Please tell me what atheist means

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

@SN


Being a troublemaker in Nigeria would not be the safest thing to be. Nigeria is a country where 'witches' are still killed.. One would need to be very brave or very stupid to be seen as a troublemaker in one's community.

@Mr Olefimi

I may have misjudged you

If you are indeed here to learn and not to preach,you are sincerely welcome.

[TheDarkestOfAngels]

SoI have the feeling that I'm being lied to,and you people are atheists but you don't sound bad to me so there must be another explanation.If it's because you don't believe in god I find that very strange but maybe it's because everyone around me does.

You know that old saying - people fear what they do not understand
I can see why faithful people who only surround themselves with other christian people can give another group of people they don't understand that well a misleading image.

Do you believe in god? Or do you doubt god? If you do I'll try to understand but this is very strange to me.If you don't believe that is ok but I can't see why not.I don't think you actually have to believe in god to get to heaven because not everyone knows about him so he won't punish people for that,that would be unfair.

I do not believe in god or really any spiritual faith and all for the same reason.
One of those reasons is because these faiths all make claims that are not true according to the things we've discovered about our world. They make claims that either can not happen in the manner described or can not happen period, such as prayer or miracles. Evidence has never substantiated anything according to the bible (genesis and noah's flood are excellent examples of this). I could go further, but I believe I've made my point.

So tell me what you believe.Compared to the people in my community I am what they call a troublemaker for asking so many questions but you need to ask questions,that's how you learn.And maybe you can learn from me although I m not the most intelligent person.Humility is important for all of us.

I believe whatever can be proven - empirically (with proof), logically, or rationally.
For example, the god of the bible is not rational. On one hand, he is said to be perfect with infinite wisdom, yet he's committed a number of genocides agaisnt us for ... uh... being human, essentially. He punishes those who've worked on the sabbath but not for incest, rape, abortion, or owning slaves. He tells us that murder is one of the deadliest sins, but god himself has murdered humankind by the civilization.
To me, and I mean no disrespect to your faith, that is ass-backwards.

[Mr Olefemi]

It is,it's stupid,Darkness.That's why I don't believe it.God doesn't act in such a way,the bible is corrupt,and it's not a true representation of god's character.The only part that matters to me is what Jesus taught.It is almost too simple.To me god is the creator, he loves everything and everyone,and it's very easy to get to heaven,the rest is just storytelling nad probably mostly untrue.
If only religion was taught the way it is meant to be taught,keep it simple,and don't portray god as being something he's not.I would have thought that the fact that many people turn away from religion should wake up the priests and make them realise that most people are naturally christians (or muslims) without even realising it.And the divisions between religions are unnecessary,it's all the same.
Muslims believe that god sent 144,000 prophets to earth, beginning with Adam and ending with Jesus, and then Muhammad.I don't know if that true or not and it doesn't really matter to me,but it shoudln't take so many people to teach what is so simple.And in islam,christians are muslims,it's all the same,the same god,the same teachings.That's why I don't see why religions argue when there's nothing to argue about.It frustrates me to see believers in one religion arguing with believers of another religion,and non religious people arguing with religious people.It's pointless.
We all want the same thing,the only difference is that some of us think there's a god that started it all and some of us don't,but even without a god,the teachings work for all of us.If you don't want to pray that's ok,although it would be good if you tried,even for a joke just to see what happens.But at the end of the day the difference netween us is just a matter of faith,it's not a big deal.

[Darwinian]

This is a very strange version of Christianity, or at least it seems to be. How did you arrive a this view as I suspect most of your fellow countrymen would disagree with you.

[Mr Olefemi]

I believe in simplicity,Darwinian.The teachings of Jesus are simple,and that to me is christianity.Jesus isn't even in the bible much,most of it is just ancient stuff which means nothing to us now.It's old fashioned and cryptic,and misleading.I think it would be very hard for religious leaders to twist the bible if it was only about Jesus and what he said.
The book is too big,with too much stuff in it,and it's there's so much to twist,too much ammunition for religious leaders to use and I'm pretty sure it was always deliberately meant to be that way.To me,Jesus and God are the product,and the rest is unnecessary packaging.Jesus led a simple life,and spoke of straightforward ideas which honestly shouldn't ever have been necessary to talk about.It's just plain common sense.I don't think of it as a version of christianity,I just think that's what christianity already is.

[Darwinian]

So, if you believe that most of the Bible is untrue and written by corrupt men for ulterior motives does that mean that you basically accept the scientific explanation for the origin of life and the universe etc.?

Oh, and you said you come from Nigeria, where do you live now, if it's not being too nosey

[Rhage]

In Nigeria you would be laughed at for saying what you said, Adrian.

