I am an Atheist and always have been.

gruntlabor said:
No, it's a cowardly thing, and dangerous to those around you.
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In abnormal psychology, psychological disorders are categorized in different ways. One category is a list and explanations of Ego Defense Mechanisms. I'm not sure if ego defense is considered a psychological disorder or something of a lesser evil, and I don't want to over estimate the negatives of ego defense. But they do play a role in all of our behaviors. I personally believe they should be dealt with, even if they are not that serious. But I try to respect reality.

So a third question: Is a belief in a God power an ego defense mechanism? It is not listed among the usual 15 or 20 most common defense mechanisms. Should it be on the list?

Common Ego Defense Mechanisms​


Defense MechanismDescription
RepressionExcluding distressing thoughts and feelings from consciousness.
DenialRefusing to accept reality or facts, thus blocking external events from awareness.
ProjectionAttributing one’s own unacceptable feelings or thoughts to others.
RationalizationJustifying behaviors or feelings with logical reasons, avoiding the true reasons.
SublimationChanneling unacceptable impulses into socially acceptable activities.

Additional Mechanisms....​

 
JustDave said:
Is a belief in a God power an ego defense mechanism? It is not listed among the usual 15 or 20 most common defense mechanisms. Should it be on the list?
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Many beliefs and non-beliefs alike - such as the rejection, denial, or disbelief of reality, facts, or painful emotions, can be used as ego defense mehanisms. The rejection of a belief in God can make a person feel more rational and in personal control.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
Many beliefs and non-beliefs alike - such as the rejection, denial, or disbelief of reality, facts, or painful emotions, can be used as ego defense mehanisms. The rejection of a belief in God can make a person feel more rational and in personal control.
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Are you saying a lack of belief in God is an ego defense mechanism?
 
JustDave said:
Are you saying a lack of belief in God is an ego defense mechanism?
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An ulterior motive is a hidden, concealed, or secret reason for doing something, often driven by selfish or deceptive intent rather than the stated purpose. It suggests that an action is performed for an unconfessed, secondary goal. --Gemini

Half the things we do are because they fit our conception of our wannabe selves, giving us a warm fuzzy feeling, allowing us to admire ourselves as superior people.
Then we're not the despicable azzholes that we know we are.
 
Pepper said:
Stupid. Ridiculous. Do they call themselves a congregation? Won’t watch. Just tell me please!
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The Unitarian Universalists welcome everyone of any denomination including atheists, some who actually claim to attend regularly, but it's still hard to believe. They celebrate, sing, and even pray. I don't know what they pray to, but it's what they say they do. It may be a mix of very unique spiritual souls in today's polarized society, or maybe it's just strange.

I was party to a conversation one time where an atheist was going to one of their churches, and everyone was asking him, "why?" I can't remember what his reason was, because someone spoke up and interjected, "For the bake sales!" Everything just fell apart after that. I think I recall someone adding, "To meet women."

I have been curious, but I know I never will seek one out. I'm pretty sure church is church, no matter what they are celebrating. The after service fellowship may be interesting.
 
JustDave said:
The Unitarian Universalists welcome everyone of any denomination including atheists, some who actually claim to attend regularly, but it's still hard to believe. They celebrate, sing, and even pray. I don't know what they pray to, but it's what they say they do. It may be a mix of very unique spiritual souls in today's polarized society, or maybe it's just strange.

I was party to a conversation one time where an atheist was going to one of their churches, and everyone was asking him, "why?" I can't remember what his reason was, because someone spoke up and interjected, "For the bake sales!" Everything just fell apart after that. I think I recall someone adding, "To meet women."

I have been curious, but I know I never will seek one out. I'm pretty sure church is church, no matter what they are celebrating. The after service fellowship may be interesting.
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Yeah, a lot of people go to church just for the sense of community it provides and for some, to find a spouse.
 
There was a guy on a Dutch forum. That was so weird. He was an atheist and also a priest in a catholic church. He liked all the nonsense around it.

There was also an interview on tv with a reverend from a protestant church our former queen went to and he believed nothing, walking on water, virgin birth, he didn't believe anything.
 
