Personal Opinion on Religion (Atheist View)

[NubletInc]

I see religion as an escape from the question why, Why do bad things happen? Why are things as they are? The easiest answer is to believe you have no say in the matter, by believing in the higher powers to try to change things some could say you are hiding from the responsibility of your actions or lack of action. Waiting for something to come to you by asking an obscure identity that there is no proof exists, or does anything if it does for something rather than going out of way to make these things happen, sometimes people need something to support their existence or belief therefore the things they can't control will be still thought of as controlled. I ask if god is almighty why is there suffering, if god is all loving, why is there hate, if god accepts us for who we are why is there intolerence.

I only decided to post this to see reactions from the people on this site, if you see me as wrong say so and why, if I am wrong merely because I am, then please do not post as nothing will be gained by a view with no basis, I personally am a half hearted atheist I believe in no all powerful higher power but instead on human action, many believe that one is insignificant and can't change anything but that thought is an excuse to sit back and go with the flow rather than stand for your own reasons, and if everyone thought that one is insignificant than would that not mean that all would be insignificant as a whole as well.


Feel free to post your views as well this is a post i leave open to all views, if you wish to believe on faith alone, to each their own, personally faith aint my thing. By the way I'm a 16 year old high school (almost drop out) Who lives a good life without too many misfortunes, I'm middle class, with good friends and a loving family, My family on my fathers side is Jewish I guess (my dads mom), and my mother is agnostic.

 

[NubletInc]

Sorry if anyone has to ask I'm feeling really philosophical right now, probably because I deal with emotions in my head without sharing too many of my problems with others and I just felt like throwing myself to the wolves to see what I end up with. Oh and its 4 in the morning and I'm being kept awake by a now half-empty 2 litre of coke.

 

[Amarok]

Oh and its 4 in the morning and I'm being kept awake by a now half-empty 2 litre of coke.

In other words, 1 litre of coke

I'm atheist too but some people enjoy religion and I just let 'em get on with it.

As for the question of why God would allow suffering... well, I'll leave that one up to a religious fellow.

 

[Jovlo]

I'm agnostic, used to be atheist but changed my mind after philosophy classes.
We people tend to believe God is omnipotent, good and cares about us. The thing is, we don't know anything about him.
God isn't a person, he's not a thing, he (if you believe so) just is. If he exists we shouldn't think we and our puny minds could ever grasp what he is or what his intentions are or see how he interferes with the world (if he ever does).
He doesn't need to act as a human or care for us.

I think it's highly unlikely that there is a god, and if there is one, it's even less likely that he cares about us. Why bother?

 

[traceur_]

Humans are the only species on earth that are aware of their eventual death. I think of religion as something that began as a search for something after our deaths, for those that couldn't accept that we just die and rot in the ground. The afterlife is something to take the fear out of death, if that works for some people that's cool.

 

[Yassen]

Believe me, your opinion is shared by many people on the Escapist, most are Athiest, or perhaps the Religious members don't voice their opinions as much.

I was religious for a while, but that was only because I went into Hospital, almost died and saw some strange things. After a while as I grew older I started to realise a few things, one of them being what you said. That is, God is just an excuse to explain things we do not understand. But just because science can't explain it yet, doesn't mean we should turn to God. It just means we don't have enough evidence yet.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

I agree with every post so far. Especially OP.


EDIT: Except for this one.

Oh and its 4 in the morning and I'm being kept awake by a now half-empty 2 litre of coke.

In other words, 1 litre of coke

I'm atheist too but some people enjoy religion and I just let 'em get on with it.

As for the question of why God would allow suffering... well, I'll leave that one up to a religious fellow.

Agreeing with OP entirely, I have to say, I disagree. As someone who believes that the only way our species can advance is through, I believe that allowing people to go "fuck it, I can do whatever I want because it's god's plan for me; I'm gonna sit at home, jerk off and live off my girlfriend for the rest of my life because if god wanted me to do differently, he'd say so" for the rest of eternity can only be detrimental to humanity as a whole.

 

[The Young One]

I agree with your statement that people use religion to cast blame, sometimes wrongly.
I'm not a religious person by any stretch of the imagination, despite being baptised as a Methodist, I have never followed it up. My Mum and Nana are Catholic and my Dad is a Christian, but only my Nana is 'religious' to some extent.
I used to wonder if there was a God, why would he let there be so much suffering, wrong-doing and pain in the world, but then? I guess I grew up.
Things happen for a reason, karma, maybe who knows?
But I know that if you want things to happen, you have to be prepared to work for them, make them happen, not live of others and point the blame when something does go wrong.
I consider myself to be an atheist, though I'm not fussed by other people's religion's, it's their choice at the end of the day and who am I to judge them on that?

 

[garjian]

religion is a good mental crutch, and rather good at providing social security too... its generally a healthy option...

not that that makes it right... especially considering the wars and injustice caused by religion...


however as an atheist... its very hard to accept death, and therefore, the purpose of life...


the concept of religion is good, the power it gives individuals over others, and the fact that it is a manmade creation, has caused it to warp and corrupt... so i cant believe it... even if a religion turns out to be the truth... it would only be coisidence

all we know about afterlife is... they dont make contact with the living...



however i doubt souls exist... so how can there be an afterlife?

 

[wordsmith]

an actual agreement between myself and a Jehovah witness mate of mine:

"I won't tell you you're deluded if you don't tell me I'm going to hell."

Simple, yet effective.

 

[antipunt]

some like Nietzsche went crazy trying to find a meaning in life
a meaning..that did not exist =[
(Hence, the Gay Science being the ultimate form of denialism). Poor guy

 

[Berithil]

God allows suffering because mankind choice to disobey Him. God loves everyone and therefore He gives us a choice whether to accept Him or deny Him. I'm not going to go into a huge spiel about this, but if you want the answers to those questions, go to the first book of the Bible (Genisis). God allows bad things to happen because we have asked Him to step out of our lives and just leave us alone. Therefore, He has stepped out. Why should we tell Him to back off and then when bad things happen, ask Him to help us? (You probably figured it out, but I'm a Christian)

 

[cuddly_tomato]

I see religion as an escape from the question why, Why do bad things happen? Why are things as they are? The easiest answer is to believe you have no say in the matter, by believing in the higher powers to try to change things some could say you are hiding from the responsibility of your actions or lack of action.

Nope. Religion isn't an escape from the question, religion is one of many answers to the question. Besides, antitheists commit the same fallacy. They sit around telling themselves that it's the theists' fault that the world is messed up, so they THEMSELVES can do no wrong and don't have to be self-aware.

To say that atheists do not hide from responsibility, and that religious people do, is a gross generalization that doesn't apply in reality. A twat is a twat, regardless of religious views. And you can be an atheist twat or a religious twat.

Incidentally, there are around two or three threads per day made my atheists on this forum trying to preach atheism to the world. I get Jehovas witnesses knocking at my door maybe two or three times per year. From my experience, the most preachy, holier-than-thou, aggressive and ferverently fundamental group is this militant atheist group.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I'm of the view that if God existed and if he's all powerful, he wouldn't need to bother giving us rules, because he'd just build the rules into us so we wouldn't have the choice to ignore him.
Which would allow him to "truly love" us, because then he couldn't punish us for disobeying him, because we couldn't.

Maybe I'm thinking about it too much?

God allows suffering because mankind choice to disobey Him. God loves everyone and therefore He gives us a choice whether to accept Him or deny Him. I'm not going to go into a huge spiel about this, but if you want the answers to those questions, go to the first book of the Bible (Genisis). God allows bad things to happen because we have asked Him to step out of our lives and just leave us alone. Therefore, He has stepped out. Why should we tell Him to back off and then when bad things happen, ask Him to help us? (You probably figured it out, but I'm a Christian)

Um, didn't God give us that choice? Meaning that he doesn't love us because he chose to damn us from the beginning by giving us choice?

I'm not worshiping a jerk like that guy. Bother that noise!

 

[Nostalgia]

Another religious topic?

 

[Booze Zombie]

Another religious topic?

Wondered when someone was going to start posting that.

 

[Delicious]

A lot of people tend to become athiests because God doesn't fit into their (normally limited) understanding.

For example, some people (the OP) don't understand why God allows intolerance. Intolerance exists because it defines acceptance, and vise versa. We would not understand acceptance without the existence of it's opposite. That is our fault, not his.

The moment you realize that God doesn't have to adhere to what makes sense to you is the moment he becomes a lot easier to accept.

 

[garjian]

hm... the moment you realise god is manmade... youll realise how comforting it was to truly believe in false idols...

 

[Danzaivar]

I read the first bit and I immediately questioned it.

Your saying that we want something to blame, that it's somehow God punishing us or something of the sort. However, in my religion we believe in free will. We're where we are because of temptation and greed in the world. God didn't do it, people did it.

If you have free will, God must have given you it. For temptation and greed to exist, God must have made it. The only reason we can't appreciate something without it's opposite existing is because God would have made the Universe that way. I sometimes get the feeling people don't quite understand the full ramifications of a deity that created EVERYTHING and defined all natural/physical laws.

If you're one of the 'God isnt omnipotent' theists then fair play however.