That uncertainty is atheism. That's all atheism is. Refraining from asserting the existence of deities. Anything else attributed to atheism is a straw-man, because atheism doesn't cover any other issues than that.
I understand that. I am just elucidating that atheism is a very encompassing term. People tend to avoid using it due to much of the social stigma and misconceptions surrounding it though. They like to use 'agnostic' and 'undecided' and all sorts of wishy-washy terms to define their lack of belief in any deities. The fact remains that if you don't assert that there is at least one deity then you are an atheist. Agnosticism and all these other nice terms simply deal with why one doesn't assert that existence.
[quote]That it did, never felt more free or less guilty in my life. Of course at some point in time a massive feeling of being alone came upon me but I shrugged it off quick enough.
That's been the story from pretty much everyone I have run into who has deconverted, myself included. For the loneliness we have our fellow humans to turn to, or failing that maybe a pet of some sort.[/quote]
My quoting tends to bugger up when I quote within a quote so I hope Im not talking in some lines of quotyness here...
I fully agree. I still get those pangs, tho Im sure any theist that doubts their gods existence gets the same thing, we just have the added advantage of knowing we can turn to our fellow humans for some real love, not the fairy tale stuff that theists are into.
No, there is no in between. Either you do or you dont.
If I ask you whether you want chocolate cake, I would accept it if you said "I dont know, I am uncertain"... why would belief in god be any different. Exept he doesnt taste as good :>
I fully agree. I still get those pangs, tho Im sure any theist that doubts their gods existence gets the same thing, we just have the added advantage of knowing we can turn to our fellow humans for some real love, not the fairy tale stuff that theists are into.
Your right you do still can get just as lonely even with a belief in a god.
Questions on faith. Thought about making this it's own thread, but I decided to try it here first. If I don't get any real replies I will try it as it's own thread to see if it's noticed more.
This of course is for anyone who believes in God.
1. What makes believing without evidence superior to believing with evidence? 2. Why should you believe at all if there is no evidence backing the claim? 3. If you do believe in one thing that has no evidence then why are you not consistent with this practice and believe everything you are told regardless of whether there is proof or not?
1. What makes believing without evidence superior to believing with evidence? 2. Why should you believe at all if there is no evidence backing the claim? 3. If you do believe in one thing that has no evidence then why are you not consistent with this practice and believe everything you are told regardless of whether there is proof or not?
Faith and "ersonal" evidence. The claim of objective evidence doesn't do anything to refute god in the minds of those who believe.
Faith and "ersonal" evidence. The claim of objective evidence doesn't do anything to refute god in the minds of those who believe.
faith is just belief without proof. Personal experience as evidence is completely unverifiable so that a person can not be sure what they experienced is what they think. I can understand considering personal experience however in light of objective evidence contradiction what you thought happened is just ignoring the facts, and leaves that person with no real evidence.
So perhaps I should rephrase the first question. What makes a persons untestable unverifiable personal experience or feeling superior to objective evidence?
What makes a persons untestable unverifiable personal experience or feeling superior to objective evidence?
Do you acknowledge that there are some things unexplainable by science? If you do, then this can explain why we believe this. Take for instance, if someone instantly appeared in front of you and predicted what would happen in an hour, disappeared, and was right. (This did not actually happen, but bear with me for the sake of an analogy.) Then, when you told someone, they gave you scientific evidence of why that was impossible. Would you believe that you were hallucinating, or that the impossible did happen? For many Christians, this is how our "unexplainable" faith works.
