On this episode of FFRF's "Ask an Atheist," we hear from PJ Slinger and Raghen Lucy as they discuss why they are atheists. Learn more about the Freedom From Religion Foundation at ffrf.org.
I'm and atheist because if you study anthropology or history you'll see how every single human tribe creates religion and myths, I'm an atheist because the space is just too big and complex compared to the small and insignificant religions, I'm an atheist because I don't let myself be manipulated by flawed and mediocre creeds. I'm an atheist because it's the most reasonable way.
Exactly, I’m an atheist because I studied biology and clearly can see natural selection and evolution, I have studied astronomy and can see how insignificant we are, studied anthropology and can see how cultures came about, I have studied philosophy and can see how human nature is all the same in us, I have studied different religions, Egypt, Zoroasterism, Greek mythology, Hinduism, and can see how religion came about, I have studied Catholicism and can see how stupid and corrupt it is, I have lived life and seeked and never found anything Jesus said to be true, his BS philosophy of living, studied geology and can see the earth isn’t 6000 years old, I have studied people and their superstitious clowns 🤡
Well said guys, agree 100%. I'm an atheist because there is no evidence of any gods or anything supernatural existing whatsoever. I'm an atheist because it is almost infinitely more likely that the universe and life originated naturally and wasn't poofed into existence by some omnipotent entity from another dimension. :)
@@joeschmoe6720 At the end of the day it is all opinion because not one person on this planet knows exactly what existed or occurred prior to the Big Bang and no one has any solid proof of anything supernatural occurring whatsoever. We can make an informed and educated hypothesis about what is most LIKELY to be true and that is that the universe and life most likely originated naturally and wasn't poofed into existence by some omnipotent entity from another dimension.
EDIT: I hadn't watched this whole video before I posted this. I didn't know I'd be echoing the discussions in it. I guess they're very prevalent. I am 67 years old and have been an atheist since I was about 12. I didn't even know what an atheist was in 1968, but I was one. My deconversion was uneventful and barely even noticed by my family who were also at various stages of being secular. So I pondered your question for decades, often to the point of being angry at the foolishness of theists. I would have considered myself a strong atheist in that I didn't just not believe any god exists, but that no god exists. I've softened a bit, but still fully don't believe the biblical god could possibly exist in our reality. The story just doesn't have any credibility. But with all the various youtube channels and call in shows, I see people going through horrific deconversion scenarios. A lot of it seems to be not wanting to be rejected by their social group and afraid of what lies ahead in their lives. Another major reason is even though they know it's logical to not believe anymore, their religious indoctrination at an early age still has a strong hold on their psyche. Despite all the hard evidence to the contrary, the "what if" scenarios that their religious training drilled into them still enforces the hollow threat that if they forsake their god, they will regret it when they are dead and it's too late.
it's an evolutionary survival trait, to assign agency to natural events can save your life, whereas being "reasonable" - and not running cos "it is out to get you" can actually get you killed, superstitious people live longer, or at least they did before we figured what lightning really was. type 1 and type 2 errors it's known as.
When the Pope was shot, they took him to the hospital as soon as possible. For some reason prayer alone was not, even for God's representative on earth, was not deemed sufficient. And an all-powerful God, was surely able to win an election or foil the plans of those planning to "steal" the election. In both cases these people are atheist, they don't believe God will act or has acted.
I'm not shy with my friends about being an Atheist. On the occasion I get asked why, my answer is usually, "The same reason you don't believe in the tooth fairy".
June 2006: I told Nena Susanne Watson/Sotelo of Madera California; that I was atheist. About six weeks later I received a medium-large cardboard box through the USPS. On the outside written in large black letters: HEATHEN. Inside a large array of inexpensive plastic kitchen items. Tore off the portion of the box that said: HEATHEN. Took the box and contents to the Goodwill. She has never mentioned her behaviors, to this day. 12/21/22.
The Christian private school I attended until the 9th grade taught me foundations of logic, so it was all pretty much downhill from there. I was heavily interested in science and mathematics from an early age, so that probably helped me along too.
I'm an atheist but I disagree with this statement only because atheism comes about through a process of analysis of available evidence. Babies can't do that.
i think it's even more basic than that: i'm atheist because of what someone else believes, i have no position on god at all, god and religion play zero part in my life and that's always been the case, IRL i have had two - in 56 years since i left school - two conversations about religion. even my ex wife who is japanese i asked "are you religious" and she said "nope", and that was that. i would prefer NOT to be atheist, i didn't ASK to be atheist, it is something you get lumbered with because of the religists. atheism doesn't really exist.
I disagree to be atheist is to know for certain there is no God with evidence babies are born not knowing anything so the term is more accurate everyone is born agnostic
t5he old bit if it can prevent evil and doesn't it is evil and if can;t is useless.some kids don't believe even if raised in it, others cling to it and even convert. some more gullible
I heard Andrew speak on another program and was very impressed. That interview led me to find him on this CZcams channel. I greatly appreciate his commentary and advocacy.
@@russbeers9613 It's simple. Any church (like anyone else) can set up a charity that meets all charity requirements, and it then rightly gets special tax treatment. Otherwise the church should be treated like any other business... and taxed. It's called a level playing field.
@@russbeers9613 Require churches to report all income and be subject to audit. Allow only those funds exclusively allocated to charity purposes to be exempt from taxes.
As an atheist for a long time, I continue to deepen my understanding of why I am an atheist. I remember way back when I tried to be religious, but it never felt right. What concerned me most was that I was beginning to judge others. God never spoke to me, so how could I share a testimony. I came to atheism because of evolutionary science (Dawkins). Now, I am content, but the world is not. Thanks (also FFRF member)
I've been an atheist most my life for two simple reasons; 1. No shred of verifiable data or empirical, science based evidence of any supernatural events or "magical sky daddies." 2. The influence of this "delusion" on politics, social issues, laws, education, and science.
My fear is that Christian Nationalism is beginning to take hold here in Canada. I have mentioned my apprehension and Andrew's book to a few Evangelical friends but was met with complete indifference.
i think it's not something to worry about too much, sure you can't sit on your hands, but i think even christians don't want a theocracy, or we'd have one by now. people love going to church then being a-holes for the rest of the week, even the most dedicated christians don't want god rammed down their throats 24/7, the reaosn roe / wade went through in the first place is because even christians have abortions.
I am 68. An ex evangelical. Now a happy atheist. Yet I feel alone when with others my age. Being an atheist is simply not a popular belief in this country. I know my old christian friends are aghast as I was a very vocal evangelical. Its taken me time to not feel guilty when its time for the blessing before a meal. Especially when someone asks me to lead the prayer and I declined. I no longer bow my head and now notice people glancing up at me. My wife is still somewhat of a believer but not strong. Our love is still strong and she has learned that her atheist husband is not the immoral person that many theist may think I am. I don't push the issue of my atheism. But she has said several times that she is slowly understanding me.
Thinking critically is what "SAVED" me. Thank u for this great video. The speakers were honest. The host speaks well and makes so much sense to me. Thank you FFRF💜
If God loves us and thinks we are his children, then why would he send many of his children to hell to suffer eternal torment? An earthly father would not do this to his child.
