Are you an Atheist? What Promted Your Choice?

[stockholm patriot]

Santa Claus is God when he's in a giving mood and feels like dressing like a pimp from Chicago

 

[stockholm patriot]

Santa Claus is God when he's in a giving mood and feels like dressing like a pimp from Chicago

 

[budweiser]

In the same vein as what Wawaweewa wrote: Maybe there is a God that created everything, but that's where 'its' role stops, like an absentee father. Either way, not enough of a reason to dedicate my life to religion.

More to the point, I can't speak for other religions, but the Catholic Church has stymied Irish independence at damn near every possible juncture. The sex crimes cover up is just the tip of my revulsion with the Church. So even if I could swallow the idea of a loving God, it certainly would not be the Catholic version.

 

[budweiser]

In the same vein as what Wawaweewa wrote: Maybe there is a God that created everything, but that's where 'its' role stops, like an absentee father. Either way, not enough of a reason to dedicate my life to religion.

More to the point, I can't speak for other religions, but the Catholic Church has stymied Irish independence at damn near every possible juncture. The sex crimes cover up is just the tip of my revulsion with the Church. So even if I could swallow the idea of a loving God, it certainly would not be the Catholic version.

 

[10littlefigures]

Originally Posted by blackxme

Originally Posted by 10littlefigures

i have trouble now in my manhood of accepting religous practises although i pray to my God, maybe its been ingrained in me but if you think humans the paramount of all species was created by evolution i think you are a fool, planets, the universe, all things we cant even comprehend has been put here by a higher being

Word? So I suppose all that evidence for evolution is just a bunch of crap...

Also we have a great understanding about how our solar system formed.

The mystery of the creation of the universe is the next thing I think scientist will solve.

But in your eyes we shouldn't  even bother trying to figure out anything  and attribute it all to a higher being

i'am actually taking physics and astronomy classes

 i get it i appreciate the findings of all things but something started it all is what i'm saying and it was not just a spec of something so minute. so please explain to me what your teachers (and yourself) have so erroneously attributed to the beginning of life

 

[10littlefigures]

Originally Posted by blackxme

Originally Posted by 10littlefigures

i have trouble now in my manhood of accepting religous practises although i pray to my God, maybe its been ingrained in me but if you think humans the paramount of all species was created by evolution i think you are a fool, planets, the universe, all things we cant even comprehend has been put here by a higher being

Word? So I suppose all that evidence for evolution is just a bunch of crap...

Also we have a great understanding about how our solar system formed.

The mystery of the creation of the universe is the next thing I think scientist will solve.

But in your eyes we shouldn't  even bother trying to figure out anything  and attribute it all to a higher being

i'am actually taking physics and astronomy classes

 i get it i appreciate the findings of all things but something started it all is what i'm saying and it was not just a spec of something so minute. so please explain to me what your teachers (and yourself) have so erroneously attributed to the beginning of life

 

[10littlefigures]

Originally Posted by ABC

I stopped following God after being forced to go to church/take theology classes from basically birth to the end of high school... I went to a catholic H.S. that was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of forcing ideas onto students. Once I experienced freshman year of college I just didn't care anymore 

 kanyeshrug
Also, another turning point that pretty much cemented my status was when my cousin died last summer... he was 32 and died from cancer and religious folks were trying to tell me "it's part of God's plan, it was his time to go, it's all in the grand scheme of things..." etc, etc, bs, etc. How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

did it have an impact on all of those closely involved? my mother is currently battling cancer and however much i hate to see how much it ravishes her i do believe there is a reason she has the disease. also why do you think cancer is random theres many different forms and many things that can be attributed to the disease.

 

[10littlefigures]

Originally Posted by ABC

I stopped following God after being forced to go to church/take theology classes from basically birth to the end of high school... I went to a catholic H.S. that was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of forcing ideas onto students. Once I experienced freshman year of college I just didn't care anymore 

 kanyeshrug
Also, another turning point that pretty much cemented my status was when my cousin died last summer... he was 32 and died from cancer and religious folks were trying to tell me "it's part of God's plan, it was his time to go, it's all in the grand scheme of things..." etc, etc, bs, etc. How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

did it have an impact on all of those closely involved? my mother is currently battling cancer and however much i hate to see how much it ravishes her i do believe there is a reason she has the disease. also why do you think cancer is random theres many different forms and many things that can be attributed to the disease.

 

[essential1]

I started off with 1 question.. The another, then another, then 10 more and so on.

Asked religious folk (believers, priests, reverends, etc.) never got an answer that is acceptable, so I did my own search found nothing persuasive, and made a decision.


