why ?

why are you atheist or believer ? .you have so many reasons or only one .discuss please.or maybe you just feel god ,thats all.l know it is not easy to stop believing in god and trying to live thinking there isnt any creator who helps you in the life but it is a process of questioning yourself and the world you live in.at the end of this adventure of questioning you may keep holding on to your beliefs or improve your way of analytical thinking ,begin to feel god by heart and create your own life philosophie which helps you interpret religions from a rational perspective.or you lose teh belief in god.tell what you experienced during this process.

I was born an Orthodox Christian in a family of Orthodox Christians.
We're not particularly religious, as in, doctrinally. If I run into people who have names of saints like Andrew, micheal, vasile, etc when it's their saint's nameday, I say happy birthday or something like that. I say "Hristos a inviat / Adevarat a inviat" (what you say at passover when got revived from the dead)... I still know about 10 prayers which I learned when I was young though I haven't prayed all that much in my life.

Why am I still an Orthodox Christian? Because it's cool and there is no pressure put on me from my fellow Christians or other people. In fact, the most pressure I got was from atheist friends of mine. They're the only assholes who tried to mock me for my faith but I never felt pressure from other Christians to adopt a christian philosophy or to change my life because God wills it or because the Bible says so. It's also better than to be a jew and way better than to be a muslim and I don't fancy all those eastern buddhist, confucian, shinto and especially not hinduism. I read about them sufficiently enough to know I don't believe a word of them and for on in particular, hinduism, I'm quite virulent against it because it's the worst religion ever. But really, despite personal loss in life, I have never blamed God or that never turned me atheistic. Have I ever wanted to be another denomination of christianity? Not really... but that's because I don't see the point but I have much respect for all Christian denominations unless it's mormonism and those jehova witnesses... and some baptists in america.
Am I sure God exists?
No, I'm not sure, but I don't give it much thought. I have no evidence but I believe He exists and you know, the afterlife. I believe strongly that an afterlife exists. Or I really do wish it exists for personal motives. It's really the best part about Christianity in my opinion. really, if I had to pick 1 thing that keeps me a Christian is the afterlife, and mainly heaven and the chance to reunite with people you lost in life. I don't have a fear of hell as much as I have a hope that heaven is real. This is why I don't like all that buddhist crap with ressurection. Nirvana my ass. I don't want to spend my life in meditation. Life is about getting into trouble as much as it is about getting out of trouble. I don't want to have to restart the same game as it were, in the same world, when I die, and if you're a hindu, you'll revive as a cockroach if you've been bad. Yeah, like i'll beat the game as a cockroach... and cows, yeah, I'd win if I were to be revived as a cow in India, but get revived as a cow in a McDonalds farm... GG. I want to play a new game and yeah...

But despite all my personal views on other religions, really, if following a religion makes you want to be a better person... even if it's hinduism, you know, go for it. Be a better person. If following no religion makes you want to be a better person... fine, be atheist or agnostic. If you don't give a hoot, fine, but try and be a better person.

I have a sneaking suspicion that there'd be infraction points for posting real and honest answers to your question considering the sub-forum you put this in.

I'm hard-core agnostic leaning towards atheism. I was brought up christian. Forced to go to Presbyterian Church through my youth and into adolescence.

Even as a child I questioned the stuff I was hearing. It all sounded so story-bookish and make-believe.

Then I started reading into other religions and thinking about how many different belief systems there were in the world and I came to the personal conclusion that religion is a coping mechanism that's been completely invented by man. Then many took religion and organized it into a tool for control and manipulation.

While I do recognize that some good does come out of religion, and in some cases some people really need the ability to believe what they believe, I find the whole concept to be beyond anything I care to invest time in.

The philosophy that makes far more sense to me is Taoism. The answers are within me. Happiness and peace are things I control, make, or create for myself.

I don't need a "god" to be the answer for things I can not answer. I don't need some concept of an after-life or final judge to keep me going every day.

I don't need to believe in a god. I don't think there is one. I surely don't believe the bible is in any way a realistic option for what may be "next" in my life.

Nor do I believe in the Koran or Torah.
No Abrahamic religion makes any sense to me and really has no more merit to me than any stories of Pagan or Greek gods.

