I can't speak for any other athiest, but I know that I have never had any sort of internal battle over my lack of religious belief. It's not even remotely as hard as some believe to accept that you are entirely finite. If anything, it raises one's belief in the value of life to realize that it's a one-shot deal.

chriscox1121 said: All athiest deep down battle with their soul about the existence of God. They say "soul I don't believe" the soul says "o yes you do". And this is a repeated cycle until the atheist death. They are all doubters and use extreme amount of intensive rhetoric to spread their "truth". blah blah blah...save me the garbage....Atheism is a joke. Bottom line they hate God and Christians...oh and accountability for their evil deeds.

 Bolded part: If I was to say Christianity was a joke I would get banned from this site, so I think you should be banned for saying that.

OT: Sometimes I want to believe in God, sometimes I want their to be an afterlife. But I just cant beleive in God, I just know that God doesn't exist. (Note that this God has nothing to do with Christianity or any other religion). I don't think anything could convince me that a God existed. If God were to appear and start to speak to me, I would question my own sanity before believing in God.

Having said that, I went to a christian primary school and used to believe in God when I was like 5, but I changed my belief. So I suppose you can choose what you believe. 

 

A lot of interesting responses. Just to be clear, the question isn't "Can your beliefs change?", the question is "Can you choose your beliefs?" It's two very different things.

Part of whatever your own personal answer to the question is will be determined by what you think a "belief" is. For myself a belief is something much different than a preference or an opinion.

Thanks for all the thoughtful debate.

fkusumot said: A lot of interesting responses. Just to be clear, the question isn't "Can your beliefs change?", the question is "Can you choose your beliefs?" It's two very different things. Part of whatever your own personal answer to the question is will be determined by what you think a "belief" is. For myself a belief is something much different than a preference or an opinion. Thanks for all the thoughtful debate.

When you say opinion, do you mean it in the sense close to preference or in the sense of "I think this is true but there is room for doubt"?

If the latter, do you think the difference between belief and opinion is more than a matter of degree?  I haven't given it considered the matter at length but I more or less considered those words to describe different parts of a spectrum that doesn't have clear breaks from one part to another.  Beliefs are more deeply held convictions and/or closer to the core of one's personality, while opinions are less tightly held and/or much less vital to one's self. (Preference is a separate category IMO.)

I would like to know what your thoughts on this are. 

Why is this in Nintendo discussion?

tombi123 said: chriscox1121 said: All athiest deep down battle with their soul about the existence of God. They say "soul I don't believe" the soul says "o yes you do". And this is a repeated cycle until the atheist death. They are all doubters and use extreme amount of intensive rhetoric to spread their "truth". blah blah blah...save me the garbage....Atheism is a joke. Bottom line they hate God and Christians...oh and accountability for their evil deeds. Bolded part: If I was to say Christianity was a joke I would get banned from this site, so I think you should be banned for saying that. OT: Sometimes I want to believe in God, sometimes I want their to be an afterlife. But I just cant beleive in God, I just know that God doesn't exist. (Note that this God has nothing to do with Christianity or any other religion). I don't think anything could convince me that a God existed. If God were to appear and start to speak to me, I would question my own sanity before believing in God. Having said that, I went to a christian primary school and used to believe in God when I was like 5, but I changed my belief. So I suppose you can choose what you believe.

LOL, wut? I think you must be thinking of some other forum, cause I've NEVER seen that happen here. A bit quick to take on persecution, aren't we? At least when it makes for a good excuse to persecute someone else, anyway.

 

Grey Acumen said: tombi123 said: chriscox1121 said: All athiest deep down battle with their soul about the existence of God. They say "soul I don't believe" the soul says "o yes you do". And this is a repeated cycle until the atheist death. They are all doubters and use extreme amount of intensive rhetoric to spread their "truth". blah blah blah...save me the garbage....Atheism is a joke. Bottom line they hate God and Christians...oh and accountability for their evil deeds. Bolded part: If I was to say Christianity was a joke I would get banned from this site, so I think you should be banned for saying that. OT: Sometimes I want to believe in God, sometimes I want their to be an afterlife. But I just cant beleive in God, I just know that God doesn't exist. (Note that this God has nothing to do with Christianity or any other religion). I don't think anything could convince me that a God existed. If God were to appear and start to speak to me, I would question my own sanity before believing in God. Having said that, I went to a christian primary school and used to believe in God when I was like 5, but I changed my belief. So I suppose you can choose what you believe.   LOL, wut? I think you must be thinking of some other forum, cause I've NEVER seen that happen here. A bit quick to take on persecution, aren't we? At least when it makes for a good excuse to persecute someone else, anyway.

I'll say, he must not have ever been in a thread on religion before.  There are a ridiculiously large number of people who do basically nothing but insult christianity in them and don't get banned for it.

I think all religions are jokes. Does that make me a bad person? No. That makes me an observant comedian. But hey, I also think my own existence is a joke, so I can't be all that bad.

On topic, I could never change my belief that everything is a joke. It just... can't happen. Some beliefs can change very easily, but you can't change them on your own.

Final-Fan said: fkusumot said: A lot of interesting responses. Just to be clear, the question isn't "Can your beliefs change?", the question is "Can you choose your beliefs?" It's two very different things. Part of whatever your own personal answer to the question is will be determined by what you think a "belief" is. For myself a belief is something much different than a preference or an opinion. Thanks for all the thoughtful debate. When you say opinion, do you mean it in the sense close to preference or in the sense of "I think this is true but there is room for doubt"? If the latter, do you think the difference between belief and opinion is more than a matter of degree? I haven't given it considered the matter at length but I more or less considered those words to describe different parts of a spectrum that doesn't have clear breaks from one part to another. Beliefs are more deeply held convictions and/or closer to the core of one's personality, while opinions are less tightly held and/or much less vital to one's self. (Preference is a separate category IMO.) I would like to know what your thoughts on this are.

Well, you called me out there. I won't go into detail too much about the history. It was one of the major subjects in Plato's "Theaetetus" (over 2000 years old). Myself I hew very closely to the strangers view.

- There is "preference" which can also be an "opinion" such as the typical "chocolate or vanilla" question.
- There is "belief" which is conditional, neither true nor false all the time, or even necessarily referring to things that are real or unreal.
- There is "true belief" which is what is generally called knowledge.

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What I find rather amusing is that some people are arguing that it's possible to intentionally choose to be delusional. Think about that, how can it be delusional if you know it's untrue?

You can't intentionally choose to be delusional.

I've tried.