While I think there are great things in the Bible, it was written by man, not a divine specimen, so it has overwhelming idiocies, and just awful things.

 

[essential1]

I started off with 1 question.. The another, then another, then 10 more and so on.

Asked religious folk (believers, priests, reverends, etc.) never got an answer that is acceptable, so I did my own search found nothing persuasive, and made a decision.


While I think there are great things in the Bible, it was written by man, not a divine specimen, so it has overwhelming idiocies, and just awful things.

 

[abc]

Originally Posted by 10littlefigures

Originally Posted by ABC

I stopped following God after being forced to go to church/take theology classes from basically birth to the end of high school... I went to a catholic H.S. that was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of forcing ideas onto students. Once I experienced freshman year of college I just didn't care anymore 

 kanyeshrug
Also, another turning point that pretty much cemented my status was when my cousin died last summer... he was 32 and died from cancer and religious folks were trying to tell me "it's part of God's plan, it was his time to go, it's all in the grand scheme of things..." etc, etc, bs, etc. How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

did it have an impact on all of those closely involved? my mother is currently battling cancer and however much i hate to see how much it ravishes her i do believe there is a reason she has the disease. also why do you think cancer is random theres many different forms and many things that can be attributed to the disease.

Well I don't want to ruin your hopes, but yes it did impact many people... it ruined his fiancee's life (obviously), ruined his brother's life (they still had beef when he died and dude went nuts out of guilt) not to mention his other brother who he was best friends with, his parents who had to go through grief counseling, friends, and then people like me and the rest of his extended family. +%!! was messed up for a while. It's one thing to see your 89-year-old grandpa die, it's another thing to see a seemingly perfectly healthy 32-year-old slowly deteriorate over an 11-month period.
I don't know why he got it, all I know is that his knee hurt for a while and he thought it was an old football injury. It spread from his knee to his lungs and he was diagnosed. Sounds pretty arbitrary to me, but I'm not a doctor, I guess.

 

[abc]

Originally Posted by 10littlefigures

Originally Posted by ABC

I stopped following God after being forced to go to church/take theology classes from basically birth to the end of high school... I went to a catholic H.S. that was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of forcing ideas onto students. Once I experienced freshman year of college I just didn't care anymore 

 kanyeshrug
Also, another turning point that pretty much cemented my status was when my cousin died last summer... he was 32 and died from cancer and religious folks were trying to tell me "it's part of God's plan, it was his time to go, it's all in the grand scheme of things..." etc, etc, bs, etc. How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

did it have an impact on all of those closely involved? my mother is currently battling cancer and however much i hate to see how much it ravishes her i do believe there is a reason she has the disease. also why do you think cancer is random theres many different forms and many things that can be attributed to the disease.

Well I don't want to ruin your hopes, but yes it did impact many people... it ruined his fiancee's life (obviously), ruined his brother's life (they still had beef when he died and dude went nuts out of guilt) not to mention his other brother who he was best friends with, his parents who had to go through grief counseling, friends, and then people like me and the rest of his extended family. +%!! was messed up for a while. It's one thing to see your 89-year-old grandpa die, it's another thing to see a seemingly perfectly healthy 32-year-old slowly deteriorate over an 11-month period.
I don't know why he got it, all I know is that his knee hurt for a while and he thought it was an old football injury. It spread from his knee to his lungs and he was diagnosed. Sounds pretty arbitrary to me, but I'm not a doctor, I guess.

 

[stockholm patriot]

Originally Posted by ABC

How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

THIS ...replace cousin with heroin addict father and mentally impaired mom


He's the equivalent of talking to a cold brick wall, yet you worship him when something good happens and if something bad happens it's his fault to.

 

[stockholm patriot]

Originally Posted by ABC

How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

THIS ...replace cousin with heroin addict father and mentally impaired mom


He's the equivalent of talking to a cold brick wall, yet you worship him when something good happens and if something bad happens it's his fault to.

 

[ginzo]

Originally Posted by Stockholm Patriot

If there is a God, Earth is cable channel with the best reality television... and him and Jesus are the equivalent of Beavis and Butthead sitting doing nothing, %#*$%!% up ##@% for fun.