Then, when I see people justifying their judgment of others based on a religious belief I really start to resent the "organization" of it all.
I see religion driving wedges into society and people. Separating and causing prejudice.

The whole thing just turns me off.

Taoism.

I do not concern myself with gods and spirits either good or evil nor do I serve any.

Lao Tzu

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Atheist. Subjectively I don't feel it and objectively I don't see evidence of it.

Medusa said:

why are you atheist or believer ? .you have so many reasons or only one .discuss please.or maybe you just feel god ,thats all.l know it is not easy to stop believing in god and trying to live thinking there isnt any creator who helps you in the life but it is a process of questioning yourself and the world you live in.at the end of this adventure of questioning you may keep holding on to your beliefs or improve your way of analytical thinking ,begin to feel god by heart and create your own life philosophie which helps you interpret religions from a rational perspective.or you lose teh belief in god.tell what you experienced during this process.

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For me, it's not only the rational aspects of it - which had already been discussed by philosophers and supported by science(s) - that makes me believe strongly.

I can compare how it felt to be far from God (when I strayed away), and how it feels now that I've found Him. The rest that He'd promised rings true to me for my husband and I are both experiencing it. How different we are now from how we were before. The liberating feeling is hard to be understood by those who don't believe.

I grew up in a devoutly Lutheran home. My mother's father was a Lutheran minister for more than 60 years. Both sides of my family are full of active members, leaders, and employees of the Lutheran church in one form or another (pastors, elders, musicians, teachers, etc...). For my entier youth and most of my early adult years I followed the same path. I was an active member and leader in the church I grew up in all the way through college. I was set to continue that through the course of my life. Then in 1995, the senior pastor at the church retired and the associate pastor chose not to step into that role but to seek a call to another church, which meant we had to look for a new pastor. Without getting into details, the search for that new pastor and the drama/politics he brought with him to the church really started to turn me off to the church. In 1998 I moved to another state and with all the drama I'd experienced at the previous church I became an irregular church attendee in my new home area. In the fall of 1998 I got the news that my father; the best and most truly faithful person I'd ever met; had Cancer. I started going back to church more often, and my prayer life increased dramatically. It didn't help. On Wednesday August 22, 2001 (on his 54th birthday), after an almost 3 year battle, my father passed away from skin cancer that had moved into his brain. I attended his funeral that following Saturday. I can probably count the number of times I've been at a church service since then on my fingers and toes.

After the loss of my father I went on a spiritual search for answers. Over the next two years I talked to members of the clergy from pretty much every organized religious group I could find.... Christian, Muslem. Jewish, Hindu, etc..... None of them had an answer to my question. Several didn't even bother to try to answer it. It wasn't until I started looking outside of the organized religious groups into the more Spiritualist ideologies that I started to find answers. Today I would classify myself as an Ecclectic Spiritualist; by which I mean that I don't really follow any particular Spiritual path, but tend to find my own way based on what feels right to me. Organized religion and it's "loving God" failed me and it definitely failed my father, who was completely faithful right up to the moment he drew his last breath. I no longer see any use for it.

I believe because I have a human impulse for seeking comfort in a sometimes painful existence, and as an explanation for some otherwise inexplicable happenings in my life. I don't believe because it is illogical to do so. I live in a state of unknowing, which is good at times, and uncomfortable at others, but either way, I try to keep my feet on the road, and avoid the ditches on either side.

I consider myself agnostic with possible Deist leanings.

I've seen way too much in the way of truly horrible things happening to people (disease and life events) to believe that there can be a benevolent entity supposedly 'loving us and looking out for us'. In addition, there are way to many contradictions throughout the Bible (written by mortal man) to believe it was 'written' from the intentions of a benevolent deity.

That does not change my opinion that if someone finds comfort in believing, then I see it as a positive thing for them.

Medusa said:

why are you atheist or believer ? ..

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I am neither. I do not believe something simply because others tell me, and I do not presume to know things I cannot know.

The combination of dogmatism and hubris only leads to strife.

We were given free will and a mind.

Rainman05 said:

I was born an Orthodox Christian in a family of Orthodox Christians.
We're not particularly religious, as in, doctrinally. If I run into people who have names of saints like Andrew, micheal, vasile, etc when it's their saint's nameday, I say happy birthday or something like that. I say "Hristos a inviat / Adevarat a inviat" (what you say at passover when got revived from the dead)... I still know about 10 prayers which I learned when I was young though I haven't prayed all that much in my life.

