Atheist? Agnostic? Humanist?

Hoss

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Are you any of the above?
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I'd like to hear about your reasoning, your experience where you live, how your family dealt with your "coming out" as an Atheist.


so what you truly want is a flat out discussion on atheism. Your title (Atheist? Agnostic? Humanist?) gives 3 options as do your first 6 words. At the end of it though you are only concerned with how people react when someone contends they are an atheist.
 

Cylon No1

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You can't learn to speak in tongues.You are given the gift of tongues .You have to have the faith to speak out when when receive the holy spirit,but not everbody can speak in tongues nor does everbody receive the gift of tongues or healing or prophesy or for that matter interpretation of tongues.I know it all sound very involved but believe me its all a matter accepting what seems not to be possible.
Now that sounds even more strange but faith is about acceptance and once you get to that point things start to happen,and fast too.
 

D_ Jack_Soffalotte

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You can't learn to speak in tongues.You are given the gift of tongues .You have to have the faith to speak out when when receive the holy spirit,but not everbody can speak in tongues nor does everbody receive the gift of tongues or healing or prophesy or for that matter interpretation of tongues.I know it all sound very involved but believe me its all a matter accepting what seems not to be possible.
Now that sounds even more strange but faith is about acceptance and once you get to that point things start to happen,and fast too.
This doesn't answer the question. Is it nonsense or not?
 
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Agnostic is the way to go for me.
Me too - I love the certainty of a bit of agnosticism. :tongue:

Atheist.

I was raised in a mainstream liberal Protestant denomination.

Up until age 18, I was a believer. But when I went to college and became an adult, I put aside childish things.
Is that you, St Paul? :tongue:

I (as you know) was raised in a pretty severe sect/cult. Had a huge backlash and I still disagree with the way a lot of things were done. As for the God vs Evolution question - I kinda have an open mind. Some things seem reasonable/logical - some seem preposterous.
 

Tattooed Goddess

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so what you truly want is a flat out discussion on atheism. Your title (Atheist? Agnostic? Humanist?) gives 3 options as do your first 6 words. At the end of it though you are only concerned with how people react when someone contends they are an atheist.

I had a question that had three possible answers I could throw in the typical Atheist thinking category. I shared my own experience with it and, yes, on top of that question I also had a curiosity when, how one recalls transitioning out of religious thinking and into free-thinking. I was curious also how their friends and family might have treated them differently.

What I wasn't expecting is a few people being upset because I wish to converse with other free-thinkers.
 

Tattooed Goddess

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You can't learn to speak in tongues.You are given the gift of tongues .You have to have the faith to speak out when when receive the holy spirit,but not everbody can speak in tongues nor does everbody receive the gift of tongues or healing or prophesy or for that matter interpretation of tongues.I know it all sound very involved but believe me its all a matter accepting what seems not to be possible.
Now that sounds even more strange but faith is about acceptance and once you get to that point things start to happen,and fast too.

I was a tongue speaker for about 14 years. Don't start on the gifts of the spirit. It's pressure placed on a person when they see everyone around them speaking jibberish and faking reactions or just having things by chance turn out better afterwards.

You don't need to proselytize to a former proselytizer. I'm not impressed. Nor am I convinced. The mind is a complex organism that can make you think something is happening when it really isnt. If you can't speak in tongues you simply "Don't have the Gift" yet the young and old, wise and unwise will shout out tongues in church, making one believe that anyone can get it. It's amazing how nearly 100% of Pentecostal or Non-denominational religions have their believers speaking in tongues before they die.

Yet the Catholics or Hindu or Buddhists or Spiritualists never seem to have it. Only in the churches that promote it.

Now, kindly find a thread that is more appropriate for your deity worship. This thread was for people who had a story to share about their own experience out of religion and how they handled being ostracized (if they even had that experience at all).
 

D_Bubba_Butter

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If the burden of proof is on no one, why do Xtians constantly ask me to prove my position by disproving what is in their own mind that they believe. That which is not proven by evidence requires no evidence to disprove it.

Extreme religiosity does a lot of harm. You can't compare the two as rivals. They aren't. One is based solely on emotions, feelings, placebo effect, suspending belief in science to some degree and last of all fear of hell. None of that is what leads me to the conclusion I have came to. I don't believe in anything with out evidence. No god out of thousands has been proven to be more than a fairy tale. As for The Tooth Fairy, I will let her off the hook and bug good ol' Santa about it. He's on retirement for the summer anyway.


