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Permalink Reply by Eoganacht on May 29, 2010 at 9:41pm

but when you are expected to believe that people come back from the dead or fly or the molecular properties of water were once changed to wine, is too much to ask without proof.

This would have resulting in a very large thermonuclear explosion! Unless the laws of physics were suddenly ignored there would be no Outremer, no unholy land. Just a very large crater with a god who can hopefully walk on ionized gasses.

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Permalink Reply by noramoss on May 28, 2010 at 11:07am

Why? There is a simple answer. It's the roll of the evolutionary dice.
Why does the quarter land on heads? It's not ONLY the possibilities and probabilities it is also the things that set that possibility in motion.
Who is to say that the "life force" isn't a common thing between all living beings and that you could have easily been a squirrel or a blade of grass? Turn certain genetic Codes off or on and you come up with different animals.
There doesn't need to be a purpose of why you are here, but it's up to you to make or not make a purpose while you are existing.
Let's think deeply. If your father left his apartment 1 trillionth of a second earlier on the day that he met your mother, would he have met your mother? If your mother had a different mood the day she met your father, would you be here? if 700 million years ago a dinosaur ate the primate that is your blood line ancestor, would you be here?
We as humans have questioned everything and finally our own existence and have been arrogant enough to think that our existence is something more than what life does... THRIVE in almost any environment.
i have a theory on HOW we came into existence and it has nothing to do with a WHY.
Good luck on the "WHY" because until an alleged "creator" comes back to tell us WHY, we will never know.

P.S. If an author doesn't reveal the purpose of their book, then you will be left to form your own opinion on "WHY". That doesn't mean your opinion is true though. EG: god, jesus, moses, noah, etc... religion

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Permalink Reply by caleb daniel on May 28, 2010 at 1:22pm

The universe is SO huge that it is impossible for there NOT to be life.

I will use the example Dawkins made: (loose translation)

It is estimated that there are 1 Billion to 30 Billion planets in our galaxy. And about 100 Billion galaxies in our universe. Basically, a billion billion available planets in the universe. We admit that life, especially at our advanced stage, is highly improbable. I'm not going to list all the many ways in which we could have never existed, but it is vast. But let's say one in a billion planets could support life. Then there would still be life on a billion planets in our universe.

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Permalink Reply by caleb daniel on May 28, 2010 at 5:09pm

I didn't feel it was necessary to underscore the improbability of life. This was a safe argument stance. I believe, it may be more than what these numbers present. I agree that if we could observe, in one sweeping glance, all the life in the universe, an unprecedented amount would be bacterial and not multicellular, like you said. But in that same sweeping glance, I believe, we would be in awe of the large amount of intelligent life, spanning all levels of the evolutionary chart. In a doc that Stephen Hawking hosted, he spoke about this exact topic. He went on to explain very different forms of life that could exist. He hypothesized, more for argument sake than fact, that life could be on Jupiter or Saturn in a form that thrives on the gases. We are looking at the possibility of life through a small window. Life could exist breathing all imaginable gases or maybe not breathe at all. We can only make educated guesses based on the information we know about ourselves. We may even have to redefine what the term "life" is. This is all speculative and unfounded of course, but it makes for fun discussions.

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Permalink Reply by Misty: Baytheist Living! on May 28, 2010 at 11:54am

I don't think atheist.
I conclude atheist!
Atheism is a conclusion, not a conviction!

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Permalink Reply by Radu Andreiu on May 28, 2010 at 12:32pm

I think atheist because it makes me feel good inside. I wouldn't want to live in a world where gods existed. Also, there is this awesome book which was not written by any god and which clearly says there are no gods. How can you argue with that? And the ultimate reason: the evidence is all around us.

Does that sound familiar?

Seriously now, I am an atheist from too many reasons, most of which I'm pretty sure I don't even know. It has something to do with my DNA, the environment I grew up in and stuff like that, but, given these factors, I can say that I think atheist because it is the most reasonable and humble thing to do. Apparently, I'm not arrogant enough to believe in gods.

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Permalink Reply by Andrew on May 29, 2010 at 2:59am

I don't know, but I'm glad I do.

When I was younger, I was pretty dumb. Painfully dumb and naive. Then one day these beautiful reasoning skills crept in and I was able to start thinking for myself. I always had to know why and wasn't satisfied until I got an acceptable answer. I remember the day it happened. I realized religion was cultural (and have since traveled the globe to see it for myself) and upon telling my religious girlfriend at the time this, she left me.

These days I am conflicted about whether or not it's a curse. Becoming an atheist made me feel so free, but now all I feel is alone... Ignorance truly was bliss for me.

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Permalink Reply by LyndsayJF on June 1, 2010 at 12:09pm

I think atheist because thinking religious got me nowhere and I wasted a lot of my life worshiping, believing in, and basing my life around something imaginary. I am now finally free to ask "why" without guilt, so like you I try to ask "why" as often as possible.

I am here (on this website) because it can be kind of lonely being an atheist (the ONLY one 99% of the time, wherever I go). I love talking with people who think like me.

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Permalink Reply by Kris Potter on June 3, 2010 at 4:09pm

Well I don't really think there is anything beautiful about the word "why" specifically or asking it, so that bit of your discussion put me off.

However as to why I am an Atheist is quite simple, somewhere along the line of childhood you start searching for answers to your own questions. Is mustard better than ketchup as far as hotdogs are concerned, is it safe in the dark, what's under my bed or up in the attic, is santa claus real? I was systematically facing these questions head on and the more education I received from schooling the more I began to doubt the existence of a god.

I actually used to pray believe it or not on my own free will randomly and selfishly when I needed help for something as simple as an upset stomach in a place with NO BATHROOMS, or things of that nature. About 50% of the time I would be saved and about 50% of the time I would sit in misery listening to my stomach grumbling and praying to god the bell would ring in the next 5 minutes. Certain things to me emphatically expressed that there was absolutely no god, and I will outline what to me said this quite clearly.

The vastness of the universe, our galaxy being hundreds of billions of stars and having tens of thousands of OTHER galaxies that we have seen, and even more that we have not to me is far too grand a scheme to convince myself god created. I know to some that it is exactly its vastness that to them proves a god exists but to claim god is a divine being, and to know through science that the universe is riddled with failing galaxies and collapsing stars, this does not speak of grandeur.

The holocaust, now bear with me on this one if your political correctness sense is tingling. Around 6 million Jews were destroyed during the holocaust, all clearly believers in some sense of the term and all most likely praying the exact same prayer to the exact same god. Six million prayers probably prayed for multiple times a day every single day until their lives were taken from them. If a god cannot save 6 million of his worshipers, what faith do you have in him saving you personally? Had you looked at the holocaust in this way there are only two possible outcomes, and Epicurus quote sums it up quite perfectly.

“Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?
Then he is not omnipotent.
Is he able, but not willing?
Then he is malevolent.
Is he both able and willing?
Then whence cometh evil?
Is he neither able nor willing?
Then why call him God?” -Epicurus

The willful ignorance of religious followers, the corruption of the church and the blatant hypocrisy that its followers commit on a day to day basis while still pretending they are following the word of their god. Premarital sex quite clearly for any good looking teenage boy is a major turn off of any religion, if for nothing else why on earth would I sacrifice the perks of being alive in the only life I will get to live? Especially for an intangible non intervening god who supposedly according to people no more knowledgeable than myself will punish me one day when my life meets its end.

I've been living godless for most of my life, never been an active follower and I have witnessed the same amount of "blessings" the same amount of "hardships" and the same amount of fulfillment and happiness than any religious zealot.

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