I was born without indoctrination. My early love for nature and fossils made me instantly laugh at the Genesis fables. I also was a history nerd. Luckily I grew up in Germany, Berlin...meaning.... Christian indoctrination crusaders didn't have influence on my grade or high school. Evolutionary theory....and it's absolute beauty and reading the radical Enlightenment philosophers like Spinoza or Hume did the rest. I absolutely, radically REJECT anything supernatural, religion or Pseudoscience.
In Genesis it states all creatures were created on the 6th day including humans and science proves Dinosaurs and humans didn't exist at the same time which discredits the whole book
PJ's story is almost identical to my story. Even though my dad was a pastor, I never really believed the bible stories, none of it made any sense to me, and going to church was way beyond boring. Church was excruciating. I hated every second of it, and so did most of the kids around me. Not having to go to church anymore was like getting released from prison.
I am an atheist for two main reasons: 1) I am not gullible enough to believe in absurd unsubstantiated claims. 2) I am not dishonest enough to pretend that I believe them.
Gonna answer before I watch, so I'm not swayed. I'm an atheist because I was raised to deeply value the truth, honesty and authenticity. In fact, it's something I carry from my religious upbringing that I don't entirely hate. Growing up, I always wanted to understand the world around me in minuscule detail. I loved reading books, magazines, encyclopedias, websites, cereal boxes, anything. I flew through schoolwork without great effort. I learned new languages in my free time. And I loved God. I took my religion very seriously. I studied our scripture in its entirety and dedicated years to serving my religious community. For me, God was a way to understand the order of the world; everything has a purpose, everything has a design, an order, because God made it so. It also gave me a sense of peace; the mysteries that I had yet to uncover, the loved ones who I had lost (or never even had), the ultimate trajectory of my life, were all safely under God's control, waiting to be revealed to me as I grew closer to him. I always saw some of the cracks though. For example, even early on it was the inconsistencies in translations. I thought, well why would God want so many of us to be confused? A Muslim friend said this is why she knew arabic, to read the Quran as Allah had delivered it. So I started learning Hebrew and Greek. Evangelicals make a big deal of whipping out the original Heb/Gk words for things... And I started seeing how often they were DEAD WRONG about it. I would even bring my Heb/Gk Bibles to the service and read along, astonished. A lot of these preachers probably had less understanding of the original than I did at that early point in my studies, but they were so confident in letting dozens (hundreds? thousands?) hear their mistake... Or their lie 🤔 I started seeing the way churches talked about money, often demonizing other churches for their financial practices while in the same breath doing the same at their own pulpits. I started to notice around this time as well how... convenient God was. In my tradition we teach that essentially anyone can directly communicate with, know and understand God. And God always has something to say that agrees with the speaker. At one church, God told them not to use instruments, at another, no wine, at another, yes wine, at this one, no gays, at this one, God loves us all. God told my uncle BLM were terrorists. BLM met in a church and opened in prayer. God told them they were doing his work. Why was our spiritual destinies, our understanding of the divine, in the hands of the unqualified and (hopefully) misguided? And why had God made it so confusing? Shouldn't he want more of us to know him intimately, without these kinds of obstacles? The last part was learning about other's beliefs and how religious systems work. In my old religion, we were made to think of ourselves as having some direct connection to some primordial God and a community that stretches back millenia. But if you study history, what we practiced today, even at our most radically fundamental, wasn't anything near what people were doing even 500 years ago. It's all always made up and changing as we experience new things, gain more information, or our context expands. We are all using religion for the same reasons, but there is no universal religion because humans have to keep making it up and adapting it as we go. I kept pushing for truth. I wanted God to be real. But I wanted the truth of what he was so badly, I found it: a tool we use to fulfill certain needs. And once I could identify the needs, I didn't need to shoehorn in the fantastical elements to fill them. I feel much fuller now Wow lol tldr I identified that I was using religion
I wouldn't be an atheist for that reason. God is a Metaphysical principle by definition. And "first principles" from Metaphysics do NOT come under the purview of empiricism. But that doesn't mean the principles are not true. Right?
Better question would be 'why are you a theist?' We are all born not a theist. So was if child indoctrination as with most, or some other reason. In other words, when did you start to believe in contradicting fairy tales?
I will answer this question for myself. This is about 10% of my reason for being an atheist. I became an atheist at the age of 11. I realized gods, angels, the devil are no different than ghosts, leprechaun, fairies, Santa Claus, werewolves; just figments of the imagination of ancient science-ignorant, superstitious men with no understanding. ‘God did it'. Such a simple minded answer. So which of the literally thousands of diverse gods did it? The god of the Greeks Zeus?, or the Egyptians Osiris, or the Hindus Vishnu, the Norse Odin, the Romans Jupiter, the Aztec Huitzilopochtli, the Celtic Dagna, thousands more imaginary deities/spirit animals? Oh, Christians say Yahweh, the god made up by Hebrews. Where did the universe come from? Who created the earth? Who created life? Who created man? Science explains the evolution of this universe, galaxies, stars & planets, us from primordial matter/energy of the Big Bang: astrophysics, abiogenesis over a billion years, evolution over four billion years. We have a universe & planet full of evidence for it. Science-ignorant, superstitious, flat earthers created the literal thousands of gods/spirit animals. They believed in magic, thought gods controlled the sun, floods, plagues, natural events, and had zero understanding of nature/earth. Christians believe their stories. Sad
This is easy. I’m an atheist because there is no god, and I’m not interested in arguing, there’s nothing to argue. Actually I don’t think atheist is a correct term. Just because somebody label themselves as theorist doesn’t matter me. I don’t need to have anything to do with their title, i’m just “not a theist”, like, i’m not a dentist, and certainly I am not an adentist.
I am an atheist because when I saw the Gennesis stories (Creation, Garden, and the Flood) as myth, the foundation of my Faith turned to smoke and blew away. Everything I believed crumbled away, and Reason came in to fill the void.
I was still a Christian when I went to college. I remember thinking, “I haven’t read my Bible in years. I’ll start at the beginning.” And as I read Genesis, I remember thinking how childish and ridiculous it sounded compared to when I heard those stories as a child.
I'm agnostic. I'm non-religious because I know that scientific inquiry provides questions which answered provide more questions and so on; logical reasoning provides questions without answers; and on the other hand religious obedience provides answers unquestioned; and blind faith provides answers with questioning. I also know that technological innovation will send all of us beyond galaxies while religious dogma will send most of us to (Perdition, Underworld, Separation, or Annihilation) (Which is it?! Nobody knows.)
atheism isn't a belief though, it[s based on what SOMEONE ELSE believes, personally i have no position on god at all, it's someone else tells me there is a god, i just don't believe them, nothing to do with the existence of a god at all, just the reliability of the person telling me i ought to hate queers.
It doesn't matter in the arguments, if an atheist expresses neutrality. The problem is, we'll find upon examination, that a skeptic's worldview is going to be atheistic upon examination. Even professed agnostics, have models of "first principles" which are every bit as atheistic as the models held by hardcore atheists who deny God's existence explicitly. And the problem for skeptics is, that the hard atheistic proposition is ALWAYS a non sequitur.
They were not made up. I can prove it. Have proved it, see my work. It all started with a comet that dropped into the inner solar system ~20,000 years ago that appears to emanate from the Constellation of Taurus, more specifically the Pleiades. This is why the omnipotent rides The Sky Bull, the Cherub and not the chubby babies with wings, with the Thunderweapon of the Superbolide. It is all over Universal Comparative Mythology and it seems I am the only one who has dared to open the curtains as Toto did in The Wizard of Oz.
