RE: The Case for Atheism
August 14, 2013 at 1:22 pm
(This post was last modified: August 14, 2013 at 1:24 pm by pocaracas.)
(August 13, 2013 at 5:27 pm)pocaracas Wrote:Ahhh... to be ignored. It's always an awesome ego boost
(August 13, 2013 at 2:36 pm)AnaMejiaP Wrote: I was wondering on what logical premise do you have to not believe in a God? I know that a lot of atheist have different opinions and arguments. I'm only asking to get a better understanding on the matter, and I'm not here to argue against Atheist (not yet that is) just inviting a friendly conversation.
I simply look at the world around me.
I see no god, I hear no god, I feel no god.
People talk about a god, but I haven't experienced said god.
Then, I take a step back from the people in my vicinity and notice there are other people claiming similar things, but about some other god.
I do not experience that other god, either... nor any other god claimed by people all over the world.
What gives?
How have these people come to experience any god, if I can't?
Then I notice something else: it seems that claims concerning a specific god are geographically localized. If you're born in Europe or the Americas (which were colonized by europeans) you get christianity; if you're born in the Middle East, you get islam; is you're born in India, you get hinduism, etc, etc, etc... (just to name the best known ones)
What's going on here?
Is there only one god presenting itself in different ways to different people?... or multiple gods presenting themselves to specific groups of people in specific locations of the planet? Why don't I experience any of those?...
OR... OR... are people just convincing themselves and their children about the gods that they hear about from their relatives and acquaintances?
I mean, it looks like people convince their children about the story of god. These children grow up to convince their children thus creating an endless cycle.
Why do people do this?
What reason is there to teach your kids about some god for which you have no experience, except that which you convince yourself of?
Drich, a fellow forum-monger, says you need to have a mustard's seed worth of faith to believe... so faith is required to have faith.... sounds like circular reasoning, doesn't it? That's because it IS!
If you manage to mold a child's mind to accept something as truthful (and this isn't difficult), then that mind will grow with that belief ingrained, and convincing itself that it is right.... couple that with a lot of peer pressure and you get the religious movements.
Finally, I refuse. I refuse to believe. I want to know.
Belief requires that I accept other people's claims on face value... And that's not generally a very good idea.
If there is any god, I want to know about it. I refuse to accept other people's claims, so I would only accept it from the origin itself. I've been waiting for decades.
I am aware of other people who have been waiting for far longer than me.
I am aware that some people have lived in the far past and died of old age waiting for such experience.
So it seems that, if there is such an entity, it is not interested in making us know about it.
We then carry on with life under the assumption that it doesn't exist. The realization that believers are simply that: believers. They don't know. They believe.
It's all in their minds... those minds that were molded when they were young.
If it's all in their minds, then... it is not a real entity... It is an imaginary entity. It has been imagined in different ways, in different places, at different times, hence you got all the different religions and myths we got throughout human history.
PS: I am aware that some people do become theists at adulthood, but most believers are indeed indoctrinated as kids.
PS2: Oh, damn... Wall of text...sorry! And I know my walls of text tend to have little continuity, because they took too long to write.... sorry guys and gals!