Atheists, tell me, a Roman Catholic: why should I become an atheist?

[robvalue]

There is always the possibility of just accepting your faith and rolling with it.

Does it make you happy, or at least contribute to the happiness in your life? Dies it give you a sense of peace? Satisfaction? Does it fulfill a sense of wonder in you?

If it does indeed do those things, then, well, there's no reason to leave it.

If you respect the rights of others to believe differently, and you're probably already doing that anyway,  then maybe don't worry about this atheism stuff.

For me personally, I'll briefly echo what some others have said. I like knowing things. learning without impediments, and being able to get as close to what's true as is possible. And for better or worse, God just doesn't fit in. I consider a creator to be possible, sure; but I'd put the odds at about 0.0000000000000000000001%. And that's not worth believing in. Also, if there is a Creator, I give it a hell of a lot more credit than its believers do. I refuse to believe that an entity who could create an entire universe would be so concerned about what we do with our genitals, and then be willing to torture us forever because of it. It really is absurd if you think about it for a minute.

That's it, really. It's about deciding whether you care more about what is true, or what feels good. I see religion as similar to alcohol in that regard. You go through life slightly out of tune from reality, but with a warm feeling.

I'm too much of an analyst to be able to settle for what feels good.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

For the poon.

[Alex K]

Welcome to the forum, Balaco!

You want me to try to talk you out of your religion? Well, I suppose the reason why I'm not a Catholic today is that I don't find any even remotely convincing reason to believe theistic, let alone christian, let alone catholic teachings. If you haven't examined your reasons for believing them, that's where you have to start, imo. "I believe X, now disprove it" is never how it works with anything else in life, why should it for your religion? If I showed you my Hamster and told you that it can read minds and will haunt you in the afterlife if you don't give me 10% of your income, would you believe me until you have disproven it? It's impossible to disprove to begin with! What you would do is, you'd say - wait a minute, do I have any reason to believe that this dude's Hamster can haunt my afterlife? Nope? Ok, fuck off, Alex. You see what I mean? Even theists understand the burden of proof in any other situation, they just forget about it when it comes to their religion

Before you throw off the shackles of your religion, the more important thing is that you have things in life you love, be it people, job, hobbies, whatever, and be healthy and happy, and that you don't have things in your life that enslave you. Personally I value truth and critical thinking very highly and want to avoid believing wrong things by all means, and I am convinced that the christian faith is a damaging mind control/thought police thing, but if you don't overdo it, it can be relatively benign. Our resident Catholic Lady will insist that she's doing allright, and who am I to call her a liar . So, stick around, do whatever you want, be happy.

[pocaracas]

Before I begin, I ask that you please avoid being hostile or anything.

Oh... well.... you shouldn't have said that!

I'm a Roman Catholic, but I feel like many people of faith immediately jump to degrading atheists as people, rather than trying to understand their mindset. I'm heavily confused right now, and am asking both Catholic and atheist sites for their mindsets. Obviously, Catholics are going to defend Catholicism, while atheists are going to defend atheism. I ask that you please be civil about it, as this could be life-changing for me.

Muslims are going to defend islam, Ancient Scandinavians would defend the Norse gods, etc, etc...

If you're confused, I suggest writing down your pros and cons... and then deciding what is important to you.

I've been questioning how to improve in my Roman Catholic faith lately...but this morning I came to the realization that I never really questioned my faith itself. I was lightly raised Catholic and recently took it upon myself to grow closer to God. Now, for probably the first time in my life, I feel like I'm genuinely considering atheism as a possibility.

That path makes little sense...
You start the day with wanting to get closer to god and then end it thinking that maybe that god doesn't really exist?

This "consider atheism as a possibility" sentence is weird.
Are you wanting to say that you are considering the possibility that there's no such thing as a god?
Well it is a valid possibility and should not be discarded lightly.

From what I understand, atheists do not accept the possibility of a supernatural being, and restrict themselves to our "natural" human thinking. Previously I thought that atheists are simply conditioned by society to the point where they are unable to "rationally" believe in a supernatural being...God doesn't allow us universally undeniable proof of his existence as a test of faith. Now, though, I feel like it's impossible to tell whether that mindset is correct, or whether atheists are correct in their focusing on our natural human mindsets. I do feel like I've felt something while praying throughout the past. 