I'm an atheist because there are a thousand or more religions throughout human history, believed just as fervently by their adherents as evangelicals believe now. They can't all be right, but they can all be wrong.
I'm an atheist because religious stories always sounded like obvious fiction to me, unable to withstand even casual curiosity. Yes, even as a child. 🤷♂
To reserve energy atheists might as well just reply "why shouldn't we be?" Lack of belief is the default position to have before learning of evidential reason to be convinced a claim is true.
i have to keep saying this, i'm atheist because of what someone else believes, i have no position on god at all, god and religion play zero part in my life and that's always been the case, IRL i have had two - in 56 years since i left school - two conversations about religion. even my ex wife who is japanese i asked "are you religious" and she said "nope", and that was that. i would prefer NOT to be atheist, i didn't ASK to be atheist, it is something you get lumbered with because of the religists. atheism doesn't really exist. and the other thing to bear in mind is, if it turns out there IS a god, then atheists disappear, or the word no longer applies to people, if god exists i have no choice but to be theist - atheism is the biggest NON THING in the dictionary., it's word and NOTHING more.
I'm an atheist. I figured out I was a sceptic when I first read the Bible and it started classifying bats as birds and locusts. I decided the information in it was out of date and should be treated with scepticism. I learned about refraction before I ever heard the story of Noah so I placed science ahead of religion. There was also a few other factors that really put me off. My local church was physically painful to be in. The less were probably solid oak with no cushioning and I would get pins and needles during the services I attended there. Secondly I absolutely hate hymns and anyone who calls them beautiful clearly has no musical taste. Thirdly prayer flat out doesn't work so why waste my time. Fourthly I didn't like the pompous demeanour of the priest. Finally, I worked out that the God at the centre of the Judaic faiths is actually Ptah an Egyptian creator God who is mummified and because he's dead technically prayer is necromancy which the Bible actually prohibits. Checkmate Christians.
Why am I an atheist? Well... I have the membership card, t-shirts, I've talked to Matt Dillahunty in e-mail, and I eat babies. (No going back now) LOL.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has done extensive research on brainwashing. Parents/adults start brainwashing children with religion, when they are infants. Prior to them developing cognitive skills to object or opt out. Religion creates subservient and complacent people. Religion is a means and ways of controlling others emotionally, mentally, physically, verbally and financially. Religion is a means and ways to con, threaten, bully, antagonize, harass and annoy others.
I don't know how strongly I believed before I became an atheist. I know I found church BORING!! To say I thought it was stupid is to perhaps a bit of post-hoc "memory" creation. I certainly didn't see the point and I do remember thinking that when I was old enough I'd only go to church the minimum amount possible. I didn't call myself an atheist until I found out it was an option. The first atheist author I read (Kurt Vonnegut) turned me. I remember reading a line in a book of essays of his where he called religion a "Rube Goldberg" machine of social control and I said to myself: "Yes, that is exactly what religion is" and I was an atheist from that point on. Kudos to Uncle Kurt for knowing what he was doing and doing such a good job at it. When I was a teenage I wanted to find a book that was "adult" literature to read, but didn't know what I wanted. This was like 7th grade. I was just walking through the library looking for books without knowing what I wanted. I picked up Steppenwolf because I liked the band, but I wasn't ready to read that yet. Still a little beyond what I was ready to read. I saw the book "Breakfast of Champions". I saw the lurid cover and knew that the title was sarcastic. I opened the book to the first pages and saw uncle Kurt's magic marker drawings and knew the book was for me. Vonnegut is a good introduction to literature for young male readers. He knew what he was doing, and it worked. Teenagers and Vonnegut is a good match.
It’s funny that I watch lots of atheist videos, even though I’m not an atheist. I’m basically a secular progressive Christian with agnostic tendencies. But I agree completely that Christian nationalism is a very serious threat to our democracy. I’ve been a strong supporter of the separation of church and state since the late 1970s when I was in college in Alabama. As editor of my college newspaper, I wrote an editorial in opposition to my college student senate voting to fund “religious emphasis week.” The student senate openly touted this event as encouraging Christianity. Even though I was a Christian, I strongly believed that government funds and school tuition should never be used to promote religion. I was interviewed by the local newspaper and received front page coverage with my campaign against theocracy. The student senate quietly dropped their plan.
I'm an atheist because, when I was 14 or 15 years old, I read the bible... the whole book without skipping pages. I saw god so human & so fallible, & blood-thirsty to boot. I concluded the biblical god was a creation of man, based on the culture & morals of that violent period. Plus, Jesus "sacrifice" would have been completely unnecessary if that god practiced what he preached. After all, it was god's bright idea to put that magic tree easily accessible for Adam & Eve to reach when they were easily dupe by that magical talking snake.
I am an atheist because I don't need any magical being to be responsble for my actions, thoughts, decisions, nor things that happen to me; Also I feel no desire to force my beliefs onto others (apparently a requirement for the church people).
After a lifetime of service as clergy, it was, of all things, a spontaneous moment of clarity just a couple years ago. Long story, but it shattered my reality and forced me to face the fact that my religious experiences were all delusion. First thing I wanted to know was, "What do we know that we *know* that we know?" So I first turned to science. Finding a personal philosophy or worldview was much more complicated, but I'm in a good place in that respect and I can't imagine a scenario where I could be convinced to go back to religion of any kind. I'm a devout anti-theist now.
The catalyst is the fact that the bible has been used for political gain since day 1. Cross referencing every form of science makes me confident. Reading the bible removes all doubt
I reckon that was the whole setup from the start. Someone thought, 'hey, these people blindly follow orders when i say a god talks through me, i can get rich with this!' And the rest is history
I'm an atheist because I haven't heard a single convincing argument for a god or gods. Or, in other words, I wasn't indoctrinated to believe in myths. Considering how weak all the claims are, I am comfortable to say all those gods are man made.
I am an Atheist, because no "God" has ever existed. I understand that people love to share scary stories, and claim they can predict the "coming disaster". We call them "Doomsday Sayers".
As an atheist, the only philosophical question, I would want to know is “can I be more atheist than you“ or another way to put it if you never believed in anything, can you be more of an atheist than someone who became an atheist after being religious? it’s just a hypothetical question that may not have an answer🤔
As an atheist I say we have got to start framing ourselves in positive terms. I am an atheist espousing naturalism. Can I refer to myself as a naturalist? A scientist? A scientificist? A scientismist? Rationalist?-- no. Everyone thinks they are a rationalist, no matter how irrational they are. Does 'atheist' rightly imply 'one who espouses naturalism'? I guess the answer is to forgo linguistic economy and say 'I believe in science'.
i have to keep saying this, i'm atheist because of what someone else believes, i have no position on god at all, god and religion play zero part in my life and that's always been the case, IRL i have had two - in 56 years since i left school - two conversations about religion. even my ex wife who is japanese i asked "are you religious" and she said "nope", and that was that. i would prefer NOT to be atheist, i didn't ASK to be atheist, it is something you get lumbered with because of the religists. atheism doesn't really exist.
