hm.. one thing I'm certain about is that all the books about "god" are man made and convey what humans want other humans to do

that doesn't rule out the possibility that a god may exist and that he fine tuned all the factors so that we can come into existence, but if this god wanted us to live by specific rules, he could just tell all people at once, right?

Please let's not start this. This thread was meant to be exclusively about atheists expressing their belief and not why one religion is wrong and the other is right. Thank You

Why am I an Atheist, do you say? That is a good question. Perhaps it's not that I don't believe in God or anything of the such, but more that there's been no real reason or evidence for me to do so. I'm all fine for people who believe in their own religion, but forcing their views onto others who don't believe isn't the right approach to "convert" people; nor is it for atheists to dissuade believers from their faith. As for the actual technical questions, it's been discussed plenty before and it'll likely be brought up plenty in this thread so I'll steer clear.

In short, everyone has their own opinion and their own viewpoints. The reasons for those differing viewpoints are vast and numerous, but that doesn't mean one is better than the other.

At the end topics such as this always get locked when it turns to an Atheism vs Christianity vs Islam vs Buddhism vs... . I know that it's nice to have opinions challenged too, but for now let's just keep it to  Atheists expressing their belief and not being challenged against. Thank You .

Well, that kind of depends.  I don't really like the word agnostic.  If you consider anything less than 100% certainty of no god agnostic, then yes, I would be agnostic.  There are very few things I am 100% sure of, and it is impossible to prove a negative.  My belief in any kind of personal god that is particularly interested in humans is as close as you could get to 0% without actually hitting it.  My belief in an intelligent god is not as low, but still pretty low.  If you suggest god as an impersonal force beyond our current understanding of nature, I'd say that is a reasonable possibility.

Edit:  In respect to the TC I guess I won't respond any more, but if anyone wants to discuss it, feel free to make another thread or contact me.

Let me give the whole story. I was born an atheist. We all are. Anyway, my dad is a religiously apathetic Catholic and my mom is a more religious Eastern Orthodox. For that reason, I was baptized an Eastern Orthodox. However, this was not my choice. This was done to me when I was too young to make decisions. So years go on, and I never really liked religion. I hated going to church and learning about religion. I saw no purpose. Then when I was a teenager (I want to say 14), I came to the realization that there simply is no deity. The world made plenty sense without it. So I guess you can say that I never "chose" my religion. I was born one way, baptized another without even knowing it, and then came to a realization that the second one was simply wrong.

I will also add that I am happier as an atheist. It may be due to trivial things such as being able to eat meat on Fridays during lent without any guilt, or greater things such as feeling that my life is entirely mine, and I am free.

I am undecided. Here is my interpretation, and I hope everyone is accepting.

Here's the thing: I believe religion was first created out of the fear of the unknown. The fear of what happens to us when we die. When we became self aware as a species, we had the drive to figure out everything around us. Since then it has been a debate of to-know-or-not-to-know; a fear of the unknown but also a fear of knowledge.

I look at Religion in one way: it is a set of rules to live by so that we may stand as a community against the fear of the unknown, and a warning to stay human instead of seeking out all there is to know about our Universe. It's like saying ignorance is bliss because ignorance is safe.

Not the best example, but look at most Japan, a culture that seems to have always been very accepting of death; much more so than Western cultures. Japan has little to no Westernized Organized religion, only adopting such principles as Christian Weddings. Japan is spiritual; not religious.

Now onto religious stories that warned us of knowledge.

Look at the Biblical story of Adam and Eve. They follow the rules and live in blissful ignorance. The snake (which I see as Natural Human Curiosity) tells them to eat from the tree of knowledge, which makes them self aware of their true existence, and they get thrown out of Eden.

Pandora's box in Greek Mythology; a myth that has many different interpretations, one such being this: Prometheus steals fire from the heavens and gifts it to the humans, which angers the Gods, and Zeus decides to punish them to compensate for the boon they were given. The Gods gift Pandora (the first woman on Earth) to the humans, and she brings with her a box which contains many evils. She was told to never open it, but she grows curious of the gift which she brought with her, and opens the jar, unleashing disease/famine etc upon the world.

With so much unknown in the world we are told to place our faith on a deity, so we might feel safe and communal. This deity is the only thing we have to believe in. We miss out on all the other knowledge, but we stay blissfully ignorant of all the evils that may be lurking within that knowledge.

So many people grew so many different interpretations of religion over the years. Wars were fought over holy ground, ideas and people were rejected because perhaps they were a little different to what they had grown up believing. It is hard to advocate change in a system that I believe is all about keeping things the same; staying safe and secure.

There are also good things that I take away from religion. I do like the feeling of community that one gets while going to church. I do like many teachings from Jesus (the person) and Muhammad, who preached a peaceful existence. Siddhartha Gautama and Guru Nanak also preached many good things. Pope Francis (the current one) is a very bright spot on the Catholic Church.

Like everything else in life, I am free and welcome to accept some aspects while rejecting others. This is how I see it. I grew up going to Church and believing in God, and I still think that there are some things that cannot be explained. Is that because I was conditioned to believe so? Who knows, that is a conversation for another day.

I'm not an athiest, I just don't care.

We both know Kyonko is the one true god =p

Also isn't OP's first paragraph aimed more at agnosticist(not sure it's the right word/spelling) than atheist ?

Because I simply don't believe in a god. I was raised in a very religious family, studied in a catholic school.

Some day when I was 11 years old I started to question everything that my mom or my religion teacher (yeah it is an obligatory subject) told me. I really don't remember exactly how but when I was 13 I just knew I wasn't a religious person. First I called myself an agnostic because I was thaught being an atheist was wrong but when I started college and grew a bit more I just didn't care anymore what my family or anyone said about my believes. And I'm not exaggerating, everytime I tell someone I'm an atheist they usually ask me why.

To be forced to believe in something is my main problem with religion, it's a man made institution and as one it has a lot of flaws. Logically speaking I just can't understand how others believe in a god, for me everything indicates that there isn't one and people just believe in a greater being as a way of finding comfort.

p.s: excuse my english.