Welcome!
Hopefully you won't the typical 'hit and run' theist we get around here.
There are mountains of evidence that point to humans originating from archaic hominids in Africa.
The world (Earth?) originated from the the accretion disk that surrounded the Sun after its formation. Gravity is the main engine that drives planet formation.
Social animals always give priority to members of their own species. In the scheme of the universe, humans do not have any intrinsic value over any other species. An asteroid could destroy earth tomorrow, and the universe will go on without notice.
The reason we are different than other species is our obvious intelligence. Our intelligence is our main survival tool, no different than a cheetah's survival tool is their ability to run at 120 KMH.
Everyone imbues their life with the meaning they choose.
This goes back to our evolutionary past. As social animals, humans depend on others of our species for survival. Things like: kin selection, empathy, altruism were necessary for our survival when we lived in groups of 100. Our closest relatives, Bonobo chimps exhibit many of the same attributes that could be called 'right and wrong'.
Our entire bodies get recycled.
As far as we can tell, there is nothing more after death. Whatever makes us, us, disappears when the brain dies.
I did not exist for 14.7 billion years and didn't seem to care. I imagine it will be much the same when I die.
I have many friends and family that are Christians. I love them.
My problem with beliefs in any god/religion is that people's beliefs inform their actions, I think that the world would be a much better place if everyone based their actions on rationality and evidence.
I usually politely tell them I am not interested.
For the vast majority of atheists, their atheism is a provisional position. I am open to the existence of a god, all I requires is demonstrable evidence, reasoned argument, and valid & sound logic to support the claim one exists. If any theist was convincing, I'd be a believer.
There is not a single convincing argument that ANY god exists, let alone the Christian god. Kalam's Cosmological argument, TAG, Ontological argument, Teleological argument are ALL fallacious.
Hopefully you won't the typical 'hit and run' theist we get around here.
(May 24, 2013 at 2:02 pm)bb7403 Wrote: Hi! I'm a theist, but I've always been curious about what atheists believe about life, origins, etc. I was wondering if some of you could answer some (really) basic questions for me:
How did the human race/world originate?
There are mountains of evidence that point to humans originating from archaic hominids in Africa.
The world (Earth?) originated from the the accretion disk that surrounded the Sun after its formation. Gravity is the main engine that drives planet formation.
Quote:What, if any, intrinsic value do we have as a species (in other words, is there something special about human beings that makes us different from other species?)?
Social animals always give priority to members of their own species. In the scheme of the universe, humans do not have any intrinsic value over any other species. An asteroid could destroy earth tomorrow, and the universe will go on without notice.
The reason we are different than other species is our obvious intelligence. Our intelligence is our main survival tool, no different than a cheetah's survival tool is their ability to run at 120 KMH.
Quote:What meaning, if any, does life have?
Everyone imbues their life with the meaning they choose.
Quote:Where, if anywhere, does the idea of right and wrong come from?]
This goes back to our evolutionary past. As social animals, humans depend on others of our species for survival. Things like: kin selection, empathy, altruism were necessary for our survival when we lived in groups of 100. Our closest relatives, Bonobo chimps exhibit many of the same attributes that could be called 'right and wrong'.
Quote:What happens to people when they die? Do they just cease to exist, or does something else happen (maybe an electric discharge that gets recycled somehow)?
Our entire bodies get recycled.
As far as we can tell, there is nothing more after death. Whatever makes us, us, disappears when the brain dies.
I did not exist for 14.7 billion years and didn't seem to care. I imagine it will be much the same when I die.
Quote:Also, I was wondering a little how atheists feel about Christians (I know the party line I get from the churches in the Bible Belt where we live, but I wanted to talk to atheists themselves to see what they think).
I have many friends and family that are Christians. I love them.
My problem with beliefs in any god/religion is that people's beliefs inform their actions, I think that the world would be a much better place if everyone based their actions on rationality and evidence.
Quote:Finally, I'm sure a lot of you have been approached by Christians to join their faith. What was your experience with that, and was anyone convincing?
I usually politely tell them I am not interested.
For the vast majority of atheists, their atheism is a provisional position. I am open to the existence of a god, all I requires is demonstrable evidence, reasoned argument, and valid & sound logic to support the claim one exists. If any theist was convincing, I'd be a believer.
There is not a single convincing argument that ANY god exists, let alone the Christian god. Kalam's Cosmological argument, TAG, Ontological argument, Teleological argument are ALL fallacious.
You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
