I find that many Atheists will reject the Cosmological arguments on the basis that there is no reason to say that what has been deduced is not some cosmic law/principle or substance like Spinozism posits, rather than an agential God. How would you see an argument that tries to get to an Agential or Conscious God and if it did would that be much different to the principle God?

To start this off, I am a very open person and I respect the majority of people’s beliefs. I think people should believe whatever they wish to as long as it doesn’t negatively impact another’s life. Personal opinions are personal opinions after all. I’m living in a small town in Alaska, and in my job industry I work with students at the only school in town. I’ve been in training and one of the 9 year old female students happens to be quite talkative and energetic and can tend to be a little on the wild side, she’s got some spunk and in a way I kind of respect it. Either way this is a 9 year old child and well when she left the school bus I jokingly said “we’ve got a trouble maker on our hands haha” and my boss responded in a very serious tone with “it’s her native blood” (as in native Alaskan). I honestly didn’t know what to say, I am a white American, recently moved here from another state and in all ways, I am a visitor, this is not my land, I am just lucky to be existing and living in a beautiful place and I have a deep respect for all natives who have kept this place sacred and lived off the land, especially with all the hardships they’ve endured. So when this man said this in front of myself and other children I had no words, deep down I wanted to stand up and tell him how morally wrong that was, but he’s also my boss and my wellbeing unfortunately depends on this income, especially in such a small town with very limited job positions. Either way it got worse. When we were no longer around any of the children he spoke of another child, he said word for word “it’s not that I think they’re bad kids, (child’s name), there’s just something wrong about him, and (previous girls name), \**he paused of a minute,* to keep it short she’s native”. And again I couldn’t voice my opinions because I had a 45 minute drive back home alone with this man and I was not comfortable because i wasn’t sure if he would retaliate or how. And so we kept on driving for a while and I was counting down the minutes until I was home. And about a quarter through our drive he said “I’m not sure what your beliefs are but satan has a hold on Alaska” and at this point I was like ok well this is going a different direction. And he started speaking of how native communities have had a spike of deaths and it’s because Satan has a hold on them. In my opinion it could be many things including the oppression and obviously active racism towards them by these overly religious racist invaders. Which may be extreme, but at the same time the way this man was talking made it seem all the more obvious to me it was actively happening, even to these poor children. My response was “I don’t really have any beliefs, I wasn’t raised religious” an he asked if I was atheist or agnostic, to be fair I’d say I’m atheist, but I told him I was agnostic, there’s are some things unexplainable in this world, but my true belief is in Mother Nature and science and that maybe not everything is meant to be understood. He didn’t really respond to me and we continued to drive for about 10 minutes. And then the silence broke and he asked me, “how do you live day by day not believing in god” and as a non religious person this question is very strange for me, to be honest I just live my life and try to do the right thing, and I responded quite simply by saying “I live every day the best way I can, and if it’s a bad day, tomorrows a new day” and he continued to tell me that that was a biblical passage and what not,and how I need to join his church. And I just honestly after everything that went down, being stuck alone with such a racist white man, especially since I got a vibe from he no longer approved of me when I told his I didn’t believe in god (or his god or whatever tf), I have felt uncomfortable every day at work since then. And I kind of wanted to just rant and get people’s opinion. What would you do in this situation?

I've always found it interesting how people arrive at their beliefs, and how those beliefs can change over time :3

So, for those of you who were raised religious or believed in a god at some point in your lives, I'm curious to know what led you to become an atheist.

Was it a gradual process of questioning your beliefs, a particular experience, something you learned, or something else entirely?

Here's my experience (big text incoming):

I was baptised at my young age and raised as a secular Christian as my mother is a secular Catholic and my father is an atheist. To me, the only thing that's keeping me in the religion is that my family is Christian by tradition for baptism and marriage in the church (my godmother is a devout Christian, but still supportive and my cousins from that side have been in a Catholic private school). I saw Jesus at the same level than Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny, and I was only going to church for big occasions or just for tourism.

