Atheism

HB, you posit that being a non-beleiver, atheist, non-theist is some sort of continual choice. For me, it isn't. It simply is. There aren't any crisis of non-faith. There aren't any nights set up pondering "Am I right?" When I was a practicing Christian, there were those moments of choices. A continual feeling that I must make the right decisions, choose the proper path, be worthy.

Now, I simply am. That is enough.

To share a personal anecdote, I've thought over the last few months about the old saying "There are no atheists in a foxhole." In the last couple of years, I've faced a moment or two that could have been my last. A possible heart attack and a near drowning. Not once, with all that was racing through my head during those moments, did the thought of God in any incarnation occur to me. My thoughts were pretty much a rapid succession from "Oh shit, this is bad," to the thoughts of my love for my wife and children and the hope that they would be ok.

I guess that would make me in Christian terms, an unrepentant sinner heading straight to hell.

 

I'm saying you are an Atheist in regards to you non-belief in other gods. You deny their existence.

On the other hand, you fully believe in the Christian God. You exhibit both the nature of a theist and a non-theist. What it simply comes down to is I believe in only one less god than you do.

If your faith gives you strength and helps you to live a better life because of it, I have no objections to it whatsoever. Not for you or anyone.

As far as my image of an Atheist, it's based on one of my best friends who is Atheist. She doesn't believe in God - there's no question in her mind. I believe in God - there's no question in my mind. We respect each other's views and even discuss it. What we don't do is try to change that view or belittle them. [/quote]

That’s good to know. I’m not much of an evangelical myself. However, I find your statement here a bit different from the opinion you expressed earlier about atheists.

If your personal views come from your relationship with “one of your best friends” who is an atheist, where did the above opinion develop?

I do not believe in a higher power that watches over us and has a hand in our lives. While I find the classical deism somewhat intriguing in the view of a detached higher power, I find no rational basis to subscribe to that view either.

I do believe strongly in the value of life. That our fleeting existence on this earth is all that we have and that it is what we make of it. Our relationships with those close to us and those a world away have meaning, possibly more meaning than those that follow a more orthodox religious philosophy would hold, simply because when I die, all that is left is what I do on this earth. How will I be remembered by those that knew me and what did I do to help make their life just a bit better. In the end, I believe that is all that we can do and if we spent time doing that, the world would be much better off for both the believer and the non-believer.

 

You'll probably get run down by a Fritos-Lays truck.

 

I'll concede that to an atheist, the question of religion is probably most often pretty low on the priority list as they obviously don't share the fear of the possible consequences of their decision. My bad there.

 

sure, i just wanted to be clear because you took my post to mean that faith couldn't have evidence.

are you suggesting that belief in god will change the truth about god's existance? i could believe or disbelieve in god all i want and i don't think it would change anything about the universe.

 

The concept of god is laughable.

 

Sure, but what you "are" is a flexible and fluid. Just because it doesn't change much doesn't mean it can't. You're not stuck being the way you are (and all that entails), you are what you are because of the choices you make -- both big and small, significant and insignificant -- and that can change for any number of reasons. You referred to two traumatic experiences in your adult life. Okay, so you weren't motivated to seek God out of fear, but I bet you thought at least a little seriously about maybe your health after that heart attack. You might've even changed your diet a little. How about when your little girl was born? Did your thoughts, actions, priorities, perceptions change? They didn't have to. Not really. But knowing you as I do, and knowing how much you love your daughter, I'm betting that both consciously and subconsciously a few changes in your life were made once she came into the picture. Am I right? If so, I'm betting those things have continued to strengthen and become more refined as you've grown into fatherhood. Not that you changed who you are, but several things about you changed.

Once you decided to walk away from Christianity. I don't know what prompted it, although I seem to recall you were never really sold on it to begin with, and were just humoring your parents for the most part. Okay, so you've never been tempted to seriously revisit your decision. That doesn't mean you haven't continued to make the same choice over and over. You've done it when your daughter gets caught in awkward situations at her school. You've done it on this message board in threads like this. There's a hundred other day-to-day examples like this. It doesn't have to keep you up at night to be a decision.

Maybe. That's not up for me to decide because I don't know everything there is to know about you -- your experiences, the influences you've had, what you think and why you choose to think that way to the nth degree of minutia. Heck, I probably couldn't even figure that out about myself.

 

I completely agree. Belief doesn't make God exist any more than unbelief prevents Him from existing.

 

I gots to check out for the evening. I have babysitting duty with my niece and nephew. I'll try to jump back on this tomorrow. Thanks y'all.