Why are you atheist?

[Ecofarm]

"The sun will rise" is inductive?

1. All planets orbit their nearest star.

2. Earth is a planet and the sun is the nearest star.

3. Therefore, the earth will orbit the sun.

Looks deductive to me.

 

[Arwon]

Ah, but not all planets will have a sunrise just because they orbit a star.

Some have cloud cover so thick you can't see their sun. Some are tide locked so that one side always faces its sun. Some are so far away the sun just looks like another star.

 

[Ecofarm]

If a tree falls in a forest and noone hears it, it still makes a sound.

If the earth orbits the sun and noone sees it, it still orbits the sun; if the sun rises and noone sees it, it still rises.

But yes, I see what you did thar.

At any rate, I don't think astro-physics is purely inductive.

 

[SchoolzSoKewl]

I'm atheist, because believing in a god that probably isn't there doesn't do anything for me. I don't feel empty or hallow without the presence of a higher being and I don't feel the belief in such a being would give me motivation or my life direction.
And if there were a god, I still would not want to worship said god, because it just seems silly to worship anyone.

 

[AesronDrosseli]

What then of the theory that if everything has a cause, then something supernatural has to be at the beginning of that cause? Say the world is in motion right now. Organisms eating, screwing and dying, and from your viewpoint it's like watching a very long train crossing the rails. You're looking right now at the middle of the thing and both ends stretch to infinity, but you know that there has to be an engine driving the train. What is that engine? The Big Bang? God? And if the Big Bang, it's also a leap of faith to say that it just happened because it just happened. Amiright?

 

[SchoolzSoKewl]

What then of the theory that if everything has a cause, then something supernatural has to be at the beginning of that cause? Say the world is in motion right now. Organisms eating, screwing and dying, and from your viewpoint it's like watching a very long train crossing the rails. You're looking right now at the middle of the thing and both ends stretch to infinity, but you know that there has to be an engine driving the train. What is that engine? The Big Bang? God? And if the Big Bang, it's also a leap of faith to say that it just happened because it just happened. Amiright?

Why not just keep riding the train, why bother finding out what the engine is when you can do nothing but guess aimlessly. I've never been able to understand why people care if there is or isn't a god. Unless you like to spend your afternoons sitting in cafes pondering all there is to ponder which I guess would be pretty picturesque.

 

[Arwon]

What then of the theory that if everything has a cause, then something supernatural has to be at the beginning of that cause? Say the world is in motion right now. Organisms eating, screwing and dying, and from your viewpoint it's like watching a very long train crossing the rails. You're looking right now at the middle of the thing and both ends stretch to infinity, but you know that there has to be an engine driving the train. What is that engine? The Big Bang? God? And if the Big Bang, it's also a leap of faith to say that it just happened because it just happened. Amiright?

That's a very linear and 3-dimensional viewpoint. Why did the universe have to have a beginning? Not even the Buddhists think that.

There's also the small problem that time doesn't make much sense in the singularity conditions surrounding the pre-big bang and immediate post-big bang universe. Most of our normal intuitions about reality don't correspond to quantum mechanics or particle physics, why should our laymans' interpretation of time do so?

 

[Phrossack]

But why do you think God started it? Who's to say it wasn't a half-eaten pinecone in a septic tank?

 

[AesronDrosseli]

Why not just keep riding the train, why bother finding out what the engine is when you can do nothing but guess aimlessly. I've never been able to understand why people care if there is or isn't a god. Unless you like to spend your afternoons sitting in cafes pondering all there is to ponder which I guess would be pretty picturesque.

The universe is a pretty little thing. Also, I like to ponder. Guess you got your answer.

That's a very linear and 3-dimensional viewpoint. Why did the universe have to have a beginning? Not even the Buddhists think that.

There's also the small problem that time doesn't make much sense in the singularity conditions surrounding the pre-big bang and immediate post-big bang universe.

So essentially I need to expand my horizons and think beyond the the traditional three dimensions, bidding goodbye to causality while I'm at it?

But why do you think God started it? Who's to say it wasn't a half-eaten pinecone in a septic tank?