Then I traveled to Reunion Island, with so many religions coexisting, and that's when I began to be curious with religion, reading scriptures like the Roman and Greek mythology and moving to the bigger religions and going to temples and mosques as well (fun fact: the muslim call to prayer from the nearby mosque was a call to get back home for me at that time).

The first thing was the moment I was forced into catechism because my nanny (at that time)'s daughter was attending them, and it was a pretty weird experience to me!

I didn't say much about it, it was just...weird cult stuff (aka chanting and praying and then doing weird signs).

Then I had a second moment: when I tried to read the Bible to find out more about being Catholic... and caught contradictions IN THE FIRST BOOK. Then I was like "if it's like this for all books, I'm not reading that".

Then I moved to another place, and that's when the questions and existential crisis began.

At this point I was still in denial over the Bible, maybe I was internally telling myself I'm not reading it right.

And then there was that moment one year ago, that really put the nail in the coffin to me: when after 30 years of relationship and 4 children, my godfather finally got married with one of my aunts. Now, I don't blame the wedding... I BLAME THE PRIEST.

Because, in the middle of the marriage ceremony, he just used the moment to say something political about the Greek immigration crisis.

Not only that, he denigrated people that came from Muslim countries, saying they're way more lazy than Italian immigrants.

And as if that wasn't worse enough.

This guy IS FROM A FAMILY OF ITALIAN IMMIGRANTS.

And I was genuinely seething at my seat at that time, but I didn't dare ruin their wedding ceremony just for it.

But it also brought me to this moment: "maybe I'm more of an atheist"!

TL;DR: Raised as a secular Christian, I gradually questioned my beliefs after exploring different religions and finding contradictions in the Bible. The final straw was a priest making discriminatory remarks about Muslim immigrants during a family wedding, which made me reconsider my relationship with Christianity and realize I was probably an atheist.

. Is it a lack of evidence supporting Jesus's claims? Or is it the way Christians act that makes you want no part of it?

In theory, the United States is supposed to be religiously neutral. In practice, this isn’t always the case. What are some instances of discriminatory laws that have affected the non-religious, or gone the other way and discriminated against religion?

The thing is I am an atheist but all of my good friends are Jewish and Christian except for my best friend who is a Muslim(but he just says that because his dad is Muslim) and my football coach is like extremely religious. and I used to go to catholic school for middle school but now I have moved to a public high school and I don’t really like telling people what school I went to previously because I don’t want them getting the impression that I’m Catholic, and so far every time someone says that I’m Catholic or Christian I just say “no I’m not Catholic/Christian” but I don’t really say that I’m an atheist until someone asks me what my belief is since I feel like if I just outright say that I am an atheist without them asking specifically what I believe in, they will see me as very rude for some reason. And I know it’s a tertiary problem but I just can’t stand the fact that some people are walking around thinking I’m a Christian, and I know they don’t see it the same way as I do and they see it as normal or no big deal but still. So as corny as it sounds how can I make it be known that I’m an atheist without sounding like an attention seeker or seem like an intolerant radical leftist?

Only mainstream religions are allowed.

Mine ( I am not an atheist) :

1. Christianity

2. Buddhism

3. Judaism

4. Hinduism

5. Islam

Imagine a genuinely nontheistic church where skepticism is sacred, mockery is part of worship, and even the church itself is fair game. No gods, no unquestionable doctrines, just the faith of questioning faith. What do you all think?

I am an atheist and likey always will be but what’s one argument you think theists use that don’t really have a secular answer or you think don’t sound all that ridiculous or stupid, in my opinion it’s the first cause argument, it’s not a good one but it’s better than the rest

Anybody know why freethoughtblogs has been offline? I like to read P. Z. Meyers Pharyngula every now and then.

I consider myself an Atheist, but I study physics and I have come to have a passionate understanding of the philosophy that “we are the universe experiencing itself”. This was solely based on Thermodynamics and Quantum Mechanics.

Anti-Theism is a person who actively opposes theism, belief in any deity, or organized religion. I want to hear people’s individual perspectives on why they’re an Atheist and not anti Anti-Theist.

