Why am I (not)an atheist?

This is an open thread for discussion about why some users on this forum are atheists. By contrast, it is also a forum for people who are not atheists.

I desire atheists to tell, as succinctly and as specifically as possible, WHY they are atheists.

I also desire non atheists, or rather, theists, of all sorts, to, in detail, and specifically, explain WHY they are theists.

This thread is not about religious debate. This thread is not about why I think YOU should be an atheist, or why you think I should be a theist, this thread is simply about describing why we are, what we are. I urge everyone here not to debate these points and reasons, as I will create a SEPARATE thread for exactly that. This thread is going to simply be a reference point for Fakkuers when it comes to arguing points. For if you...default...on a reason you give in this thread, then you have officially changed your mind about a fundamental reason why you are what you are. And sometimes the only way to REALIZE this is...if you read it for yourself.

I'll start it off with my own...telling.

I could be boring and non descriptive and say, "I'm an atheist simply because I see no reason to believe". However I want to set an example for the rest of the posters here, so instead...well...here goes.

There are a few frameworks, or methods of description in how I can tell why I am an atheist. There's the historical set, the progress of my reasoning, what maintains my reasoning now(which is probably, I think, something distinct from my progressing reasoning) And I'll get to those in a second.

The REASON I'm an atheist is...I don't believe in god.

I like peas, I hate cauliflower and I like swimming. I like things that bring me pleasure and I don't like things that bring me pain, or annoyance. Though I know these things are often times necessary.

I like peas, and I don't believe in god.

I know how to describe the world, through the context of someone who believes in a god. I know how to describe the world, the things about the world, through the eyes of a believer.

I can do these things, these things are easy for me but...I don't like to do these things. Even moreso, it doesn't mean that I even LIKE these things. Sometimes it's helpful, and sometimes it's useful to do things you don't like but it's not constructive to focus soley on those things.

And that's the difference between an atheist and a theist. The way we perceive things. The way we DESCRIBE things. For instance: Evolution vs. creation. People are capable of seeing evolution through the eyes of a god, theistic evolution, god guided evolution. There are many who say science is not at all at odds with their belief, with their religion and that's fine. But there are also others who say that god did things another way, a specific way, and are only capable of seeing god do things that certain way.

This isn't a shot against only theists mind you, atheists and theists do this...narrow categorization of how things must be, there is nothing about being an atheist that renders you immune to such fallacies. This is the case for everybody, we all take our words far too seriously. Way more seriously than we should. Wittgenstein writes about language games and grammatical settings. Things like free will, determinism, cause and effect, these things are only evident to us in our grammar. It is our grammar that suggests there is a cause, an action and an event. A subject, verb, object. Our language is structured, and other languages have different orders of things but I wonder if people who speak with a different orature like object verb subject...I wonder if they see causation differently. And if they did, they saw it back in the day when scientific observations were not widespread, when translations weren't widespread, when physics wasn't widespread in Newtonian and Einsteinan and Quantum ways.

It's not our fault, it's just the way we do it. There are certain christians, certain muslims, certain atheists that take the way they speak of things seriously, as the case. So we end up thinking as we describe the world, and the beginning of the universe as it was...we take this description seriously. The manner of speech, the poetry, the flowery grammar. We take it seriously and it leads us into all sorts of problems. This contributess, I think, to the dichotomy between atheists and other theists, and even between certain theists.

So we're talking about why I'm one of these and not the other. I not only do not usually speak in a religious way, but I also don't, and I make certain of this, take it seriously when others do, like faith, like god, like grace, like holy.

As far as REASONING is concerned, that's why I'm an atheist.

Anyhow, the history. I was a christian. I believed in a 7 day creation and that the world was 6000 years old I did not believe in evolution and I was a devout christian. And things started to change when I entered my teen years. And this isn't because my parents were commanding and I needed to rebel it's just that I was...a teenager. So I took other people's expectations a little more seriously. I went into a bit of a culture shock. I had to explain my 'faith' differently as new things are presented to me. I was a republican, for example, not for any reason but because that's what my parents were. MY dad hated Bill Clinton so I was against him. I didn't really CARE about him to be honest I just...socially pressurized in accordance to my parents first, and then to my surroundings later.

My views on Christianity changed as I encountered people who differed in their beliefs from mine. And as I encountered these people my beliefs HAD to change, if only simply because I encountered them.

I began to idealize fiction. Christian myths seemed...dull and dry to me now. I enjoyed Celtic myths more, Greek Gods and myths, and I wanted to embrace that myths, so I started to research to try and become a pagan.

