Are you an atheist?

[Rich Boy Rob]

Cold hard Atheist here. I believed in God until I was about...6? But that was really only because they used to force Christianity down our throats in infants school (which I think is wrong btw, you should choose what to believe yourself, not let someone else tell you). After that I started questioning the existence of God, and how dinosaurs/evolution/the big bang came into it (yes I was a dinosaur geek when I was little) and decided that the Bible wasn't true.

On a side note, I acknowledge Jesus as existing, there's historical records proving that, but I think he was just a delusional magician, who convinced people his tricks were in fact the power of god.
Lastly, I now have a slight belief in the "ancient astronaut" theory, which says that aliens may have come to Earth in ancient times. I have an idea that these aliens became worshipped as gods due to their superior technology, which made the humans think they were gods, and over time the stories became warped int different religions. An unlikely theory, but still, it's possible.

 

[Esper]

faith (which is, by definition, belief without evidence)

I think where faith fails scientifically is not that it lacks evidence - an individual's personal experience and what seem to be miracles are evidence of a sort - but that it's evidence which cannot be reproduced systematically and reliably. It is essentially random and unpredictable. If, for instance, praying for a deathly sick person to get better regularly caused such a person to get better and if sending a random sample of the population to to church consistently caused 37% of them to describe feelings of a spiritual presence then you would have some good evidence. That's clearly not the case. Faith is subjective. Science is objective.

 

[GymLeaderMisty]

Lastly, I now have a slight belief in the "ancient astronaut" theory, which says that aliens may have come to Earth in ancient times. I have an idea that these aliens became worshipped as gods due to their superior technology, which made the humans think they were gods, and over time the stories became warped int different religions. An unlikely theory, but still, it's possible.

That is similar to Stargate...

 

[AuraAshley]

i belive that when you die you are able to be reincarnated and live another life as a human.

 

[Aksyel]

Do you have faith in Jesus?

Not having faith in Jesus doesn't make you Atheist. You could just follow a religion that doesn't follow Jesus.

I am Agnostic. I realize the fact that there is as much possibility as God existing as there is of him not existing. But, I personally don't see how he can.

----

Ne havas fido in Jesus ne faras vin Ateisto. Vi postirus religio tiu ne postiras Jesus.

Mi estas Ateisto. Mi finarangxis la fakto tiu tie estas lauxeble estus Dio ekzistatas kiam tiu estas li ne ekzistatas. Eksepte, persone mi no vidas kiamaniere.

 

[Shem]

I'm an atheist, but I have morals based off christian ones and celebrate major christian holidays, so I guess I'm not a full-blown atheist.

 

[Goron]

I believe in god, But i think that some of the stuff the church tells us might be BS. They make it seem more strict that it actually is. Well at least IMO. But we all have a right to believe in / not believe in whatever we want so i guess it doesn't matter.

 

[Pokeyomom]

That is similar to Stargate...

More like Scientology:p

I think where faith fails scientifically is not that it lacks evidence - an individual's personal experience and what seem to be miracles are evidence of a sort - but that it's evidence which cannot be reproduced systematically and reliably. It is essentially random and unpredictable. If, for instance, praying for a deathly sick person to get better regularly caused such a person to get better and if sending a random sample of the population to to church consistently caused 37% of them to describe feelings of a spiritual presence then you would have some good evidence. That's clearly not the case. Faith is subjective. Science is objective.

You know there are empirical studies regarding faith/prayer and healing, health, happiness, success, etc, etc. I'm not to sure of any of the specifics, but I do recall a study presenting that people who regularly attended curch had a 50% less risk of mortality vs. their peers. I believe I read that in The Power Of Positive Thinking, by Norman Peale. I have no idea as to the validity and veracity of the study...

 

[Esper]

You know there are empirical studies regarding faith/prayer and healing, health, happiness, success, etc, etc. I'm not to sure of any of the specifics, but I do recall a study presenting that people who regularly attended curch had a 50% less risk of mortality vs. their peers. I believe I read that in The Power Of Positive Thinking, by Norman Peale. I have no idea as to the validity and veracity of the study...

