Atheism: new religion?

[RootsBooster]

I think you are asking very interesting and complicated questions.

 

I hope I will have enough time to try and give my opinion sometime soon.

If you mean this: "The same people are willing enough to tell me how loving their god is and that he is responsible for all life on earth and that if I let God into my heart I will be saved.

I've never STOPPED any gods from entering my heart, I don't claim that gods don't exist, I'm open minded. So just HOW exactly do I let God into my heart? Why does he talk to millions of others but not to me?" I don't think they are complicated questions, but they are genuine and without malice. Please do answer them if you can.

Well the same is true for atheists. They just are atheists, they haven't thought about it.

 

Not everyone feels the need to question what they believe in or what they don't believe in.

Okay but;

A) I didn't claim that atheists DO think about it, it was a claim you made about Christians.

B) I think more atheists will have thought about it than Christians.

I'm a woman

My bad, sorry!

Hey salsa fan.

 

I haven't read all of your posts but thank you for your support.

I think she recieved a ban went on a little holiday.

[sccsux]

they haven't thought about it..

 

Rubbish.

 

I was brought up in a very religious environment (my mother was a teacher @ the local church's Sunday school). I've tried most flavours of christianity and found them all to be severely wanting and offered no suitable answers.

[sccsux]

Not everyone feels the need to question what they believe in

 

Then they (people that don't) are simply closed minded.

 

Question everything, accept only the truth.

[RootsBooster]

Then they (people that don't) are simply closed minded.Question everything, accept only the truth.

 

I don't think it's that simple, I think many people who have been taught to be religious from childhood and just accepted what they are told would not be able to cope with an alternative.

In this case it's like being institutionalised. This must be the "God-shaped hole" that some theists talk about, which I could understand would be a scary thing for them.

[sccsux]

I don't think it's that simple, I think many people who have been taught to be religious from childhood and just accepted what they are told would not be able to cope with an alternative.

In this case it's like being institutionalised. This must be the "God-shaped hole" that some theists talk about, which I could understand would be a scary thing for them.

 

Anyone that fails to question their beliefs is (by definition) closed minded, regardless of their upbringing.

 

I question everything, as often as possible.

[donkey]

The message is there is no god, that's what they are preaching.

 

In the future I see atheists getting together, forming a community, committing bomb attacks in the name of their non-existing god.

 

Really, you think atheists will adopt the tactics of religious people?

[quisquose]

Anyone that fails to question their beliefs is (by definition) closed minded, regardless of their upbringing.

 

I question everything, as often as possible.

 

This is the point.

 

Not only am I willing to change my mind, I actually want to change my mind. It's called learning, the process is stimulating and rewarding.

 

It's the reason I take part in debate on Internet forums, read books and watch tv. I want my views to be challenged.

 

People that don't want their views to be challenged, who are closed minded, are usually that way because they have too much emotional "investment" tied up in a dogma. It's like some twisted Stockholm Syndrome.

 

It's easy to understand how somebody who has made sacrifices, like avoid alcohol, for such a long period is going to refuse to accept that they could be wrong, that they are missing out, that those other people sat in the pub enjoying their pint of beer are right.

 

If somebody has attended church/mosque frequently, then after so long it becomes very difficult, impossible even, to accept that it was all a waste of time.

 

For most of us a bacon buttie is closest thing to food heaven, but I even know ex-Muslims who still feel repulsed by the smell. Even though they might have ditched the dogma, their brains still refuse to accept that they might have missed out on something.

 

The higher the emotional and sacrificial "investment", in whatever belief, the more closed minded the person will become. That is inevitable, and precisely why religions use it to their advantage.

[EdRacheru]

I am not an expert but by my understaning, atheists believe that there is not a god?

The keyword there is "believe", because there is no proof nor disproof of there being a god.

[RootsBooster]

Anyone that fails to question their beliefs is (by definition) closed minded, regardless of their upbringing.

 

I question everything, as often as possible.

 

Tha can't teach me to suck eggs pal!

 

(See every post on every religious thread by Rootsbooster)

[flamingjimmy]

I am not an expert but by my understaning, atheists believe that there is not a god?

Nope, we just do not believe there is one.