As a child I was always skeptical of religion but everyone around me just accepted it and so there was no recourse in "another opinion". As an adult struggling with faith I realized it was too much of a burden and the more historical digging I did the more I realized that I was getting further and further from any truth to reinforce my beliefs. Now, as an atheist, I'm a lot happier living without all the "ancient baggage" of Christian dogma. I actually feel sorry for Jesus. The current brand of Christianity in America seems a far cry from the original intent of it's creator. God needs a better agent. Or, better yet let's retire from ourselves a doctrine that has long outlived it's usefulness.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) has done extensive research on brainwashing. Parents/adults start brainwashing their children with religion, when they are infants. Prior to them developing cognitive skills to object or opt out. Religion is a means and ways to control others emotionally, mentally, physically, verbally and financially. Religion is a means and ways to con, threaten, antagonize, harass, annoy and bully others. Religion creates subservient and complacent people.
All religious organizations should be required to pay: federal, state, County and property taxes. They should be required to do bookkeeping. What do they spend their money on: lawyers, lobbyists, campaign donations, payments for lawsuits--pedophile priests and their accomplices, life insurance, stock markets, building and maintenance, advertising, vehicles--food and shelter for themselves, building insurance, travel, health care for themselves, vacations, building insurance, bribes, retirement and such? Religion is a means and ways of money laundering.
I don't know why I'm an Atheist. I didn't grow up in a religious household, but I did have religious family members growing up. My aunt and uncle would often insist that unless I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and saviour that I was going to *"burn in Hell".*
Funny how we have no problem using words like apolitical, asexual, asymmetric, amoral, aseptic, apathetic -- heck even agnostic, and no one seems to need explaining or apologizing, but when it comes to atheist, somehow we become uncomfortable, we immediately fear exclusion... I think we should learn to wear our atheism as a badge of honor and not apologize to anyone. _They_ are the ones who need to explain why they believe in what they believe.
this week in new york times week of 12-20th there is an article xmas on sunday many churches say no services as few show up xmas day. from what he said about green bay? what ever that is if theyn had basketball or football games at the same time as a church service wonder how many would choose the church. i imagine pretty few men especially in the south.
I see religion as a crutch for the emotionally fragile as it allows them to rationalize anything that happens by putting it on god. This relieves them of any responsibility of trying to figure out why something happened and provides comfort by saying everything is in God's hands.
First I would listen to preachers on the car radio on my drive to work for a few months at 19. Noticed a lot of circular thinking and outrage in it. Decided to read the whole Bible. Got about one third and it’s so weird, so messed up, so nonsensical that I didn’t bother with the rest and that was it.
Yes, he did become something with American Atheists. He may just be guest hosting here on FFRF. There weren’t any hard feelings over his departure. FFRF can’t be political but American Atheists can so he may have wanted to go where he could speak out more on the political issues.
The original wording “one nation, indivisible…” makes much better sense. Religion binds “US” together creating a “people of god” beyond kinship and separating the US from “Them”. That’s divisive. Being United as people working together for liberty and justice for all offers an opportunity to be United beyond kinship or religion. The USA has created a secular civic religion with a high tolerance of virtue signaling…”God Bless Americanism” …The Christians Nationalist considers this stuff to be the Liberty Tree itself, not just a wind chime we hang on a branch.
I was a Benedictine Monk in a cloistered contemplative monastery from 1980 to 1985, and nothing will convince you of atheism than studying the gospels and Christianity. Why are the Gospels true, but the Eddas and Vedas not? Isn't it just cultural, not factual?
That's my point. Whether there is some creature that is all powerful, eternal, omniscient or not is hard to fathom or debate, but how do we arrive at the arrogance of asserting we know the proper doctrine concerning that creature?
I AM a relapsing theist who wants something other than this world and to live forever. My disbelief came about in a profound manner and is idiosyncratic.
I'm and atheist because if you study anthropology or history you'll see how every single human tribe creates religion and myths, I'm an atheist because the space is just too big and complex compared to the small and insignificant religions, I'm an atheist because I don't let myself be manipulated by flawed and mediocre creeds. I'm an atheist because it's the most reasonable way.
Exactly, I’m an atheist because I studied biology and clearly can see natural selection and evolution, I have studied astronomy and can see how insignificant we are, studied anthropology and can see how cultures came about, I have studied philosophy and can see how human nature is all the same in us, I have studied different religions, Egypt, Zoroasterism, Greek mythology, Hinduism, and can see how religion came about, I have studied Catholicism and can see how stupid and corrupt it is, I have lived life and seeked and never found anything Jesus said to be true, his BS philosophy of living, studied geology and can see the earth isn’t 6000 years old, I have studied people and their superstitious clowns 🤡
I’m an atheist cuz I was born without a god concept 65 years ago and never been indoctrinated into religion.
Well said guys, agree 100%. I'm an atheist because there is no evidence of any gods or anything supernatural existing whatsoever.
I'm an atheist because it is almost infinitely more likely that the universe and life originated naturally and wasn't poofed into existence by some omnipotent entity from another dimension. :)
I especially agree with your observation about not being manipulated by flawed and mediocre creeds.
@@joeschmoe6720 At the end of the day it is all opinion because not one person on this planet knows exactly what existed or occurred prior to the Big Bang and no one has any solid proof of anything supernatural occurring whatsoever.
We can make an informed and educated hypothesis about what is most LIKELY to be true and that is that the universe and life most likely originated naturally and wasn't poofed into existence by some omnipotent entity from another dimension.
A better question: Why isn't everyone an atheist?
They are, but they feel artificial comfort in their superstitious beliefs,.
@@stevelarrivee3512 sure they do…
EDIT: I hadn't watched this whole video before I posted this. I didn't know I'd be echoing the discussions in it. I guess they're very prevalent.
I am 67 years old and have been an atheist since I was about 12. I didn't even know what an atheist was in 1968, but I was one. My deconversion was uneventful and barely even noticed by my family who were also at various stages of being secular. So I pondered your question for decades, often to the point of being angry at the foolishness of theists. I would have considered myself a strong atheist in that I didn't just not believe any god exists, but that no god exists. I've softened a bit, but still fully don't believe the biblical god could possibly exist in our reality. The story just doesn't have any credibility.
But with all the various youtube channels and call in shows, I see people going through horrific deconversion scenarios. A lot of it seems to be not wanting to be rejected by their social group and afraid of what lies ahead in their lives. Another major reason is even though they know it's logical to not believe anymore, their religious indoctrination at an early age still has a strong hold on their psyche. Despite all the hard evidence to the contrary, the "what if" scenarios that their religious training drilled into them still enforces the hollow threat that if they forsake their god, they will regret it when they are dead and it's too late.
it's an evolutionary survival trait, to assign agency to natural events can save your life, whereas being "reasonable" - and not running cos "it is out to get you" can actually get you killed, superstitious people live longer, or at least they did before we figured what lightning really was. type 1 and type 2 errors it's known as.
When the Pope was shot, they took him to the hospital as soon as possible. For some reason prayer alone was not, even for God's representative on earth, was not deemed sufficient.
And an all-powerful God, was surely able to win an election or foil the plans of those planning to "steal" the election.
In both cases these people are atheist, they don't believe God will act or has acted.
“All religion, my friend, is simply evolved out of fraud, fear, greed, imagination, and poetry.” - Edgar Allen Poe
I kinda agree but buddhist ideology really resonates with me. If I had a gun to my head and had to choose a religion, I would choose Buddhism
I'm an atheist because of that pesky critical thinking issue.