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David777 said:
Some of you, if truly searching for meaning, especially those wondering about their eternal existence, should do some actual research yourself instead of speculating from your own ignorance and personal religious experiences contaminated by dominating usual flawed denominational dogmas. Today given the Internet, there are vast amounts of previously hidden scholar's research, both old and new, on the Bible and the Christian religion. The New Testament was written by belatedly putting solid oral tradition processes onto paper, that I can tell from the way some comment, don't understand how that works. And no, No, and NO, the Holy Spirit inspiring ALL the OT and NT scripture is utter nonsense.

If one really wants some of the answers some members are asking, it is not going to come from shallow, terse nonsense within this web forum or others. And probably not from some Christian denominational authorities that usually have focused agendas per their church. The below link is a short summary of how the New Testament came about. There are many books one could just buy and read plus vast amounts online if one figures out where to look.

https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/how-new-testament-was-created/

A lot of people talk about the New Testament but I'd be surprised if any of you have even read any of the longer letters like Romans start to finish. Or better yet, done so with a guide book explaining whatever. It's not that the letters are that long, but rather many people today would rather waste their time watching tv, playing video games, reading some romantic fiction book, or a long list of other unproductive activities including commenting tersely on web threads like this.
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While it's true that we're not a chapter of Mensa, this forum does serve certain social needs.
Not for me, of course, I'm just slumming.
 
Rich said:
We all have the occasional bad day. No harm. I've read many of your posts and understand your passion.
I feel like I'm ready for my own demise, I'm at peace with the thought that my end here on this earth will be final. As I've mentioned in other posts, I sort of envy your faith, I wish I could but my brain simply doesn't speak that language.
Have a great night.
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Simple, really is. Just call to him. Simply speak to him in a prayer. Nothing more. If nothing else I will pray for you.
 
David777 said:
In post

I am an Atheist and always have been.

I wrote: "I wish to live forever...". However, I don't expect that to be within our organic bodies we have when alive but rather would be in some kind of UIE created mechanical robotic body that is controlled by an interface to the electromagnetic field duplicating what is in our wet electrolyte creature brain. This is also why Jesus very clearly stated our body must die before we are reborn in spirit. And "spirit" in the OT is associated with the H2O water molecule in multiple places.

Water is the most incredible molecule in our organic universe and that is key. Essentially, if our body or brain is scanned by a machine downs to atomic levels, then impedances holding the brain wave fields within our brains can then be duplicated using some kind of water based structure.

Earth creature brains create multi-oscillating waves via slow changing cell wall action potentials a depolarization mechanism. That allows protoplasm to build up via evolutionary successes, complex multi field oscillations via ligand electrolyte feedback mechanisms. Any oscillator whether electronic or mechanical requires added feedback in resonant sync to keep it running without stopping from resistive decay.

Now it is possible, advanced intelligent entities may be able to build structures by assigning properties like address tags to substances at the molecular level that then self-assemble within an aqueous environment of electrolytes. In a sense, that is what DNA does but at a much slower reproductive process level.

If so, even complex impedance matching brain structures could be possible. So interfacing that to an advanced technology robotic body is what with scripture certainty had happened to Moses and Elijah that truly died at some point long long before the Transfiguration event, because all 3 synoptic gospels describe such in the Transfiguration verses. It has always amazed me how scholars don't understand how important that is. Much different than raising Lazarus dead from the tomb but then that tends to confuse people into OOO nonsense.

With such a repairable, replaceable machine, one's em field data could essentially live forever. And in fact, if destroyed on say one planet, if the data was stored elsewhere, one's em field could arise again. That is possibly why God just can't destroy evil UIE entities that may exist at the periphery of his realm because another copy would just pop up.

In Star Trek, every time Scotty used the Transporter to move people to different locations, those people were essentially dead and without existence for a few seconds. The fact the other Transporter end could recreate the person from mere data received is not the same as magically transporting a brains actual em field. No a person's EM field is removed from existence and only data of how to recreate it is left. In a few episodes, they actually used the "memory buffer" of the Transporter to do interesting things like remove deceases. As they came out of the Transporter, there would be no way to tell if one had actually been dead and gone for 15 seconds. It would seem like one really did move from point A to B.
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My apologies but I have no idea what you are saying.
 
