atheist Drennan It is not fair to say that an atheist is not religious, for to deny God must be a religious stance. A non-religious man would not care either way if God did or did not exist. 990929 ... Sour Balls McGee Atheism does not simply deny God's existence, it denies any higher power's existence. 000511 ... MollyGoLightly Actually, I have met quite a few religious athiests. Dogmatic athiests, evangelical athiests. Takes all kinds, I guess. 000511 ... heretic flea there is no dog. 000511 ... dug starts with an a 000712 ... saehn literally: one who is without god. at times, i wish there was a god. how pleasant that would be. however, the concept goes against any "evidence" that exists for it; the concept goes against involved thought. the best thing about being an conscious atheist is that you are forced to take responsibility for everything in your life. 000713 ... peyton There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole. When you feel death destroying the earth with mortars, and feel the blood as the reaper tears a man to pieces with his bullets just inches from you.. Then.. you will find God. I hope he's more forgiving than I. I would let you die alone.. you poor poor reformed atheist. Wouldn't it be sad, if after all this time forsaking your creator, that then.. when the blood fills your lungs.. God doesn't believe in you anymore.. You get to die an agony of a death.. and still you have hell to look forward to. Here lies the atheist of the battlefield.. before the war took his breath, he was screaming the Word of God more loudly than a minister. Praise be.. a shame he saw the error in his sight too late.. Praise be to God.. and to Jesus the Christ. 010210 ... . what does it say about god if people turn to him (her? it?) only in fear? simply a fairy-tale to soothe their fears? 010210 ... suzy i am vaguely aware of the candles being snuffed out one by one 010217 ... god yeh me too 010218 ... black-dyed gel product I am an atheist by nature. My parents tried to raise me as a catholic, but I could just never buy into the ideals. The way people worship today seems strange anyway. What's more important, that a big omnipotent force is dwelling above and that we give 30 dollars to the church collection plate or just being a generally good person? I just can't believe in religious dogma. We're here, isn't that enough? 010622 ... kingsuperspecial my parents tried to raise me as a alcoholic, but I've since developed my own belief system. 010622 ... rockstar no, i didn't chose the most comfortable faith. atheism takes a lot of courage. to acheive it you have to say, "there is no afterlife, only the life i live now, so this is it. this is our reality, so we have to make the most of it. this life is NOT just one big test, to see if we deserve eternal happiness. the real reward for our good deeds is that we are making someone else's reality just a little bit better... isn't that reward enough?" if you ask me, christianity promotes selfishness, saying that if you do good deeds, live a good life, then you will get to experience eternal happiness in heaven. so christians go doing good things so they can acheive happiness. my happiness comes from knowing i am helping the strive for natural balance: good deeds promote happiness, and happiness among all people promotes good societal balance, which will lead to a perfect natural human balance, and that is all the reward anyone should need for decency. 020126 ... cube Rockstar makes an interesting case for atheism. Thought provoking too, until it occurred to me that atheists can just as easily take the path of total selfishness. After all, if there's no afterlife and no reward system, then there's no punishment... ³ 020126 ... silentbob Along with doing good deeds, in christianity you ahve to have a relationship with the god they believe in. So even if you do bad deeds as long as you have a relationship with him, you get to go to heaven. and you get this holier than thou thing where if you aernt in their exclusive christian club you dont associate with them. the bible tells them not to. somehwere. 020127 ... pralines&cream The Bible does in fact say not to spend time hanging out with non-believers. But this is not to form an exclusive ring of Christians; it is to prevent Christians from being caught up in the sins of the non-Christian world. Christians are also told to spread the gospel to unbelievers; Jesus himself mingled with sinners and lepers and criminals. Anyway, how many Christians now make it a point not to mingle with non-believers to make it easier to abstain from sinning? It's practically impossible. 020128 ... misstree "there ain't no god and there ain't no devil, just corporate criminals playing with tanks..." -concrete blonde, i think most of the christians that i've met that i could really respect came at it from a scholarly standpoint... 'course, the same stands true for atheists... religion is an important enough choice in one's life to be taken from more than an emotional reaction in either direction... spent some time trying to be an atheist, myself, trying to hop the fence from agnosticism. i finally decided it was a little too lonely on that side of the fence, and i'd take what i knew (mostly magically based concepts) and paint a pretty picture on top of it. maybe of a calico cat, holding a golden apple. for me, it works as well as a guy on a cross, and in the end, it's the effect on the person (and their effect on the world) that matters. 020130 ... cube Mr.E, How well do you communicate with cats and does this cat have a clear understanding of the human condition? ³ 020130 ... silentbob and does the cat punish you to eternil damnation whether or not he understands the human condition? theres a lot of christians that only hang out with christians and make it a point to. and christians arent set_apart from the world, they try to but they fail because seriously, they are human too and just as imperfect as the rest of us. they sin. they hurt. they do. i think its rather big-headed to try to set them apart. 