This has probably been posted before somewhere, but I was curious exactly how accepted my personal beliefs were among the atheist community.
1. I consider myself a "gnostic" atheist, by my definition of the term. I can't say that there is absolutely no God anywhere in the universe, but I know none of the Gods that have been invented on Earth are real.
2. It's obvious that there is no physical evidence for a God, but I can ignore anecdotal evidence on the basis of psychology. A scared human struggling for its livelihood is quick to turn to a higher power to try to explain why it has to go through its hardships. People want to have a reason for their suffering, which explains why war and natural disasters cause a spike in religiousness.
3. I choose not to believe in fate. At one point, I was a gnostic atheist who believed in fate, and my argument was this: The universe is governed by a complex set of laws that apply to everything and may never be broken. It follows that given a fixed set of atoms, there is only one possible outcome for all eternity. However, I no longer believe this and am definitely not a nihilist. A human being that does not believe in fate will live a more successful life... whether or not that human being was destined to live one.
I hope that was somewhat intelligible. Anyway, let me know what you think. I hope I'm not the only one on here that spends hours thinking about philosophy at a young age.
1. I consider myself a "gnostic" atheist, by my definition of the term. I can't say that there is absolutely no God anywhere in the universe, but I know none of the Gods that have been invented on Earth are real.
2. It's obvious that there is no physical evidence for a God, but I can ignore anecdotal evidence on the basis of psychology. A scared human struggling for its livelihood is quick to turn to a higher power to try to explain why it has to go through its hardships. People want to have a reason for their suffering, which explains why war and natural disasters cause a spike in religiousness.
3. I choose not to believe in fate. At one point, I was a gnostic atheist who believed in fate, and my argument was this: The universe is governed by a complex set of laws that apply to everything and may never be broken. It follows that given a fixed set of atoms, there is only one possible outcome for all eternity. However, I no longer believe this and am definitely not a nihilist. A human being that does not believe in fate will live a more successful life... whether or not that human being was destined to live one.
I hope that was somewhat intelligible. Anyway, let me know what you think. I hope I'm not the only one on here that spends hours thinking about philosophy at a young age.