JustDave said:
I don't hate that part of death myself, but it's understandable that others would. Unfortunately, it does not logically follow that an afterlife exists because you cannot come to terms with hating the finality of death. I do understand that believing in an afterlife would make some people feel better about death, but to me that is an avoidance of reality.

So this leads to the second most important of life's questions. Is avoiding reality a good thing?
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I sometimes become overwhelmed with dread because my life is coming to a close. Scares me. Makes me weak in the knees, so to speak.
I walk my dog, talk to my neighbors. Take the car for an oil change, grocery shop. My knees hurt. Can't stand up straight. But I do these things. Come home, collapse in a chair. Buddy climbs in my lap. Then I get up and take care of what other issues need to be addressed. I go on.
One day I won't wake up. It will be over. I believe I will be with God, my daughter, who died. My dagshund Maggie. My very best friends and feel no pain. I believe my very being is in Gods hands. I can't come back and assure you. Haven't been there yet. But I believe that for all God has done for me while I breath, does not just disappear when I leave this earth. Nothing more to say.
 
Messy said:
No I say the opposite. It's a Bible text that says that to the natural mind the Gospel is foolishness. Your brain can make sense of the natural world. Not the spiritual. I don't think it's foolish that you don't believe. It's often people who are more intellectual who have a problem with believing. Any 4 year old will believe you if you say God exists.

Other beliefs is something totally different than atheism. Most of the time they were just told that as a kid and believe their mom.
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isn't it surprising that all religions refer to God. Their particular God or GOD.

On another comment, I quote
It's often people who are more intellectual who have a problem with believing.
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I dislike referencing the bible in this forum but here it is ...."I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world"?
1 Corinthians 1:19-

So the intellect of some stands accused by God. I might add that we are all the creation of God and that I quote again:
“God… spoke in time past… by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.”.

You can never know more then your teacher so your intellect is somewhat suspicious as to where you acquired all this understanding. You know no more , to work with other then what your creator gave you.
 
rbtvgo said:
isn't it surprising that all religions refer to God. Their particular God or GOD.

On another comment, I quote

I dislike referencing the bible in this forum but here it is ...."I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world"?
1 Corinthians 1:19-

So the intellect of some stands accused by God. I might add that we are all the creation of God and that I quote again:
“God… spoke in time past… by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son.”.

You can never know more then your teacher so your intellect is somewhat suspicious as to where you acquired all this understanding. You know no more , to work with other then what your creator gave you.
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I think we can just help each other.
Jesus didn't accuse the man who could only believe when he saw miracles. He just healed his son and then he believed.

A doctor in Holland investigated healings that happened in churches, together with a team from university. People want proof. Why not. I like that they investigated it. They couldn't explain it.

Or just pray that God shows them. Ian McCormack was an atheist, he was dying. God told his mother to pray. He saw the Our Father texts, heard God speak, prayed it. He saw the texts after he said: if there is a God please help me to pray. He saw Jesus and heaven, was dead for 45 minutes, but wanted to go back for his mom. She had told him when he was a kid: If you're ever in trouble, pray from your heart Ian.
 
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Somewhat off topic, this link is to the Good Friday service at my (non conformist) church.

The speaker is not ordained clergy; he is a lay preacher as per the Methodist tradition.

I post the link for people have not been to church to aeons, or who have never witnessed a similar service.

All comments are welcome

 
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Time Waits 4 No Man said:
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Europeans are so UnAmerican!
 
When I was a child, we had a Christian church right across the street from my house.
No one ever asked me to go, I just got up, dressed, and went by myself.
I won a trip to Cedar Point for reciting the books of the Bible.
We had evening dinners twice a month.
They gave kids stuff. I loved it.
Everyone was so nice.

So far no one can read our minds so I believe people can believe or not believe in whatever they choose.

❤️
 
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