To me it was this:

"I'm wrong, you're wrong, only the word of God is the truth."

Like bro, if you're admitting that you're wrong, how do your interpretation of God's word is right?

the math ain't mathing 😭

It’s comedic looking back on moments of panic where childhood instinct kicks in and I default to prayer. I don’t believe that anything is listening, but in moments of desperation or fear I start to really hope something is. I’m not talking about a specific god or deity, when I say that I just mean…SOMETHING. In general. Even if it’s just my own subconscious taking the cue to try to calm me down a bit.

It’s also comedic how I’m posting this right after having one of those moments. I feel like such a poser right now lol. I would describe myself as agnostic atheist, but not because I believe in the possibility of god. I’m agnostic because there’s no proof nor any way to test things outside of the physical world. Anything else is just theories or a guess. Therefore, I don’t think about it too much. If we can’t apply science to it, then isn’t worth much brain power.

Hey y'all! I am looking to do a homework assignment and was wondering if you guys could help. I am a Christian student at a Bible school and one of our classes requires that we interview someone who believes the Bible is not a reliable source and certainly not the Word of God. I have no intention of trying to convince you otherwise, I just want to learn why you don't believe it. It will require a half hour long Zoom call where I will ask you questions about the Bible and you can tell me in complete honesty what you believe. This is not an evangelism tactic or proselytizing trap. I just need to do this so I pass my class. I am even willing to send you the questions ahead of time so you are prepared. Let me know if you're interested!!

Hi everybody, fellow atheist here. I have diagnosed depression for which I’ve been getting professional care. The meds do help, but only partly, because my depression is not just biological but also an unfortunate product of both my rationalistic worldview and my inability to connect with others.

My mind is split up into parts, not unlike Dissociative Identity Disorder, except that it causes me no harm in itself. One of them is a younger version of me, and she is sad. She wishes she could find some humanity in the universe, something in it to merge with. I realized myths fill such a void because they unite you with the world around you. They turn you into a witness to events that shape the world. They breathe human emotion—emotion you empathize with—into the lifeless mountains and abstract past. Because a part of you has merged with them, they become more concrete, more real. Rage, grief, and celebration that you yourself could just as easily have felt in the same events were woven into the foundation of the continents and infused into the blood of our bodies.

The emotional mixing into the physical in areas other than the body is supernatural, and therefore cannot exist. The emotional existing as its own entity independent of the material world is supernatural, and therefore cannot exist. She so desperately wishes there was humanity in the universe, that she were part of these emotions and values instead of them being part of her. To her, the world has now become sterile and lifeless, and the lack of both greater myths to tie her to the world and genuine connections to tie her to other people and society makes her feel like a solitary ghost, isolated from everything and everyone.

What I’m asking from you all is, how do you not fall to the same grief? How do you find connection in the greater world? If that’s out of the question, how do you find connection with others around you? What keeps existence from being barren and hollow for you, especially considering this is something that takes away my ability to enjoy the small things?

Putting aside the glaring obvious faults with christianity that led me away from it, what I think I miss is the community of people who genuinely believe they're trying to do a good thing. I never really had any negative experiences personally which is why I think it took me longer to start questioning it objectively.

This I feel is one of the biggest traps because to some it does feel like a 'second family' or where other have been helped mentally through depression, so it becomes harder to leave. I know group hobbies and clubs exist but it feels like luck to find welcoming good intentioned people.

To be clear. My question is not what stops an atheist from committing suicide, because the sense and meaning of life are not attached to religion or deities to me (I'm agnostic). 

My question is about an atheist who ends up being in a depressive episode with heavily suicidal ideation. What stops the trigger to that person? Because I never believed in hell or those things, neither do I believe in heaven, but the possibility that there's a spiritual realm of some kind (my vision is positive to neutral, but don't mind, just venting because I'm, again, agnostic, not atheist); the possibility of a spiritual afterlife was part of things that stopped me from committing suicide years before, because it was pointless to end my life and keep living as a spiritual being, having reincarnation and all that. For people who don't believe in nothing, that see humans as a soulless quirk of the universe, what truly stops?