You're not a scientist, are you?

Extreme religiosity is a misnomer, as there are different ways to demonstrate commitment to a particular faith. The ways that lean towards confrontation with others are largely promulgated by groups of like (un)minded individuals who do not understand what they are doing, but have a fervent desire to carry on, fuelled by spurious reasoning. It's exactly the same as supporters of one football club attacking the supporters of another when the two meet, or white people attacking black (or vice versa).

I suspect that you were so inculcated in the extreme right wing ways that you talk about that your pendulum has swung beyond the midline in your attitude to religion generally, especially in holding views that are a little out of kilter with the society around you. This is something relatively rare in the UK as the approach to faith tends to be gentler and less dogmatic/judgemental than where you are.
 

D_Bubba_Butter

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She isn't saying that because there is no proof of god, her position is the correct one, but rather than non-belief is logical since there is no evidence to the contrary. There's a clear semantic difference there. It definitely is a burden of proof question since the theist is the one who makes the claim in the first place.

This is such an obvious truism; I cannot fathom why people aren't able to comprehend this.


I know what she was saying.

Do you believe that extraterrestrial lifeform's are likely to exist?
 

D_ Jack_Soffalotte

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I know what she was saying.

Do you believe that extraterrestrial lifeform's are likely to exist?
Based on the sheer size of the universe it seems, on the surface at least, likely that some form of life is out there. But that is just my mind looking for design where there is none. There are too many variables at play to predict the likelihood of the existence of extraterrestrial life with any accuracy.

Why do you ask?
 

D_Bubba_Butter

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Based on the sheer size of the universe it seems, on the surface at least, likely that some form of life is out there. But that is just my mind looking for design where there is none. There are too many variables at play to predict the likelihood of the existence of extraterrestrial life with any accuracy.

Why do you ask?


Take your last sentence and replace 'extraterrestrial life' with 'deities'.


Have you never watched Stargate?


It's also interesting that you equate 'life' with 'design'... Tell me more.
 
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Tattooed Goddess

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You're not a scientist, are you?

Extreme religiosity is a misnomer, as there are different ways to demonstrate commitment to a particular faith. The ways that lean towards confrontation with others are largely promulgated by groups of like (un)minded individuals who do not understand what they are doing, but have a fervent desire to carry on, fuelled by spurious reasoning. It's exactly the same as supporters of one football club attacking the supporters of another when the two meet, or white people attacking black (or vice versa).

I suspect that you were so inculcated in the extreme right wing ways that you talk about that your pendulum has swung beyond the midline in your attitude to religion generally, especially in holding views that are a little out of kilter with the society around you. This is something relatively rare in the UK as the approach to faith tends to be gentler and less dogmatic/judgemental than where you are.

No I am not a scientist, but I love science. As for extraterrestrial. Right now we don't have proof of that. I believe there is life of some sort on plenty of Goldilocks- type planets around a sun that would and could spring up life out of it and evolve in some way.

And you are right, I am a 100 percenter when it comes to anything I subscribe to. What I can't subscribe to is religion of any kind now that I've researched the probability of it's accuracy. Studying the human brain definitely helps show what makes us create a god in our image.

There are a few liberal cities in my country, but I'd have to move thousands of miles away from my daughters grandparents and I'm not willing to do that. I'm making the best of what I have while I am here.

Here is a good video explaining what it is that I have faith in even if it's theoretical physics. Since we know what things need to be in place for life to start. We can't be the only planet with life, it could be on a micro level compared to human intelligence. Who knows. But I'd love to know.

Creationists Fail Again - YouTube
 

D_ Jack_Soffalotte

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Take your last sentence and replace 'extraterrestrial life' with 'deities'.
Right. Which is why I do not believe in deities. BURDEN OF PROOF.

This is a circular argument since you refuse to accept that the burden of proof is on the one who makes the original claim.

It's also interesting that you equate 'life' with 'design'... Tell me more.
If you have a question, ask it. I don't exactly equate life with design, however, the human mind does seem predisposed to look for evidence of design in everything. I don't believe this is anything other than a product of our evolution of course.
 