I consider myself an atheist, and I think I accept the possibility of a supernatural being. Not that I regard it with a great degree of probability. But the possibility is definitely there.
That idea of being conditioned by society is a bit... nonsense. Or maybe it's my upbringing in a traditionally Catholic country, Portugal. My parents never pushed any religion down my throat. My grandmother, on the other hand, did try. But she didn't have that much access to me, so it never stuck.
Mass always seemed boring. Miracles always seemed like magic and the alleged omnipresence always seemed to be contrary to actual real life experience.
Which brought up the question: why do humans believe that god exists? Enter psychology and couple it with some anthropology and actual History and you realize that belief in such supernatural entities seems to have evolved with mankind and, perhaps, have developed due to some ignorance of the natural world, but also ignorance of faulty brain states - how would a human interpret a hallucination, some 10 thousand years ago? How about a bipolar individual?
Pick a neurological disorder - how would it have been interpreted way back then?

The other night, for example, I was planning on praying for about fifteen minutes, but felt oddly calm and ended up taking about an hour. Now I feel like that could have just been because I was comfortable, and my mind was "making things up" as I was more convinced in my faith.

Sounds like you were meditating...
Psychologically, what is the difference between praying and meditating?

Atheists, why do you reject the idea of God, and why should I? I know that your answers will include "there's no evidence" and all that, but please try to explain.

It's always neat to see the believer mindset in action.
I don't "reject the idea of God".
I merely observe that it has little to do with the reality where I live. But has a lot to do with the psychology of the people on this planet.

Finally, I like to accept as True that which is in accordance with the Real.
And the only way to determine what is real seems to be the method that gathers up evidence and presents it as a whole theory.
The evidence for the existence of a god is remarkably lacking. Where it could have excelled, miracles, it is often shadowed by dishonesty or plain ignorance... or very very hazy claims which could be interpreted as almost anything.

So, until there is some actual undisputed evidence for a being which would qualify as a god, I remain unconvinced.

How would I be intellectually honest with myself, if I accepted the concept of god as a good description of reality, when there is no palpable evidence for it?
I guess this is the dividing point - what do you value more? intellectual honesty or happiness?
I go for the former.

My happiness comes from listening to music, playing games, interacting with other people, laughing, overcoming obstacles, etc... No need for the promise of an afterlife.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Atheists, why do you reject the idea of God, and why should I? I know that your answers will include "there's no evidence" and all that, but please try to explain.

Why don't you believe in Thor? Zeus? Tezcatlipoca? Allah? Or any of the other myriad of gods that people have believed existed in the past. Did you choose your god over all of these? If not then you are a Roman Catholic because that's how you were raised and conditioned. You didn't have a choice in that and no matter how right it feels because of this, doesn't mean to say that it actually is correct. If you did choose then did you choose because it benefited your life in some way and gave you comfort, or because you thought it gave you a better understanding of reality? If it's the former then carry on believing what you need to believe. If it's the latter then you made a mistake.


I reject the idea of God for various reasons.

• A god cannot be defined.
  
• Not only is there no evidence that is a god but the evidence we do have about reality suggests that any god, were it to exist, whatever it was, would be utterly irrelevant.
  
• A god is so implausible given what we know about reality that we might as well accept that it does not exist.
  
• I used to believe in reincarnation and all kinds of new age stuff but I didn't want to fool myself or know that I had settled upon the easiest answers regardless of whether they were incorrect, so I continued questioning. Avoiding personal discomfort is insufficient reason to believe in a fairy tale.
  

[Tonus]

I suppose it was because I was raised Catholic, looked into the teachings without questioning them too much, and following the teachings seemed right. It just made sense to me.

The thing is, questioning my faith seriously for the first time obviously forces me to think against what I've considered fact for a while. This is the first time I've genuinely thought, "What if there's no God?"

