hi, i am currently writing a speech for my school report on if god exists or not. i though mabey ni could just ask people who are athiests "why dont you beleive in god (or any other relegeous stuff)?" no names will eb shared in the speech.
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Why do you (presumably) not believe in the Aztec god Quetzalcoatl?
When you know that answer to that, maybe you'll understand why most of the posters here don't believe in your Christian deity. Maybe you could make that the focus of your report (why you don't believe in Quetzalcoatl).
Nice opener.
i dont beleive in jsut one god, i beleive that all gods exist somwhere, or sometime, or they could even just be a thought at the back of our heads, whispering to us, and we thought they where god, but in reality, its our own brains trying to create groups to be able to sort things out properly, we also use multiple gods to explan things that might not be able to be explained without them.
@ whydoit?
Polytheistic religions usually attribute a specific phenomena or personality trait as originating from a specific god. Fortunately, modern science can explain those. Back in Greek times, if you felt horny, it was Eros you believed that was the god that gave you an erection. Today, we understand how the brain and desires work, no god required.
So whydoit, have you sorted out what god is responsible for what, in your mind? Have you given them names or even attempted to explore further?
Like, where do these gods reside? What is the relationship between each god? Is there a boss god, such as Zeus or Wodin?
Am I wasting my times asking you to prove any of this?
@whydoit?: RE: "i beleive that all gods exist" Now there is an amorphous piece of shit statement. Did you mention English was not your first language? I can't recall.
"We use multiple gods?" No "WE" do not use multiple gods to explain a damn thing. WTF drugs are you on?
Some things can not be explained without Gods? Where did you ever get the idea that a God or Gods has explanatory power? Explanatory power is the ability to understand things in terms of what is known. Explaining the unknown with a greater unknown is fallacious at best and pure unadulterated bullshit at any other time. You can not appeal to the unknown to explain the unknown.
@whydoit? Re: "...i beleive that all gods exist somwhere, or sometime, or they could even just be a thought at the back of our heads, whispering to us, and we thought they where god, but in reality, its our own brains trying to create groups to be able to sort things out properly..."
Oh, golly gee. My oh my... Ummm... Gosh... Could you do us all a favor and be just a bit more vague, ambiguous, and less specific with your replies. That would be really swell. Thanks.
@whydoit "i dont beleive in jsut one god, i beleive that all gods exist somwhere, or sometime, or they could even just be a thought at the back of our heads, whispering to us"
This is not a crazy idea. There is a realm of thought that at different times in history, people had a very different concept of what we now call 'theory of mind'. What we now view as the subconscious for a while was viewed as external entities talking to us--and that was considered to be perfectly normal'.
This was initially explored in the book 'The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind' published back in the 70s. The author digs into ancient mythology, Sumerian, texts and other sources to suggest that the way we view our own thought processes changed the way history was viewed. There were seismic shifts in world view as developing civilization and culture altered peoples' internal representation of themselves. About 20 years ago I spent some time with it , and the historic depth and complexity
left me confused but intrigued. Below is a pretty good overall summary--well worth the read (my explanation above is extremely supericial)
https://slatestarcodex.com/2020/06/01/book-review-origin-of-consciousnes...
Maybe now that I'm retired, I'll get back into the book
Or “schizophrenia”....
"...but in reality, its our own brains trying to create groups to be able to sort things out properly,"
If by saying, "sort things out" as a descriptor of why people believe in gods, and not that gods actually exist...I may agree with you.
Is that what you mean?
@whydoit:
Seriously? Your school has told you write a speech on whether or not god exists? I find that very hard to believe.
And are your spelling and punctuation really that bad, or are you just pretending to be something you're not?
A large number of people have come to this site over the years with a similar request. In many cases they agreed to share their paper/report/whatever with us when it was finished. To my knowledge: no report/paper of this kind has ever been shared with us. So I feel a bit foolish in asking:
@whydoit?
Will you be sharing this report/paper with us when you are finished?
@Nyarlathotep
It's odd they and their teacher don't already know, I mean how many different reasons do they normally conjure up for not believing a claim?
If there is an objective difference between their deity and all the ones they disbelieve exist, then you'd think they'd lead with that, every single time. Yet their disbelief is a given, as is the disbelief of all the other theists who disbelieve their deity, and its it's only atheists who are demanded to justify their disbelief.
It's a complete mystery why we disbelieve, really it is, I mean what with there being no objective evidence, no rational argument, and thousands of superstitions and deities to choose from, whose adherents broadly speaking all make the same claims. It's as if us atheists don't possess a blindfold and a fucking pin, in order to pick a deity from the list...
What's wrong with us?
Lol - Sheldon... and when subjected to our first hand subjective experience “why we don’t believe”, they can’t “believe” it!
