Questions You've Always Wanted to Ask Atheists

I would like to throw out a question to whoever wants to respond to it; what exactly are your thoughts on antitheism?

 

I'll be honest and say I used to be one of those people as a teen, and I'm in opposition of that now. I'm sure there will be people who disagree with me, but I feel like antitheism (or even the reverse with militant theism) can be really toxic, and all around douchey. I'm not in support of it, since it can spiral into xenophobia (and in the cases I've seen, Islamophobia), which isn't okay either.

 

That's the conclusion you draw from my strain of thought? I don't see how that's a logical thing to do. On the short run, we can go for it, so why wouldn't we? Why would we have to sterilise ourselves in order to prevent suffering from, let's say, the big crunch?

Not sterilising means we get to enjoy life possibly. Even though at the very very very end it'll be over. That's a given thing. What you want, is moving that end closer to now and take away the possible joy we could achieve. =)

If one doesn't want to live, that's fine, but you cannot impose such a thing on others. In no way is sterilising the entire human race the best course of action. On the contrary.

 

For an atheist the meaning of life is something that you have to come up with yourself. There is no grand universal meaning of life but instead every individual can find their own personal meaning in their lives.

 

But even if we colonize other planets, even if we manage to make it out of this and any other solar system we go to, eventually human life will be rendered meaningless by some cataclysm or some event. Even living life to its fullest with this ideology is meaningless, it's a death sentence to the individual, I think it's cynical. It's like saying this will all add up in the grand scheme when there is no grand scheme.

Closing your mind to the possibility that there's something out there after death is like saying there's nothing above the sky. I'm not a Christian, nor am I Jew. I don't believe or subscribe to any organized religion but I like to think that there's something out there that makes all of this mean something. Because if it doesn't, then ultimately it means nothing. To me, a hardcore atheist is like a person who's given up all hope and bides their time looking through a microscope trying to imagine what it must be like to not be cognizant to the horrible truth that there is no survival after death and that existence is without any sort of value and that the moment we die, we become nothing.

 

For the agnostic/religious view here, the Kalam argument is really interesting if anyone would want to look into that. It uses math and logic to discuss how it's impossible for time to have gone infinitely backward, that there had to be some start.
Philosophy of Religion » The Kalam Cosmological Argument

Of course, the argument still stands as it's not conclusive but it does really make you think and it makes a lot of sense.

---------- Post added 25th Jan 2016 at 06:40 PM ----------

I'm not sure if anyone's asked this, I kind of didn't want to go scrolling through, but as an atheist, do any of you find yourself questioning if there is a God or some kind of life after death? Just out of curiosity. I'm semi-religious, but question it a lot so I'm wondering if it kind of goes both ways.

 

Once I had a case of food poisoning, and it had come to the point where I felt like a giant tube of toothpaste, open at both ends being convulsed by cramps and nausea. I was sitting atop the toilet, vomiting in a bucket whist simultaneously spewing forth explosive diarrhea. This had come and went for some hours, and I was growing dehydrated, and as I sat there, I would moan, "Oh, God, Oh, God, Please..." And it was beyond just the expression; I literally was calling out for help, if it existed, so it made me, briefly, at least agnostic.

~

Do you ever find yourself in periods of distress, calling out to God for help, even if 'normally', you don't profess any such belief?

~

 

More of an agnostic than an atheist, but, nope. Not even the way you were describing.


Though I had thought of taking this practice up, just in case any particular deity exists:

[YOUTUBE]sm6MowcttHc[/YOUTUBE]

 

Like others, I can't claim to speak for everyone, but...

Yes, I do think life is intrinsically meaningless, pointless, and without purpose or value. But I don't find that in any way depressing. On the contrary, to me that means that I have the awesome power (and responsibility) to set my own purpose for my existence.

As far as the sun is concerned, as someone else pointed out, it will just expand into a red giant in about 5 billion years, then contract into a white dwarf, and eventually just cool to a dead cinder.

As far as humanity being erased - that is certainly possible. Then again, maybe our descendants will modify the sun to last longer, or replace it, or move to greener pastures. Traveling at even a modest fraction of lightspeed, there's enough time to colonize about 50 galaxies before the sun starts to become a serious problem. All of these things are allowed by the laws of physics as we currently understand them and a number of researchers have given some thought as to how they might be accomplished. So we have at least a general idea(s) of how it might be done.

Of course the universe itself will die eventually, but our current observations indicate that we live in an open (continuously expanding) universe. So that means that the stars will eventually all die and no new ones will be born and a very very long time from now all the matter in the universe will decay away into energy (if protons decay) or fall into galactic mass black holes which will themselves decay away in some trillions or quadrillions of years and so on. However, various scientists have considered this problem and within our current understanding of physics there are various theoretical options for surviving into the very deep future of the universe or possibly creating a new universe, either as a sort of legacy of our civilization or even as a new place to move to, depending on how the physics shakes out. So, in principle, humanity might become immortal, able to outlive even the death of our universe while also becoming something very close or equal to most current human conceptions of God.