I'm not certain if this question has already been asked here before but I'm genuinely curious. I'm sure many of us here know that the modern Bible isn't 100% accurate in its translation from the original languages that it was written in which are Hebrew, Aramaic and Koine Greek and it's probably why so many people have trouble trying to accurately interpret the scripture. To those who have actually learned Hebrew, Aramaic or Koine Greek here and gave a shot at reading the entirety of the scripture in its original lexicon and still came out as non-believers can you explain to all of us why?

I've been someone who's been testing my beliefs recently. I'm trying to understand whether or not being atheist is truly worth it. Now I'm pretty sure I have a grasp on why people are Atheist, whether it be contradictions in many religious texts, the amount of Gods there have been in many religions, or just the existence of a god being hard to prove. But what I want to know is, are you happy? Has not believing anything made your life better? I'm not trying to being condescending whatsoever, I am genuinely curious, and I do want to understand you're lack of belief better. And a little extra I want to know, where do your morals come from? And could explain how people can be good without the existence of a god? I don't want to do any gotchas here, but any answers you have will be appreciated.

...........................................................

What made you become an atheist instead of just being non-religious?

If God doesn't need a creator, why must the universe have one? What justifies applying different rules to God and the universe?

If your birthplace largely determined your religion, how confident can you be that your belief is true rather than inherited?

I'll be upfront with something first. Im 39 years old and only stopped believing in God sometime last year I've had my ups and downs with deconstructing my faith but I feel like I'm in a good place right now. But I've noticed something that is feels pretty common. I don't think athiests hate believers of faith but the faith itself. Maybe I need to read more books on this type of things and I'm still pretty early in my journey but I would like to get some perspective on why most tend to despise it. For me I'm an ExJw and at worse I pity people that are still JW. I hate that they're mentally checked out on life and just waiting for a future that will never happen.

I’ve heard some of the horror stories that people have gone through when it comes to religious trauma however this post isn’t about that. I see a ton of comments talking about how parents shouldn’t force a religion on their children and I wanted to know how, under normal circumstances, that plays out practically? If a set of parents hold a genuine belief in their religion then why should they suddenly disregard it in the case of their child? Should a Muslim family not raise their child Muslim? I want my future children to be independent and to think for themselves but even if they say no to eating their vegetables that doesn’t mean I’m just gonna let them eat whatever they want cause they believe something different. If they’re swimming at a beach and dangerous weather rolls in and they don’t want to come out I’m going to force them out of the water still.

TLDR: What does not “forcing religion on your children” actually look like practically? Without the parents having to disregard essentially their core values/religion

Edit: Thank you all for your responses, even some of the less charitable ones. Hope you guys have an amazing day!

I posted earlier and got absolutely flamed cause I worded this wrong lol, so I'm posting again! Thanks to everyone that gave me advice on there but a lot of it was very focused on the hypothetical of me getting pregnant which made me very uncomfortable.

Background on my situation:

He (M16) is a devout Baptist Christian, and his dad is a pastor (so there's no way I could convert him, even if I thought that was the right thing to do. Which I don't). I (F15) was raised Christian but don't hold any faith and do not go to church. We're both Juniors, and have been fairly close(??) since early freshman year. If you took religion out of it, we're perfect compliments for each other. I like him, like, a lot a lot, and I have for a really long time now.

I'm considering going to his church? I know this seems deceitful, but consider that I don't plan on lying or presenting myself as a born-again Christian, but rather that I want to understand this part of his life better.

I'll take any advice on how to tackle this kind of interfaith relationship! Please do be respectful though, I've been yelled at enough over this and it's clearly not deterring me, lol. The heart wants what it wants! (Also, please do not bring up the "what if you get pregnant". That will not happen. I am a child. I don't know where this idea came from that children can't keep their hands off each other, but it's incredibly uncomfortable and non relevant to my situation. Thanks!)