Why are atheist...atheist?

[The Grand Nudger]

Well said.

[FalseHope]

I'll tell you the same thing I tell other people that ask me why I'm atheist.

Around the time I turned 11 or so, my Dad made me start going to church, which I obviously hated going to because I was a kid, and it was boring. I went every sunday for a while, I even got "saved" at one point. After about a year of hearing all of these stories and such from the bible, it started to take it's toll on me.
Fast forward, now I'm 12 years old, it's a Sunday night, I'm laying in bed not being able to sleep, my mind's just wondering all over the place, mostly about what I heard in church. I remember just laying there thinking how ridiculous it was that I was to believe there was some man in the sky, who made everything in existence, who watches everything I do, hears everything I say. Then I remember how afraid I was thinking about how at church I learned when I died, I would go to some magical place with everyone I loved in life, FOREVER. That idea of forever scared the hell out of me when I was a kid, that's about the time I decided that this was all nonsense.
I never considered myself an atheist though, just because it seemed like it was some kind of cliche thing a young, angst-filled teenager would say. But, over the past few years I've gotten into reading alot of Richard Dawkins, Spinoza, and the made me feel comfortable calling myself an "Atheist", Christopher Hitchens.

Sorry for such a lengthy post, I know most people wouldn't be bothered to read it.

[TheAtheistTroll]

I grew weary of this thread and stopped responding, but this statement has revived my interest. I've never known anyone to assert the claim that the laws of physics have always been likely to exist. I am curious as to why you reason this to be the case.

You don't know very many people that have taken a high school logic class or math class, do you? We have one universe, which gives us a sample size of one to test 'how likely something is'.

Let's do some fun math here. We have one (1) universe. In this one (1) universe, the laws of physics are the way they are. We have no (0) other samples to test this against because there are to our knowledge no other universes out there.

Therefore as far as we know, the laws of physics have a 1:1 chance of existing in the states they are currently in. Any numbers that anyone else makes up are just retarded overanalyzation based on the assumption that something shouldn't or couldn't be the way it is unless their magical sky daddy made it so.

And of course, the laws of physics weren't created to cater to our needs, we were formed out of the rules formed by the already-existing laws of physics.

[zip_ster]

I would not choose to be atheist. I know almost nothing about atheists, and I do not know any atheists personally. My family, and everyone I know are theists, and most of them are and always have been Pentecostal. If I could choose, I would take the obvious route, drink my coolaid, and get over the doubts I have. It just isn't that simple. We are taught to die to self, which I think means overcome the inevitable incredulity at the nonsense we are told and obey our superiors. Ain't gonna happen. I can't stop rolling my eyes.

[Cinjin]

I would not choose to be atheist. I know almost nothing about atheists, and I do not know any atheists personally. My family, and everyone I know are theists, and most of them are and always have been Pentecostal. If I could choose, I would take the obvious route, drink my coolaid, and get over the doubts I have. It just isn't that simple. We are taught to die to self, which I think means overcome the inevitable incredulity at the nonsense we are told and obey our superiors. Ain't gonna happen. I can't stop rolling my eyes.

You're on your way to enlightenment. For some, it's a very bumpy ride ... but the destination is well worth the trip.

---

I would not choose to be atheist. I know almost nothing about atheists, and I do not know any atheists personally. My family, and everyone I know are theists, and most of them are and always have been Pentecostal. If I could choose, I would take the obvious route, drink my coolaid, and get over the doubts I have. It just isn't that simple. We are taught to die to self, which I think means overcome the inevitable incredulity at the nonsense we are told and obey our superiors. Ain't gonna happen. I can't stop rolling my eyes.

You're on your way to enlightenment. For some, it's a very bumpy ride ... but the destination is well worth the trip.

I'm not an atheist either, but I have found them to be the best sort of people to spend any kind of time with. Most christians I've met are just too impossible to spend more than an hour with.

[Epimethean]

The best and worst time to be around a christian is when he is at church: He mostly leaves you alone, but you have to listen to the hive droning around you.

[popeyespappy]

I would not choose to be atheist. I know almost nothing about atheists, and I do not know any atheists personally. My family, and everyone I know are theists, and most of them are and always have been Pentecostal. If I could choose, I would take the obvious route, drink my coolaid, and get over the doubts I have. It just isn't that simple. We are taught to die to self, which I think means overcome the inevitable incredulity at the nonsense we are told and obey our superiors. Ain't gonna happen. I can't stop rolling my eyes.

For most of us atheism was a conclusion not a choice.

[Oldandeasilyconfused]

I would not choose to be atheist

Fair enough. Neither did I .

I speak only for myself. My atheism is the inevitable conclusion of learning to think critically and to ask the right questions. First I concluded that God simply cannot be argued into or out of existence. So, I began demanding evidence about 40 years ago. Oh, sacred books are mythology not credible evidence

One may not skip a step,and claim revealed truths without having first provided evidence of a being to reveal them..

So far, I've seen nothing which allows me to believe in God(s) the soul, an afterlife, angels, demons, the paranormal,mountain trolls, dragons or fairies at the bottom of my garden.

[Faith No More]

Yes, atheism is not a choice, but a result of objectively viewing the world.

[Justtristo]

For all my life I have been discovering and thinking about life, the universe and everything. Very few people have done the sort of thinking about all this I have poured in and I seriously believe* I have a lot more to do.

As a result of that I have become an Metaphysical Naturalist. To me metaphysical naturalism is a logically natural extension of the methodological naturalism which is the backbone of the scientific method. As anybody knows that methodological naturalism has been stunningly successful, it can be argued it would have not been as successful if metaphysical naturalism were false.

Because I have come to that conclusion, I rule out the existence of anything which is considered "supernatural", which includes the existence of god/s.