I'm an Atheist but I've never "believed" in god. I was too young to give a damn about what god thinks of my actions. It was never a "choice" I just started reading/listening to the other side of the argument because I was raised to believe in the Christianic version of god. After further analysis of the "other" side. I disregarded religion and acquired reason. I'm gonna bite the bullet and say that 90% of people that believe in god only do so because that's what their parents want them to believe. If you don't see the other side of the story soon enough then what's stopping you from taking what your parents say as truth? You either full heartily believe in what what your parents believe or you detest what they believe. 9/10, you believe your parents...because they are your "parents." The main thing that I would say that makes me so associated with Atheism is that I really don't care about the existence of god.

 

[ginzo]

Originally Posted by Stockholm Patriot

If there is a God, Earth is cable channel with the best reality television... and him and Jesus are the equivalent of Beavis and Butthead sitting doing nothing, %#*$%!% up ##@% for fun.

I'm an Atheist but I've never "believed" in god. I was too young to give a damn about what god thinks of my actions. It was never a "choice" I just started reading/listening to the other side of the argument because I was raised to believe in the Christianic version of god. After further analysis of the "other" side. I disregarded religion and acquired reason. I'm gonna bite the bullet and say that 90% of people that believe in god only do so because that's what their parents want them to believe. If you don't see the other side of the story soon enough then what's stopping you from taking what your parents say as truth? You either full heartily believe in what what your parents believe or you detest what they believe. 9/10, you believe your parents...because they are your "parents." The main thing that I would say that makes me so associated with Atheism is that I really don't care about the existence of god.

 

[essential1]

Originally Posted by 10littlefigures

Originally Posted by ABC

I stopped following God after being forced to go to church/take theology classes from basically birth to the end of high school... I went to a catholic H.S. that was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of forcing ideas onto students. Once I experienced freshman year of college I just didn't care anymore 

 kanyeshrug
Also, another turning point that pretty much cemented my status was when my cousin died last summer... he was 32 and died from cancer and religious folks were trying to tell me "it's part of God's plan, it was his time to go, it's all in the grand scheme of things..." etc, etc, bs, etc. How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

did it have an impact on all of those closely involved? my mother is currently battling cancer and however much i hate to see how much it ravishes her i do believe there is a reason she has the disease. also why do you think cancer is random theres many different forms and many things that can be attributed to the disease.

Let me preference this with, I'm  sorry to hear about your predicament, and I really sorry to hear about it.. I hope your mom can fight and beat it..

All my grandparents died of cancer. But most specifically my grandfather on my dad's side because I was closer to him than anyone.. so I know your pain I once said to a counselor "I watched Superman become human.".. So I know exactly what you are going through.... I'm pretty sure it is what I have to look forward to when I get older also..

But why would there be a reason? Why would there be any explanation other than the cells of the body multiplying at an extraordinary rate (which is what cancer basically is)? Of course there are causes whether they be smoking, asbestos, radiation, etc. etc. 

But  if what you are saying is the case, then my lesson was I can be strong.. But why take my grandpa for that?  If that's God's work I don't want anything to do with that..

There's other ways to show that lesson than death...

Life is nothing but a cycle of extraordinary/ random / and at times tragic events..  If you seek explanation from something as to explain something so tragic then you will search forever..

It's one thing to try to pray for health. but meaning of death from a god, is painful. Because you don't get the answer. You get a "WHAT IF?"  There are explanations for everything, but they lay in the common man or woman. They lay in the environment. They can all be explained by random occurrence or just sheer obviousness.

Now when you apply the "there is a reason" argument. What's the reason for an intelligent 12-year old girl dying in a drive by? Or a 19 year old trying to turn his life around and killed during a mugging?

Faith doesn't need to be in a god.. Faith could be in yourself, your family, and others. 

 

[essential1]

Originally Posted by 10littlefigures

Originally Posted by ABC

I stopped following God after being forced to go to church/take theology classes from basically birth to the end of high school... I went to a catholic H.S. that was a lot of fun, but there was a lot of forcing ideas onto students. Once I experienced freshman year of college I just didn't care anymore 

 kanyeshrug
Also, another turning point that pretty much cemented my status was when my cousin died last summer... he was 32 and died from cancer and religious folks were trying to tell me "it's part of God's plan, it was his time to go, it's all in the grand scheme of things..." etc, etc, bs, etc. How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

did it have an impact on all of those closely involved? my mother is currently battling cancer and however much i hate to see how much it ravishes her i do believe there is a reason she has the disease. also why do you think cancer is random theres many different forms and many things that can be attributed to the disease.

Let me preference this with, I'm  sorry to hear about your predicament, and I really sorry to hear about it.. I hope your mom can fight and beat it..

