to chance.

I also didn't understand the Madagascar example as a counterargument to the existence of God and I'm not sure if it's because I'm dumb or because I just woke up.

I would say that atheistic explanations of reality don't necessarily appeal to 'random chance'. One can postulate the existence of a fundamental force/particle that has always existed (outside of time) which gave rise to spacetime and all its contents. In the same way that theists argue god to be a brute fact with no prior cause, a fundamental particle or force could be posited his/her/its place. You can ask "what created that particle/force?" but equally then, you have to be willing to ask "what created god?". The two explanations are very similar, except god is (generally) viewed as having a mind. And if you're one for Occam's razor, I think you'd have to prefer the atheistic version.

Additionally, I think that you can only talk about the idea of 'chance' in situations where alternative outcomes were possible. In the case of the creation of reality, it's not clear to anyone, atheists or otherwise, that there was ever any alternative. Could reality NOT have existed? I personally don't think so.

 

[Bauhaus]

Definitely atheist because there is no need or reason for a 'higher' being.
Reality simply exists, it has and will always be there, it's infinite in time and space.

And agnostics simply chose the easy way by not taking a stand.
Always convenient to attack both atheists & relgious while you stay away cos 'hey, I don't have a meaning'.
And then they call atheists pretentious not realizing themselves agnostcism is an empty, meaningless word.

And death is death, it is what it defines, life has ended forever.

 

[Computer Blue]

I think that talking about rocks flying around in a vacuum by chance is one thing. To talk about life existing on those rocks brings the subject up a level. Then to talk about those rocks being made up of particles of energy that "potentially" exist brings it up another step. Then to talk about consciousness being created by matter is still another level higher. Scientists don't even know what questions to ask regarding consciousness. Long ago I was forced to accept that consciousness is a primary substance of the universe.

 

[sunsetintehwoods]

Sometimes it think that's can be pretty good to believe at something to fill in that void or have a reason escape to Tibet. But I can't.

edit:

No that's gay

laughed my ass off on this point.

 

[hatelife]

Nope, not after my 3 last suicide attempts im not. I dont even trust doctors or scientists anymore 100 percent.

Somewhat. I don't believe the pedophile pope or pedophile Mohammed for sure

Pope francesco is not one, nobody said such things about him, he is very sweet man and from what I have seen from him probably the best pope we have had ever, he is very liberal I have heard

 

[Dizzy_Dreams]

absolutely nothing. we are just part of the circle of life. like a leave of a tree. in the end we are not more than fertilizer. the higher meaning is just a justification which is easier for our monkey brains to compute. you can see it even as a part of our survival instinct as a species to give our existence meaning. but in the end we are like the spores of a plant which tries to get spread very wide to secure survival. the difference might be that we are on the verge to spread on a interplanetary scale.

the cynic in me still hopes we extinct before we infest this universe with our despicable existence cause we are a disease. but i am less cynical lately so i don't really care about it.

but also knowing that i know shit i would say i am a 99.9999999999999999% atheist and the rest is agnostic.

You don't think there's any afterlife at all? Why do you think any of this exists at all?

 

[motel rooms]

The extraordinary claim that god(s) exist(s) requires incontrovertible, extraordinary evidence. Personally, I can't afford to buy invisible magical products that religions sell

 

[LONE WOLF.]

Yes l am a atheist!

 

[Makko]

The extraordinary claim that god(s) exist(s) requires incontrovertible, extraordinary evidence. Personally, I can't afford to buy invisible magical products that religions sell

It's a lot more extraordinary to claim that everything came from nothing

 

[prepetuallyperplexed]

I am. And I envision an endless abyss of blackness and peace. I feel like it will be like before I was even born, just nothing and I can't wait.

I dream of it like this too. I can't wait until I don't have to feel all my trauma constantly...

 

[deflationary]

It's a lot more extraordinary to claim that everything came from nothing

You're just claiming that it was God that came from nothing if you believe in one. How does that help you?

 

[motel rooms]

It's a lot more extraordinary to claim that everything came from nothing

Did I make that claim? What's your definition of a deity?

 

[OblivionSeeker]

I've been an Evangelical Atheist since 1976 (an atheist that tries to educate believers)

My hunch is that death feels like going under anasthesia. except ya never wake up.