At this point I still believed in miracles and magic. So I would find other people that believed in...magic. Anton LaVey comes to mind. His work inspired me, though in a silly way I suppose, to start to make other people around me think, to make them wonder. A love for philosophy grew out of my reading...The Satanic Bible. LAter on I entered into my current mindset of taking some descriptions seriously and others not, and God became just another way to describe things.

I lost the desire to describe things...in the way of...gods.

And with my loss of desire to describe things in the way of gods came my loss of a desire to live my life within the context of any god's existence. In essence, later on I lost interest in describing and living in the manner of believing in a god. This loss of interest later on compounded with more reasons, though not reasoning, such as problems I see in the way of describing things through certain monotheistic terms, through theistic epistemology, the failed justifications of presuppositions. So I suppose once I actually actively took a stance besides my social pressures, the reasons began to compound in my grammar and my descriptions and my words...and...I became what I am now. When exactly I specifically became an atheist...I have no clue. I couldn't tell you.

TL;DR, the reason I'm an atheist, is because that's how I talk, and live my life.

Everyone have fun with this. This particular thread I won't be arguing in...just reading.

I believe in a God, because I've felt a force at work in my life, that seems to operate outside the will of the people in it. I know that that sentence sounds impossible, implausible, and I may even sound crazy...

But.. I've survived some awful things. Things I've known to break a lot of people. I've has things taken from me that some other people have died without. I don't think that makes me special, but perhaps I have something that they didn't..

There's something more, here. To this. To me, to the world. More than I can see with my own two eyes, at least.

It's hard to describe this, because Faith is something I've had my entire life. I know that for most people, it's not like that.

I spoke to God even as a very small child. I'd speak to my world -- the wind, the birds, the grass. I would close my eyes and listen. The grass would sway and tickle my skin. The sun would warm. The wind would whisper. Arguably, anyone could say that these happenings are all random and meaningless... but I've always heard God's voice in the wind, God's touch in the earth, and God's embrace in the warmth of the sun.

I believe that God is more of the accumulated spiritual essence of everything that is, has been, and ever will be. We all return to the framework, the collective mind, when we no longer wish to roam the planes of existence, and when we grow restless once more, we shall leave and return again.

An endless cycle all for the sake of reaching even further understanding. Memories and lessons to bring to this 'Collective Mind', when we come to rest.

But I think the ultimate reason, in my own mind.. as to 'Why' God exists..

I believe God is a fluke.

Well, in a way.

I believe that before there was anything, there was nothing at all. Not even a logic structure to keep that total nothingness in check.

I think that because there was no physics of any sort, no sense to be had.. The very least logical thing happened, and what was once an endless void.. became a consciousness.

A single, isolated consciousness hovering in a hole with no bottom. The first thing I would do would be to create myself some company, too.

I know.. that I can't put this to logic. It's a matter of Faith... and Faith is something that comes from your soul -- neither your mind, nor your heart. You can either feel the presence like a fire within your being, or you don't. Faith.. real Faith isn't something that dissipates over time or is subject to the ever-changing parameters of the selfish human mind. It is belief.

I'm not the type of person who prioritizes the importance of Faith over the importance of common sense, however. There are very clearly defined systems in my physical world. I also believe there are elements at work that stand outside what we can already observe with logic and tool. We may be able to one day, but maybe not.

I am an agnostic, and yes, in accordance to previous inputs; no surprise there.
Now that I think about it, am I even allowed to post? I only saw 'atheists' and 'theists' mentions at the top? Well, if not then my post will be deleted...

Anyhow, I was once a catholic who was simply following one's parents as a child does. In fact, I never really believed it even back then, I simply went along with everything as to not cause any problems.

So, by definition God is supposedly an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent, omnipresent, necessary being which defies all logical thought. The only evidence we have of this/a God is the religions that worship them and ancient books which were written by men however long ago. Now, faith is all well and good but I simply cannot believe in an all-loving God who lets all the suffering that goes on in this world happen.

Having said this, one could easily argue (just as the Augustin/Irenaeus theodicies have) that God allows this suffering to 'punish' us for our sins. Also, if God is an illogical being, which God supposedly is, then we would not be able to comprehend God's existence and reject God (Just as some of us do).

Now, the reason is why I'm not an atheist is that there are still phenomenon in this world which cannot be explained and simply astound and makes one wonder: 'can this really have happened all by accident and all living things evolved from dust?!' or something along those lines.