Ahhh I see! A skeptic!
@@sdozer1990 thank you.
@@markhaunert5029 Did I get it right? ;)
@@sdozer1990 you did👍
Why? Because I don't have imaginary friends, or enemies.
I'm not shy with my friends about being an Atheist. On the occasion I get asked why, my answer is usually, "The same reason you don't believe in the tooth fairy".
June 2006: I told Nena Susanne Watson/Sotelo of Madera California; that I was atheist.
About six weeks later I received a medium-large cardboard box through the USPS.
On the outside written in large black letters: HEATHEN.
Inside a large array of inexpensive plastic kitchen items.
Tore off the portion of the box that said: HEATHEN.
Took the box and contents to the Goodwill.
She has never mentioned her behaviors, to this day. 12/21/22.
@@dianahill5116 Strange behaviour indeed!
That's a really good answer.
The IRS asks for more information and proof than theists.
I understand you to be overly dismissive of tooth fairies, for shame.
I'm an atheist because I have more than one fully functional brain cell.
The Christian private school I attended until the 9th grade taught me foundations of logic, so it was all pretty much downhill from there. I was heavily interested in science and mathematics from an early age, so that probably helped me along too.
It seems that the average child who attends church and attends public school must at some point begin to exist in a state of cognitive dissonance.
"I don't believe in anything you have to believe in.“ - Fran Lebowitz.
Everyone is born atheist.
I'm an atheist but I disagree with this statement only because atheism comes about through a process of analysis of available evidence. Babies can't do that.
i think it's even more basic than that: i'm atheist because of what someone else believes, i have no position on god at all, god and religion play zero part in my life and that's always been the case, IRL i have had two - in 56 years since i left school - two conversations about religion. even my ex wife who is japanese i asked "are you religious" and she said "nope", and that was that.
i would prefer NOT to be atheist, i didn't ASK to be atheist, it is something you get lumbered with because of the religists. atheism doesn't really exist.
That's why I'm an atheist. Was born one and never stopped being one.
Ye exactly. The better question is. When did a theist start to believe nonsensical fairy tales.....
Probably indoctrination of course.
I disagree to be atheist is to know for certain there is no God with evidence babies are born not knowing anything so the term is more accurate everyone is born agnostic
Because the sky wizard can't even keep his own rules and expects his sheep to follow them...and I don't like being called a sheep
t5he old bit if it can prevent evil and doesn't it is evil and if can;t is useless.some kids don't believe even if raised in it, others cling to it and even convert. some more gullible
love it lol
Thank you thank you Andrew. We need folks like you in Congress, and/or to run for office. Keep speaking out!
I heard Andrew speak on another program and was very impressed. That interview led me to find him on this CZcams channel. I greatly appreciate his commentary and advocacy.
Tax all churches as businesses - not charities
Or at least force them to have open books so we can see just how much of the donated money gets to an actual deserving person...
@@russbeers9613 It's simple. Any church (like anyone else) can set up a charity that meets all charity requirements, and it then rightly gets special tax treatment. Otherwise the church should be treated like any other business... and taxed.
It's called a level playing field.
@@russbeers9613 GoodWill doesnt donate to anyone.
Tax all churches and give the money to the poor.
@@russbeers9613 Require churches to report all income and be subject to audit. Allow only those funds exclusively allocated to charity purposes to be exempt from taxes.
As an atheist for a long time, I continue to deepen my understanding of why I am an atheist. I remember way back when I tried to be religious, but it never felt right. What concerned me most was that I was beginning to judge others. God never spoke to me, so how could I share a testimony. I came to atheism because of evolutionary science (Dawkins). Now, I am content, but the world is not. Thanks (also FFRF member)
Because I don’t believe in forcing oppressive irrational laborious thought on myself, nor others.
State v Church separation is essential in any civilised society.
The question should be why you’re not an atheist.
I opened their book and read some of it.
Why am I an atheist? Because I don't believe that any gods exist.
Because I've never seen a talking snake or 1,000 year old person and I'm not into misogyny or hypocrisy
Why does atheists always base their opinions off of what the Bible says?? Forget religious books, why are you an atheist??
So suspicious that you have to wait until after death to see this sky daddy and he can't even keep his own rules but expect humans to follow them
I was born atheist and remained so happily for the last 65 years.
If your an atheist your part of a great group of people, we are a minority and proud of it
I've been an atheist most my life for two simple reasons;
1. No shred of verifiable data or empirical, science based evidence of any supernatural events or "magical sky daddies."
2. The influence of this "delusion" on politics, social issues, laws, education, and science.
The IRS asks for more information and proof than theists.
My fear is that Christian Nationalism is beginning to take hold here in Canada. I have mentioned my apprehension and Andrew's book to a few Evangelical friends but was met with complete indifference.
Oh indeed, and you have to also count the love to guns and the tendency to believe in conspiracy theories
I was adopted.
I was forced/required to participate in their religion.
I wasn't allowed to object or opt out.
Yes, the mentality (not just with religion) many Canadians are adopting is troubling.
i think it's not something to worry about too much, sure you can't sit on your hands, but i think even christians don't want a theocracy, or we'd have one by now. people love going to church then being a-holes for the rest of the week, even the most dedicated christians don't want god rammed down their throats 24/7, the reaosn roe / wade went through in the first place is because even christians have abortions.
@@TheSilverGate Conspiracy theorists have been on point during the past 3 years. Go get your super safe and effective boosters.
Because I have a brain, am educated and think critically
I am 68. An ex evangelical. Now a happy atheist. Yet I feel alone when with others my age. Being an atheist is simply not a popular belief in this country. I know my old christian friends are aghast as I was a very vocal evangelical. Its taken me time to not feel guilty when its time for the blessing before a meal. Especially when someone asks me to lead the prayer and I declined. I no longer bow my head and now notice people glancing up at me. My wife is still somewhat of a believer but not strong. Our love is still strong and she has learned that her atheist husband is not the immoral person that many theist may think I am. I don't push the issue of my atheism. But she has said several times that she is slowly understanding me.
christian: why aren't you a muslim?
muslim: why arn't you a hindu?
hindu: why aren't you a christian?
Thinking critically is what "SAVED" me. Thank u for this great video. The speakers were honest. The host speaks well and makes so much sense to me.
Thank you FFRF💜
I'm not an "Atheist", but I am atheist, and that's just how it turned out.
Andrew is on! Yay!!!
Always enjoy his contributions.
This must be an old episode being released?
I was appalled by my fellow Christians’ indifference to climate change and my grandchildren’s future. I began to question everything about the faith.
Hi Jim, yeah I hear you. Most of my family are Christian and “conservative “ except when it comes to conservation of course.
If God loves us and thinks we are his children, then why would he send many of his children to hell to suffer eternal torment? An earthly father would not do this to his child.
I was born without indoctrination. My early love for nature and fossils made me instantly laugh at the Genesis fables. I also was a history nerd.
Luckily I grew up in Germany, Berlin...meaning.... Christian indoctrination crusaders didn't have influence on my grade or high school.
Evolutionary theory....and it's absolute beauty and reading the radical Enlightenment philosophers like Spinoza or Hume did the rest.
I absolutely, radically REJECT anything supernatural, religion or Pseudoscience.
In Genesis it states all creatures were created on the 6th day including humans and science proves Dinosaurs and humans didn't exist at the same time which discredits the whole book
In my country you usually remain an atheist. The brainwashing disappeared out of our childhood. From Belgium.
