I have a few questions to atheists, before I become one.

[Cyberman]

A lot (probably most) people here are what we call a "6". We don't claim to know for sure that gods doesn't exist. We simply don't accept the arguments that they do. The burden of proof is on those who make the claim that gods do exist, and they have failed to meet that burden. I can't very well prove that leprechauns or fairies definitely don't exist, but I've quite fucking positive they don't. Same with gods.

In terms of the Dawkins Scale, I classify myself as 6.9 etc for the sake of intellectual honesty - I always have to keep that door open, however fractionally, to the possibility. When it comes down to how I live my life and interact with my bit of the Universe, though, I consider myself a 7, minimum. Like Laplace, I have no need of that hypothesis and I am of the opinion that not only do gods not exist anywhere in our reality, they cannot exist there - at least as they are usually described.

Welcome to the new blood!

[JesusHChrist]

OP - welcome to the forum and please pardon me for my sometimes brusque approach.

As for worrying about what will happen if you stop believing, just keep in mind that there really is no more evidence Christianity has more validity than ancient Greek pagan god belief.

Do you worry what Zeus will do? Will Athena ruin your love life or get you hooked up? Will Poseidon make your next boat trip a living hell?

Start with the fact that some critical bits of the Bible are known to just not have happened the way they are portrayed. At all. Not one bit.

Take the Exodus story. No evidence any of it happened and much contrary evidence. Or the Genesis creation account. Or the Flood. Or the so-called prophecies of Daniel.

All thoroughly and rigorously debunked and available for your review on the net.

So, start with the skeptical position and get those god believers to show you their gods are worthy of belief before accepting someone's line of malarkey.

No religion to date holds up under even minimal scrutiny.

Except Pastafarianism. That is the One True Religion! Why, I even had pasta last night and here I am writing about it! Coincidence? I think not.

[Cyberman]

No religion to date holds up under even minimal scrutiny.

Except Pastafarianism. That is the One True Religion! Why, I even had pasta last night and here I am writing about it! Coincidence? I think not.

[Minimalist]

"Does God exist?"

But this is not what you really mean, is it? Mankind has invented thousands of gods and I assume you have never given 99.99% of them a passing thought.

What you really mean is "does MY god exist?" The fact is there is no more evidence for your god (or former god, if you like) than any of the others.

If the deist god exists....a 'god' who set everything up and then flew away somewhere to spend the rest of eternity jerking off....so what? 'God' becomes irrelevant at that point.

You get one life. Live it for yourself. And keep seeing those mental health professionals because as has been noted, we are not professionals and OCD can fuck you up.

Welcome. Don't worry about your English - you did fine. And feel free to ask questions.

[IntelligentPlanet]

OP - welcome to the forum and please pardon me for my sometimes brusque approach.

As for worrying about what will happen if you stop believing, just keep in mind that there really is no more evidence Christianity has more validity than ancient Greek pagan god belief.

Do you worry what Zeus will do? Will Athena ruin your love life or get you hooked up? Will Poseidon make your next boat trip a living hell?

Start with the fact that some critical bits of the Bible are known to just not have happened the way they are portrayed. At all. Not one bit.

Take the Exodus story. No evidence any of it happened and much contrary evidence. Or the Genesis creation account. Or the Flood. Or the so-called prophecies of Daniel.

All thoroughly and rigorously debunked and available for your review on the net.

So, start with the skeptical position and get those god believers to show you their gods are worthy of belief before accepting someone's line of malarkey.

No religion to date holds up under even minimal scrutiny.

Except Pastafarianism. That is the One True Religion! Why, I even had pasta last night and here I am writing about it! Coincidence? I think not.

Haha Pastafarianism sounds pretty cool to me, might convert to it. Anyways, I just happened to realize that I was an atheist to all the other religions, even though I never really thought of it. I mean it is now that I see that I am having hard time in proving that the christian God is not real, simply because since child I have been told that he indeed is the one and only God. Funny how the human mind works, hehe.

You get one life. Live it for yourself. And keep seeing those mental health professionals because as has been noted, we are not professionals and OCD can fuck you up.

Welcome. Don't worry about your English - you did fine. And feel free to ask questions.

Yeah I will focus on dealing with my OCD for now since it is not a thing I should underestimate, but I will also continue to read about Christianity and Religion in general, and hopefully one day I will manage to answer my question, be happy with the answer, and live a happy life.

[heathendegenerate]

I'm not the best writer ; english is my only language. LOL You need to understand that you don't see any of the things promised in the bible being brought to life. You don't see a controlling, all-loving god. If you do, you're just lying to yourself. Look at all the carnage and all the pain. Where is god? And believe me, with all of the contradictions in the bible, it isn't the word of god. You need to research on google what's exactly wrong with christianity. You'll never believe again if you do.

[Doubting Thomas]

How can I be sure, or at least not worry about almost all the time, that there is no God?

This is something you really have to work out for yourself. Look at all the evidence against a god's existence and the lack of evidence for its existence, then make up your own mind. Look at all the crazy claims by religious people and ask yourself if they make any sense. Ask yourself if you really believe in and want to worship a god which would punish you for eternity just for having reasonable doubt.

[pocaracas]

Well, since everyone else already contributed the right way...

Let me just give you the worst gift imaginable!

But first, start a timer and then let us know how long it takes to break the cycle!

hit the button:

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[My imaginary friend is GOD]

OMG that bothers me. I once put a picture up on Facebook of chairs horribly out of alignment with each other at my psychiatrist's office, and a friend asked me where it was so he could fix it.

[pocaracas]