If it a half-eaten pinecone in a septic tank can create the world, what more can I do? Point is, even if it were that half-eaten pinecone in a septic tank which did create the universe, logically speaking, that would become our God. I'm not going to attempt talking about the nature of God (which goes way beyond the scope of this question), but rather.. The existence of this God, be it a he, she, it or none of the three.

 

[warpus]

What then of the theory that if everything has a cause, then something supernatural has to be at the beginning of that cause?

Which scientific theory is this? Oh, it's not a scientific theory, but the musings of some guy in his pajamas? I see

I don't mean to sound condascending, it's just that I've heard that said soo many times: "Oh, there's gotta be *something* to have caused it all!"

Even if there was, why does it have to be something supernatural? If supernatural, why does it have to be God? Maybe it was my mom.

 

[BasketCase]

Throwing a question to all of you who don't believe in the existence of God/a god/The FSM/religion in general. Why so?

Gut instinct. Nothing more.

Betcha never heard that one before.

It's something as insubstantial as picking up the phone and getting that feeling the line has disconnected and there's nobody at the other end. That there's actually nobody running the stuff going on around you. It's something I can't prove. In fact, if you like delicious irony--my atheism is, for all intents and purposes....

....an act of FAITH.

 

[AesronDrosseli]

Which scientific theory is this? Oh, it's not a scientific theory, but the musings of some guy in his pajamas? I see

I don't mean to sound condascending, it's just that I've heard that said soo many times: "Oh, there's gotta be *something* to have caused it all!"

Even if there was, why does it have to be something supernatural? If supernatural, why does it have to be God? Maybe it was my mom.

Actually, I believe it was Thomas of Aquinas who put that up. But he was no scientist. And I guess he did dress in rather pajama-y clothes.

So dropping the topic of the omnipresent and omnipotent Mom for the moment, what do you believe? That the universe has always been?

 

[Kerozine]

So dropping the topic of the omnipresent and omnipotent Mom for the moment, what do you believe? That the universe has always been?

Sure, why not?

 

[cardgame]

what do you believe? That the universe has always been?

This is a fact, not a belief.

reasoning: law of conservation

 

[warpus]

So dropping the topic of the omnipresent and omnipotent Mom for the moment, what do you believe? That the universe has always been?

I don't know, but I'm hoping to find out before I die

 

[azzaman333]

I'm atheist because there's no objective evidence to suggest that god exists.

 

[Askthepizzaguy]

If there were a special word to designate people who do not believe in the existence of the Great Fire-Breathing Leprechaun (Lucky be thy name), and I asked people why they were (special word to designate such people... let's call them Bizarrochauns) they might be at a loss to respond.

When did you become a Bizarrochaun, and why are you a Bizarrochaun?

It's tough to say. Never in my life have I looked around and suggested to myself "there must be some great Irish mythological figure who breathed the world into existence... with his Great Fire Breath".

So, I am a Bizarrochaun by default. Kind of like I am an agnostic/atheist/non-believer by default as it pertains to God or other deities. It never happened, and there was no reason for it. People are by their very nature born agnostic; they don't presume there is a God unless they are told there is one.

When encountering people of faith who believe in mythical beings, they have failed to produce any evidence. So, I never took their word as fact, and never became a believer in such beings. Sure, there could be a god out there, but until I see reasons to believe in that as opposed to a godless void, I see the universe as it appears to be, not as I wish it to be.

 

[Karalysia]

The question that should be asked is why aren't you atheist, not why you are. Atheism, is the default. Also ^ what the dude above me said.

 

[AesronDrosseli]

Gut instinct. Nothing more.

Betcha never heard that one before.

It's something as insubstantial as picking up the phone and getting that feeling the line has disconnected and there's nobody at the other end. That there's actually nobody running the stuff going on around you. It's something I can't prove. In fact, if you like delicious irony--my atheism is, for all intents and purposes....

....an act of FAITH.

I like you. Marry me please?

This is a fact, not a belief.

reasoning: law of conservation

As difficult as it is to wrap my head around that concept, you do make a sneaky sort of sense. But for clarification's sake, this is the Conservation of Energy law we're talking about here right?

The question that should be asked is why aren't you atheist, not why you are. Atheism, is the default. Also ^ what the dude above me said.

If atheism is the default, how then did religion come to dominate the world?

 

[SillyGoat]

"Why am I an atheist?"

Because I have a functioning brain.