Netherlands here, born in a family with a prof. In chemistry. Learned that asking questions is a Good thing. So religion never stood a chance
PJ's story is almost identical to my story. Even though my dad was a pastor, I never really believed the bible stories, none of it made any sense to me, and going to church was way beyond boring. Church was excruciating. I hated every second of it, and so did most of the kids around me. Not having to go to church anymore was like getting released from prison.
I am an atheist for two main reasons:
1) I am not gullible enough to believe in absurd unsubstantiated claims.
2) I am not dishonest enough to pretend that I believe them.
Glad to see Andrew running this show!
"Why are you an atheist?"
For the same reason I am an a-smurfist, or an a-santaclausist.
why?
i was born that way.
Gonna answer before I watch, so I'm not swayed.
I'm an atheist because I was raised to deeply value the truth, honesty and authenticity. In fact, it's something I carry from my religious upbringing that I don't entirely hate. Growing up, I always wanted to understand the world around me in minuscule detail. I loved reading books, magazines, encyclopedias, websites, cereal boxes, anything. I flew through schoolwork without great effort. I learned new languages in my free time. And I loved God. I took my religion very seriously. I studied our scripture in its entirety and dedicated years to serving my religious community. For me, God was a way to understand the order of the world; everything has a purpose, everything has a design, an order, because God made it so. It also gave me a sense of peace; the mysteries that I had yet to uncover, the loved ones who I had lost (or never even had), the ultimate trajectory of my life, were all safely under God's control, waiting to be revealed to me as I grew closer to him.
I always saw some of the cracks though. For example, even early on it was the inconsistencies in translations. I thought, well why would God want so many of us to be confused? A Muslim friend said this is why she knew arabic, to read the Quran as Allah had delivered it. So I started learning Hebrew and Greek. Evangelicals make a big deal of whipping out the original Heb/Gk words for things... And I started seeing how often they were DEAD WRONG about it. I would even bring my Heb/Gk Bibles to the service and read along, astonished. A lot of these preachers probably had less understanding of the original than I did at that early point in my studies, but they were so confident in letting dozens (hundreds? thousands?) hear their mistake... Or their lie 🤔
I started seeing the way churches talked about money, often demonizing other churches for their financial practices while in the same breath doing the same at their own pulpits.
I started to notice around this time as well how... convenient God was. In my tradition we teach that essentially anyone can directly communicate with, know and understand God. And God always has something to say that agrees with the speaker. At one church, God told them not to use instruments, at another, no wine, at another, yes wine, at this one, no gays, at this one, God loves us all. God told my uncle BLM were terrorists. BLM met in a church and opened in prayer. God told them they were doing his work.
Why was our spiritual destinies, our understanding of the divine, in the hands of the unqualified and (hopefully) misguided? And why had God made it so confusing? Shouldn't he want more of us to know him intimately, without these kinds of obstacles?
The last part was learning about other's beliefs and how religious systems work. In my old religion, we were made to think of ourselves as having some direct connection to some primordial God and a community that stretches back millenia. But if you study history, what we practiced today, even at our most radically fundamental, wasn't anything near what people were doing even 500 years ago. It's all always made up and changing as we experience new things, gain more information, or our context expands. We are all using religion for the same reasons, but there is no universal religion because humans have to keep making it up and adapting it as we go.
I kept pushing for truth. I wanted God to be real. But I wanted the truth of what he was so badly, I found it: a tool we use to fulfill certain needs. And once I could identify the needs, I didn't need to shoehorn in the fantastical elements to fill them.
I feel much fuller now
Wow lol tldr I identified that I was using religion
I'm an atheist because those that claim that there is a god, have continually failed to provide sufficient evidence to support their claim.
I wouldn't be an atheist for that reason. God is a Metaphysical principle by definition. And "first principles" from Metaphysics do NOT come under the purview of empiricism. But that doesn't mean the principles are not true. Right?
I became an atheist when I started to do my own thinking.
Better question would be 'why are you a theist?' We are all born not a theist. So was if child indoctrination as with most, or some other reason. In other words, when did you start to believe in contradicting fairy tales?
I will buy and read this book. I think Christian Nationalism is one of the greatest threats to our society right now
No one should have to explain why they will not believe without evidence.
It's apparently our fault for not believing without evidence.
Seems ridiculous that the religious would think that but it matches up with all their other twisted thinking.
Moderate Christians need to speak out much more loudly against Christian Nationalism than they have.
They do not care. Their rights are not in jeopardy. As long as they feel it's BIbically sound they have no real incentive to speak out against it.
Because I’m not a frigging nutcase!
I will answer this question for myself. This is about 10% of my reason for being an atheist.
I became an atheist at the age of 11. I realized gods, angels, the devil are no different than ghosts, leprechaun, fairies, Santa Claus, werewolves; just figments of the imagination of ancient science-ignorant, superstitious men with no understanding.
‘God did it'. Such a simple minded answer. So which of the literally thousands of diverse gods did it? The god of the Greeks Zeus?, or the Egyptians Osiris, or the Hindus Vishnu, the Norse Odin, the Romans Jupiter, the Aztec Huitzilopochtli, the Celtic Dagna, thousands more imaginary deities/spirit animals? Oh, Christians say Yahweh, the god made up by Hebrews.
Where did the universe come from? Who created the earth? Who created life? Who created man? Science explains the evolution of this universe, galaxies, stars & planets, us from primordial matter/energy of the Big Bang: astrophysics, abiogenesis over a billion years, evolution over four billion years. We have a universe & planet full of evidence for it.
Science-ignorant, superstitious, flat earthers created the literal thousands of gods/spirit animals. They believed in magic, thought gods controlled the sun, floods, plagues, natural events, and had zero understanding of nature/earth. Christians believe their stories. Sad
This is easy. I’m an atheist because there is no god, and I’m not interested in arguing, there’s nothing to argue. Actually I don’t think atheist is a correct term. Just because somebody label themselves as theorist doesn’t matter me. I don’t need to have anything to do with their title, i’m just “not a theist”, like, i’m not a dentist, and certainly I am not an adentist.
Why? Lack of evidence for anything supernatural.
I am an atheist because when I saw the Gennesis stories (Creation, Garden, and the Flood) as myth, the foundation of my Faith turned to smoke and blew away. Everything I believed crumbled away, and Reason came in to fill the void.
I was still a Christian when I went to college. I remember thinking, “I haven’t read my Bible in years. I’ll start at the beginning.” And as I read Genesis, I remember thinking how childish and ridiculous it sounded compared to when I heard those stories as a child.
I'm glad you exist and to create this channel!
I'm agnostic. I'm non-religious because I know that scientific inquiry provides questions which answered provide more questions and so on; logical reasoning provides questions without answers; and on the other hand religious obedience provides answers unquestioned; and blind faith provides answers with questioning. I also know that technological innovation will send all of us beyond galaxies while religious dogma will send most of us to (Perdition, Underworld, Separation, or Annihilation) (Which is it?! Nobody knows.)
Best answer, you cannot choose to believe, either one believes or not.
atheism isn't a belief though, it[s based on what SOMEONE ELSE believes, personally i have no position on god at all, it's someone else tells me there is a god, i just don't believe them, nothing to do with the existence of a god at all, just the reliability of the person telling me i ought to hate queers.
