I’m an atheist. So why can’t I shake God?

[KevinM1]

I heard it from my my dad and later verified by eventually her. When you don't think it's not a true story you think they are lying because it doesn't fit your belief system. Kind of like many religious people I know. The more I'm on here the more I realize that atheist have faith just like religious people do, however their faith is based on what the scientific community allows them to know.

Science is, ultimately, a method of inquiry. Your aunt's story is one that defies how we know the universe works, and has no evidence to support it (your dad being familiar with it doesn't lend it credibility). We're not going to accept wild assertions without proof.

Then you learn there is a lot of science in the classified realm that you don't know about, which will not be known, or anything they don't talk about is lies. I guess that would make sense as to why it's important to restrict information and classify it. Oh that's right, nothing can be kept secret, and anything that doesn't fit in the paradigm is a lie, although anyone who questions them is paranoid because they can't lie, or a liar themselves. I'm starting to understand this belief a lot better now, which is why i'm here.

I have no idea what this means, outside of a general sense of paranoia on your part.

The scientific community isn't some nefarious cabal intent on silencing information. Indeed, scientific results (and the methodology used to generate them) are always published in order to undergo further scrutiny. Peer review is a powerful and necessary tool, and there's nothing like it in religion.

Furthermore, science is never definitive. There's always a margin of error, always an implicit "This is what we observe, but we may be wrong" embedded in every result.

This makes me start to wonder who the atheist has faith in.

We don't have faith liked you have faith. There's no atheist messiah, no guiding voice or hand to put us on any path. Our "faith" comes from the combination of knowledge, experience, probability, and predictability. I have a certain level of "faith" in my family members because I've known them for nearly 36 years. I can reasonably predict what they're going to do and how they think. But those predictions aren't absolute, and my faith in them, while deep, still has limits.

And once that's understood, how can it's manipulated. Come across many different variants while here, although all claim to be atheists. I'd say it's more like variations of religion, where you have different sects, like Lutherans, Catholics, etc. The only thing in common I've read is that whatever is verified is what you personally have verified, which is just like everyone. So far the difference more than I thought, but not surprised to find the variations. Afterall, like I continue to say, perception of reality, is what we perceive.

So, wait, you're trying to manipulate us? Or you think someone else is doing it?

And, yes, atheists come in all different shapes and sizes. That's what happens when the only thing guaranteed to be shared among us is a lack of belief in any gods. I'm not sure why us being a collection of individuals rather than some groupthink monolith is surprising.