Did you have to become an atheist?

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Did you have to become an atheist?

I am not an atheist
3
20%
No, I was always an atheist
5
33%
Yes, I would be considered religious until some point in my life
6
40%
Bacon
1
7%
Dill
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 15

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Brian Peacock
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by Brian Peacock » Wed Mar 03, 2021 3:04 pm

The Devil makes work for idle palms.
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by JimC » Thu Mar 04, 2021 4:24 am

Yes.

Richard Dawkins told me that, for every day that I did not become one, he would disembowel a kitten.
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by Svartalf » Thu Mar 04, 2021 8:06 am

Although my parents were non practicing, I was indoctrinated from a very young age. I never practiced much, though I'd do the socially expected things (except fish on fridays, my mom did not force that on me)... I was 21 or so when I made a detailed study of new testament, and really understood that crhistianity was a buch of absurdity piled on top of a mountain of nonsense. This, combined with a bit of reality check (how do you conciliate a good and loving god with tha evil and pain that fill the world) finished turning me away from that idiocy.
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by rainbow » Thu Mar 04, 2021 10:15 am

Hermit wrote:
Wed Mar 03, 2021 4:09 am
The trend in Australia:

Image

The census data don't distinguish between people who have simply disengaged from religious institutions, people who have ceased believing in a personal god and people who have ceased believing in the existence of supernatural entities altogether.

The next census will be taken in September this year. Results will be published 10 or 12 months later.
I don't believe in Atheism, as there is no convincing proof that there are no Gods.

I do suspect that the early censuses didn't give an easy option for no religion.
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by pErvinalia » Thu Mar 04, 2021 10:24 am

That's not what atheism is. It's a lack of belief. Not proof of anything.


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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by Hermit » Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:23 am

rainbow wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 10:15 am
Hermit wrote:
Wed Mar 03, 2021 4:09 am
The trend in Australia:

Image

The census data don't distinguish between people who have simply disengaged from religious institutions, people who have ceased believing in a personal god and people who have ceased believing in the existence of supernatural entities altogether.

The next census will be taken in September this year. Results will be published 10 or 12 months later.
I don't believe in Atheism, as there is no convincing proof that there are no Gods.
Although I have mentioned the concept of agnostic atheism dozens of times, it seems to have escaped you. A few posts above this one I have described myself as an agnostic atheist. Here is why:

Image
rainbow wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 10:15 am
I do suspect that the early censuses didn't give an easy option for no religion.
If you are correct, the option for no religion would have remained close to non-existent for 65 years, after which it became progressively easier to choose. ;)
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by Strontium Dog » Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:27 am

My dad is Jewish. My mum was confirmed in the Anglican church, though her father was Catholic. Having long abandoned any faith whatsoever, they raised us as atheists.
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by rainbow » Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:24 pm

pErvinalia wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 10:24 am
That's not what atheism is. It's a lack of belief. Not proof of anything.
Yes, I lack the belief that there are no Gods.
I call bullshit - Alfred E Einstein
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by rainbow » Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:33 pm

Hermit wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:23 am
If you are correct, the option for no religion would have remained close to non-existent for 65 years, after which it became progressively easier to choose. ;)
People might actually believe that they will be judged for stating 'no religion'.

On your table, I'd like to add a third dimension. That would be the zeal of wanting to convince others.
...the evangelical, or missionary motivation. How much time does one spend on trying to convert others to your way of thinking.

My guess is that even amongst those that claim a religion, a small minority practise or actually become involved in the Coven.

...so my actual standpoint is a non-toss-giving, agnostic Deist.
I call bullshit - Alfred E Einstein
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by JimC » Thu Mar 04, 2021 7:58 pm

Yeah, the zeal thing is an important dimension. Not only for theists, either - Richard Dawkins would score pretty highly on that, one thinks... ;)
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by Tero » Thu Mar 04, 2021 10:48 pm

well yes, but it was funny.



https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
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Our case for survival before it's too late

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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by Tero » Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:15 pm

The Wendy one is missing the funniest bit where he adds an ancestor to our sequence and she says he just made two new gaps.
https://esapolitics.blogspot.com
http://esabirdsne.blogspot.com/
Said Peter...what you're requesting just isn't my bag
Said Daemon, who's sorry too, but y'see we didn't have no choice
And our hands they are many and we'd be of one voice
We've come all the way from Wigan to get up and state
Our case for survival before it's too late

Turn stone to bread, said Daemon Duncetan
Turn stone to bread right away...

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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by Hermit » Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:30 pm

rainbow wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:33 pm
Hermit wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 11:23 am
If you are correct, the option for no religion would have remained close to non-existent for 65 years, after which it became progressively easier to choose. ;)
People might actually believe that they will be judged for stating 'no religion'.
That would have been one huge factor in the almost non-existence of people stating 'no religion' until the mid 1960s, and to a smaller extent it is still around.
rainbow wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:33 pm
On your table, I'd like to add a third dimension. That would be the zeal of wanting to convince others.
...the evangelical, or missionary motivation. How much time does one spend on trying to convert others to your way of thinking.
Um, yes, I am personally familiar with evangelical, or missionary motivation. My brother, his wife and one of their children are evangelising young earth christians. I don't know how I would incorporate that into the four-cornered diagram, though.
rainbow wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:33 pm
My guess is that even amongst those that claim a religion, a small minority practise or actually become involved in the Coven.
Yes.
rainbow wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:33 pm
...so my actual standpoint is a non-toss-giving, agnostic Deist.
Better fit for the bottom left corner then, than the bottom right?
I am, somehow, less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein’s brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. - Stephen J. Gould

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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by pErvinalia » Fri Mar 05, 2021 12:01 am

rainbow wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 12:24 pm
pErvinalia wrote:
Thu Mar 04, 2021 10:24 am
That's not what atheism is. It's a lack of belief. Not proof of anything.
Yes, I lack the belief that there are no Gods.
So you are an agnostic atheist, assuming you also lack a belief that there are Gods.
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Re: Did you have to become an atheist?

Post by Joe » Fri Mar 05, 2021 12:10 am

I guess I'm a cynical agnostic. I don't know, neither do you, and it sounds like a scam.
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