Is Unbelief Possible?

[Mister Agenda]

(Just to preface my question, I'm a Christian, but I don't force my beliefs on anyone. I think that people have a right to believe whatever they want, and no religion or perspective should ever be forced on anyone. That said, healthy and honest discussion is what I hope to spark here in my post).

To me, belief seems to be unavoidable. If you stand for it, and will take it to your grave, you are putting belief into it. It doesn't matter what you believe, at all. Because no matter what, the end is death. The end is the same for everyone, and its high risk to believe in anything, something or nothing, or to not even be sure. It's all risk. I guess my question is, is it possible to get rid of belief, and if so, is it ultimately a desireable option?

If by belief you mean 'hold something to be true', then it is impossible to get rid of belief as long as there are people, and it wouldn't be desireable to do so. The most we can hope is to have as many as possible of the beliefs that we do have, be correct.

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I guess I didn't communicate my thoughts properly. Thanks for your patience!

What I'm getting at is this: From what I've been told from religious people (which is why I'm not asking them this question) Atheism "believe" there is no God. But that this is still some form of belief even if it is a lack of belief, or a disbelief that god is real because you're putting trust into what you know to be true. Does that make better sense?

Think about what you're saying: not believing is believing. Is that really the route you want to be on?

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Yes! Thats exactly what I mean! Is belief a bad thing though? Like, if I shouldn't believe in one thing, doesn't that make belief an (for lack of a better word) "illusion"? Or bad? And should I avoid it all together?

Most of us don't think believing is a bad thing. Most of us think believing things for bad reasons is a bad thing.

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I like hat definition a lot. But if I can play devil's advocate for one question: Why are humans capable of faith if it is to be discourage? In other words, why is it that faith is a natural thing every human has the ability of engaging in, and yet it bad? And if so, how does one surgically remove faith?

It's a survival trait for young children to accept what their elders say as true, especially in a world where there really are crocodiles at the watering hole waiting to eat you.

It's not bad, it's still important, we still need our children to be like sponges when it comes to learning. But we should be careful what we teach them.

And it's reasonable to expect adults to be a little more discerning about what they'll believe.

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You're addressing a bunch of atheists. Atheism is by definition unbelief. What answer do you think you will get?

Up until you start to support that believe by calling religious people delutional, saying the bible is full of contradictions, or that your life will has meaning. Your lack of belief entails other actual beliefs. Not making a choice is still a kind of choice.

You'd think if all those things were entailed by our lack of belief, we would each exhibit those behaviors, woudln't you?

If you find yourself saying things like 'not making a choice is a choice' as more than an aphorism but literally, you may want to stop and think about what you're saying for a minute.

Maybe atheism isn't technically a belief

But you desperately, desperately want it to be so there's not much you won't say to try to make it into one.

but it is a stance many here defend. Once you start to defend that stance you lose all credibility saying you 'just' or 'simply' don't believe.

Case in point.