Funny, in my circle, you would be laughed at for believing in imaginary fairy tales.

[Scented Nectar]

You are being very disrespectful to god,Scented Nectar,and he will verily punish you with hellfire.I'm joking,that was my impression of one of the pastors back home.I do agree that god is painted as a bad character in the bible,with so much punishment and wrath,but honestly I think that is a misinterpretation of his character.

Then maybe you are not a christian deep down inside, but a believer in a good god instead. I don't believe in any gods at all, good or bad, but at least if you do believe, it's nice that you don't think he's as bad as the christian holy book says he is. That tells me you are probably a pretty good person inside. The christian god, which is the same god that the jews and muslims believe in (they are all 3 branches from the same original religion) is for sure a bad character. There is nothing good in that book but a huge amount of harm, cruel laws, wild claims of magic miracles, and lies about our planet's history that science has disproved.

It's such a shame that simple things get turned into complicated things by people who have plans and are prepared to twist the basics.Much of the bible s lies written by men anyway,so the twisting has been there from the start.I would happily rip out most of the bible and just keep Matthew,Mark,Luke and John.

Why do you think that those 4 books have not also been written and twisted by men? The jesus parts were written by people too. Why do you trust that a magic god had anything to do with it? Why do you believe that jesus even existed when no one even wrote story books about him until about a hundred years after he was supposed to have lived?

Originally I believed because those around me did,and it's part of my culture.But I like to think that I am an independent thinker and I honestly do believe.Last year I was an atheist for about two weeks,I lost all faith,but then I thought about it and I regained it.I don't think it's bad to lose faith because believing in what you can't see is hard,and seems stupid too and I admit that.
But I also don't think it's unintelligent to have faith.I don't have any proof, and if I did it would ake faith impossible.I don't think that god is christian or muslim,I think that all religions are talking about the same god.They talk about him in different ways and say that he works in different ways so that's why I try to be careful to just keep it simple.

If you are still living in Nigeria, then Padraic has a good point that it would probably be dangerous for you to express doubts or disbelief.

Why do you think faith is required? Why does your god not provide proof, then carry on from there telling people what he wants them to do? There is no reason for him to pretend he's not there as some sort of test, especially if the failure price is eternal torture. That sounds like a very ridiculous god.

I don't believe because I fear hell.And I don't fear for you either because you probably do follow the teachings of Jesus,because they're so simple.As long as you are respectful and basically good,that's it,you're in.The rest is just theatrics and unnecessary drama.

Jesus was not such a nice person either. Don't forget that he is supposed to BE god, and even if he was supposed to be simply a prophet or something, then that still means that god is the same asshole he was in the old testament, treating people like shit for thousands of years before sending jesus down to fix things. Nothing god does works right. In genesis, he makes a bunch of things, and says 'it's good', 'it's good', 'it's very good', and then what happens? Well, it turns out he has made his own worst enemy, a snake named satan, and he's not even powerful enough to stop the snake from making the humans have bad table manners by eating an apple, much less kill him off. Even a third of god's own angels are flawed and rebel against him. Then, it turns out that god's humans are all flawed too. He realized he did a bad job making them, so he kills them all off except for a guy named Noah (and his family). But god screwed up again. The ones he saved are still no good, and they need to be sent a jesus. That didn't work either and here we are still today. What on earth is this god you believe in trying to accomplish, and why is he having such difficulties doing it?

Back to jesus though, from a site about the bible, http://www.evilbible.com/ here's one of the parts about Jesus:

What Would Jesus Do?

Advocate child abuse and murder amongst many other cruelties.

Christians are always claiming, “he’s the lamb”, “our savior”, “the king of peace”, “the embodiment of love”, amongst the many other names they associate with a loving, merciful nature. Jesus a nice guy? Not in my book. Nor in any other person’s who is capable of compassion and rationality. Let’s examine who the hell the Jesus character really is. These verses will show not only is Jesus’ “loving” nature a joke but so are the Christians who worship him. Jesus’ real mission to come to earth:

Jesus says that he has come to destroy families by making family members hate each other. He has “come not to send peace, but a sword.” Matthew 10:34

Jesus says, “Don’t imagine that I came to bring peace on earth! No, rather a sword lf you love your father, mother, sister, brother, more than me, you are not worthy of being mine. “The real beauty of this verse is that Jesus demands people truly love him more then they love their own family. I ask you how can we love someone that we can not see or interact with? Love is an emotion pertaining to physical existence not to faithful ideologies, yet God threatens you with Death just because your love for your mother maybe stronger than your love for him. Matthew 10:34