All my grandparents died of cancer. But most specifically my grandfather on my dad's side because I was closer to him than anyone.. so I know your pain I once said to a counselor "I watched Superman become human.".. So I know exactly what you are going through.... I'm pretty sure it is what I have to look forward to when I get older also..

But why would there be a reason? Why would there be any explanation other than the cells of the body multiplying at an extraordinary rate (which is what cancer basically is)? Of course there are causes whether they be smoking, asbestos, radiation, etc. etc. 

But  if what you are saying is the case, then my lesson was I can be strong.. But why take my grandpa for that?  If that's God's work I don't want anything to do with that..

There's other ways to show that lesson than death...

Life is nothing but a cycle of extraordinary/ random / and at times tragic events..  If you seek explanation from something as to explain something so tragic then you will search forever..

It's one thing to try to pray for health. but meaning of death from a god, is painful. Because you don't get the answer. You get a "WHAT IF?"  There are explanations for everything, but they lay in the common man or woman. They lay in the environment. They can all be explained by random occurrence or just sheer obviousness.

Now when you apply the "there is a reason" argument. What's the reason for an intelligent 12-year old girl dying in a drive by? Or a 19 year old trying to turn his life around and killed during a mugging?

Faith doesn't need to be in a god.. Faith could be in yourself, your family, and others. 

 

[g14]

i believed in aliens before a god/jesus & guess what ....i was right!

 

[g14]

i believed in aliens before a god/jesus & guess what ....i was right!

 

[abc]

Originally Posted by Stockholm Patriot

Originally Posted by ABC

How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

THIS ...replace cousin with heroin addict father and mentally impaired mom

He's the equivalent of talking to a cold brick wall, yet you worship him when something good happens and if something bad happens it's his fault to.

Word... I'm sorry about your situation. Mine pales in comparison to yours and you've had to deal with it a lot longer than I have. 
Change of subject... here's a topic I've wanted to address for a while. See what I have to put up at my conservative Catholic college... this story happened to my neighbor

Seminarian: How was your day?
Neighbor: It was good! I handed in a paper that I was proud of

S: You what??
N: I... handed in a paper?

S: You shouldn't be proud. Being proud is a sin. you should instead say, "I'm thankful that God gave me the chance to write such a good paper"

N: 

Interpret this however you will... I was straight offended when I heard it, my neighbor came over like "you won't believe what these jesus freaks said to me today..." I hit her with the 

 as soon as the story was done. 

God doesn't do things for you... you do things for yourself. No matter how much you sit around and pray, you won't magically get a six-figure job and a great house. There are so many rich atheists that are "blessed" with good fortune? Nah, they just work hard or are in the right place at the right time. 

Yes I'm mad

 

[abc]

Originally Posted by Stockholm Patriot

Originally Posted by ABC

How is it God's plan to take away a young man who was engaged with a good accounting job in downtown Chicago?? PLEASE, jesus freaks, explain this to me... because as far as I can tell, cancer is random and so is death. People die because of chance and poor luck. It's not some dude pushing buttons in the sky that turns off your life like a light switch, my cousin had the poor fortune to become sick and he passed. NOTHING beneficial happened from his death, it only ruined lives and made things a lot worse. If I have God to thank for all of the bad things in the world, then he sucks. 

THIS ...replace cousin with heroin addict father and mentally impaired mom

He's the equivalent of talking to a cold brick wall, yet you worship him when something good happens and if something bad happens it's his fault to.

Word... I'm sorry about your situation. Mine pales in comparison to yours and you've had to deal with it a lot longer than I have. 
Change of subject... here's a topic I've wanted to address for a while. See what I have to put up at my conservative Catholic college... this story happened to my neighbor

Seminarian: How was your day?
Neighbor: It was good! I handed in a paper that I was proud of

S: You what??
N: I... handed in a paper?

S: You shouldn't be proud. Being proud is a sin. you should instead say, "I'm thankful that God gave me the chance to write such a good paper"

N: 

Interpret this however you will... I was straight offended when I heard it, my neighbor came over like "you won't believe what these jesus freaks said to me today..." I hit her with the 

 as soon as the story was done. 

God doesn't do things for you... you do things for yourself. No matter how much you sit around and pray, you won't magically get a six-figure job and a great house. There are so many rich atheists that are "blessed" with good fortune? Nah, they just work hard or are in the right place at the right time. 

Yes I'm mad

 

[battousai]

You sound confused.

You lack faith.

You live for nothing.

For true life.. IS.. The after life.

 

[battousai]

You sound confused.

You lack faith.

You live for nothing.

For true life.. IS.. The after life.

 

[nikekidwonder]

Everyone believes in something