Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Radu Andreiu on June 25, 2010 at 5:57am

No, I don't study religions, including the one I grew into. My great interest is understanding reality, before I try to understand the imaginary. Atheism is not my defining feature, nor one of my interests. I guess that I don't study religions from the same reason I don't study other things I think are crap, like global warming denialism, the Chupacabra, crop circles etc.

For me, there are better ways of spending my precious time in this world than studying what people believe. I guess that studying how these beliefs form in order to understand the human brain would be more appealing, but this would only be possible with extensive knowledge in brain matters, if you know what I mean.

P.S. I don't really understand why atheism should be such an important subject for atheists themselves. Why talk about it all the time, when there is so much interesting stuff to talk about, like how the world really works? So yes, I don't really care about religions, at least not more than I care about being happy and fulfilled in my life. Sorry, but I am not that much of an anti-theist to debate theists, let alone study their beliefs for this purpose.

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Permalink Reply by Galen on June 25, 2010 at 8:19am

I spent much of my life studying religions and various beliefs. Frankly, I'm happy to be unbound from it now.

If your intended question was "Do you think you've found the truth and now you can stop looking?" then yes and no. I think I've found the truth, but not the WHOLE truth. I don't know that we ever CAN find the WHOLE truth, so the search for it never ends :)

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Permalink Reply by Tera on June 25, 2010 at 10:06am

I constantly study other religions. Honestly, I still study Christianity. I actually find that I can appreciate the Bible for the great work of literature that it is now that I'm not living my life constantly feeling threatened by it.

I find religion and spirituality fascinating. It was awkward to try and read other religious texts while growing up in a firmly Christian community. Discussing other religions was frowned upon, unless you were presenting the other religion in a negative (or at the very least unflattering) manner. It was very constricting.

I'm really on the fence between atheism and agnosticism. Sometimes I joke that my brain is an atheist and my heart is an agnostic. I can't bring myself to believe in "God," the Big Man Upstairs, etc, but I have a hard time totally dismissing all other possibilities.

I'm definitely not searching for another religion. My interest in most belief systems is not an attempt to adopt a new one for myself. I just feel that it would be kind of narrow-minded for me to say "Because I can't find a logical reason to believe in a god, there is no validity to any form of spiritualism or religion." And so, I read and learn, when I have the time and the drive to do so.

So far, I find Taoism to be quite interesting, though I wouldn't really call it a "religion."

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Permalink Reply by Christopher McGuire on June 25, 2010 at 10:18am

I think my atheism is a big part of my life due to the fact that I'm somewhat bitter about how some of my family/friends treat me over it. I never believed, but was fine with religion for a long time. Then I was kind of pulled out of the closet, and religion was no longer fine with me. I really guess it depends basically on how religious the people you associate with are. I always feel the need to have my guard up and be prepared, because I never know when I'll get a call from an aunt (for example) I haven't talked to in years, calling to let me know she's heard the bad news, and to 'save my soul/tell me I'm going to hell.' You all may wear your atheism as a 'minor accessory,' I wear mine (mostly) as the Jews wore the Star of David.
And yes, I know I've been bitter in some of my posts lately, but that's because I recently got one of those calls.

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Permalink Reply by Keith Johnston on June 25, 2010 at 4:57pm

You are very likely wrong in your assertion that you are the only Atheist you know. Bob Altemeyer psychologist of great renown of the University of Manitoba has studied (among others,) Fundamentalist and Evangelicals people. In his anonymous surveys he has found that fully one third are in fact none believers but they simply remain in the faith and community for a variety of reasons so it is very likely that one in every three people you know, feel as you do, but are too afraid to say.
There is some excellent reading material covering his research here: http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/
and its all free.

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Permalink Reply by Nelson on June 25, 2010 at 11:04am

i don't study other religions so much as i study Religion- that is, religion in general. i'm constantly reading. i think all atheists should be capable of a comprehensive intellectual defense of their atheism. there are too many atheists who have read nothing but the shallow naive arguments in, for instance, The God Delusion, and think that that settles the matter.

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Permalink Reply by Radu Andreiu on June 25, 2010 at 12:08pm

I haven't read "The God Delusion" either. Actually, I don't need to read any book whatsoever to state clearly why I don't believe in gods. Thankfully I don't really need to, either. I guess it would have been very hard for me to live in Jesusland too, but I still wouldn't have needed to read a book in order to argue my position. I think people should reconsider their beliefs whenever they find themselves reading arguments for that particular belief. If a person can't say why he/she believes, or doesn't believe, something without reading others' arguments, then maybe that person is not that much different than theists, creationists, denialists, and any group of people who believe something because they think "Gee, that guy's arguments for this belief seem reasonable to me! It must be true then".

Again, I can certainly appreciate that I don't live in a fundamentalist society, so my interest for religion might have been different if the circumstances were different.

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Permalink Reply by Nelson on June 25, 2010 at 12:24pm

did you really just say the written works of others on a subject don't play any role in challenging whether your beliefs are true or not and that those works shouldn't play a role? surely you don't think that you alone can think up every argument for or against a belief and any objections plus the answers to those objections.

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Permalink Reply by Radu Andreiu on June 25, 2010 at 1:22pm

Oh, that's not what I meant. However, if you believe something, you should have a very clear view of why you believe it. I have many reasons not to believe in gods and I am currently waiting for reasons to believe in them, rather than acquiring ever more reasons not to believe in such beings. After all, the most important reason for not believing something is not having any reason for believing it. That's why I find it more important to ask people why they believe in gods, rather than asking them why they don't. If I find myself on the other side of the fence, I assure you I'll reverse my attitude, but I am reluctant to think this would be anything more than very unlikely as I am having a very hard time receiving logical answers to my questions.

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Permalink Reply by Nelson on June 25, 2010 at 1:24pm

and reading the works of others, both those that agree and those that disagree, is critical to being clear about your position.

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Permalink Reply by Radu Andreiu on June 25, 2010 at 1:39pm

How many books have you read about the inexistence of invisible flying elephants. I guess none, but you don't need to, right? Why is that? Isn't it because you can't find reasons to believe such creatures exist? If someone comes to you saying they do exist, do you go read some books that argue against their existence, or do you ask that person to say why he/she believes they exist. If the answer is illogical, like saying that you will go to hell if you don't believe in them, then it's really not necessary to find any more arguments against that belief. And even if it was, I think I could find plenty, as I can when it comes to gods. If I ever find myself short of arguments, I'll ask others what they think. Until then, I have better things to do, like enjoying my life and figuring out what is, rather than what isn't.

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Permalink Reply by Nelson on June 25, 2010 at 1:48pm

you're flip-flopping now. either critically examining what you think is true is important- and reading the works of others is critical to this endeavor- or critically examining what you think is true isn't important because you yourself are convinced that you have the ability to conceive of all the arguments for and against as well as all the objections to both and the answers to those objections.

the comparison with invisible flying elephants is a red herring as no one maintains a worldview based on the existence of invisible flying elephants. neither does anyone maintain that there is an afterlife to which you can enter only if you accept the existence of invisible flying elephants. neither, finally, is Western civilization and culture fundamentally informed by the Gospel of the Invisible Flying Elephant in comparison to the fact that the bible is the foundation of Western civilization and culture.

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