I am an Atheist and always have been.

Bretrick

Bretrick

SF VIP
Location
Perth Western Australia
My Grandmother used to make me go to church dressed in best clothes. I am almost certain the church was of the Protestant denomination, Church of England?
The only thing more boring I have experienced in my life was attending a piano recital at the Sydney Opera House whilst on a school trip in 1975. (I fell asleep during the performance)
What did I get out of going to church? Reinforcement that religion was super boring.
If I remember correctly..."for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
 
Bretrick said:
My Grandmother used to make me go to church dressed in best clothes. I am almost certain the church was of the Protestant denomination, Church of England?
The only thing more boring I have experienced in my life was attending a piano recital at the Sydney Opera House whilst on a school trip in 1975. (I fell asleep during the performance)
What did I get out of going to church? Reinforcement that religion was super boring.
If I remember correctly..."for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
Click to expand...
My mom's family was from the Dutch reformed church. She remembers she got a peppermint and when it was up the reverend said Amen and it was utterly boring. I have visited such a church a few times and it was indeed very boring.

My dad was atheist. I was not raised christian. At 12 or 13 I started to test if God existed for a year. I said stuff like: If I don't get an 8+ (10 is the highest, like an A) for German in school I don't believe in God.

Everything I asked for happened a whole year long. The last one was that I played lousy with tennis and said that and won. Then it was too coincidental and I believed God existed and promised Him that I'd go to a church, but my mom had said church was boring.

At the same time my brother saw Jesus while Zen meditating and he said that I said he should look for a church. He went to different ones. Reformed boring, catholic boring, other brand of reformed boring. Eventually he ended up in a pentecostal church and took me with him. It was boring.

He said: Normally it's more fun. Okay. The teen services were fun. After a few months it dawned on me that I had to ask God to forgive my sins and I prayed the sinners prayer and then I was saved. I hated my friends and we gossipped about each other, but after the prayer I could hug them.

My mom was afraid that we had gone to a cult and came to check and stayed. She got super enthusiastic. All these years she hadn't gone to church nor talked about it. My poor dad. It was too much. His whole family had gone nuts. He fled a few days but came back and she learned to be a bit less enthusiastic to him. A year before he died she said he had to get saved and he did.

He saw stuff happen though. Family members got healed after prayer. 2 aunts with cancer got healed, one instantly, my FIL. He also went to a meeting with her where she got prayer. He once went to their neighbour who was sick. He said: You have to go to that church. They said: We don't believe in God. He said: No me neither, but I've seen some amazing things happen.
 
I had the best Minister when I was a kid. My Great Grandma who was Choctaw/Irish.
She took us kids outside under a shade tree and intermingled Christianity with tribal
beliefs. She would point out the world around us at the wonders of nature, insects, plants, etc.
Then tell us about Jesus, quote a few verses to teach us to respect our world and people as we could.
It was so hard to find a church that made me have those glorious feelings she gave to us.
She was an ordained Minister many years before moving to California. So yes I am a believer and always
have been.
 
I don't believe I have ever known an atheist. I have known some who admitted to being non believers. Like many things in life I just see this as one of those choices we make. It isn't my place to approve or disapprove. I do know that in the darkest and miserable moments in my life it was my faith that I relied on and will continue to do so.
 
Rider77 said:
I don't believe I have ever known an atheist.
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Had one at our house yesterday, He has been a Brother in our family for over 25 years. He will go out of his way to help a stranger at the drop of a hat. One of the kindest folks I have ever met. We don't talk religion... but do have some lively conversations about politics.
Everyone ends with us hugging , laughing and agree to disagree. I will honestly say the world would be a better place if most folks carried themself like him.
 
outlander said:
Often times Christians will label you an atheist if you don't believe in the Bible or their god. So according to that I am an atheist.

But I do have strong spiritual beliefs that are more aligned with Native American views.
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I think there are more of us Christians that will accept the fact that you simply do not believe and allow you to
label yourself if you choose to do that. There are many ways people refer to them self than atheist. Many have
grown to accept those options and simply avoid the topic and allow them to bring it up. Don't let those who like to
label you as Atheist to affect the rest of us.
 
outlander said:
Often times Christians will label you an atheist if you don't believe in the Bible or their god. So according to that I am an atheist.

But I do have strong spiritual beliefs that are more aligned with Native American views.
Click to expand...
Yeah that's weird to call that atheist. As a kid I'd brag that I didn't believe in God and was an atheist. My dad always made mocking jokes about christianity and I thought that was super cool and did it too.

But at 12 I started to read occult stuff with a Jewish friend who also said she was atheist. She's now orthodox Jewish.
Stuff about people going out of their body and such. I believed all that, so then I thought: I'm not atheist. An atheist believes none of that stuff. And if apparently ghosts existed then why not a head ghost, so that's when I started to test if God existed.