Atheism is not a belief ! Theism is a belief not backed up by evidence
It doesn't matter in the arguments, if an atheist expresses neutrality. The problem is, we'll find upon examination, that a skeptic's worldview is going to be atheistic upon examination. Even professed agnostics, have models of "first principles" which are every bit as atheistic as the models held by hardcore atheists who deny God's existence explicitly.
And the problem for skeptics is, that the hard atheistic proposition is ALWAYS a non sequitur.
@@ChessArmyCommander Technically everyone is agnostic because no one really knows.
@@anton1949 Do you know that? If so, how?
I simply understand that myths and legends of "gods" were man-made and blended over time.
They were not made up. I can prove it. Have proved it, see my work. It all started with a comet that dropped into the inner solar system ~20,000 years ago that appears to emanate from the Constellation of Taurus, more specifically the Pleiades. This is why the omnipotent rides The Sky Bull, the Cherub and not the chubby babies with wings, with the Thunderweapon of the Superbolide. It is all over Universal Comparative Mythology and it seems I am the only one who has dared to open the curtains as Toto did in The Wizard of Oz.
I'm an atheist because I don't see any rational justification to believe in the existence of any gods.
I'm an atheist because there are a thousand or more religions throughout human history, believed just as fervently by their adherents as evangelicals believe now. They can't all be right, but they can all be wrong.
When I was a kid, God and Jesus flew straight out the window right alongside Santa and the bunny. I never believed one word.
I believe in the greatest belief of ALL and that is the belief in myself.. .
I'm an atheist because religious stories always sounded like obvious fiction to me, unable to withstand even casual curiosity. Yes, even as a child. 🤷♂
Not knowing God is a made-up fictional character is like not knowing that Spider-Man is a made-up fictional character. It is that obvious.
To reserve energy atheists might as well just reply "why shouldn't we be?"
Lack of belief is the default position to have before learning of evidential reason to be convinced a claim is true.
it's not even a "lack of belief" it's NO BELIEF, i am atheist because of what someone else believes, i have NO position on god whatsoever.
i have to keep saying this, i'm atheist because of what someone else believes, i have no position on god at all, god and religion play zero part in my life and that's always been the case, IRL i have had two - in 56 years since i left school - two conversations about religion. even my ex wife who is japanese i asked "are you religious" and she said "nope", and that was that.
i would prefer NOT to be atheist, i didn't ASK to be atheist, it is something you get lumbered with because of the religists. atheism doesn't really exist.
and the other thing to bear in mind is, if it turns out there IS a god, then atheists disappear, or the word no longer applies to people, if god exists i have no choice but to be theist - atheism is the biggest NON THING in the dictionary., it's word and NOTHING more.
Andrew is back!? I hope so. Missed you.
I'm an atheist. I figured out I was a sceptic when I first read the Bible and it started classifying bats as birds and locusts. I decided the information in it was out of date and should be treated with scepticism. I learned about refraction before I ever heard the story of Noah so I placed science ahead of religion.
There was also a few other factors that really put me off. My local church was physically painful to be in. The less were probably solid oak with no cushioning and I would get pins and needles during the services I attended there. Secondly I absolutely hate hymns and anyone who calls them beautiful clearly has no musical taste. Thirdly prayer flat out doesn't work so why waste my time. Fourthly I didn't like the pompous demeanour of the priest. Finally, I worked out that the God at the centre of the Judaic faiths is actually Ptah an Egyptian creator God who is mummified and because he's dead technically prayer is necromancy which the Bible actually prohibits. Checkmate Christians.
Pews
Why am I an atheist? Well... I have the membership card, t-shirts, I've talked to Matt Dillahunty in e-mail, and I eat babies. (No going back now) LOL.
😂👍.
Everyone is born atheist.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has done extensive research on brainwashing.
Parents/adults start brainwashing children with religion, when they are infants. Prior to them developing cognitive skills to object or opt out.
Religion creates subservient and complacent people.
Religion is a means and ways of controlling others emotionally, mentally, physically, verbally and financially.
Religion is a means and ways to con, threaten, bully, antagonize, harass and annoy others.
@@dianahill5116 Yup. It says so on the back of my hoodie 👍
@@markhaunert5029 Merry *MYTH*-mas! lol.
The problem of suffering.
the problem of 'eternal sin'. I'm not paying for someone else's mistake. Certainly not for an imagined mistake.
I don't know how strongly I believed before I became an atheist. I know I found church BORING!! To say I thought it was stupid is to perhaps a bit of post-hoc "memory" creation. I certainly didn't see the point and I do remember thinking that when I was old enough I'd only go to church the minimum amount possible. I didn't call myself an atheist until I found out it was an option. The first atheist author I read (Kurt Vonnegut) turned me. I remember reading a line in a book of essays of his where he called religion a "Rube Goldberg" machine of social control and I said to myself: "Yes, that is exactly what religion is" and I was an atheist from that point on. Kudos to Uncle Kurt for knowing what he was doing and doing such a good job at it. When I was a teenage I wanted to find a book that was "adult" literature to read, but didn't know what I wanted. This was like 7th grade. I was just walking through the library looking for books without knowing what I wanted. I picked up Steppenwolf because I liked the band, but I wasn't ready to read that yet. Still a little beyond what I was ready to read. I saw the book "Breakfast of Champions". I saw the lurid cover and knew that the title was sarcastic. I opened the book to the first pages and saw uncle Kurt's magic marker drawings and knew the book was for me. Vonnegut is a good introduction to literature for young male readers. He knew what he was doing, and it worked. Teenagers and Vonnegut is a good match.
It’s funny that I watch lots of atheist videos, even though I’m not an atheist. I’m basically a secular progressive Christian with agnostic tendencies. But I agree completely that Christian nationalism is a very serious threat to our democracy. I’ve been a strong supporter of the separation of church and state since the late 1970s when I was in college in Alabama. As editor of my college newspaper, I wrote an editorial in opposition to my college student senate voting to fund “religious emphasis week.” The student senate openly touted this event as encouraging Christianity. Even though I was a Christian, I strongly believed that government funds and school tuition should never be used to promote religion. I was interviewed by the local newspaper and received front page coverage with my campaign against theocracy. The student senate quietly dropped their plan.
I admire your integrity.
I’m an atheist because I have a working brain.
I'm an atheist because, when I was 14 or 15 years old, I read the bible... the whole book without skipping pages. I saw god so human & so fallible, & blood-thirsty to boot. I concluded the biblical god was a creation of man, based on the culture & morals of that violent period.
Plus, Jesus "sacrifice" would have been completely unnecessary if that god practiced what he preached. After all, it was god's bright idea to put that magic tree easily accessible for Adam & Eve to reach when they were easily dupe by that magical talking snake.
I am an atheist because I don't need any magical being to be responsble for my actions, thoughts, decisions, nor things that happen to me; Also I feel no desire to force my beliefs onto others (apparently a requirement for the church people).
After a lifetime of service as clergy, it was, of all things, a spontaneous moment of clarity just a couple years ago. Long story, but it shattered my reality and forced me to face the fact that my religious experiences were all delusion.
First thing I wanted to know was, "What do we know that we *know* that we know?" So I first turned to science.
Finding a personal philosophy or worldview was much more complicated, but I'm in a good place in that respect and I can't imagine a scenario where I could be convinced to go back to religion of any kind. I'm a devout anti-theist now.