Why am I still an Orthodox Christian? Because it's cool and there is no pressure put on me from my fellow Christians or other people. In fact, the most pressure I got was from atheist friends of mine. They're the only assholes who tried to mock me for my faith but I never felt pressure from other Christians to adopt a christian philosophy or to change my life because God wills it or because the Bible says so. It's also better than to be a jew and way better than to be a muslim and I don't fancy all those eastern buddhist, confucian, shinto and especially not hinduism. I read about them sufficiently enough to know I don't believe a word of them and for on in particular, hinduism, I'm quite virulent against it because it's the worst religion ever. But really, despite personal loss in life, I have never blamed God or that never turned me atheistic. Have I ever wanted to be another denomination of christianity? Not really... but that's because I don't see the point but I have much respect for all Christian denominations unless it's mormonism and those jehova witnesses... and some baptists in america.
Am I sure God exists?
No, I'm not sure, but I don't give it much thought. I have no evidence but I believe He exists and you know, the afterlife. I believe strongly that an afterlife exists. Or I really do wish it exists for personal motives. It's really the best part about Christianity in my opinion. really, if I had to pick 1 thing that keeps me a Christian is the afterlife, and mainly heaven and the chance to reunite with people you lost in life. I don't have a fear of hell as much as I have a hope that heaven is real. This is why I don't like all that buddhist crap with ressurection. Nirvana my ass. I don't want to spend my life in meditation. Life is about getting into trouble as much as it is about getting out of trouble. I don't want to have to restart the same game as it were, in the same world, when I die, and if you're a hindu, you'll revive as a cockroach if you've been bad. Yeah, like i'll beat the game as a cockroach... and cows, yeah, I'd win if I were to be revived as a cow in India, but get revived as a cow in a McDonalds farm... GG. I want to play a new game and yeah...

But despite all my personal views on other religions, really, if following a religion makes you want to be a better person... even if it's hinduism, you know, go for it. Be a better person. If following no religion makes you want to be a better person... fine, be atheist or agnostic. If you don't give a hoot, fine, but try and be a better person.

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l was about to judge your previous statement but l saw the second part.

Ben K. said:

Atheist. Subjectively I don't feel it and objectively I don't see evidence of it.

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if you look for evidence dont call it belief anymore

Tigger said:

I grew up in a devoutly Lutheran home. My mother's father was a Lutheran minister for more than 60 years. Both sides of my family are full of active members, leaders, and employees of the Lutheran church in one form or another (pastors, elders, musicians, teachers, etc...). For my entier youth and most of my early adult years I followed the same path. I was an active member and leader in the church I grew up in all the way through college. I was set to continue that through the course of my life. Then in 1995, the senior pastor at the church retired and the associate pastor chose not to step into that role but to seek a call to another church, which meant we had to look for a new pastor. Without getting into details, the search for that new pastor and the drama/politics he brought with him to the church really started to turn me off to the church. In 1998 I moved to another state and with all the drama I'd experienced at the previous church I became an irregular church attendee in my new home area. In the fall of 1998 I got the news that my father; the best and most truly faithful person I'd ever met; had Cancer. I started going back to church more often, and my prayer life increased dramatically. It didn't help. On Wednesday August 22, 2001 (on his 54th birthday), after an almost 3 year battle, my father passed away from skin cancer that had moved into his brain. I attended his funeral that following Saturday. I can probably count the number of times I've been at a church service since then on my fingers and toes.

After the loss of my father I went on a spiritual search for answers. Over the next two years I talked to members of the clergy from pretty much every organized religious group I could find.... Christian, Muslem. Jewish, Hindu, etc..... None of them had an answer to my question. Several didn't even bother to try to answer it. It wasn't until I started looking outside of the organized religious groups into the more Spiritualist ideologies that I started to find answers. Today I would classify myself as an Ecclectic Spiritualist; by which I mean that I don't really follow any particular Spiritual path, but tend to find my own way based on what feels right to me. Organized religion and it's "loving God" failed me and it definitely failed my father, who was completely faithful right up to the moment he drew his last breath. I no longer see any use for it.

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l know how you feel .but everybody will die one day.would you believe in god if humans invented immortality ?