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Hoss

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I had a question that had three possible answers I could throw in the typical Atheist thinking category. I shared my own experience with it and, yes, on top of that question I also had a curiosity when, how one recalls transitioning out of religious thinking and into free-thinking. I was curious also how their friends and family might have treated them differently.

What I wasn't expecting is a few people being upset because I wish to converse with other free-thinkers.

I was just trying to figure the chain of events which led from a title to a straight out one option question.

No problem with people discussing their beliefs openly whether they be atheist, agnostic, or anything else.

One last item, what is your definition of 'free thinker'? Keep in mind if you have already attended your mind towards being atheist your 'free' has left the building. Anyone who proclaims themselves atheist is no different from a person who proclaims themselves a believer in God. Neither is completely free in their thinking, they've already attached and subscribed to a particular dictum.
 

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I see life springing up where there is a proper atmosphere and the right temperature and millions of years. There could be life in the form of orange tadpoles for all we know. But my suspicion of this has nothing to do with religion, especially since I am not telling people to worship the tadpoles or else they will go to hell where a giant red tadpole will torture them for all eternity. I simply don't think free-thinking can be compared to religion.
 

Tattooed Goddess

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I was just trying to figure the chain of events which led from a title to a straight out one option question.

No problem with people discussing their beliefs openly whether they be atheist, agnostic, or anything else.

One last item, what is your definition of 'free thinker'? Keep in mind if you have already attended your mind towards being atheist your 'free' has left the building. Anyone who proclaims themselves atheist is no different from a person who proclaims themselves a believer in God. Neither is completely free in their thinking, they've already attached and subscribed to a particular dictum.

I am not attached to anything that science hasn't really been able to explain. Sure there are many unknowns but I have faith in science finding out the truth. There is no conspiracy that holds scientists to a non-religious or religious standard.

The term originated when people were bound by law or strict punishment for straying from the church. Thus they are free to think, research and prove what it is they are wanting to discover. Without free-thinking we wouldn't have babies born by fertility clinics or reproductive rights if the Catholic church had their choice. So people had to think of ideas they could accomplish in a lab. Most times they've been able to prove how it all works because free thinkers before them set the standard and gave them a foundation to build upon.

Why is it that technology and human intelligence for designing things has grown exponentially, it's done so when the church is less involved. It does so because someone was brave enough to make a telescope and endure ridicule and public scorn for it. I am thankful for those types. They have impacted all of our lives.

My free thinking is held within the confines of the following criterion...which has lived up to meeting certain criteria set out by plenty of free-thinkers looking to further science. It also is peer reviewed. They are accountable to the scientific community to exhibit how it works, with out fail, time and time again. Amongst other things.

Scientific method - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As for free thinking:
Freethought - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
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D_ Jack_Soffalotte

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Also deities and extra-terrestrial life are not really equivalent concepts, since we do know that there is at least one planet which will support life and it may be possible to prove or disprove the existence of life on at least one other planet; we just have not advanced enough technologically to know enough to estimate the probability of it. God is an artificial concept which is logically unknowable. Your argument still makes sense up until we hit the burden of proof impasse, but I thought I would point out that they are not equivalent issues anyway.
 

D_ Jack_Soffalotte

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What do you mean by "logically unknowable," J3KYLL?
Many philosophers believe this, but I have never quite grasped their meaning.
Since you mentioned philosophy, I will invoke Bertrand Russell's celestial teapot to explain what I mean.

Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a mistake. If I were to suggest that between the Earth and Mars there is a china teapot revolving about the sun in an elliptical orbit, nobody would be able to disprove my assertion provided I were careful to add that the teapot is too small to be revealed even by our most powerful telescopes. But if I were to go on to say that, since my assertion cannot be disproved, it is intolerable presumption on the part of human reason to doubt it, I should rightly be thought to be talking nonsense. If, however, the existence of such a teapot were affirmed in ancient books, taught as the sacred truth every Sunday, and instilled into the minds of children at school, hesitation to believe in its existence would become a mark of eccentricity and entitle the doubter to the attentions of the psychiatrist in an enlightened age or of the Inquisitor in an earlier time.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell's_teapot#cite_note-0

From "Is There a God?", 1952.