I have not ruled out the possibility of a 'higher being', for I believe there may be one. However, if there is indeed one, then there is a small chance that this being is even all-powerful, all-knowing, etc. There is an even smaller chance that this being would even care about us! That is, if this being were to exist.

I think I may have had another reason, but I have forgotten it through the process of the typing the previous, boulder-dash!

Well, I wouldn't say I'm atheist, more of a "believer in a higher power", meaning that I believe that things exist beyond our comprehension, embued with supreme conscience, that regulate existence.

Meaning magic exists, basically.

I don't believe in a one and only god, I don't believe in a pantheon of them, I believe that they all exist, as part of the "higher level of existence", were these beings are as many as we humans are.

So yeah,I just believe in the theory that we are just a "level" of reality, and that if we go up in the macro, we'll find beings, and if we go in micro, it will be the same.

Basically, I'm waiting for that day when the frontiers of our world break and when legends and fairytales will walk the same ground as us.

But then again, I'm a dreamer.

But to stay on topic, I believe gods exist, without a doubt, simply because we can imagine the fact that it may be possible makes it possible in one reality or another. I just think that they don't give a damn about us, maybe they did before, or maybe they stopped caring, I don't know, but they sure are there.

Or not. Either way, I'm waiting, and I've got my whole life, and the one after.

I am agnostic, not because I choose it, but because I really couldn't give two shits about a metaphysical concept of a divine being.

I think I'm being a bit harsh here. But basically, I've been raised by my parents who observes no religious activities and has no desire to impose any on their children. I'm of Chinese background and both my parents grew up in Maoist china (they both got excellent stories growing up in the 60s-70s, but that's for another time...) which is an official atheist country. They have a worker's mentality and don't believe in some obscure and vague story about some mythical deity who rewards them in the afterlife if they worship him in an equally vague way.

My family just cares about what happens in our mortal life, rather than beyond...

Contradictory enough, my father lights incense and burns paper money every Chinese new year and at grave visits for ancestors. I think he does it more out of common ritual rather than the "western" notion of an absolute religion. The topic of death is somewhat of an unspoken inevitability in our household and we make all forms of preparation so that any sudden deaths are readily taken care of, but we never really speak of "what comes after" the cold, cold embrace of the Reaper.

I think that uncertainty and preparation for the worst case makes me agnostic rather than full blown atheist. Though often people mix up the term and is usually seen as interchangeable, they are different terms.

So yeah. That's the reason that I'm agnostic...does it make sense to anyone?

I'm atheist , I never believed in god , nor in unicorns .

The burden of proof is on the one who claim something .

I don't believe in unicorns since there is no reason to believe in it .

I don't believe in god since there is no reason to believe in it . If i were to believe in god , i would have to believe in unicorns too .

The last point could be wrong , but i never lost a debate on religion and if you really start a thread to debate religion i'll gladly prove my last point , but be ready religious people, i know your religion more than you do .

I just had a few years hiatus and came back basically seeing the same old topics in this sub-section (communism, religion, pedophilia...)

I dont know if im an atheist but it's not that I dont believe, I think it's more of I lack faith...

I'm an atheist and I see no absolute proof of any supernatural being.

I do believe all religions are all just circled around 1 thing.
"What happens when you die?"
For me I also wonder what happens when I die, but I will worry about that when I'm older.

As a kid I did believe in god. But as I grew older everything about religion just seems more and more like a story.

[color=#2e1a6b]I was born and raised in a Christian family, I've been going to church every Sunday (and sometimes Wednesdays) for my whole life, and I've always been educated in a christian environment. I was homeschooled up 'till 7th grade, then I went to a "independent study highschool" (a christian school) from 8th grade on. I was constantly surrounded by christian people and christian teachings, so I never faced any opposition, ever. I did a lot of critical thinking, but because all my education was christian-based, my critical thinking resulted in me believing that Christianity was true.

My first real opposition that I faced was here on FAKKU, mostly by biglundi. Before I debated with him, I had never had someone legitimately question my faith. My teachers have brought up half-ass attacks against Christianity and explained what's wrong those attacks, but that doesn't really count. I had a discussion with biglundi through PMs, in which biglundi posted a link that responded to what my teachers have said to be the best evidence for Christianity.
Ever since then, I've been extremely critical of Christianity, questioning my family, my Sunday school teacher, and my highschool teacher. I've learned that my Family and Sunday School teacher are very stupid, or at least incapable of making logical arguments. I used to think that anyone who disagreed with Christianity was just stupid and in denial of the truth, but after seeing how horrible some Christians debate, I'm much more understanding of non-Christians.

