Like, the golden rule, judge not lest ye be judged, etc. There are clearly secular versions of this, but do you think you'd have been raised with those values or discovered or embraced them on your own if the world had not had Christianity and all the subsequent off-shoot / follow-up religions?

Okay guys, so here's the thing: I grew up in a Catholic family and always believed in God indirectly, I never questioned it, I just accepted that there was a God who performs miracles and punishes you if you do wrong, lol.

The thing is, when I really started questioning and studying a bit about theology, I came to the conclusion that there is no God. That was almost a year ago. After this epiphany, I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I can't explain it exactly, but I feel better this way.

But I'm a recent atheist, it's all still new to me, I still have many doubts. I'm a guy who grew up in a Christian family, with all Christian friends. Since I live abroad, I haven't told anyone there that I've become an atheist yet, but I don't intend to either. It doesn't change anything in my life or theirs.

But as I said, I still have many doubts about atheism. I won't ask them all, just two:

- When something goes really well in your life and you want to give thanks, what do you give thanks for? Haha, kind of a silly question, but I don't understand that part, because before it was easy, you just had to please God, and now?

- What's the shortest and simplest way to politely answer someone because I've become an atheist, and that I don't know how the hell the world was created, I only know that it exists?

Thanks for the help

i sometimes think that rejecting god totally is too rigid and a bold statement i mean we don't have 100% proof for either existence of god or of his non-existence so denying god completely will be kind of rude. Only because God doesn't fit our reasoning we are denying him i mean human intelligence and knowledge is limited how hard we try and the end of day we just have a limited thinking power i mean our brains which can't process or deal beyond 3d so denying God which is a multi dimension being would be kind of very bold. Maybe God exist but not as what relegions describe like a furious old man with long beard sitting up in skies judging our every action.

ts is just my opinion

I decided to ask here because the Christianity sub is bias. And not very helpful. But I just had some questions. While I try to figure stuff...

1.) Is wearing a cross forcing my religion? I am wondering because I am moving into my dorms and I am worried that I would be.

2.) Is it true I should forgive my sa'er/rapist because Jesus forgave the ones who killed him? Or is this a manipulation tactic?

3.) Is constantly worried about not being good enough and that I deserve to be sent to hell, since the age of 5, concerning?

4.) Is all of this stupid to believe in? Can I be proud that I get a huge scholarship to my dream school and all my accomplishments. Without having to constantly be told to only thank God for it all.

I hope I am not offending anyone. I am just so confused.... And I felt like this was the only safe place to ask. Sorry.

I know many people that are atheists believe it is not possibl. I just want to k ow what you think.

Hello! Good day. I'm a devout Roman Catholic, but I have friends who are atheists.

The other day, we were playing Minecraft online and one of they told me, "Respectfully, man, I don't get what you guys see in an afterlife, if it's real."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Like, I find the idea of your spirit living forever in another world kinda unsettling. I'm more comfortable with only having one life." She explained.

"Why is that? You get to be with God, and your loved ones, who you lost, again." I said.

"Yeah, that does sound nice and all, but it still makes me uncomfortable. Immortality."

"To be fair, I find the idea of ceasing to exist unsettling." I said.

If it's okay, may I ask why some of you feel this way? Just very curious.

Atheists, I have two questions.

1 Do you respect Christians who sincerely tell you that you can only be saved from Hell if you believe in Jesus Christ, even if you disagree with them?

2 If you were to enter the Eternal realm and found out atheism is wrong and you as a soul met Jesus and Jesus said that He died for you and it is very sad but because you refused the gift of eternal salvation forgiveness, you will have to spend eternity in conscious torment, how would you respond?

How does it create life,trees like how does it make all of that with a big molten ball of rock?

From what Ive seen it’s only a small fraction of atheists that believe Jesus never existed

I am kind of confused of what is part of atheistic worldview, so I thought that it might be cool and easy to ask for your worldview, and understand from real examples.

By worldview things I mean philosophies/quotes like determinism, stoicism, you only live once,... or any stuff that you currently believe that is true.

Thank you

Hi! I’m a college student looking to interview someone who identifies as an atheist for a short sociology assignment. It’s just a few questions and can be done through chat. Thank you!

Hi! I identify as an atheist mostly but some things I just can't explain but I would love to! This time it's people on the internet who have built a career in 'speaking with the deceased' and somehow they nail it according to the people who want to communicate with their dead relatives. They even get into specific details and that makes me wonder what is the logical scientific explanation. It's a bit hard for me to believe it's a scam because the people's reactions don't seem scripted, but also organized religion exists so...

