By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close

Forums - Politics - Rise of Atheism, discussion of pro-atheist topics, and disavowal of the 3 abramic faiths

You know, I am not a religious man in any way, I rather believe in science. However, the older I grow, the more I can understand why people like to seek help in this thing called faith. I don't visit the church on my own, unless I need to attend to some kind of ceremony like a baptism or a wedding or such, so only once every blue moon. Last time I went there was two months ago. And you know what, it actually felt pretty good. What I experienced there was a warm welcome, like I am a part of a big community and everyone appreciates me and each and everyone of us is awesome and an amazing human being. Call me crazy but I enjoyed being showered with warmth and hospitality. Who wouldn't?

However, that doesn't mean I would take the bible at face value, of course not. I think faith has a different meaning than what is preached in church, it is rather this community thing. You're never alone if you are a part of something. Faith can show you what its like to be liked, even if it's just some holy ghost. A faithful person may find soothing reassurance in difficult times, simply by believing that everything is going to be fine. Now you will object and say that atheists can do the exact same thing, of course, and yes they can tackle difficult struggles by believing in themselves as well. The magic word is believing. We all know that the mind is a powerful tool and that it can have massive effects on one's well-being and success. If you are a positive thinker, you will find satisfaction much more easily. Now if atheists find this positivity in science or if believers find this positivity in their community, it doesn't matter. It's the same thing. 

So all in all, let people do whatever they want. If atheists want to have a little respect, then they should accept that their way of thinking is cool and all but that other people may have a different way of thinking. 

Where I draw the line, though, is fundamental believing. JWeinCom already listed terrible actions in the name of faith. All of this, of course, is unacceptable.



Around the Network

The worse society gets, you can attribute that to decline of religious morals.

KratosLives said:

The worse society gets, you can attribute that to decline of religious morals.

Perhaps the truly disturbing thought isn't society's declining morality, but the notion that some people apparently require supernatural babysitting just to avoid being terrible human beings



Salnax said:
shavenferret said:

the big 3

Who would that be? Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism?

The last would be the Jews



Salnax said:
shavenferret said:

the big 3

Who would that be? Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism?

Correct 

Rank Religion Estimated Followers % of World Population
1 Christianity ~2.4 billion ~31%
2 Islam ~2.0 billion ~25%
3 Hinduism ~1.2 billion ~15%
4 Buddhism ~500 million ~6%
5 Folk/Traditional Religions ~400 million ~5%
6 Sikhism ~26 million <1%
7 Judaism ~15 million <0.2%
8 Baháʼí Faith ~8 million <0.1%
9 Jainism ~5 million <0.1%
10 Shinto (Japan) ~4 million (practicing) <0.1%


Around the Network
Kristof81 said:
Salnax said:

Who would that be? Christianity, Islam, and Hinduism?

Correct 

Rank Religion Estimated Followers % of World Population
1 Christianity ~2.4 billion ~31%
2 Islam ~2.0 billion ~25%
3 Hinduism ~1.2 billion ~15%
4 Buddhism ~500 million ~6%
5 Folk/Traditional Religions ~400 million ~5%
6 Sikhism ~26 million <1%
7 Judaism ~15 million <0.2%
8 Baháʼí Faith ~8 million <0.1%
9 Jainism ~5 million <0.1%
10 Shinto (Japan) ~4 million (practicing) <0.1%

Well, the focus would be on the three that i mentioned but i'm definitely for opening this up.  And perhaps the eastern faiths are just as problematic.  But i'm not from that culture and don't know about the problems caused by these.  

And if anybody has anything regarding this, then feel free to post.



HoloDust said:

Agnostics most likely outnumber atheists by a pretty wide margin, but got lumped into "atheist" as well.

Indeed. There's a big difference that doesn't get properly acknowledged.



Legend11 correctly predicted that GTA IV will outsell Super Smash Bros. Brawl. I was wrong.

Atheism, Satanism, and Christianity are the 3 silliest religions that exist, that people take serious anyways. I'm agnostic personally, the safe religion.



Great topic! I’m very interested in this stuff and have some things to say (both personally and as a social commentary).

First on the personal stuff, I’m an irreligious agnostic.