As of now, I'm still a Christian. I don't believe in it as strongly as I did a year ago, but I still believe it. obviously, I became a Christian because of my environment, but there are 3 main reasons why I've remained a Christian,

1. No other religion has convinced me that said religion is true. Among the theist religions, Christianity seems to have the most supporting evidence. I've never even considered a different theist religion. I'm unconvinced by atheists because I'm unconvinced of their explanation of how the universe came to be. I don't believe that the universe exploded into place, or that life can originate out of nothing.

2. It would be inconvenient for me to not be a Christian. Like I said, I'm surrounded by Christianity, and I wouldn't hear the end of it if I stopped being a Christian.

3. I want Christianity to be true. Christianity provides meaning to my life. It gives me hope of great joy to come. I don't want to think I'm a result of random mutations that lives 80 years and dies. I want to believe that I have a greater meaning

I am an Atheist but started out as a Christian.

When I was a small child I went to a Baptist private school. Like any child I just blindly accepted what I was told about most things. Things were fine- I never really thought about what I was taught and told while I was in elementary school, even after I moved to public school in the third grade.

Most of middle school saw little change, but the three years here were when things started to shift in my head. Very slowly and in a rather small way I began to question some of the things I was taught. It wasn't "is God real" or anything like that yet, but more along the lines of "can a person really do something like part a sea?"

In high school I started to actually pay attention in my science classes. Now I was really starting to go back on the religious views I so easily believed before. The things that I blindly accepted were now being explained to me with concrete, measurable evidence. What was before a matter of "God made it that way" was now "over ____ years, small changes occurred in _____ which in turn changed ______ and led to _____ as we know it" (pardon my vagueness but I hope you get my point). It wasn't strictly science either that changed my views. Looking back I was slowly loosing touch with my faith and losing touch with my image of God. Things were happening in my life that I felt that a God who really loved everybody wouldn't let happen. Through news and the internet I learned a measure of how cruel and unforgiving the world is. Sure, God was supposed to have given mankind free will, but what kind of creator could just sit idly by and watch his beloved creation destroy itself?

In three years I went from being a Christian to being an Agnostic to being an Atheist. After those three years I realized how close-minded many people around me had become cased on their religious upbringing. I saw my friends failing biology because they refused to hear anything about evolution. Classmates would refuse to read certain books in English that were required as grades. Even in my music classes there was a girl who refused to learn a piece of music because it was based on a cultist ritual that the composer had seen.

I did not want to be like that, possibly not be like that any more. I am an Atheist now but if something were to happen in my life that could be explained my nothing other than divine intervention then I could believe again. You could say that I'm not really an Atheist because of that, but there are many different forms of Atheism and mine is plainly and simply not believing that there is a God. I don't attack others for retaining their faith and I try not to wave my beliefs around either.
And that's my story I guess.

Funfact: The majority of Russian Marxist revolutionaries were first educated by priests or were sons of priests. They one day read a book or heard a lecture on Marx and they turned into revolutionaries...Stalin himself was about to become an Orthodox priest at the urgings of his mother.

I had my moments where I wanted to stop believing in religion because I thought that it would bring nothing in this world , or that it would bring nothing to me.

However I have learned a lesson, that is human beings tend to take that religion and turn it into their own, and force their ideals onto you.

What about religion itself you ask?
Is it a single man who brought forth a religion unto this world, explaining that your creator does exist, that your creator indeed your lord has a good heart if you follow him?
A single man who was born poor, had nothing, learned useless stuff, suddenly obtained knowledge that greater than the human kind itself?
Perhaps a man, who was a great man, worthy of God's knowledge has been chosen to spread it, so that they may all join their creator?

So many questions regarding religion, everybody has their own answers, some from the book, some from personal experience, and some out of nowhere.

I am not lying that I wanted to quit being a Muslim and being free of the shackles of superstitions, but I learned that people are idiots, not religion itself.

I learned that religion is nothing more than an ideal, from a single/multiple men who wished to spread peace for his kind. Although some had it's fair share of blood, I cannot believe that the man itself wished for it.


I wanted to share my thoughts on why I am a believer, but I also wanted to learn from Atheists as well, because sometimes, you guys can know better about the behavior of religion and the people behind it, way better than we do.

I used to believe in the higher powers when i was young, like 6-12 year old young. Even as a young kid, i've never attempted to ever pray for anything for myself but always for my family, more specifically my mother whom has being rising me as a single parent. "I hope she stays healthy until i can repay her back" , always that same line every so often when i'd visit the temple.

