• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Characterization of Atheism

My experience: read the Bible twice as a believer, which led me to be an agnostic atheist as I no longer believed the Bible to be a reliable source of information on whatever God there might be (or worse, was a reliable source). I started becoming skeptical of paranormal claims before I became skeptical of God's existence though. My default was apparently believing anything, I thought Duke University had proven ESP, then some guys showed how easy it was to fool the Duke researchers by fooling them. When they tightened up their protocols to prevent cheating, their proof of ESP vanished. Next thing you know, I'm starting to doubt Bigfoot, Nessie, and alien visitation. Still a deist or mild theist though, I couldn't conceive of the universe being natural processes all the way down. Finally finished college in my mid-thirties, picked up some science took intro to religion and Logic II the same semester and realized I didn't believe in God anymore and understanding the burden of proof made me realize I didn't have to keep a space for him in order to be open-minded: I was justified in taking non-belief as the default position in the absence of good reason to believe.

So, began to doubt for ethical reasons, came to disbelieve for logical and scientific reasons.
 
Bill Thompson 75 said:
It sounds like you had already developed an atheistic viewpoint and used scientific reasoning to solidify or justify that viewpoint
Click to expand...

I suppose that's a possibility if you want to speculate instead of ask. To me it seems more like a case of being open to changing your thinking once you're no longer certain you have the answers. The origin of the universe was a sticking point with me for awhile. I understand it's an argument from incredulity now: I couldn't wrap my head around the universe starting without an agent starting it, therefore God. Learning more about cosmology helped me understand that there were plausible natural explanations for the origin of the universe, which probably moved me from deist to agnostic barely-atheist without realizing it, at that point the only reason I didn't think of myself as an atheist was that I thought it would be dogmatic to reject theism when I had no way of knowing for sure it isn't true. Later I learned what was wrong with that attitude and realized I'm an atheist.

At no point was I seeking reasons to become an atheist. I just kept running into them in the natural course of educating myself in logic and science. Not even hard science: my degree is in psychology. I don't have an advanced degree, but I hear that next to biologists and cosmologists, psychologists are most likely to be atheists, perhaps because they have learned an appreciation for our human facility for lying to ourselves in order to keep believing something because we want it to be true.
 
HikakaGirl said:
A friend commented that she thought it was ill-advised to get a tattoo
Click to expand...

Probably right. You're stuck with it, for the rest of your life. I suppose that your fifty year old self is going to be stuck with all the other decisions made by the fifteen year old, twenty-two year old that thirty-three year old selves as well, though.
 
I remember not more than a year ago I thanked my parents so much for never letting me get a tattoo or a piercing...

They said "you're welcome, and we'd do it again too"
 
I like tattoos, and still want one.

I'm already in my 50s, so I can skip the "what happens to it when you're old" part.
And I look like I've lived a life, so a little ink can only improve what's left.

Yup. I want one. And you blank-skinned kids can just get off my lawn.
 
slingblade said:
I like tattoos, and still want one.

I'm already in my 50s, so I can skip the "what happens to it when you're old" part.
And I look like I've lived a life, so a little ink can only improve what's left.

Yup. I want one. And you blank-skinned kids can just get off my lawn.
Click to expand...

You do know you don't have to ask us for permission?
 
I on the other hand will not allow it!!! Slingblade if you get a tattoo you are cut off!
 
HikakaGirl said:
Hi all,
At the risk of opening Pandora's Box, I have a high level question to put to you all. I am an atheist, and recently got a tattoo of a scarlet "A" to signify said atheism.
Click to expand...
If you are in fact a girl, then my suggested location for that tatoo would be well below the navel and slightly above the genital region.

At that strategic location, as certain visitors and diners arrive, and perhaps ask about the tattoo, you would be in a unique position to provide explanation, at length and in some depth, while said visitors or diners were already in a very positive frame of mind to receive such explanation.

In other words, Hester put her A in the wrong place.
 
I would characterize atheism as the lack of a belief in a god or gods.

I know, I'm incredibly original.

Seriously though, even that seems to be a tough concept for people to understand.

I don't want to put atheism in the "spiritual" category, because it's specifically not spiritual (although methinks an atheist can be involved in forms of spirituality) so I would have to go with philosophical.
 
MG1962 said:
No because a choice not to collect stamps represents a lack of desire not to do so. Atheists don't desire to be atheists, they simply are
Click to expand...

very well said, and if i remember correctly, you are not an atheist yourself :)
 
Marquis de Carabas said:
The difference between Harry Potter and Luke Skywalker on the one hand and God on the other, is that the former are well-defined, though fictional, concepts, whereas the latter is essentially a gibberish word which has been infused with so many disparate meanings through the years as to have been rendered meaningless in the general case.

Theological non-cognitivism for the win.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

I often get frustrated with some theists when I ask them, at the outset of the discussion, to define god. Sadly, most of them don't even know about the concept of so much as a deistic view of god; they just stare at me blankly. It's ironic that I know more about religion than they do.

Well said, MdC.
 
Halfcentaur said:
I define spirituality as coming from the word spirit, as in a spirited horse. Not a ghost horse, but a horse with vibrant burning passion.
Click to expand...

Nice one. I usually don't know what people mean when they say "spiritual."
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom