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I've decided to become atheist AMA

I was baptised CofE although was brought up in a fairly agnostic home where we sporadically went to church. I did go through phases of wanting actively to be Christian- partly due to the influence of my Christian school- but I've decided now that I do not believe in God. AMA.

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What's made you decide that you don't believe?
Reply 2
Original post by eam0ss
I was baptised CofE although was brought up in a fairly agnostic home where we sporadically went to church. I did go through phases of wanting actively to be Christian- partly due to the influence of my Christian school- but I've decided now that I do not believe in God. AMA.


In your 'phases of wanting actively to be Christian' what did that entail?

How can you be sure God doesn't exist?

Do you believe evolution to be true?
Original post by Racoon
In your 'phases of wanting actively to be Christian' what did that entail?

How can you be sure God doesn't exist?

Do you believe evolution to be true?


I hope the OP doesn't mind if I interrupt;

They never stated that they're sure that they were sure that a god exists.

The fact that evolution occurs is absolutely irrefutable; it can quite easily be observed; just look at how rodents have developed resistance to some poisons. The subject of discussion is normally the theory of evolution by natural selection. Note that "theory" doesn't inherently mean unsubstantiated here, that would be a hypothesis.
Reply 4
Original post by _gcx
I hope the OP doesn't mind if I interrupt;

They never stated that they're sure that they were sure that a god exists.

The fact that evolution occurs is absolutely irrefutable; it can quite easily be observed; just look at how rodents have developed resistance to some poisons. The subject of discussion is normally the theory of evolution by natural selection. Note that "theory" doesn't inherently mean unsubstantiated here, that would be a hypothesis.


Yes, although I suspect that by the word "evolution", Racoon is really asking about the origin of species and/or about macroevolution, rather than microevolution. Perhaps a better question would be "Do you believe all living things have a common ancestor?" It's more specific to what is disputed.
OP, why make an AMA thread if you haven't answered anyone's questions days later?
You don't have to be religious to believe in a creator. All religions believe in something greater than themselves which created everything - the religious scriptures are the solid foundations for each religion and allow for differentiation between them; i'm a very passionate atheist but i feel like we cannot say for certain what the origins of the universe are (i don't believe in the big bang or Genesis). Personally, i'm very anti-religion and believe that it is very dangerous, however, i also strongly believe that being religious isn't just having faith but is more centralised around the idea of abiding your life by a piece of scripture whether it be the Torah Scroll, Quran, Bible, etc. in order to belong/ have an identity and have hope for a greater good, e.g. an afterlife.
Original post by eam0ss
I was baptised CofE although was brought up in a fairly agnostic home where we sporadically went to church. I did go through phases of wanting actively to be Christian- partly due to the influence of my Christian school- but I've decided now that I do not believe in God. AMA.
How do you "decide" to believe in something or not believe in something is beyond me.
(edited 6 years ago)
Reply 8
Original post by Lisa.Williams
You don't have to be religious to believe in a creator. All religions believe in something greater than themselves which created everything - the religious scriptures are the solid foundations for each religion and allow for differentiation between them; i'm a very passionate atheist but i feel like we cannot say for certain what the origins of the universe are (i don't believe in the big bang or Genesis). Personally, i'm very anti-religion and believe that it is very dangerous, however, i also strongly believe that being religious isn't just having faith but is more centralised around the idea of abiding your life by a piece of scripture whether it be the Torah Scroll, Quran, Bible, etc. in order to belong/ have an identity and have hope for a greater good, e.g. an afterlife.


I agree. As a Christian I think being 'religious' is far from the God I know.
Reply 9
Original post by _gcx
I hope the OP doesn't mind if I interrupt;

They never stated that they're sure that they were sure that a god exists.

The fact that evolution occurs is absolutely irrefutable; it can quite easily be observed; just look at how rodents have developed resistance to some poisons. The subject of discussion is normally the theory of evolution by natural selection. Note that "theory" doesn't inherently mean unsubstantiated here, that would be a hypothesis.


Yes, I fully understand how you use the word 'theory'.

My objection to evolution is how it is now taught as fact. Fact it is not.
Original post by Lisa.Williams
(i don't believe in the big bang or Genesis)


While it's reasonable to want some further explanation as to why the universe began besides 'the Big Bang happened', disputing that the Big Bang happened at all is arguing with an extremely well-supported scientific theory. But to some extent I'm putting words in your mouth, here. Could I ask what you meant by 'I don't believe in the Big Bang'?
Original post by Racoon
Yes, I fully understand how you use the word 'theory'.

My objection to evolution is how it is now taught as fact. Fact it is not.


Scientists have been able to observe new species being produced by evolution. 'New species are produced when subgroups of existing species become genetically different enough to lose the ability to interbreed' is a fact. The above statement is also the main idea of evolution. Evolution is a fact.
Reply 12
Original post by Racoon
I agree. As a Christian I think being 'religious' is far from the God I know.


I would disagree with this because of what James 1:27 says, but I would agree that often religion is used as yet another coping strategy or cultural obligation.

Original post by Lisa.Williams
You don't have to be religious to believe in a creator. All religions believe in something greater than themselves which created everything - the religious scriptures are the solid foundations for each religion and allow for differentiation between them; i'm a very passionate atheist but i feel like we cannot say for certain what the origins of the universe are (i don't believe in the big bang or Genesis). Personally, i'm very anti-religion and believe that it is very dangerous, however, i also strongly believe that being religious isn't just having faith but is more centralised around the idea of abiding your life by a piece of scripture whether it be the Torah Scroll, Quran, Bible, etc. in order to belong/ have an identity and have hope for a greater good, e.g. an afterlife.


I agree with you that many religious people are looking for those things, but you can't deny that it's also about discerning what is true. People become convinced that their faith is true. I for one just want to find out what is true, and I think Jesus really is who he claimed to be. Just as we might have conversations in order to come to reasonable conclusions (truth), we seek to come to reasonable conclusions when we look into what Jesus taught.
Yes, absolutely. As a student who has only just finished her GCSE's, we simply learn the basics of the Big Bang. Physics was actually my favourite subject. I understand that there is evidence such as cosmic microwave background radiation and red shift, however, i simply cannot bring myself to believe that the universe started at one centralised point and then an explosion occured. I'm sure that there is much more to it than that but the basic principle still applies. Whilst i believe that many of the theories associated with this are definitely along the right lines (as we can see with the evidence), there are flaws with this hypothesis such as the idea that the universe should begin to contract yet it is still expanding.

Thank you for you for your reply. I'm sure that you will know more about this than me and i would love you to share the more detailed aspects of the Big Bang with me. Please feel free to private message me - i love talking about science (especially physics!). :smile:
Original post by anosmianAcrimony
While it's reasonable to want some further explanation as to why the universe began besides 'the Big Bang happened', disputing that the Big Bang happened at all is arguing with an extremely well-supported scientific theory. But to some extent I'm putting words in your mouth, here. Could I ask what you meant by 'I don't believe in the Big Bang'?
Is this an AMA?
That's an interesting thought. I love talking to people about their religion without the conversation becoming heated so thank you for your reply.

May i ask why you believe Jesus is who he really claimed to be? Also, whilst you say that you seek reasonable conclusions about the teachings of Jesus, are you implying that the Bible is perhaps flawed and lying in certain aspects (perhaps the 'miracles') and should therefore not be taken literally but more metaphorically? If so, the Bible clearly states which parts are parables; subheadings which do not contain the word 'parable' clearly show that it should be taken literally.

Please feel free to private message me about this discussion - i love talking about this! :smile:
Original post by Pride
I would disagree with this because of what James 1:27 says, but I would agree that often religion is used as yet another coping strategy or cultural obligation.



I agree with you that many religious people are looking for those things, but you can't deny that it's also about discerning what is true. People become convinced that their faith is true. I for one just want to find out what is true, and I think Jesus really is who he claimed to be. Just as we might have conversations in order to come to reasonable conclusions (truth), we seek to come to reasonable conclusions when we look into what Jesus taught.
Original post by Lisa.Williams
Yes, absolutely. As a student who has only just finished her GCSE's, we simply learn the basics of the Big Bang. Physics was actually my favourite subject. I understand that there is evidence such as cosmic microwave background radiation and red shift, however, i simply cannot bring myself to believe that the universe started at one centralised point and then an explosion occured. I'm sure that there is much more to it than that but the basic principle still applies. Whilst i believe that many of the theories associated with this are definitely along the right lines (as we can see with the evidence), there are flaws with this hypothesis such as the idea that the universe should begin to contract yet it is still expanding.

Thank you for you for your reply. I'm sure that you will know more about this than me and i would love you to share the more detailed aspects of the Big Bang with me. Please feel free to private message me - i love talking about science (especially physics!). :smile:


The big bang was not an explosion,thats a misconception.We observe that the universe is expanding so at some point there must have been a point at which all the galaxies were a lot closer together which is the singularity. Thats just logical.As for whether it should begin to contract that is dependent upon the amount of mass in the universe which is unknown because we do not know how much dark matter there is.

I find it hard to believe in a god because the biblical god is quite clearly a god invented for a time when this world was all there was.The planets and the stars orbited the earth which was the most important place.Now we know that's not true because we know the earth is just a speck around a star which is just one of many in a galaxy which is just one of billions.It seems quite clear from science that we are not nearly as significant as the authors of the bible would have us believe.
Have you read anything by Dr John Lennox? If so, how did you find his book(s)?
Do you still think after some things that there may be another presence (God) or that some things may happen that you think can't just be random.

i.e do you sometimes get second thoughts?
do you find cellulite off-putting ?

:holmes:

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