Believe what you want, just don't force it on me.

Organised religion causes too many wars, ancient religions are totally redundant in this day and age but, as Povey said, religion does give us some half decent rules to live by.

I'm an agnostic athiest too, hooray! I think being totally sure of denying something is the same as totally believing in something - it's never been proven there is a higher power/creator/whatever, it's never been proven there isn't, so I don't commit to either view.

Let's just all eat four bags of crisps a day and forget about it. "Militant Atheism" is too much hard work. Pipe down.

I can't think of many examples of atheism claiming to be "totally sure of denying something" - the sub-divisions into 'agnostic-atheist', 'strong/weak-atheist' etc. are pretty bogus IMO. It's not about what you KNOW, it's about what you BELIEVE or don't believe. If you don't believe in the existence of God, then you are an a-theist, just as all Christians are atheistic towards the Greek pantheon. Sitting on the fence doesn't resolve anything.

Yeah but you will find some religions people ARE told what to believe.

I used to work with a Jehovah's witness and she would come up with some stupid theories like she was brian washed and when asked why she believed it... Her only answer was we are taught that.

If it makes you happy fine but you have to 100% believe it and no way influenced by someone else imo.

i will post my opinion on religion tomorrow properly when i have more time.

in the meantime:do any of you athiests believe in science/evolution? i prefer to tick the 'none' box when asked what beliefs i have/what religion i am.
otherwise technically there is a big group of atheists who have the same non belief as opposed to individuals who dont have/need religion.

you can all say,shut up rick and stop being nitpicky,but its still an interesting theory.i think when asking someone what religion are you/what do you believe in,when they reply i am an atheist that still categorises them.if the reply was;i dont beleive in anything or just simply 'none' then i think that would make more sense to me.

some people may then ask 'what is an atheist?' and should be forgiven for thinking its a type of group/(non)-believer party.but it still raises a question and needs explaining to some people doing the asking.
just think,if you say 'none',they will hopefully say 'oh,ok' but then they could also ask 'why dont you believe'.

im probably getting into technicalities but still want to see what the word atheist,means to some of you and whats your definitions of the word.
ta

Dammit, someone got to the Lovecraft before me. I've always thought the idea of a random creator god is a much more likely idea than one that plans it all out, kind of like a big metaphor for evolution and everything. And much cooler.

Otherwise, another militant atheist here. Saying people can believe whatever they want and it won't do any harm seems fine at first, but then you get Jehovah's Witnesses refusing to let their children get real medical help because of some nutjob beliefs they have, or Christians who think it's their divine duty to kill doctors who do abortions, and all the rest of it. Any kind of illogical belief will end up clashing with reality at some point, which is when people start getting reactionary and violent about it.

For me, an atheist is someone who isn't a theist, so they don't have a definate belief in some kind of deity. People always say 'but it's just another belief!' in that annoying self satisfied tone of voice, but it isn't, it's lack of belief when faced with lack of evidence. No one believes in the invisible pink teapot orbiting earth, as someone I can't remember put it. It isn't a religion either, someone else I can't remember said atheism is a religion if baldness is a hair colour. More of a view on religion, really.

Anyway, I'll shut up now because I could have summed all that up with 'I read The God Delusion'.

James wrote:I can't think of many examples of atheism claiming to be "totally sure of denying something" - the sub-divisions into 'agnostic-atheist', 'strong/weak-atheist' etc. are pretty bogus IMO. It's not about what you KNOW, it's about what you BELIEVE or don't believe.

But i dont believe in anything, or care about belief. So i dont know what that its grouped as.

Just what Paul said basically. Sorted.

Notice I did say "or don't believe". There's no need to be 'grouped as' anything, unless it defines you against another group. "Atheists" don't have anything necessarily in common with one another except their lack of a particular belief, so it isn't really a group at all.

I think the groupings are a bit rubbish, at the end of the day, I don't believe in a Christian god, but I don't rule out anything else.. And surely, people saying "When you die, there is NOTHING" pretty much sums up their attitude - they're completely denying anything existing.

And Rik, I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Athiests believe in science surely!!?

Honestly though, how many people say that? I think any sensible atheist would say "there is no evidence for anything after death" - that's very different to saying there IS nothing. Properly thought-out atheism isn't "denying anything existing", it's disbelieving due to a lack of good evidence.

Religion is for fags. Show me SOLID evidence and I might take it more seriously.

The bible doesn't count either, I eckon that in the year 4000 people will be saying 'And lo, Dumbledore descended thine stoney stairwell and bequeathedunto Harry...'

I don't believe in anything. That way I won't be disappointed when I die and find out I have been believing the completely wrong thing all my life.

its fun being anti christian in my college since most the people in my class are complete god bummers and play music in church every sunday.

RedBurp wrote:I don't believe in anything. That way I won't be disappointed when I die and find out I have been believing the completely wrong thing all my life.

That's a pretty good way to sum it up really.

satanic_goat_christ wrote: No one believes in the invisible pink teapot orbiting earth.

Ok, i'm an atheist, but erm... yeah i do believe in the Pothead Pixies orbiting the planet in their green flying teapots. thats not a god related issue though...

proof i hear you say...

I don't believe in any form of religion. I guarantee that if you could prove to a religious person that there was no God, he/she would see it as a test of faith from their God. I suppose I'm an athiest, but I hate that because I don't believe in something I have to be categorised.

I saw these videos a while back on YouTube. They're quite interesting to watch and have some good viewpoints on religion.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNf-P_5u_Hw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qc-mrJf45Hg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IjAegPhQOUg

I don't know how accurate these videos are, or if they're just a load of lies, but still, very interesting to watch.

thrashduck wrote:Believe what you want, just don't force it on me.

Amen!!