How Can Anyone Be An Atheist?

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Daydream Believer said:
It's enough to just believe in a god & I'll still get into heaven?
Does that mean I can just make my own up as long as I convince myself it's real?
If I can't just make one up then which one is real?
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Dinnar
I’ve never met anyone whose been to heaven.
I never goto church or think about religion (except that the world would be better without it)
But rational behaviour would mean you should believe
 


offmenut said:
Wasting it on a pipe dream?
Tbh, the rational behaviour is to believe in god (pascal) if you believe and he’s real you’ll go to heaven. (Huge gain)
If you believe and he’s not real you’ll not go to heaven
If you don’t believe and he’s real you won’t go to heaven (huge loss)
If you don’t believe and he’s not real you won’t go to heaven (minimal gain from not spending time on thinking about god)
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If it is the muslim god you will go to hell for believing jesus was the son of god.
If it is the jewish god they don't have a hell.
If it is the hindu god(s) they have a different hell(s)
People have worshipped 10,000 gods throughout history and the christian one is just one of the most recent so your chances of it being the right one are very small.

 
PinzaC55 said:
If it is the muslim god you will go to hell for believing jesus was the son of god.
If it is the jewish god they don't have a hell.
If it is the hindu god(s) they have a different hell(s)
People have worshipped 10,000 gods throughout history and the christian one is just one of the most recent so your chances of it being the right one are very small.

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I cover all the bases and believe in all of them, except the Muslim ones, as they’re Mental
The Greek gods are my favourite.
 
Kent_Mackem said:
ALL children, even those that grow up as the maddest happy clapper adults, are born as atheists. Every human and animal that has ever lived was born an atheist at birth. Religious beliefs are almost always acquired after time spent with elders who have a personal motive for indoctrinating the young.

But according to some posters above that's all harmless fun and it is I that needs to take a look at myself. :)

Crackers man.
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Chill man :) they way you go on you will find out soon enough if there is an afterlife.
 
Spenny said:
The odds on the existence of a god and the existence of the Celestial Teapot are exactly the same.There is not a shred of evidence supporting either.

Those who say we will only find out once we are dead have not quite grasped the concept of life.
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They're have some issues understanding that though.
 
Mercia Blackcat said:
Regarding children, I was watching a Joe Rogan video the other week and someone he was interviewing said:

There is a young baby and a three year old in a room. The three year old says to the baby, "Tell me about heaven again, I'm starting to forget".

I don't interpret that as anything spiritual or metaphysical but simply as the human condition, and found it interesting.

Children should never be made theist and then they would never need to become atheist. The two would cancel each other out.

It should never even be an issue in the first place.
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If you are very religious yourself then it is almost impossible to do. Parents go to church so you bring up your kids going to church with you. You say prayers before bed and meals and the kids class it as normal. Why would a kid question those stories any more than other things like Santa? I don't think you can sit and say you must not give children any religious education until they reach an age when they can decide for themselves, especially when that excludes the children from the way of life of the parent. It is like saying you must force vegetarian parents to feed their kids meat, making special meals for them, until then are old enough to decide.....or is that meat eating parents banned from feeding them meat until they can decide? It is natural that all beliefs any ways of life rub off on children.

However as a parent if the child says "Did a flood really wipe out all the animals on the earth except those that were in the ark?", then parents should give the honest answer that the bible says so (plus the Babylonian story that they believe it was copied from) but there is no real evidence for it and it would have been pretty impossible for that time.

PinzaC55 said:
If it is the muslim god you will go to hell for believing jesus was the son of god.
If it is the jewish god they don't have a hell.
If it is the hindu god(s) they have a different hell(s)
People have worshipped 10,000 gods throughout history and the christian one is just one of the most recent so your chances of it being the right one are very small.
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It is catholic/protestant I don't understand. Same god, same bible but worship in a slightly different way so history records hundreds of thousands of deaths by each side wanting their way of peace, love and respect to dominate.
 
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DaveH said:
It is catholic/protestant I don't understand. Same god, same bible but worship in a slightly different way so history records hundreds of thousands of deaths by each side wanting their way of peace, love and respect to dominate.
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It's pretty simple. People construct a god in their own image, an idealised version of themselves, so it likes all the things they like and hates all the things they hate. If they think the idea of a big old white man in a toga floating in the sky is "too silly" the say it is a disembodied mind existing outside of time and space. Then they follow the denomination of their base religion which is closest to their "personal god".
This christian website says there are 30,000 to 43,000 denominations of christianity depending how you slice it.

How many christian denominations worldwide?
 
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People comparing it to belief in Santa Claus miss the bit where millions of adults still believe in God. Not aware of any who still believe in Santy.
 
There may be higher beings who had a hand in our creation, but they would have much interest in us as a scientist has in mould in a discarded petri dish.
But all organised religion has been made up by human beings, I struggle to grasp how people can't see this tbh (and mostly ancient, bigoted and very uninformed ones at that).
 
dangermows said:
People comparing it to belief in Santa Claus miss the bit where millions of adults still believe in God. Not aware of any who still believe in Santy.
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For children, there is little difference. When they grow up, most question the existance of Santa, finding the idea of a magic old bloke looking after people who have been good, a bit silly when there is no evidence to show he exists.

However some of those people then believe in a different magic old bloke looking after good people, without question, despite the lack of any evidence. This is seen to be rational as we all know the stories about Santa are what some adults use to help control behaviour.
 
DaveH said:
If you are very religious yourself then it is almost impossible to do. Parents go to church so you bring up your kids going to church with you. You say prayers before bed and meals and the kids class it as normal. Why would a kid question those stories any more than other things like Santa? I don't think you can sit and say you must not give children any religious education until they reach an age when they can decide for themselves, especially when that excludes the children from the way of life of the parent. It is like saying you must force vegetarian parents to feed their kids meat, making special meals for them, until then are old enough to decide.....or is that meat eating parents banned from feeding them meat until they can decide? It is natural that all beliefs any ways of life rub off on children.

However as a parent if the child says "Did a flood really wipe out all the animals on the earth except those that were in the ark?", then parents should give the honest answer that the bible says so (plus the Babylonian story that they believe it was copied from) but there is no real evidence for it and it would have been pretty impossible for that time.
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Well I suppose it is a question of personal restraint. Not imposing your own concepts onto your children. Concepts come from the mind, not the heart, yet the Christian religion states that it is the heart that matters and in that regard maybe we should try to learn from children rather than teach them our own concepts from the mind, what we think but don't really know.

Unless you become as little children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven .....ask and it shall be given, the man said.

It's the same with Hinduism as Krishna is quoted as saying:

With the heart of a child, without cheat or deceit, ask and it shall be revealed.

Which brings me back to the quote I posted:

There is a young baby and a three year old in a room. The three year old says to the baby, "Tell me about heaven again, I'm starting to forget".

I think anyone sincere about religion realises as an adult it is more about unlearning the crap that we have filled our heads with over the years, rather than teaching that crap to our children.

If a child was born on an island and never taught religious concepts, would that child be sadder as a result? Religion may make many people happy but it also really screws up many others in the head.
 
Kent_Mackem said:
Millions of people love MacDonalds' food. It doesn't mean it's any good.

The number of people who believe something has no relevance to whether it is true.
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Didn't say it did. But as you're someone who compares a belief in God with a belief in a Santy you'll need to explain why adults around the world still believe in God, but don't in Santy.

Thanks for the random fast food comment by the way.
 
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