- Lorenzo Lorenz
- Lusaka
- Zambia
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Why have people (Atheists) Chosen not to believe in God? Does this give freedom to live life without becoming answerable to anyone?
Many people are atheists because of the way they were brought up or educated, or because they have simply adopted the beliefs of the culture in which they grew up. So someone raised in Communist China is likely to have no belief in God because the education system and culture make being an atheist the natural thing to do.
"Other people are atheists because they just feel that atheism is right." It is on this premise that i am asking this question.
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David Hamilton 50+
No Devil coerced you... No god can forgive you. You are responsible for every good deed you have ever done, and every one of your smallest transgressions against others. When your tax money is used to murder civilians, that is your fault, and there is no excuse.
Atheists often find much sympathy with the Buddhist faith. The concept that life is full of suffering, but that suffering is designed to teach you compassion. The idea that suffering exists because of ignorance, and thus knowledge is the path to overcome suffering. Atheists must learn to see their failures as a learning experience or else be bogged down in guilt, shame, and misery.
Confession, prayer, and other direct forms of communication with "god", seem easy by comparisson. I choose to believe that I am alone, and at best I have 50 years left to make the most beautiful mark I can on this world. Even if there is a god, why would he/she/it want me to live any other way?
Matthieu Miossec 100+
Obey No1kinobe 50+
Atonement is such a suspect idea. That someone else can take responsibility for my misdeeds.
A culture of forgiveness that allow priest pedos to evade the law. and go on harming children Suspect.
That humans are sinful in nature, and condemned because of the crimes of our ancestors.
Thumbs up for taking responsibility as a non theist.
David Hamilton 50+
E G 10+
To choose atheism because some religious persons are idiots and think they aren't accountable for their deeds. This is just not a correct judgement.
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David Hamilton 50+
"And yet no God will punish you. One is free to be as amoral as they may wish."
This shows a deep misunderstanding of human nature, and the physical world. When you do drugs... You get a hangover, or you commit acts you regret. When you treat people in your lives poorly, they treat you poorly.
When this is the only life you have, and you make horrible choices, you will spend an eternity in misery. If you abuse your body, your relationships, and your love, it will all fail you, and on your death bed you will have spent every moment you believe exists in pain. There is nothing more terrifying.
We don't need a god to get punished. There might be one... Amorallity is its own punishment. The means are the end.
Using tax money to murder civilians of a different religion, is par for the course for almost every religion that has ever existed, most atheists are against it.
Buddhism is less reliant on the afterlife than you think. HH suggests that anyone who accepts the four noble truths is a buddhist. Many atheists do not accept the four noble truths, however I do, so in speaking for myself I can say that I have strong buddhist sympathies.
Very few atheists are gnostic btw. I would never say "I know there is no god"... I simply suggest it doesn't matter if there is a god, and specific beliefs in one, that cause an us and them mentallity... appear unhealthy.
Obey No1kinobe 50+
And if you were poor you deserved that to.
A little similar to caste issues.
Also Buddhism is not monolithic. Just like Christianity there are an array of beliefs, dogma, practices and the reality of human nature, organisation, scoiety etc
Gabo Moreno 100+
Having sympathy for Buddhism is not the same as being a Buddhist.
David Hamilton 50+
I don't consider myself a Buddhist, partially because of the often strict belief in the afterlife. Honestly, it's a bit more than that though... I believe that there is a fundamental flaw in the philosophy, and I actually think Tenzin himself realizes it, and this may be why he refuses to discuss finding a new Lama. Church is basically a financial scam, and enlightenment is actually an easy state to reach, it just isn't as glorious as one would have hoped.
Enlightenment, is the point at which, you realize, that kharma works instantly, all around us. This is the problem with religion, it creates an us and them mentallity.
You suggest "This suffering isn't always the amount it should be" and "My nature is different from yours". You are simply wrong, demonstrably. Less than 1% of human beings are psycopaths... All the rest of us, feel bad, the instant we do something that hurts someone else.
We all feel bad when, in the moment, based on poor information or a bad state of mind, we do something that hurts someone accidentally.
When we see a man his arm broken in a jiu jitsu match, we all clutch our arms as if we were just injured.
Everyone has the exact same nature as you. Everyone feels the exact amount of suffering they should.
Again, there is the exception of psycopaths, but that's what we have law for, law punishes them. Reality punishes the rest of us. Law is of course an instrument of reality, so you could even reason that they get exactly what they deserve, but still they don't feel it the same way unfortunately. You just have to learn to get over that.
This is the problem I have with most religions. It sounds to me, like you actually refuse to believe in reality, simply to justify belief in god.
Obey No1kinobe 50+
I studied a bit about Buddhism, living in a Buddhist country and some bits resonated. You know life is suffering and taking the middle road etc.There is some good understanding if the human condition with many of the axial age sages.
And we have 2-3,000 years more human development on our side, science, the enlightenment, Hume, Darwin, and we don't necessarily have to believe in a hidden world of invisible agency.
I still meditate, just without superimposing the supernatural. I guess we can pick out the good bits and just accept the supernatural and bronze age cultural aspects as a product of their time before science and contraception.