that's not particularily well thought out or respectful Kasz. I know that dying didn't cause my father believe in a deity.

And you won't be getting any christmas gifts delivered to you this year Neos.

I would classify myself as agnostic with strong leaning towards being a "strong atheist".

Its kind of weird but a better way to describe might be that I am a strong atheist trying to prove himself wrong...if that makes sense.

I believe that those who find religion are blessed in a sense. It gives meaning and purpose and hope for an after life. All of which are a strong reason why people search for answers. And in the same breath and thought process that I would doubt someone if they came running into my house saying a meteor had just crashed on my lawn (I would want to see it for myself)... I have a very hard time believing that an unseen, undetectable, and unprovable force up and decided to create an infinite expanse of space and then send down a bunch of animals and a single person.

The part that always throws me off about the bible is how Adam has to ask for a female...wait why didn't god know he would need one of those? The whole thing (the bible)..has always read to me like a an ancient version of Aesop's Fables and while I fully recognize the value of the virtues it teaches for how to lead your life I can't help but chuckle at the ridiculousness of it all. I realize that might be offensive to some, and I apologize if that is the case but I am just being honest if not a little blunt.

The other portion of what I said I believe is that I do think that spirituality as a concept is very much a reality even if it doesn't have a divine basis. I think that religion teaches you to think about what you have done in your life and focus inward and reflect. I believe that doing that is very healthy and is why many very religious people report feeling refreshed by praying to god etc... The same sort of thing can be accomplished without prayer if you are truly attempting to contemplate your actions and not just searching for a happy feeling.

All told I believe there is likely a scientific explanation for that and it is one of the reasons I am very interested in the science front. So to be clear about my opening statement I think there is validity to spirituality but the unprovable nature of religion as a whole turns me away from it.


In any case I will finish this with this:

To answer the "how" of the universe you turn to science, to answer the "why" of the universe you turn to spirituality/religion. Both can exist peacefully if each will stop feeling threatened by the other.

It didn't have to be respectful our well thought out because it's the truth.  I've known a number of atheists... and the ones who have gotten old, a serious condition or just any other sort of trouble have ended up turning to god.

If you've known someone to be different, that's great.  But for me... even the people who actually didn't believe in god instead of the people who just want to be atheists because they hate some religion have ended up believing in a god before there end came.

It's a very common way for people to get to the "acceptance" step of death.

Me. I'd rather not reach the acceptance step of death.

As for me.

I'd call it... Christo-agnostic.

I think there is a god, probably someone like the christian god, though not really considering how much stuff has been changed around just to control people into doing what the different church's and states wanted them to do.

If not, and it's some other god, hey i'll apologize, if there is no god... I won't know what do I care?

God could be a good guy, god could be a dick, god not exist. I live off a 99.9% rule. Everything has the smallest chance of existing, so I may as well go off best information, and where no information is available go off hunches.

With no information on the existance or non-existance of god. I'll go with the hunch... I'm not going to bother people who don't believe in god, or do. However I will bug people who seem to only be part of a religion to push their agenda, or people who seem to be atheists just because they were raised strict catholics and have issues about it.

So pretty much anyone who says "Agree with me or go to hell." or "Haha you're an idiot for believing in god"

I have a problem with.

In many cases, death is what turn a believer into an atheist ... well, those who watch someone dying, anyway... so it could work both way.

I'm a Buddhist

The concept of impermanence is at the same time as bitter and painful as sweet =/

Heck even NJ5's simulation theory doesn't sound insane to me.

It's possible, no way to disprove or prove it. But my hunch says no... and i'll go with that...

Since all anyone can go on in this situation is their gut feelings on the matter.

I thought it was an octopus... 

Either way, what you believe isn't terribly important.  The end result will be the same.  As for what that end result is... who can say?

 It's a flying spaghettie monster.

It was from an episode of South Park in which Richard Dawkins ( a prominent atheism advocate) comes to town and Ms. Garrison falls in love with him. I'll roughly paraphrase it.

Ms. Garison says "But how can you say that you know there isn't a god if you can't actually prove he doesn't exist?"

 Dawkins says "Well I could tell you that there's such a thing as a flying spaghetti monster. You can't actually prove that that doesn't exist either."

Ms. Garison says "Oh my god you're so right god is just a flying spaghetti monster!"

Later, they have really unappealing sex. It's an episode about the Wii, so you really should see it.