Such a foreign concept!
@whydoit
Welcome.
First, it's 'atheist'
Next look up the definition :
From Merriam-Webster:
atheist noun
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"athe·ist | \ ˈā-thē-ist \
Definition of atheist
: a person who does not believe in the existence of a god or any gods : one who subscribes to or advocates atheism "
Atheism is NOT ; a belief system, a philosophy ,a political ideology, a club or organisation. There is no such thing as an atheist position or opinion on ANYTHING ELSE apart from the existence of god(s)
As for me: I was brought up devout Irish Catholic . I left the the church at age 20. Was not atheist at that time. Spent the next 20 years looking for answers, for meaning. A cliched thing to say I know, but all I found were more questions. Around age 40 I one day realised that I no longer believed. There was no epiphany and no conscious choice. Rather, I arrived at the inevitable conclusion of a long search.
I do not believe in god(s), the soul, angels,demons, heaven, hell, mediums and fortune teller, the paranormal generally, ghosts, witches, dragons, leprechauns, mountain trolls or fairies at the bottom of my garden---there are a lot more, but I think that's enough for you to get the picture. I disbelieve in each of these things for the same reason; a complete lack of proof .
Having said that, I make no claims of knowledge. I call myself an agnostic atheist. This is also called 'soft atheism' and describes most of the atheists here.
Today, at 72, I still read a lot .The more I read and discuss, the more convinced I am that it's unlikely that I'm mistaken.
You didn't say where you in your education.Going by your post I'm assuming grade school or junior high school.Therefore , you might like to ask question about anything you don't understand.
It's also OK, and encouraged for you to post some of your own ideas.
Whydoit, you asked, “why are you an athiest (sic)?”
I am called atheist because I am not a theist. It’s as simple as that.
I call myself an atheist because I do not classify myself as a theist. That means that my answer to the question: "Do I believe that any gods exist?", is NO. The reason that I answer "no", is because all of the SO-CALLED 'evidence' or 'reasons' to believe in any of the many thousands of gods which people have believed in, are not enough to convince me that any of those gods actually exist in reality.
If anyone could in the future, give me good reasons or valid evidence, which are convincing to me, then by default I would then be a believer, (ie. a theist).
Note that I have not mentioned any specific god, because there are so many that have been proposed over the millennia. I also note that you yourself, whydoit?, did not mention any specific god in your original post.
For the same reason I don't believe in Santa Clause.
I will expand on that. Each, a god and Santa, are imaginary constructs that have absolutely zero evidence they ever existed. Each has claimed to do amazing and unlikely things, such as being able to circle the world and deliver presents to everyone in 24 hours, slide down chimneys, turn water into wine, create the entire universe, and other wild tales.
A suggestion whydoit?, brush up on your grammar if you want a passing grade on your papers, and more respect from adults.
@Whydoit Re: "Why are you an atheist?"
Personally, I joined the Atheist Club because they promised free cookies. The poster read, "Join the Dark Side. We have cookies." And it was all cool and impressive and very official looking. I would advise you don't fall for that bullshit. It has been over two years now, and I have YET to be given a single free cookie. Bunch of lying bastards.... *grumble*... But since my membership dues are already paid up until the end of this year, I suppose I will just hang in there and hope for the best the next few months... *resigned sigh*...
Psssstttt, Tin... the cookies are for the next
Eggnog party...
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@canapug
Cute cookies.
How about raising a kool-aid filled mug, to all our fellow species that have thrown their reason to the wind. :)
"I have no belief in the existence of gods." <---read this exactly the way I have expressed it here, if you use it in your speech.
I don't say gods can't exist, I tell the truth when I say I have no belief that any do.
I have never seen anyone return from the dead, never seen an angel or a demon, never heard the voice of a god, never had a revelation, awake or asleep, never had a prayer answered and I have never seen a Christian perform a miracle as Jesus promised they all could in the Bible.
For over 65 years I have studied history, science and the Bible and never once found even the slightest reason to believe any of the 40,000 professed god exists. But that does not make me a bad person.
I loved my late wife, still love my family and friends, treat everyone with respect and honesty, and I can still feel awe and wonder watching a sunrise and all the other myriad marvels of this natural universe. And because I don't believe I will go to heaven or hell for eternity, I believe this life is the only opportunity I have to experience life and awareness. I regard it with great reverence, because I believe I will not get a second chance after death.
Even if you use all the best reasons we supply you with here on AR, your speech is still not going to prove a thing. Please include the following in your speech exactly as I have typed it, "No-one can use any sort of argument, or a personal experience, to prove, or disprove, the existence of a god. Such proof requires firm objective, falsifiable evidence."