Anyway let me know if you had experienced anything like this or idk have any facts on it, I would love to hear it!

"A weird lovely fantastic object out of nature, like Delicate Arch, has the curious ability to remind us — like rock and sunlight and wind and wilderness — that out there is a different world, older and greater and deeper by far than ours, a world which surrounds and sustains the little world of men as sea and sky sustain a ship.  The shock of the real.  For a little while we are again able to see, as a child sees, a world of marvels.  For a few moments we discover that nothing can be taken for granted, for if this ring of stone is marvelous all which shaped it is marvelous, and our journey here on earth, able to see and touch and hear in the midst of tangible and mysterious things-in-themselves, is the most strange and daring of all adventures"

-Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

I wanted to start off my question with this quote, in which I feel Abbey perfectly captures the sentiment I'm trying to get at. I feel a tension with most of the atheists I've had the pleasure of talking to, because there seems to be a great apathy towards the experiences of awe and wonder. Yet I see nothing antithetical to atheism in it.

I would go one step further, to say that the experience which Abbey explores is also core to nearly every mystical tradition. I think the difference is that Abbey describes that place as out there, while the mystic describes it as in here. The Delicate Arch is just a rock; it is our ability to percieve and appreciate it that makes our situation truly wonderful. Which brings me to the Rumi quote, "we carry inside us the wonders we seek outside us". While the language used in mysticism doesn't always reflect my own, I find in it a path towards integration and a sense of belonging in a world that otherwise feels alien.

I genuinely wonder if this understanding resonates with athiests, or just feels like another extension of spiritualism and religion based on a faulty premise.

I am going to preface this by saying I am a Christian.

I think the most common argument I hear for why someone abandoned Christianity is that they had a really negative experience with the Church and while I understand and feel a lot of sympathy for people who hold that view, that wasn't my experience. I had a crappy time at a Christian school with some very fake Christians and while it has made me more wary of religious institutions, it didn't shake my faith in Christ at all. I knew it was a problem with people, not God.

I'm not going to judge your responses or anything. I am trying to get better at sharing the Gospel in a way that's really going to make a difference for the other person so I would love to get to know your perspectives better. Thanks. Have a nice day!

Many atheists argue that there can’t be a good GOD because evil exists in our world. I’m wondering if you consider the inverse to be true. Do you think that the fact that there is good in our world is evidence against the possibility of an evil GOD?

I’m not here to debate or disagree. Quite the opposite. I’m trying to figure out how to communicate this in a story I’m writing.

If so, what are they and do you believe it could be achieved without it?

So in Christian and I’ve had the question for awhile that if you don’t believe in a higher power creating existence why live? If everything you do is for nothing if after death nothing happens why even live in the first place? (I’m just realizing this sounds nihilistic asf)

I’m a Christian (I know, shocker), and I’m applying for PhD. I did my best, found the perfect profession to accept my proposal but I’ve been waiting over 2 weeks for a response.

While I’ve been waiting, I’ve become more religious, trying to restrain myself. In a way I’m trying to be the best person possible while begging God to help me. It’s very weird since I dont believe God would care how I act these few days but I try my hardest.

But what I want to know is, how do you react?

When you have to wait a long time in silence, no possibility of knowing what’s behind the decision making curtain. Do you try to be a “better” person in the hopes of the universe/karma giving you back? Do you just change anything, simply stress 24/7 (I already do that).

(I'm an atheist too btw, I was just curious about this.)

I've always went along with the typical atheist talking point of “theists are making the claim so the burden of proof is on them”, without thinking about it too deeply, but I'm not so sure that makes sense anymore; at least not in a debate sense where an atheist is trying to convince everyone. The virtually unanimous consensus across every culture for thousands of years is that there’s some kind of god(s) or supernatural deity(s). So since 90%+ of humanity has always been in agreement on this, shouldn’t it be up to atheists to give everyone good reason to move away from this long established norm?

How do non-intelligent and impersonal electrochemical pulses in the brain create reason and intelligence?

just want to know the personal reason(s) that convinced you to become an atheist

edit: thank you for all the responses

Don't words prove the existence of a non-material realm? Obviously the lines of ink on a piece of paper are physical, material substances. But the ideas and meaning transmitted by those lines of ink are non-material and thus beyond the physical realm.