But it all changed after a year or 2 when she's started having ligaments issues on her knee causing her tear inducing pain whenever she walked. My family that time was on a all time low with her being unable to walk and me started taking night jobs after school to support the family.

I guess it was anger and betrayal that initiated it to a full scale rebellion that i'm never going to accept an entity that wouldn't even help my mother. Thus then, i've thrown my free time to rid myself of the ridiculous beliefs by reading books of science, facts and the atheist theories.

I felt liberated, but since then there was a unspoken scar with my mother whom recovered after a couple of months after she discovered my new found point of view. The heat argument that we had was never brought up again.

I'm an atheist, and I have pretty good reasons why I am. I really don't want to believe something and/or argue about something that's as major as religoin with out absolute or very close to absolute facts.
What proof is there that the universe was created by god? There's a lot more proof that it was created by the Big Bang so I go with that.
What proof is there that god mad all creatures? There's more proof of evaluation so I go with that.
My point is I go with what is more logically believable. I don't believe because it makes me happy and I don't believe because it gives me faith. I just wan't to truly find out about the world without (no offence to others) being ignorant.
I could go on and on about this, but I won't since I most likely will later in a similar forum.

I have really no religious history, ive been to church a few times. I never was convinced in the god that Christianity has portrayed. Later on I thought the same thing with all the other religion. Then recently I started to think more about the subject. I came to the conclusion that the god people fight to prove is real, superior, or just. really is only people's interpretation of the same god if this version of god is the real one. Which makes the death and tragedy that has happened over what really is just a opinion all the more pointless. Quite frankly though I find the god no matter which interpretation a bunch of bs (my opinion). I believe in a god(s), but not one that people have made up, or one I have made up. Why? Cause I believe there is in some sense a god but we just don't know. We could speculate about it all day but in the end all we can do is speculate. God may be male, female, animal, human, hybrid, conscious, unconscious, everything! For all we now he could be the god on family guy who lights his fart and the big bang happens. Who knows. And there's the very real possibility that god doesn't exist at all. Like I said who knows!

I was raised by my grandmother to be Baptist since my father was away for 9 years because of the Airforce. We were forced to read the whole Bible and if we did not recite the proper scripture we would be punished. My grandmother believed that the Bible was 100% true and that science is a lie(it's funny because she has a lot of technology in her house such as an Iphone, PS3, etc...) As I grew older I started to drift away from my family's belief and started to learn more about science. I became a deist, which was troublesome for my family. Because of my belief half of my family viewed me as a problem child or will not talk to me and some of my friends think I'm crazy(it's hard to have intelligent conversations with them without them yelling burn in hell). If any one who is Christian tries to have a debate with me I would ask, "why is it that America, which fosters greed, anger, lust, pride, and gluttony is not suffering like places in Africa where there are Christians or those who believe in God" As i slowly become an atheist, I find it funny that I know more atheist who know more about the Bible and show more compassion or less judgement than Christians do.

I guess I could [at one point] have been considered an atheist. Mostly because I would frequently try to disprove the existence of God with whatever repeated logic I remember hearing, but since about two years ago, I switched to a mix of agnosticism and kopinism mostly because I feel that we really shouldn't worry about our "master(s)" if they exist and just live as though there's nothing that we should give recognition to for our existence.

^runon

Also, it couldn't hurt to mention that eventually my entire family stopped attending church so I just slowly lost interest.

When I was really young, my father(uncle really, but the guy raised me) used to take me to church after he got a divorce with my mother(you know what I mean). I was eager to learn of this religion, and I guess I was a Christian or something. It was after that time, that as I looked back at that whole experience that I found out that god never did anything for us. He never helped with happiness, never helped with life in general, and while in high school, I tried everything I could to make a better life for myself and help my family.

Load and behold, when I stopped praying and got up from my knees and actually did something myself, wouldn't you believe it, I had results. Things changed for the better, and I realized, god's never gonna help you, only you can change anything.

As I took my classes more seriously, I kind of developed some common sense and started to think a little more deeply of things. I remember we used to sit at the table and hold hands and pray for our food, and thank god for this gift. I had to ask, what did god do to give us this food? How about the people that raise/grow it, who transport it, sell it, package it, improve it, whatever. How about the parents who worked hard to buy this food, yet we don't even consider them in our thanks.

I preferably wouldn't want to worship some arrogant, egotistic god who made an entire civilization just to worship him, for him to pull heart wrenching tests like sacrificing ones own child in the name of faith.

Over all, I turned to science, which held logic and understanding. It was something that I could actually picture together, how certain things could happen by following a small order.