I'd say I'm tired of answering these questions but...I'd be lying. And there's a few new ones in here I don't often here anyway.
1. That's a question that will result in a very long answer, but to try to make it succinct, well, it wasn't any one thing. It was a long line of many little things, with a few very large and glaring ones as well. Personal experiences, questions I had, the answers I got, and more damning were the answers I didn't get are all why I ended up becoming an atheist. I guess you could say my atheism is the emotional kind, which is probably what led me to humanism, incidentally.
2. Well, prior to atheism I was agnostic and prior to agnosticism I was a fundamentalist protestant, specifically a methodist. What led me from agnosticism to atheism was the reasoning of Hitchens, whose arguments dispelled what remnants of superstitious inclination remained.
3. Washington, D.C.
4. 25
5. No, and quite simply it's just because all the claims of it have nothing to base themselves off of. The best way I can describe the why is to quote the French astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace [or at least, it's thought to be attributed to him, but even if not, the reasoning holds up].
6. Protestant, and yes, four times. Twice as a Christian, once as an agnostic, once as an atheist.
7. I've read some amount of translated versions of it, but what parts I have read have so disgusted me and at the same time made me laugh with such derision at the sheer lunacy of it that I never have felt a need to fully read through it, though I have read a fairly decent extent of it.
8. Yes, the talmud, the torah, the writings of Confucius, and the enlightenments of Buddha. Haven't read anything on hinduism. I feel no need; I'm pretty sure the effect will be the same as the rest.
9. What AREN'T my hobbies? I play video games, read books, snoop for knowledge on the internet, I cook, I smoke weed, I write, I paint Warhammer 40k miniatures [I play a Grey Knights army; anyone who plays the game or knows the Grey Knights and knows me and my views will probably enjoy the irony, I sure do], I do internet roleplaying, and many other things besides, though those are the main ones.
10. The goal of life is pretty basic; survive as long as you can and contribute to society in some way or another, be it genetics or other means.
11. I did, for a time, when I was an agnostic. I kind of fell for Pascal's Wager in the earlier moments of my "rebirth" as a freethinker, for lack of a better term, but as more questions were answered, I came to the conclusion that hell, like heaven, does not exist.
12. No. I sometimes find myself wishing it were so [everlasting life in death. I can see the reason for the desire for it], but if wishes were fishes, we'd have an ocean full...
13. They range from the average, normal individual, to the paragons of virtue, and across to the immoral subhuman blobs of worthlessness.
14. I find their beliefs just as silly. Though I do notice that polytheists sometimes tend to be a bit more smug and up their own asses about it, which irritates me greatly.
15. I consider all belief in things without evidence to be equally gullible, really. There's a reason I openly and contemptuously mock people who believe in alternative medicine...and I just stated it.
16. If I can be honest, the only philosophy I think really has any potential to answer any question or provide any context is natural philosophy...or rather, its descendent, known as science. Most other philosophies just come across as chasing their own tails to me.
17. Don't we all, to some extent? I certainly have a fixation with death, definitely.
18. The best answer I can come up with is this: My life is my life and I wouldn't change it for anything. That may not answer your question, but it's the only one I've got that isn't ridiculously complicated and long-winded.
19. Nah, not really. Were I given the power to ban all religions permanently, I would close the cover over the ban-button, lock it, cut the wiring, and melt down the component parts to make something more useful. Religion has its place for some people; to take that away is to take away the right to choose, even in a small way. So long as one does not wish to bring harm, one may do what one pleases, so far as I am concerned.
20. They're both similar and different, in their own weird ways. The most obvious is how the debates go; two people go in with their opinions, and even if one is thoroughly and totally trounced, they aren't likely to change their minds...though, like politics, sometimes it does happen.
1. That's a question that will result in a very long answer, but to try to make it succinct, well, it wasn't any one thing. It was a long line of many little things, with a few very large and glaring ones as well. Personal experiences, questions I had, the answers I got, and more damning were the answers I didn't get are all why I ended up becoming an atheist. I guess you could say my atheism is the emotional kind, which is probably what led me to humanism, incidentally.
2. Well, prior to atheism I was agnostic and prior to agnosticism I was a fundamentalist protestant, specifically a methodist. What led me from agnosticism to atheism was the reasoning of Hitchens, whose arguments dispelled what remnants of superstitious inclination remained.
3. Washington, D.C.
4. 25
5. No, and quite simply it's just because all the claims of it have nothing to base themselves off of. The best way I can describe the why is to quote the French astronomer Pierre-Simon Laplace [or at least, it's thought to be attributed to him, but even if not, the reasoning holds up].
Quote:Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là.Means roughly "I have no need of that hypothesis."
6. Protestant, and yes, four times. Twice as a Christian, once as an agnostic, once as an atheist.
7. I've read some amount of translated versions of it, but what parts I have read have so disgusted me and at the same time made me laugh with such derision at the sheer lunacy of it that I never have felt a need to fully read through it, though I have read a fairly decent extent of it.
8. Yes, the talmud, the torah, the writings of Confucius, and the enlightenments of Buddha. Haven't read anything on hinduism. I feel no need; I'm pretty sure the effect will be the same as the rest.
9. What AREN'T my hobbies? I play video games, read books, snoop for knowledge on the internet, I cook, I smoke weed, I write, I paint Warhammer 40k miniatures [I play a Grey Knights army; anyone who plays the game or knows the Grey Knights and knows me and my views will probably enjoy the irony, I sure do], I do internet roleplaying, and many other things besides, though those are the main ones.
10. The goal of life is pretty basic; survive as long as you can and contribute to society in some way or another, be it genetics or other means.
11. I did, for a time, when I was an agnostic. I kind of fell for Pascal's Wager in the earlier moments of my "rebirth" as a freethinker, for lack of a better term, but as more questions were answered, I came to the conclusion that hell, like heaven, does not exist.
12. No. I sometimes find myself wishing it were so [everlasting life in death. I can see the reason for the desire for it], but if wishes were fishes, we'd have an ocean full...
13. They range from the average, normal individual, to the paragons of virtue, and across to the immoral subhuman blobs of worthlessness.
14. I find their beliefs just as silly. Though I do notice that polytheists sometimes tend to be a bit more smug and up their own asses about it, which irritates me greatly.
15. I consider all belief in things without evidence to be equally gullible, really. There's a reason I openly and contemptuously mock people who believe in alternative medicine...and I just stated it.
16. If I can be honest, the only philosophy I think really has any potential to answer any question or provide any context is natural philosophy...or rather, its descendent, known as science. Most other philosophies just come across as chasing their own tails to me.
17. Don't we all, to some extent? I certainly have a fixation with death, definitely.
18. The best answer I can come up with is this: My life is my life and I wouldn't change it for anything. That may not answer your question, but it's the only one I've got that isn't ridiculously complicated and long-winded.
19. Nah, not really. Were I given the power to ban all religions permanently, I would close the cover over the ban-button, lock it, cut the wiring, and melt down the component parts to make something more useful. Religion has its place for some people; to take that away is to take away the right to choose, even in a small way. So long as one does not wish to bring harm, one may do what one pleases, so far as I am concerned.
20. They're both similar and different, in their own weird ways. The most obvious is how the debates go; two people go in with their opinions, and even if one is thoroughly and totally trounced, they aren't likely to change their minds...though, like politics, sometimes it does happen.