I believe the question of existence include a “god” or “no gods” as possibilities - and perhaps even some considerations that are “godlike” but not a god (simulation hypothesis, for example). And since “god” is such a difficult term to define, it’s something I don’t dismiss, because I think right now the answer to creation - no matter what it is - isn’t something we can currently define. I also don’t have enough information to consider a probability. I think it’s fair to consider “probably a god” as more theistic, and “probably not a god” as more atheistic, and it can exist on a spectrum - but I consider myself outside of the spectrum because of that lack of probability in my own consideration: AKA, an agnostic.

Irreligious because I have never belonged to or believe in any religion and I have no family that belongs to a religion dating back to at least my great grandparents. I didn’t grow up in any place where I felt persecuted by religious people, and have never felt that way as an adult.

That said, I am interested in religion, including Christian theology. I don’t have that crusading spirit of the atheists at all. I’ve never lived in any place where I felt my irreligion was a reason for persecution of any sort. And in fact, many Islamic, Buddhist, Jewish, and Christian (even Mormon) people were quite open with talking about their faith without being judgmental (I either ignore or mock those Internet crusaders). I’ve always been interested in different religions and various forms of ancient religious and pagan rituals and belief systems - in fact, the game Final Fantasy Legend 2 on Gameboy was kind of my introduction to it all.

Onto the second part, the commentary: while many people label themselves as Christians aren’t followers of Jesus or God according to their own scripture. Why not? I’ll explain:

Jesus, is the incarnation of the Word of God (Word, with the capital W, being the English translation of Logos) - to give a bit of basic theology, God the father is unknowable and unchangeable, and is known through the son known as the Logos - which exists in the physical universe. The Holy Spirit? I’ve had that described to me a few times, but I still don’t get the third head of the Godhead. Anyway, Jesus, in the Gospels, preached against religious sanctimony and hypocrisy, cherry-picking, people who considered themselves righteous who were picking on those they saw as scum. Jesus preached against power, hatred, and idols - and an idol is anything that people worship.

Can you make an idolized version of God? Yes, you can. The Pharisees and Sadducees who claimed to speak and defend God, defended their idol version of God against Jesus, who is God himself. These Pharisees and Sadducees are not worshipping God, but an idol version of God. On top of that, Jesus reduced the commandments to two - which everyone should use as a guide by which they filter all the other 10, because they can interpret those 10 (and the Law) in so many ways which are misleading against the spirit of the commandments and Law - which Jesus showed in the sermon on the mount in the Gospel of Matthew.

Those commandments: Love God as you love yourself; and love your neighbours.

And we can deduce that hatred is the only actual sin.

Jesus demonstrated this multiple times in the gospels by rebuking the so-called holy men - who were judgmental using God as a justification - while Jesus dined with sinners.

So, back to the question, why aren’t many modern Christians followers of Jesus or God? The answer is, they’ve turned holy things into idols. They worship the Bible without knowing or understanding what’s in it - many don’t even know the Gospels aside from a few quote/memes (like John 3:16) - because if they did know it, they wouldn’t be demanding Christianity as a state religion, they wouldn’t be flaunting their own religiosity, and they most certainly wouldn’t be wielding government and culture to either exploit, exclude, or bully the downtrodden - which many of them do, and with great hatred.

And that’s not even bringing in rationality into the argument: if God and Jesus are the creator of the universe, then they don’t need some uneducated fanatic to defend them - and one who does so with hatred in their heart is breaking one of Jesus’s two commandments in two ways: they are making an idol of God, and in doing so, they are also mocking God - a lust/possessiveness of God is a mockery of love of God.

In short: To Christians (and we can adapt this to all religious sorts who worship a supreme god):

If you feel you need to protect the God you worship, you can be sure you’re worshipping an idol.

Many modern “Christians” have turned toward political Christianity - and to be fair, this movement began a long time ago, way back in renaissance Italy with the Medici Popes, and had incarnations existing even before that - all the way back to (at least) the late second century AD with the clash between the proto-Catholic and Marcionite factions. But, just going by the scripture, these types of Christians oppose Jesus in the same way the Pharisees were.



I describe myself as a little dose of toxic masculinity.

KratosLives said:

The worse society gets, you can attribute that to decline of religious morals.

Most religious text and religions provide terrible morale advise.  Extremely religious people actually cause worse morals.  For example, Christian Nationalism and Evangelism has made the US a worse place to live compared to other developed countries.