Most kids were forced to go to church and don't go anymore. I was forced to go to the disco by my dad to be social and I hated it lol. The other kids stood up against the forced religious upbringing and I was like: You say God doesn't exist? Lets see.
 
Rider77 said:
I don't believe I have ever known an atheist. I have known some who admitted to being non believers. Like many things in life I just see this as one of those choices we make. It isn't my place to approve or disapprove. I do know that in the darkest and miserable moments in my life it was my faith that I relied on and will continue to do so.
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Rider, isn't an atheist the same as a non believer? If they are somehow different, can you tell me how? I always thought they meant the same thing.

Or maybe a non believer could be defined as an agnostic, if they just don't know if they believe there is a God or not. I guess if you "don't know," you are not a believer.
 
I'm an atheist, but I can understand why people believe if it relieves their existential anxiety. And that's fine. Just keep it out of politics, and don't hurt other people who don't think like you.

Like the saying goes... Science flies people to the moon; religion flies people into buildings.

download.jpg
 
An interesting discussion, I am neither an Agnostic or an Atheist, the nearest I can come to a 'label' is a Humanist, to each there own just dont try and inflict you beliefs on me ......

"Humanists believe that human experience and rational thinking provide the only source of both knowledge and a moral code to live by, they reject the idea of knowledge 'revealed' to human beings by gods.

Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities.

Most humanists would agree with the ideas below:

There are no supernatural beings.
The material universe is the only thing that exists.
Science provides the only reliable source of knowledge about this universe.
We only live this life - there is no after-life, and no such thing as reincarnation.
Human beings can live ethical and fulfilling lives without religious beliefs.
Human beings derive their moral code from the lessons of history, personal experience, and thought.

Humanists reject the idea or belief in a supernatural being such as God. This means that humanists class themselves as agnostic or atheist. Humanists have no belief in an afterlife, and so they focus on seeking happiness in this life.

An atheist doesn't believe in a god or divine being. ... However, an agnostic neither believes nor disbelieves in a god or religious doctrine. Agnostics assert that it's impossible for human beings to know anything about how the universe was created and whether or not divine beings exist.
 
@RuralKanuck
I can't see how being an atheist precludes being a humanist, but I can see how being an atheist precludes being a humanist.
Maybe I'm confused.
RuralKanuck said:
An interesting discussion, I am neither an Agnostic or an Atheist, the nearest I can come to a 'label' is a Humanist, to each there own just dont try and inflict you beliefs on me ......

"Humanists believe that human experience and rational thinking provide the only source of both knowledge and a moral code to live by, they reject the idea of knowledge 'revealed' to human beings by gods.

Humanism is a democratic and ethical life stance, which affirms that human beings have the right and responsibility to give meaning and shape to their own lives. It stands for the building of a more humane society through an ethic based on human and other natural values in the spirit of reason and free inquiry through human capabilities.

Most humanists would agree with the ideas below:

There are no supernatural beings.
The material universe is the only thing that exists.
Science provides the only reliable source of knowledge about this universe.
We only live this life - there is no after-life, and no such thing as reincarnation.
Human beings can live ethical and fulfilling lives without religious beliefs.
Human beings derive their moral code from the lessons of history, personal experience, and thought.

Humanists reject the idea or belief in a supernatural being such as God. This means that humanists class themselves as agnostic or atheist. Humanists have no belief in an afterlife, and so they focus on seeking happiness in this life.

An atheist doesn't believe in a god or divine being. ... However, an agnostic neither believes nor disbelieves in a god or religious doctrine. Agnostics assert that it's impossible for human beings to know anything about how the universe was created and whether or not divine beings exist.
Click to expand...
 
Bretrick said:
My Grandmother used to make me go to church dressed in best clothes. I am almost certain the church was of the Protestant denomination, Church of England?
The only thing more boring I have experienced in my life was attending a piano recital at the Sydney Opera House whilst on a school trip in 1975. (I fell asleep during the performance)
What did I get out of going to church? Reinforcement that religion was super boring.
If I remember correctly..."for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."
Click to expand...

It's a common blind spot. Many highly religious focused "governments" and societies are demonized and even attacked. But people in the US tend to ignore that fact that their own culture is much the same. Zealots exist in every religion.

Like you, I went to church as a child, with Sunday school etc. being part of it. Religious Education was on the school curriculum until 16 years of age. Each start of the school day was an "assembly", where christian hymns were sung, prays made, and so on. Anyone not Christian were allowed to wait outside the assembly.

Yet I became a non-believer. Indoctrination was heavy, but I broke free.

I respect people of faith, I wish they respected me as much.
 
Rakaia said:
@Sunny
You may be touching on the difference between an atheist and an agnostic, the former doesn't believe and the latter is open to becoming a believer.
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On the contrary, I've heard (and it's true in my case) that an agnostic is not necessarily open to becoming a believer, rather an agnostic's position on it is "I don't know whether god exists or not and don't really care one way or the other."
 
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