I think everyone suffers from mortality eventually, but I'm guessing you mean they're healthier, or recover from illness better or something like that. If it were true I'd assume it has more to do with mental health affecting your physical health (positive thinking or whatnot) and not, strictly speaking, because of an outside, supernatural force.

 

[>Feelings<]

I'm not what you should call an atheist.
I don't believe in any set religion, though I am inclined to my religion a bit. I only believe that there is a God and that he/she is the cause we are here now. I also believe in the afterlife and I choose to believe the good things about the religion that appeal to me.
Most of the times, I choose to not believe anything that would be negative, or would bind me in chains, because I hate that.

So yeah, not an atheist here, since I believe in the simple principle, but if you think that not following any singled out religion and/or choosing to believe what I want to makes me an atheist, then I guess I am one...

 

[Pokeyomom]

I think everyone suffers from mortality eventually, but I'm guessing you mean they're healthier, or recover from illness better or something like that. If it were true I'd assume it has more to do with mental health affecting your physical health (positive thinking or whatnot) and not, strictly speaking, because of an outside, supernatural force.

I totally agree with you:D But just to clarify- that is how people reference a lower risk of death. True mortality is inevitable, but I believe when journals state that, they mean compared to peers of a similar age (or something.) For instance if I did a long study on 10 avid joggers, and 10 sedendary folk, the same ages, and 2 of the joggers died in the study, and 6 of the sedendary people died, we could deduce that joggers have a 50% reduction in the likelyhood of mortality:p (a pretty petty postulation given my weak example:p) I know- that's a horrible example, and a vast over simplification, but I hope you get what I'm shooting for?

And yes, it could very well just be psychosomatic advantages. But science is objectively studying the subjective. It doesn't need to concern itself with fundamental attribution errors, etc. For the specifics of what actually caused the benefits, etc, they could test a number of other variables to ascertain a more complete picture of what is really going on.

The placebo effect is fascinating when looked at by any perspective:P Perhaps as neuroscience evolves, we can gain better insight into the nitty gritty of how our believes effect our bodies/ brains/ etc. I think there is already a bunch of studies regarding this as well- I'm just a little off base with current neurosoup:D

 

[SonicThrust]

I guess I'm an atheist. I just don't really care whether a god exists or not.

 

[Operator3]

I often wonder how people can believe in something when there's no proof at all. I guess most of you who are religious are becuase your parents told you so.

Then there's people who have experiences and it changes them but really, I think it's a cover up for "I want to be a better person now". (Or they had some insaaane LSD trip).

There's no god. When we die, our bodies rot and we're eaten' by worms. There may of been some guy called Jesus once but I'm pretty sure he didn't come back from the dead and he didn't do anything mystical.

Before I'm shot for slagging everyone off, I will admit, I do agree with some of the teachings in the bible and it does have some fair points. Kinda like morals in fairy tales.

 

[A Pixy]

I'm Muslim, now that I've said that, I'm going to leave and never come back.

 

[GymLeaderMisty]

Go... go get raptured from this thread. I'm glad your raptured.

 

[Wish]

I've always thought the same for every Religion thread that popped up on PC.

I do believe in my Catholic beliefs. In short: It's better to die believing in God and be wrong about his whole existence than to die not believing God and burning in eternal Hell.

That's my belief at least.

 

[Agent Cobalt]

I've always thought the same for every Religion thread that popped up on PC.

I do believe in my Catholic beliefs. In short: It's better to die believing in God and be wrong about his whole existence than to die not believing God and burning in eternal Hell.

That's my belief at least.

Cue Luck in 3... 2... 1...

 

[Pikachu2007]

I'm half and half. You know, part of me wants me to think there is a God because of all the cool things that happen to me while there are bad moments and logical thinking that makes me question the lord's" intentions.

 

[Jordan]

I've always thought the same for every Religion thread that popped up on PC.

I do believe in my Catholic beliefs. In short: It's better to die believing in God and be wrong about his whole existence than to die not believing God and burning in eternal Hell.

That's my belief at least.

Hahaha, I share your sentiments.

 

[FreakyLocz14]

I'm a devout Roman Catholic.

And I agree this topic is a bit controversial for this forum. I remember I made a topic on politics and it locked.