I was raised Christian (by a Jehovah's Witness) and had the same problem-- my beliefs were based on a number of presuppositions that made it natural to interpret any information in a way that protected those concepts. It can be hard to overcome that bit of mental programming because it is so strongly held and reinforced, and because we fear the consequences of rejecting it. No, not hell-- but how the people around us and the people we care about will treat us if we break out of that bubble.

My advice-- do not spend any time thinking "what if there's no God." The thoughts and ideas that will arise from that question are not relevant to the question "how do I know God is real?" That is the question you must answer for yourself. Try to figure out where your doubts are coming from. Is it just a random thought that led you here? Or something you saw or heard or experienced that made you wonder why your foundational beliefs are unquestioned, and what happens to your other beliefs if those presuppositions cannot be confirmed?

[I_am_not_mafia]

If I showed you my Hamster and told you that it can read minds and will haunt you in the afterlife if you don't give me 10% of your income, would you believe me until you have disproven it? It's impossible to disprove to begin with!

How much would it cost to buy your hamster off you?

[ukatheist]

Apart form the little matter of lack of evidence, for me, the very concept of god makes no sense.

Firstly the idea that earth is specially made, yet we are a mere speck in the vastness of the universe. I reject the notion of window dressing - we can see only a tiny fraction of the universe so whats the explanation for the rest of it?

Secondly that humans are special to god. Why put so much on earth that can harm us? Why is so much of the earth, that was after all created with us in mind, so inhospitable? Why make the source of our energy, the sun, a finite source that will one day burn out and destroy us all if we haven't already done that to ourselves?

Thirdly if god created all and knows all that is going to happen, why bother at all? Just so he can have some playmates in the 'eternal'? Why not just make his eternal playmates without forcing his creation to suffer through a mortal life. Some sort of bizarre interview process? Whats the point if god knows who is going to get the job anyway? Why couldn't he just forgive original sin? Why the need for the blood sacrifice?

The more you have to try to reason and justify the 'whys' the more and more implausible the whole thing becomes. At some point the concept becomes so complex that it is simply more logical to conclude that there is not a god.

In my opinion the concept of god makes *everything* utterly pointless. Ironically I know that's often the theist view of atheism.

Sent from my ALE-L21 using Tapatalk

[Pat Mustard]

Before I begin, I ask that you please avoid being hostile or anything. I'm a Roman Catholic, but I feel like many people of faith immediately jump to degrading atheists as people, rather than trying to understand their mindset. I'm heavily confused right now, and am asking both Catholic and atheist sites for their mindsets. Obviously, Catholics are going to defend Catholicism, while atheists are going to defend atheism. I ask that you please be civil about it, as this could be life-changing for me.


I've been questioning how to improve in my Roman Catholic faith lately...but this morning I came to the realization that I never really questioned my faith itself. I was lightly raised Catholic and recently took it upon myself to grow closer to God. Now, for probably the first time in my life, I feel like I'm genuinely considering atheism as a possibility.

From what I understand, atheists do not accept the possibility of a supernatural being, and restrict themselves to our "natural" human thinking. Previously I thought that atheists are simply conditioned by society to the point where they are unable to "rationally" believe in a supernatural being...God doesn't allow us universally undeniable proof of his existence as a test of faith. Now, though, I feel like it's impossible to tell whether that mindset is correct, or whether atheists are correct in their focusing on our natural human mindsets. I do feel like I've felt something while praying throughout the past. 

The other night, for example, I was planning on praying for about fifteen minutes, but felt oddly calm and ended up taking about an hour. Now I feel like that could have just been because I was comfortable, and my mind was "making things up" as I was more convinced in my faith.


Atheists, why do you reject the idea of God, and why should I? I know that your answers will include "there's no evidence" and all that, but please try to explain.

Why should you reject catholic theology? Because, when looked at objectively and dispassionately, you'll realise that the god you've been taught to believe in is both logically and physically impossible.

Not alone does your got not exist, there is no possibility of him existing.

[Alex K]

If I showed you my Hamster and told you that it can read minds and will haunt you in the afterlife if you don't give me 10% of your income, would you believe me until you have disproven it? It's impossible to disprove to begin with!

How much would it cost to buy your hamster off you?

3 boxes of linseed, a luxury wheel and a sunflower as bribe, and your soul