020130 ... Mahayana some1 whom is discriminatory towards the's [a theist, is demeaning towards my usage of the word the ... the this the that... it doesn't matter, a theist will always frown at me][shessh im only trying to write] ['the'ist pig] [oink oink] 020130 ... misstree the cat and i have an understanding... i don't mess with it, and it will put its paws into my life as it damn well pleases 'cause i can't stop it. it does have some concept of the human condition, but no pity or mercy because of it... the closest you'll find is a genuine desire to bring a little enjoyment to life, sometimes at your own expense. (irony and a tough skin should be in every newbie pack). and no, no eternal damnation... having to wade through the simple crap of being human is hard enough. but no frilly happy afterlife, either, unless Eris, er, the kitty cat, has a few secrets she's not sharing. which is always possible. see also discordian. 020130 ... Phil I am tired of all this, no cold without warmth bullshit. Oh what will happen tomorrow, let's see...based on what happened to day...Imagine the first time someone heard about a dictionary..."but you got to know how to spell it just to look it up!" Please murder me! 020201 ... phil Someone said believing in nothing is difficult. I don't even believe in water. 020201 ... silentbob now, now now, if you believed in nothing youd be a nihilist not an atheist. an atheist just denies the exist of god. a nihilist denies the existance of everything. 020201 ... drunk misstree bobby, where were yo when i was writing a comparative religions blurb for the school newspaper? *smewch* it was editied by someone else to say that atheism and agnositcism were the same thing. (agnositicism is doubt, or unkmnowing). i posted 25 copies of the definition of agnositicism around the journalism room the next day. i was ANGRY. 020202 ... phil religion is arrogant 020204 ... god atheism is catching on in these parts. must be something in the pepsi around here... 040928 ... silentbob I beg to differ, Lord, you see, i have just drunk a coke and i am feeling mighty atheistic Together in Christ, Bobby 040929 ... emem hmm 050120 ... emem hmm.. well i don't really know i f this is addressed to any one in particular, but, i try to stay as far away as i can from categories or titles. i don't like it when i am called an atheist, although i do not believe in god or a god. i do not think it is possible to know if there is a god for sure or not. so people will call me agnostic. i guess if i HAD to be something.. which i don't... i would be an agnostic atheist. and there is such a thing. but, when there are titles and categories that i am placed in, i have no room or space to think for myself. it's like i have guidelines to follow, that i cannot follow because of the way i think or feel. so, in a way, i guess it can sometimes be difficult to explain to people... which i don't like doing... what exactly my beliefs are, because as we all know, people like to judge and are too quick to 'label' people as whatever they feel is appropriate. but i guess that's not my fault, but theirs, and maybe they will see this in the end. 050120 ... missionary Well said, emem. I think people want to label everything so they know where they stand, and where they don't stand. Perhaps they do it to try and gain a bit more clarity on these issues. Whatever it is, its definitely a human thing to try and cram everything into categories. We are the definers of the universe. It's funny though, we all seem to want to be different and unique, while looking out for others who believe like we do. But I, like mistree, made a lousy atheist. I tried it once... and ended up on my knees three days later praying to God for forgiveness. He's nice though, he took me back :) Now, I've been a devout Christian for two years, and I still face times where I wonder... usually when I face hardships and I am whining about it. Then I remember, "Oh yeah, I've TRIED to disbelieve in God, I just CAN'T DO IT!" Then I remember why_I_believe. Plus, God never said it would be easy! I don't think anyone would appreciate eternal life as much if it was just given away without any challenges. 050121 ... i_bleed_koolaid Why must I believe in god (one god, our god, pick a god, any god, choose one, one and only one for toleration...) for my life to have any meaning? Isn't the fact that I'm alive enough? It is far too easy to give my life meaning by attatching divine belief to the end of it. 050325 ... thanhahanna How come man is so egotistical that it has to have somehting revolving around it every second of the day? 050506 ... Chris aka Christ without the cross I am everything. I am moving to a place where I accept and open to everything but choose certain things simply because it feels right to me. I believe there is a God. I just don't choose to entertain the way the bible depicts him at time. To say that God's love is unconditional and then for him to turn around and give a set of conditions seems to be a little contradictory. I believe that God is love and that God is everything and that he created everything. That's it. That makes sense to me. I like that a lot more than believing in a judgmental, condemning God who uses fear to get people to follow him. Hell seems to be a threat to me, a way to instill fear. And to say that your love is unconditional means no matter what, your love will be there. No conditions, no requirements, no preferences. Love. I believe that that is all you need to melt even the most stubborn hard heart. You see this marvelous gift that has