The Purpose of life for an Atheist

talk
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I’ve only recently joined, and I thought it was about time I tracked down the religion thread*. Hi.

I find these discussions fascinating.

Personally, I’m a non-believer. I’ve given it quite a lot of thought, and I think that even If I were to believe in a higher power, it wouldn’t be one covered by any of the religions that I have any knowledge of. (I’ve toyed with the idea, but I still can’t bring myself to believe it)

As for the original question: no, I don’t think suicide is the goal, and I find it a pretty odd question. Suicide is ending your life by your own hand, on purpose. My goal is to die with as little discomfort as possible. And until then, I intend to enjoy myself, in any of the myriad ways I’ve found to do so, and to do as little harm to others while doing it.

As for religions themselves, they can do a lot of good for people in general, until they meet another religion. The middle east being a prime suspect (long before 9/11, I’m talking). As far as the good/bad weighs up, it’s hard to say, and because I live a long way from any religious clashes, I would be more inclined to say the good outweighs the bad.

Also, I don’t agree with people pushing religion. People should feel totally free to believe in anything you like, from ganiesha(sp?) to a walnut that looks like jesus, to nothing at all. As is said, man is created in gods own image. So what makes people think they have any right to change that? Maybe ‘god’ wanted me to be a non-believer. Maybe his intention for me was to put me here in my chair typing this to you guys tonight in order to test you. WHo could really say?
I don’t push non-belief. I don’t hang around churches waiting to pounce on the unwary, and crush their faith, let them do as they please.

Here’s a question that just popped into my head:

If a man came to your door, in a white suit, brandishing poison, saying that God sent him to kill you, as he has work for you to do ‘on the other side’, would your survival instinct override your belief? Why?

  • Every decent forum has one.
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Well this forum is great! We’ve got several.

Welcome to the boards.

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i think all the need is somekind of proof to help them change their believe.like to get their prayers answered or something.

well thats my humble opion

http://speed.vbsimplified.com

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the reason why prayers and dreams come true is because people worked hard for it.

like the bart simpson prayer
“Dear God, thanks a lot for nothing. We bought this stuff with our own money!”

as soon as I get a real likely evidence for the existance of god I will believe in him.
till that happens, I will see god as humans’ craving for a solution of their problems and fears

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I - 6

in - 5

opinion - 1

:P, I counted, hopefully correctly

[size=1][color=seagreen]kirupa_edit: PM me your name and e-mail and I’ll send you a gmail invite. I’m not sure if you are right, but I’ll give you one for effort :stuck_out_tongue:[/color][/size]

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I would also argue that even if there was a God we wouldn’t be able to comprehend that it was God.

Think of an Amoeba, limited inteligence and I would say it can in no way comprehend me even if we were face to face.

Now considering God would be even further removed from me, than I am from the Amoeba, if God was here, right in front of our face, I doubt we could comprehend him.

hmmm, there is a point in there somewhere… :slight_smile:

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If I understood it correctly…a very low, cheap one :stuck_out_tongue:

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lol…

Perhaps you can tell me what it is…
Because I forgot what it was while writing it and can’t figure myself out :frowning:

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hehe - I’ll let others decide for themselves. From what I can see, you are making a comparison by showing the similarity between _______ and ________ :crazy:

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The end of days?

Whoa ! Slow down there buddy. You have been reading too much fiction. The bible says: a great enemy from the north will attack Israel. What makes you think this “Great enemy” is Russia? What if it is the USA?

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and again this thread is going strange. :stuck_out_tongue:

well actually we could do a photoshop battle about this theme. (so that there would be at least one productive thought in this thread)

//only for the atheists
Imagine there was a god and
//for all
what a god would be thinking, doing, saying to us, about us, whatever.

everyone submits one image, there will be no poll, just to for fun and fame

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The bible says: a great enemy from the north will attack Israel. What makes you think this “Great enemy” is Russia? What if it is the USA?

I think the better question is which way is north ?

Lets not forget that the magnetic poles switch… (yeah not to often though :))

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yeah, and the continents never stopped drifting

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Oh come on - some of you have the option that all people who believe in God live dull lives :slight_smile:

I wouldn’t say dull so much as wasteful… but that’s just me = the most bitter fruit in the basket, and with reason…

I vote on the battle, not exactly… but a similar battle (seeming as how i just attained PS 7)

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I wouldn’t say dull so much as wasteful… but that’s just me = the most bitter fruit in the basket, and with reason…

What are you bitter from? and how is a christian’s life wasteful?

