When/ how did you become an atheist?
- Thread starter spidergoat
- Start date
um..i agree with that to the point of what is the difference between a religious person,one who follows the rules of ones choice of religion, and a Believer,one who believes in Gods existence, but does not follow any specific creed or doctrine(tends to follow God,not religion).
Insert deity here
Registered Member
How does someone go about following God(s) without a creed or doctrine? I'm curious.
didn't God exist before religion?
Ha ha, I would like to see you prove that.
From the religions point of view the answer is yes. From my point of view God is a man made construct, so the religion may very well have come first.
juliet2011
Registered Member
If you trust the god, there will be god in your heart. If not, just believe the world is matter.
If you are taught to trust in God when very young by your parents whom you do trust. What are you going to believe when you grow up?
You actually decided to sin?
But as an atheist sinning is not an issue. But right and wrong still applies. So the question becomes was your sin also a wrong?For the sake of argument, let's say yes.
Without religion, how do you know what god wants from you?
Pffft. He'd tell you of course.
God told me he didn't exist. I had a problem with this in the beginning as it was an obvious oxymoron, but then thought what the hell, he's god and he probably knows more than me. Never looked back since.
Or he'd just have Lori_7 tell us.Pffft. He'd tell you of course.
This actually makes sense to me.
Yes people have told me that the only reason I am an Atheist is so that I can sin without guilt. ...You actually decided to sin?
There are two principles; individual needs and group needs. In the ideal world, the group is like a team, with a good team greater than the sum of its parts. The good team effect, in turn, can make all the parts even better. The laws against sin, like the ten commandments, have the team in mind, requiring all play their role for the good of the team. With the team stronger, the individuals advance via the team. If you can not covert your neighbors wife, there is less fighting among team members. If you can the team starts to break down.
On the flip side, the individual also has needs apart from the team. These needs may not be optimize the team, since they are more geared to the individual. For example, say you are playing basketball. The team might need everyone to play zone to make the team stronger than the sum of the parts. One individual, who has separate needs, might achieve more personal optimization if they can leave the zone to play hot dog. Although this may better optimize that one person, it will impact the team, so the team becomes less than the sum of the parts.
One individually optimzed hot dog can still work, as long as everyone else is willing to pick up their slack and stay in the zone. But say everyone decided not to pick up the slack. Then the team goes into choas and everyone gets worse. But as long as the majority picks up the slack, a minority can optimize at the level of the individual aprat from the team. The extra work needed to compensate for the team means less I net advancement for the members of the team. Someone else will pay.
In modern American culture, there are a lot of social mops paid for by taxes. Everyone has to pick up the slack, in stay in the zone for the team, so others can hot dog. If you look at STD's, tax dollars come from the efforts of the entire team, who has to pick up this slack, so a smaller group can optimize self. If the team didn't have to pick up this slack (no tax money can be spent on this), the hot dogs would not be able to optimize by parasiting off the team.
The atheist religion is parasitic, since it defines itself by comparing to religion. Without that to leach off it lacks identity. This parasite religion, encourages individuals to parasite off the team by encouraging hot dogs and inducing resentment in those who need to pick up the slack. The team needs to be able to remove parasites from leaching off the team, by being able to opt out of any taxes needed to pay for the price of individual immorality. Let the individuals pay their own way.
The situation is similar to cancer. The healthy body coordinates all the cells so the teams is more than the sum of the parts. Say individual cells decide to do their own thing at the expense of the team. This can lead to an atheist cancer. The cancer is a parasite that needs the host to pick up the slack, since it does not contribute to the team.The cancer can split and allow more individual cells to optimize. Eventually, like in USA, the cost to the team body gets very high. If we cut off the cancer from the team body, the cancer dies. But it will resist losing it parasitic host leaching until both will die.
Being an individual does not preclude playing on the team. The zone defense, if successful opens up opportunities. The individual takes advantage of this while optimizing self and team. The parasite is different.