Families will be torn apart because of Jesus. “Brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death." Matthew 10:21

Jesus strongly approves of the law and the prophets. He hasn’t the slightest objection to the cruelties of the Old Testament. Matthew 5:17

Jesus advocates murder and death:

Jesus condemns entire cities to dreadful deaths and to the eternal torment of hell because they didn’t care for his preaching. Matthew 11:20

Jesus, whose clothes are dipped in blood, has a sharp sword sticking out of his mouth. Thus attired, he treads the winepress of the wrath of God. (The winepress is the actual press that humans shall be put into so that we may be ground up.) Revelations 19:13-15

The beast and the false prophet are cast alive into a lake of fire. The rest of us the unchosen will be killed with the sword of Jesus. “An all the fowls were filled with their flesh.” Revelations 19:20-21

Jesus says he is the only way to salvation yet he purposely disillusions us so that we will go to hell:

Jesus explains that the reason he speaks in parables is so that no one will understand him, “lest . . . they . . . should understand . . . and should be converted, and I should heal them.” Matthew 13:10-15

Jesus explains why he speaks in parables to confuse people so they will go to hell. Mark 4:11-12

Jesus advocates child abuse:

Jesus is criticized by the Pharisees for not washing his hands before eating. He defends himself by attacking them for not killing disobedient children according to the commandment: “He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.” Matthew 15:4-7

Abandon your wife and children for Jesus and he’ll give your a big reward. Jesus asks that his followers abandon their children to follow him. To leave your child is abuse, it’s called neglect, pure and simple. Matthew 19:29

Jesus criticizes the Jews for not killing their disobedient children according to Old Testament law. Mark 7:9

A few other things about Jesus:

Jesus says that those who have been less fortunate in this life will have it even worse in the life to come. Mark 4:25

Jesus sends the devils into 2000 pigs, causing them to jump off a cliff and be drowned in the sea. Clearly Jesus could have simply sent the devils out, yet he chose instead to place them into pigs and kill them. This is called animal abuse. Mark 5:12-13

Jesus kills a fig tree for not bearing figs, even though it was out of season. Jesus must not be as smart as Christians would have us believe, for he was retarded enough to do something this silly. You’d think the son of god (god incarnate) would know that trees don’t bear fruit in dry season. Mark 11:13

Luke 12:47 Jesus okays beating slaves.

Actually I don't believe god feels it necessary for us to know him or believe in him,the important thing is our behaviour.That's why christianity and other religions should put more focus on that.

There is no god judging our behaviour. We judge our own and other people's behaviour. Reward and punishment does not come in the form of 2 types of magical afterlife, a happy one and a miserable one. It comes instead in what happens here on earth, how we affect ourselves and the people around us, in our influence, in the natural and societal consequences to our actions. It has nothing to do with some invisible authority figure guiding our lives or affecting us in any way. There is no god to pat your shoulder in approval, nor is there a god who disapproves of what you are doing.

[The Omnissiunt One]

As you should be able to tell by now, Mr. Olefemi, we are atheists for a number of reasons. Most of us are atheists principally because of lack of evidence for any sort of god, let alone a god with all the attributes assigned to him in a specific religion (e.g. one who sends his son/himself down to Earth to change water into wine, raise the dead, walk on water, die himself, come back from the dead and float up into the sky). Our disbelief is reinforced by the moral reprehensibility of religious texts, which demonstrates that they were written by primitive, bigoted individuals in a pre-scientific era. We have confidence in science and philosophy as means to discovering truth about our universe. This is not 'faith' as religions advocate, though, which is essentially belief in the face of lack of evidence, or even evidence to the contrary. History shows that science and reason in general improve our lives, whereas religion is by and large a regressive force when it comes to morality and metaphysics. That's why I, at least, am an atheist.

[Paul the Human]

Others have basically said this already, but to answer the original request: "Please tell me what atheist means", I'll put it as simply as I can.

When someone claims that one or more gods exist, an atheist is someone who says, I do not believe that claim. That's it. Atheists do not believe the claims that gods exist... or ever did. Other than that, we all (atheists) have different ideas about organized religion, the contents of the bible(s) (and other writings of scripture), issues relating to morality, etc.

You (Mr. Olefemi) have said that the teachings of 'Jesus' are simple and good. For the most part (i.e. not entirely), I agree with that. However, I do not believe that it has anything to do with any god. The people writing the bible part 2 included some common sense information on how to be kind to each other and attributed these thoughts to a character they called 'Jesus Christ'. Modern Christians act like no one had ever thought to be good to one and other until this 'Jesus' character told them to. That's just ignorant, in my opinion.