Also, I don’t agree with people pushing religion. People should feel totally free to believe in anything you like

I totally agree with you, I hate it when i see the people preaching to a person not of their faith, trying to force it on them.
But on the other hand, i do think that talking to someone about one’s faith is completely OK, someone has to be presented something
before they can make the choice. I love to talk to people about my Christian faith, but i would never push it on them.

If a man came to your door, in a white suit, brandishing poison, saying that God sent him to kill you, as he has work for you to do ‘on the other side’, would your survival instinct override your belief? Why?

first off, didnt you just say:

I don’t hang around churches waiting to pounce on the unwary, and crush their faith, let them do as they please.

cus your question sounds like one of those typical “stump the christian and make him doubt his faith” type questions that i typically
see atheist come up with.

second off, if you knew any of the teachings of Jesus you would find out the work needed to be done is here on earth. If a guy
came up to me and said something like that i would probably think he came from some sort of cult and i would call the police.

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You’re right I did. Sorry about that. I’m gonna fire my proofreader.

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What are you bitter from? and how is a christian’s life wasteful?

Because every second spent on religion could be used to do a multitude of arguably more useful things… If you really want to help the poor, don’t donate to church or charity… Go out there, pick a freindly hobo… Equip him with a suit and a big mac, and get him a job working at A&W or something… You could go down to one of those 3rd world countries and build some houses with a group of your pals… Faith doesn’t feed the hungry, nor does it build houses, and it doesn’t provide cable either… I’m bitter because faith has been the largest contributor to either procrastination, or the world’s biggest roadblock in terms of technological advancements…

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I have an issue with the whole forcing your belief on someone that I feel very strongly about.
It’s about bringing up children with religion, I count this as forcing your belief since you are mentally conditioning the child from birth to accept your belief as truth. To me the child does not have freedom of choice at all, and I genuinely think that it is morally wrong to force religion on children in this way. What are all your views on this, as I know most people say the old I don’t force my religion, just present the info. why is this different?

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Faith doesn’t feed the hungry, nor does it build houses, and it doesn’t provide cable either…

Well I would disagree with this somewhat… The Church does do stuff for the community, food, clothing, shelter.

However the church does this purely for financial gain.
If the church spent the money it made, it wouldn’t have billions of dollar stashed away.

Putting it simply, ever dollar people donate to the church, the church keeps a large chunk of that for itslelf.

No matter how you look at it, everything the church does is for it’s own good. It’s whole purpose is to gain followers and cash in as much as it can.

And lets face it, there are heaps of priests molesting children, and when found out, the church pays the famialy to keep it quite, and then send the priest on a holiday somewhere… and this just goes around in circles…

The church has the money to fund schools, funny that they only fund private schools where only the rich can afford to go.

I couldn’t care if someone wants to believe in the Bible or some God, but not the church…

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Faith doesn’t feed the hungry, nor does it build houses, and it doesn’t provide cable either… I’m bitter because faith has been the largest contributor to either procrastination, or the world’s biggest roadblock in terms of technological advancements…

I know there are some bad churches out there and Im sorry thats what your drawing all your views from. The church I go to is all
about helping people. Last summer I went on a mission trip with my church to nicaragua and helped reroof a house and did a lot of other house building that people
recieving 2 dollars a week just cant afford to do. We do somewhere between 3-8 mission trips throughout the year that are a combination
of giving gifts and money, construction and sharing our faith with people.

It’s about bringing up children with religion, I count this as forcing your belief since you are mentally conditioning the child from birth to accept your belief as truth. To me the child does not have freedom of choice at all, and I genuinely think that it is morally wrong to force religion on children in this way. What are all your views on this, as I know most people say the old I don’t force my religion, just present the info. why is this different?

I would definitely share with my children about my faith, though as they grow up and start to become more independent it is their own choice. Any parent is going
to share with their children what they are passionate about, whether it be their religion or the sport they like the most or their hobbies.

However the church does this purely for financial gain.
If the church spent the money it made, it wouldn’t have billions of dollar stashed away.

please tell me where you are getting this information from. Also please clarify if you are speaking of catholics.

Putting it simply, ever dollar people donate to the church, the church keeps a large chunk of that for itslelf.

yeah to pay for its staff’s salary. do you think that the people that work at churches just live? no they need money too and they need to be paid. also, churches
do things like fund mission trips, build new building when space runs out, build more parking lot space, plant other churches. All of these cost money. Are these
comments you are making from some credible source or are they just your personal opinion?

And lets face it, there are heaps of priests molesting children, and when found out, the church pays the famialy to keep it quite, and then send the priest on a holiday somewhere… and this just goes around in circles…

yeah i agree, in the catholic church, and i think the catholic church is very sad.