On the flip side, the individual also has needs apart from the team. These needs may not be optimize the team, since they are more geared to the individual. For example, say you are playing basketball. The team might need everyone to play zone to make the team stronger than the sum of the parts. One individual, who has separate needs, might achieve more personal optimization if they can leave the zone to play hot dog. Although this may better optimize that one person, it will impact the team, so the team becomes less than the sum of the parts.
One individually optimzed hot dog can still work, as long as everyone else is willing to pick up their slack and stay in the zone. But say everyone decided not to pick up the slack. Then the team goes into choas and everyone gets worse. But as long as the majority picks up the slack, a minority can optimize at the level of the individual aprat from the team. The extra work needed to compensate for the team means less I net advancement for the members of the team. Someone else will pay.
In modern American culture, there are a lot of social mops paid for by taxes. Everyone has to pick up the slack, in stay in the zone for the team, so others can hot dog. If you look at STD's, tax dollars come from the efforts of the entire team, who has to pick up this slack, so a smaller group can optimize self. If the team didn't have to pick up this slack (no tax money can be spent on this), the hot dogs would not be able to optimize by parasiting off the team.
The atheist religion is parasitic, since it defines itself by comparing to religion. Without that to leach off it lacks identity. This parasite religion, encourages individuals to parasite off the team by encouraging hot dogs and inducing resentment in those who need to pick up the slack. The team needs to be able to remove parasites from leaching off the team, by being able to opt out of any taxes needed to pay for the price of individual immorality. Let the individuals pay their own way.
The situation is similar to cancer. The healthy body coordinates all the cells so the teams is more than the sum of the parts. Say individual cells decide to do their own thing at the expense of the team. This can lead to an atheist cancer. The cancer is a parasite that needs the host to pick up the slack, since it does not contribute to the team.The cancer can split and allow more individual cells to optimize. Eventually, like in USA, the cost to the team body gets very high. If we cut off the cancer from the team body, the cancer dies. But it will resist losing it parasitic host leaching until both will die.
Being an individual does not preclude playing on the team. The zone defense, if successful opens up opportunities. The individual takes advantage of this while optimizing self and team. The parasite is different.
you saying you need a person to tell you what he wants from you?
i think the word is 'dispensationism'...the belief that Man(pastor/church leader) is responsible for 'saving' souls.(you can't get into heaven without following Mans rules)..
the responsibility to be 'saved' is in each of us independent of the church..it is between you and God..by what knowledge and rights does a man have to say that your place in heaven is reserved,(do this,get that)..
read the bible and see what it says about being saved,it does not have a requirement of religious leaders being needed to be saved.
no man will ever 'Know' whether he has 'made the cut' until we die.
we only have our faith that we will.
seek and ye shall find..
God is there for each of us..you just gotta know where to look..(where he is for you, is different than where he is for me)
but i think i got off track..
i think religion came to exist as ppl came together to share their experiences with God, the ones that shared similar experiences came together and called themselves <insert denomination here>, now enough ppl gather together discussing their beliefs of course a hierarchy is going to develop, and humans beings humans can corrupt such a human based system..
argument for this:
how many denominations exist today?
isn't that list growing?
how long till there are so many as to be considered 'I am the church'? (as many denominations as there are believers)
got off again..
if you want to know what God wants from you,ask him, he will find a way to tell you.
If you do wrong without guilt, then your a sociopath and being an atheist or theist is a moot point anyway.
Uh, dude- the Bible represents religious leaders in written form. Let those who have eyes see.
Your either being funny or your completely crazy. If it wasn't for religious zealots like yourself, there wouldn't need to be any word to describe a non-believer. Maybe you should take a hint from the Jim Jones team, he knew what taking one for the team was all about. When you talk about the team, you are really talking about a man with a following
Excuse me if I don't choose to follow someone that believes in fairy tails.
..the focus should be on God, not Man.