I refuse to accept the promise of reward or threat of punishment as proper motivation for being a decent human being
I'm an atheist because I rather be rational than irrational
The catalyst is the fact that the bible has been used for political gain since day 1. Cross referencing every form of science makes me confident. Reading the bible removes all doubt
I reckon that was the whole setup from the start. Someone thought, 'hey, these people blindly follow orders when i say a god talks through me, i can get rich with this!' And the rest is history
I'm an atheist because I haven't heard a single convincing argument for a god or gods. Or, in other words, I wasn't indoctrinated to believe in myths. Considering how weak all the claims are, I am comfortable to say all those gods are man made.
I am an Atheist, because no "God" has ever existed. I understand that people love to share scary stories, and claim they can predict the "coming disaster". We call them "Doomsday Sayers".
Then that makes you a naysayer. lol
As an atheist, the only philosophical question, I would want to know is “can I be more atheist than you“ or another way to put it if you never believed in anything, can you be more of an atheist than someone who became an atheist after being religious? it’s just a hypothetical question that may not have an answer🤔
As an atheist I say we have got to start framing ourselves in positive terms. I am an atheist espousing naturalism. Can I refer to myself as a naturalist? A scientist? A scientificist? A scientismist? Rationalist?-- no. Everyone thinks they are a rationalist, no matter how irrational they are. Does 'atheist' rightly imply 'one who espouses naturalism'?
I guess the answer is to forgo linguistic economy and say 'I believe in science'.
i have to keep saying this, i'm atheist because of what someone else believes, i have no position on god at all, god and religion play zero part in my life and that's always been the case, IRL i have had two - in 56 years since i left school - two conversations about religion. even my ex wife who is japanese i asked "are you religious" and she said "nope", and that was that.
i would prefer NOT to be atheist, i didn't ASK to be atheist, it is something you get lumbered with because of the religists. atheism doesn't really exist.
"Why aren't you?"
As a child I was always skeptical of religion but everyone around me just accepted it and so there was no recourse in "another opinion". As an adult struggling with faith I realized it was too much of a burden and the more historical digging I did the more I realized that I was getting further and further from any truth to reinforce my beliefs. Now, as an atheist, I'm a lot happier living without all the "ancient baggage" of Christian dogma. I actually feel sorry for Jesus. The current brand of Christianity in America seems a far cry from the original intent of it's creator. God needs a better agent. Or, better yet let's retire from ourselves a doctrine that has long outlived it's usefulness.
I'm an atheist because I chose to think, and thinking revealed just how poor the reasons to believe that gods exist really are.
The IRS asks for more information and proof than theists.
@@dianahill5116 thats right, theists never ask for proof, they assume they are in the right about their god claim...
I was born an atheist. Ask me why I like coffee ice cream. Because I do.
De-conversion is a slow gradual process without an identifiable moment. "a blissful godless life."
The IRS asks for more information, identification and proof than theists.
Yes, and that point is usually not remembered specifically. Glad to be free of the nonsense I was raised in.
Everyone is born atheist.
The United States Central Intelligence Agency(CIA) has done extensive research on brainwashing.
Parents/adults start brainwashing their children with religion, when they are infants. Prior to them developing cognitive skills to object or opt out.
Religion is a means and ways to control others emotionally, mentally, physically, verbally and financially.
Religion is a means and ways to con, threaten, antagonize, harass, annoy and bully others.
Religion creates subservient and complacent people.
All religious organizations should be required to pay: federal, state, County and property taxes. They should be required to do bookkeeping.
What do they spend their money on: lawyers, lobbyists, campaign donations, payments for lawsuits--pedophile priests and their accomplices, life insurance, stock markets, building and maintenance, advertising, vehicles--food and shelter for themselves, building insurance, travel, health care for themselves, vacations, building insurance, bribes, retirement and such?
Religion is a means and ways of money laundering.
I don't know why I'm an Atheist. I didn't grow up in a religious household, but I did have religious family members growing up. My aunt and uncle would often insist that unless I accept Jesus Christ as my lord and saviour that I was going to *"burn in Hell".*
Funny how we have no problem using words like apolitical, asexual, asymmetric, amoral, aseptic, apathetic -- heck even agnostic, and no one seems to need explaining or apologizing, but when it comes to atheist, somehow we become uncomfortable, we immediately fear exclusion... I think we should learn to wear our atheism as a badge of honor and not apologize to anyone. _They_ are the ones who need to explain why they believe in what they believe.
TREAT OTHER PEOPLE THE WAY YOU WANT TO BE TREATED. Do that and there is no need for ANY RELIGION!!!
this week in new york times week of 12-20th there is an article xmas on sunday many churches say no services as few show up xmas day. from what he said about green bay? what ever that is if theyn had basketball or football games at the same time as a church service wonder how many would choose the church. i imagine pretty few men especially in the south.
That tie/shirt combo is a fashion crime.
I like it. It looks good to me.
I see religion as a crutch for the emotionally fragile as it allows them to rationalize anything that happens by putting it on god. This relieves them of any responsibility of trying to figure out why something happened and provides comfort by saying everything is in God's hands.
Yeah, I see that too. They are obstinate about not learning new life skills. Emotional fragility is not a permanent state unless you choose.
First I would listen to preachers on the car radio on my drive to work for a few months at 19. Noticed a lot of circular thinking and outrage in it. Decided to read the whole Bible. Got about one third and it’s so weird, so messed up, so nonsensical that I didn’t bother with the rest and that was it.
Amen! I second that emotion.
This is off topic, but I thought Andrew left FFRF? Isn’t this an old episode?
Why did that happen?
Yes, he did become something with American Atheists. He may just be guest hosting here on FFRF. There weren’t any hard feelings over his departure. FFRF can’t be political but American Atheists can so he may have wanted to go where he could speak out more on the political issues.
Yes, it was recorded July 28, 2021.
One nation under MANY gods.
The original wording “one nation, indivisible…” makes much better sense. Religion binds “US” together creating a “people of god” beyond kinship and separating the US from “Them”. That’s divisive. Being United as people working together for liberty and justice for all offers an opportunity to be United beyond kinship or religion. The USA has created a secular civic religion with a high tolerance of virtue signaling…”God Bless Americanism” …The Christians Nationalist considers this stuff to be the Liberty Tree itself, not just a wind chime we hang on a branch.
lol
I do not have confidence in the super natural.
I was a Benedictine Monk in a cloistered contemplative monastery from 1980 to 1985, and nothing will convince you of atheism than studying the gospels and Christianity. Why are the Gospels true, but the Eddas and Vedas not? Isn't it just cultural, not factual?
That's my point. Whether there is some creature that is all powerful, eternal, omniscient or not is hard to fathom or debate, but how do we arrive at the arrogance of asserting we know the proper doctrine concerning that creature?
CURIOUS AFTER LEAVING THE JEHOVAH'S WITNESS CULT..I AM QUESTIONING EVERYTHING. 😂❤INCLUDING THERAPY!
I AM a relapsing theist who wants something other than this world and to live forever. My disbelief came about in a profound manner and is idiosyncratic.
I read a book
Probably the same old book that turned me into an Atheist ⚛
They didn’t listen and all but denied racism at all. When the only person that will say racism is the black person, it may as well not have been said.