I have never heard of a school to allow a discussion on such a fundamental issue like the existence of gods. I have known teachers being sacked or threatened with dismissal for trying. It tends to upset fundamentalist parents. I am supposing it's an independent non-denominational school or just exceptional or simply doesn't exist and this whole post is made up.
Give me faith whydoit. Give me reason to believe you, a young school student stuck for information for a class speech, actually exist. Post your final speech here (and make sure you use the spell checker before you hand it in to your teacher). together with your teacher's comments and grading.
A thousand agrees Grin.
I am an atheist because not one person has been able to offer a skerrick of evidence that their god or gods is/are real when I tell them "I do not believe your claims" .
Cosmological arguments, telelogical arguments including that of Aquinas and Kalam have been comprehensively debunked.
Every "holy" book contains massive contradictions, hopeless historical and factual inaccuracies and impossible contraventions of the laws of physics, nature and common sense.
When you make your speech, do include the sentence " Evolution is a scientific fact" Happy for you to direct anyone who disagrees to my moniker on these forums.
Assuming that you are capable of understanding the contents thereof, which I already doubt as a result of observing your literacy level in action here, then this post of mine in another thread should provide you with a veritable cornucopia of reasons why I don't treat mythological assertions as fact.
Before you ask, yes, I already harbour many suspicions about your stated exercise here, on the basis of a large body of past data. You are not the first to come here asserting that you are pursuing some sort of essay exercise on the views of the membership here, only for said membership to hear nothing from the pedlars of this assertion about the purported finished body of text, or what marks were bestowed upon the purported author for producing the body of text in question.
Against that backdrop, I suspect my lengthy output here will once again find itself unread.
@whydoit?
Greetings and welcome to the forum. Let's begin by asking a question. See if you can answer it.
"Why are you not a door knob collector." (We usually use stamps but you might actually collect them so door knobs will work just fine.) So... "Why don't you collect door knobs?"
Oklay, so you are a non-doorknob collector. Well, what should we call a person like you. Someone who does not collect doorknobs? How about heathen, non-believer, sinner, infidel, unbeliever, heretic, or even an atheist with regards to door knob collecting. An atheist after all is a person who does not believe in collecting doorknobs.
"Atheist" is simply a slur of a term used by religions to refer to people who do not believe in God or gods. I am an atheist because that is what they call non-believers. When they spout their bullshit to me, I proudly claim, I don't believe that. I am an atheist.
The same thing happened with the word "Yankee" when the British used it as an insult against Americans. We adopted the term and began calling ourselves Yankees. We even have a baseball team by the same name today. The same thing happened with the word "Gay" in the homosexual community. "Yes I am Gay and proud of it." They turned the derogatory slur into something to be proud of.
I am an atheist because I am so fucking important to religions. I am an atheist because the religions of the world will not leave me alone. I am an atheist because I am condemned to hell by the Abrahamic Gods. Were it 100 years ago, I would be burned at the stake for my views.
Ummmmm ya. You call yourself "whydoit", with a hound of hell avatar, expecting me to believe you are here on an unbiased plea for knowledge about atheism? Bad start dishonest christian, bad start.
You are not the first deluded person to wash up on our shore to push your tired super-naturalist beliefs, reaffirming my disbelief in christian dogma.
Yup, I said disbelief. Because atheism is not a belief...it is a disbelief in your claim of a non-existent christian mythology. Yes, I say mythology...because your delusional beliefs are not based in reality...they have zero objective evidence in reality.
...I mean, unless you have, (god forbid-pun intended) some clear demonstrable objective evidence of your claimed god?
Now, answer that question, yes or no...as ye will be judged by your answer, or lack of.
There...that should tell you about my disbelief.
I was born that way...
Oh, and there's no objective evidence for any deity.
@Sheldon
You win a slice of perfect, home made pumpkin pie for the pithiest answer on this thread.***
Whadya think, flyby? Troll pretending to be what he is not? On reflection, I find it hard to believe he's as illiterate as his post suggests.
*** The pie is 100% FREE. Postage is $99.99 .This because it has to be sent rush by refrigerated air.Please provide your bank details and address. A 20% gratuity would be appreciated but is not mandatory.
It’s easier to say “atheist” than “ajehovah” or “achrist” or “aallah” or “azeus”.... etc etc “theist” covers them all...
The last one “azeus”...hmmmm, sounds like a Mexican “hey-Zeus”
WAIT - could it be Jesus?!?!?!!
@White
"It’s easier to say “atheist” than “ajehovah” or “achrist” or “aallah” or “azeus”.... etc etc “theist” covers them all..."
It pisses off believers to point out that the atheist simply disbelieves in one fewer god than they.
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