Cause of Atheism
For Atheists out there, I want to know what caused you to not believe in God. Christians are also encouraged to participate on why do you think people turn into Atheism.
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I think the cause of atheism and the views of traditional Christians are similar. Both are usually as a result of historical ignorance and a misinterpretation of the Bible. They both tend to interpret the Bible literally when most of it is supposed to be interpreted allegorically, and in the case of atheists, point at the Pentateuch as a good reason not to believe in God, as if everything in the Bible fits perfectly together. It is pretty obvious that Deuteronomy and Leviticus were created, or at least inspired, during the Babylonian Exile. The Jewish people adopted a lot of Babylonian thoughts and traditions. The "evil" parts of the Bible are not a good reason to discard the entire Bible... But those "evil" parts are also why the entire Bible should not be accepted as the "word of God." Hundreds of Jewish and Christian texts were not included in the Bible, so people should look at everything in context before making up their minds. Also, I think that Jesus had a message which he hoped would reform Judaism. He wasn't trying to convert them to Christianity, that wouldn't make any sense. However, his message was much different than what they were used to and he had to put it into terms that a Jewish audience could understand. People become atheist because the evidence for God is not sufficient enough for them. I think they tend to make up their mind too early, and become too stubborn to ponder on any theistic arguments. They form a bias that often blinds them. The same could be said about Christians, or any theists. When people form a belief, they tend to cling to it. They will look at other viewpoints through a biased lens, practically straining to prove their opinion. After a while, it seems like they become mentally exhausted, so they revert to insults. It is as if they are swimming upstream. They do not realize how useless that task is. I am not an atheist, because the universe does not seem to be as a result of some mindless creative force, in my opinion... But that doesn't mean I am right, and I accept that. And even though I do think that there is a "God", I realize that something can come along that changes my opinion... But if my opinion does change, that would still mean that my new opinion may actually be inaccurate. I think the best thing to do is to not cling to any one idea, and accept that you may be wrong... But atheists shouldn't insult theists as if they have any better idea of where we came from than them, and theists shouldn't insult atheists for the same reason. However, closed-mindedness is worth being acknowledged, because that is a trait that nobody should have, but like Terrence McKenna said: "You don’t want to become so open-minded that the wind can whistle between your ears." 1
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I just examined all of the evidence. I read the bible, read science texts, listened to debates between theists and atheists, and I was compelled to conclude that a god probably doesn't exist causing me not to believe. I have yet to encounter any half decent evidence for or reason to believe in any gods. 1
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Default state is not believing in magic, pixies and gods. So the question should rather be something like: What make you to throw away common sense and start believing that creatures from stone age fairytale are real and watching every your step and are especially concerned with your sex life...? 1
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I was raised Mormon. After studying the scriptures and church history it became very clear that the founders of their religion were con men. So, then I became a non-denominational Christian and began to do an in depth study of the Bible. Once again it became very clear that it was written by men who used the threat of god to control people and justify their atrocities. After that discovery I became agnostic. I briefly studied other religions and they all seemed to have the same flaws and lack of credible evidence to support their positions, so now I am an agnostic atheist. I'm convinced that all of the gods people worship today are fictional and if there is a god out there he is either malevolent or just isn't interested in the affairs of humans. 1
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Lucifer sounded like a pretty cool dude, so I followed him for a while. I preformed a few rituals and none of them were successful. That was after I tried praying. Or maybe they were partly successful? I don't get my reward, but Lucifer still gets my soul? Though I did try witchcraft one time and I think I derailed a train and caused a power outage. It may have just been a coincidence. :D |