Fiat Lux

Todd

---------- Post added 25th Jan 2016 at 07:17 PM ----------

Heaven doesn't want me and Hell's afraid I'll take over

Todd

 

My best answer to all questions theistic: "I'll deal with the afterlife, once I get there."

 

Logic is intrinsically meaningless, though. Logic means nothing in the grand scheme of science's glory. Science has no time for us, the human race and certainly not for you or me as simple organic peasants who somehow gained sapience.

Jiminy Christmas, this thread makes me want to put a gun to my head and paint the wall with my brains. I could go see a therapist but ultimately it won't make a difference, will it? The individual is pointless. Think about all the people who won't be remembered by this great big universe of yours: shut-ins, unpublished authors who could never get their words out or just interesting freaks and wannabes like me. I am meaningless to the atheist, I guess that means I'm in the way of humanity as a whole.

But that doesn't matter because apparently nothing else matters and because life is intrinsically meaningless nothing can be gained or lost. So why are we having this conversation? It's pointless.

Eat at Arby's, Christ.

At least you believe in something! God damn.

 

Logic and science are simply tools used to observe and understand the universe. That they lead to conclusions some people don't like is hardly 'their' problem.

Because I find the conversation interesting and mildly diverting, so I decide to take part in it. I set my own purpose and meaning, remember?

That it doesn't matter on some cosmic scale or tick some divine scoreboard somewhere is of no importance to me.

On a somewhat different note, I don't think anyone here want's to cause you the amount of emotional distress you seem to be having from knowing that some people believe this way.

I find my view of the universe wonderfully positive an uplifting personally. But it's not like I can reach thru the computer and force you to think the same way.

Todd

 

Why would atheists be offended by christian statues or sayings displayed in public that is doing no harm to anyone. I other words Why would an theist feel threatened by a acknowledgement of something they believe does not exist. I am just asking out of curiousity.

 

You set your own destiny but there's no ultimate destiny. Your purpose is purposeless, remember? At least with a cosmic scale it means something, however minuscule. I mean at least with a divine scoreboard you can have some direction. Without any beliefs you can quickly slip into a pit of nihilism, which I see has already happened to some people here. That isn't good! I don't care if you worship a stuffed purple dinosaur because it's the avatar of some great outer space monster that came out of the moon but as long as you believe in something... then you're not meaningless.

I want to believe in something. I don't want to be chalked up as footnote in a world of spinning protons and neutrons as nothing more than one of billions, maybe eventually trillions of fleshy organisms who gained sentience only for that list to be destroyed when the universe eventually shuts down or something happens that irrevocably wipes out everything that is, was or ever would be humanity.

 

The same way I wouldn't support a statue that said "In Allah we trust" or "In Zeus we trust" or "In Satan we trust" paid for by taxpayer money and/or on government property (the key part being "government property"). The United States' establishment clause keeps the government from endorsing any religion over another, and it has been found unconstitutional on those grounds as endorsing Christianity. I don't think I have any problem with nativity scenes for example on private property, but I don't think that or any cross statues and Jesus statues should be on taxpayer property and that there's a better way to spend that money.

 

At least you believe in something! God damn.[/QUOTE]

Again, atheism is simply lacking a belief that there is a higher power. That has nothing to do with believing in or supporting humanity's drive to succeed or anything else. Suggesting that implies that you need religion in order to have purpose, value or meaning in your life, which is rather depressing.

 

Either way is pretty depressing but not believing that there's some form of survival after death? I'd rather face all nine circles of Hell for an eternity than be condemned to cease to be! At least in Hell I can chit-chat with the devil instead of an eternity of not thinking, not seeing, not hearing, not feeling anything.

 

Wanting to believe in something doesn't make it so, I can believe the moon is made of cheese, doesn't make that the case though. Personally I don't see why you need some conception of an ultimate purpose to do something, sure everything may be pointless, just means there is no more reason to not eat a tasty sandwich as there is reason to eat said tasty sandwich.

 

So, what you're saying is that if I killed myself right now, the universe wouldn't even bat an eye? My life is meaningless according to you and people who say stuff like that. It doesn't even have to be an "ultimate" or "final" purpose, but holy hell, we'd all might as well just destroy ourselves right now and be done with it! The universe certainly wouldn't care if we did, science wouldn't give a good goddamn, that's for sure and we wouldn't be remembered by any aliens if they exist.

Even if wanting to believe doesn't make it so, it helps me get through my day to day life. I hope that there's something else out there other than this cold, hard scientific lab tray you've got me on. I'd like to think that if I took a shotgun and pulled the trigger with the barrel in my mouth that at least I'd be somewhere on the other side after doing so, heaven or hell, purgatory, reincarnated, whatever! But you, how can you live with yourself "knowing" it's all meaningless?

 

Ok thats a fairt point but for example i oppose abortion but some of the taxes i pay might go to fund abortions something I oppose.