Medusa said:

l know how you feel .but everybody will die one day.would you believe in god if humans invented immortality ?

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I believe in multiple Gods and Goddesses, Medusa. What I do not believe in is the Christian/Abrahamic view of God, or any of the dogma attached to it.

Tigger said:

I believe in multiple Gods and Goddesses, Medusa. What I do not believe in is the Christian/Abrahamic view of God, or any of the dogma attached to it.

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multiple gods arent dogma ?

Medusa said:

multiple gods arent dogma ?

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Dogma in terms of the services, The Bible, and the other trappings that organized religion place around their theology.

Medusa said:

would you believe in god if humans invented immortality ?

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Are you referencing a belief in a christian god here?

Why would a human invention, even immortality, change an agnostic/atheist opinion on "god" ?

Dragonfly said:

Are you referencing a belief in a christian god here?

Why would a human invention, even immortality, change an agnostic/atheist opinion on "god" ?

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l didnt refer to any specific god .l believe there is only one god no matter what religion you chose to believe.l am more like a deistic muslim and try to understand people from different beliefs.my question was to tigger and he isnt atheist

Medusa said:

if you look for evidence dont call it belief anymore

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I believe that evidence may be there, but it's not the scientific type. Just personal experience which can confirm certain beliefs.

Christian, and I believe it because of the evidence and my personal experience and relationship with the Holy Spirit.

I was born and raised a Jew. The more I learned, both about the world (history and science), and about the religion that was taught to me, I realized how full of nonsense it was. I have yet to find any that isn't equally nonsense. This goes for major organized religions and various new age beliefs. Ghosts, goblins, gods, astrology... it's all the same. I would consider atheism the natural result of being a mature and educated human being. That there is no magic or spirits in the world is as plain to me as the effects of gravity or bacteria.

Paschendale said:

I was born and raised a Jew. The more I learned, both about the world (history and science), and about the religion that was taught to me, I realized how full of nonsense it was. I have yet to find any that isn't equally nonsense. This goes for major organized religions and various new age beliefs. Ghosts, goblins, gods, astrology... it's all the same. I would consider atheism the natural result of being a mature and educated human being. That there is no magic or spirits in the world is as plain to me as the effects of gravity or bacteria.

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We are in free fall my friend. Lose yourself in the abyss

Excellent question, Medusa.

As far as I know I am the first and only Buddhist in my family. My family are Christians. I was raised as a Christian. Let me tell you, there is a great deal of pressure to remain in the faith in which you were raised, even if you don't accept it. When by your actions you disavow the faith of your parents and their parents and their parents parents and extended family and friends some take it as a personal affront. It wasn't and it isn't today a personal affront to any other faith. It's just that I can't remember, really, when I ever bought into Christianity. Even from a young age I asked too many questions.

I am fine with what people of other faiths believe but their religions just don't work for me. There is a saying, something about there being many paths that will take people up the mountain and the only one wasting their time is the one running around telling everyone they are on the wrong path. I respect the paths chosen by others. My path is the one I have chosen for me.

It doesn't matter really all that I went through to be where I am at the present. I left Christianity and really didn't look for a replacement. By accident I stumbled into Buddhism and found that it made more sense to me than anything.

I am not a believer in a deity. It is my belief that all is "God" or "God" is all, if you like.

opendebate said:

We are in free fall my friend. Lose yourself in the abyss

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I have no idea what this means. Philosophically or spiritually, I experience neither free fall nor an abyss. That we are not controlled by powerful rulers from on high is an extremely liberating thought to me. We are free to make our lives and our minds what we choose, and we need not submit ourselves to any kings.

Paschendale said:

I have no idea what this means. Philosophically or spiritually, I experience neither free fall nor an abyss. That we are not controlled by powerful rulers from on high is an extremely liberating thought to me. We are free to make our lives and our minds what we choose, and we need not submit ourselves to any kings.

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I understand that perspective. I think it is reserved for those who are gifted at compartmentalizing. Not all of us are so efficient. I should have guessed, given what you have shown of yourself here, that you were such a person. My boyfriend shares your point of view but I tend to jump back and forth from the shear panic of it's inevitability and finality to calm acceptance. I tend to not like it when the outcome does not suite me and I cannot fix it.