I believe.
Offline Theists are always asking what the atheist believes. This is what I believe. These are my words and by no means represent anyone else’s views associated with the RRS.
This I Believe
This is what I believe:
I believe there is not a god.
I believe this because I cannot believe the followers and I cannot believe what god will not do. I watch believers disobey the ‘word’ they profess as truth only to explain it away later. If the eternal ‘god’ existed and held the key to eternal life, “I am fallible” would not be sufficient excuse. If a deity existed the prayers for new cars would go unanswered and the prayers for food coming from a starving third world nation would be answered a plenty. A lack of action would not be called “His will”. These are rationalizations and not valid reasons for me to believe in god; rather it is ample reason for me to believe there is not a god.
I believe the Christian god and all current gods of religion are mythology.
Like so many ancient civilizations who have had mythology that has faded away, the same will happen to Christianity and the gods of today. Theism of today will pale and evaporate through time. The gods described in the many so-called holy books, are no different than the Greek Zeus or Norse Odin. The present day gods are vengeful, hateful, and murderous just the same as the long dead gods of our ancestors. These ‘gods’ are given the attributes of man and the stories describing their actions constitute the imaginary thinking of which fiction is made. There is nothing ethereal about any god described in the ‘holy’ books; no meaningful reason to worship these stories or deities has been presented.
I believe this life is more meaningful without hope for a hereafter.
I believe we have only one life, I believe we must make the most of it. We must cherish our loved ones and be good to our fellow man. I believe these things not to appease a god; rather I know full well this is the only chance I will get to do these things. I feel that a promise of an eternal afterlife cannot convince me to be altruistic on earth; only the realization of the finite nature of life will sway my conscious mind to “do the good”.
I believe in beauty, love and joy.
Beauty to me is looking up at the cosmos on a clear night with wonder and awe or viewing Hubble deep field images. Beauty is the diversity of the plant and animal kingdom as a result of millions of years of evolution. Beauty is the power of nature, the human intellect and the propensity for life to survive and thrive. I view all of this beauty with love and joy, I am happy I have had this chance to experience life. For me to have a belief in god would diminish the joy I feel and would actually de-value life. My life is much more significant because I know I am a result of billions of years of cosmological events and millions of years evolution.
I not only lack belief in a god, I hold the position one does not exist.
I do not need to possess absolute knowledge of all things to believe there is not a god. The knowledge I have is sufficient to support this belief and I am incapable interpreting the data any other way.
And lastly,
I believe in science, reason, skepticism, thought and humor. I believe in these things because they are the true gems of humanity and with them there is no need to believe in god.
These are things I believe.
(edit - added a missed paragraph)
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Please feel free post what you believe.
I believe that everything I see around me is real. That is all that I believe.
I know that I exist. That is all that I know.
I hope that when the world comes to an end I can breathe a sigh of relief, because there will be so much to look forward to.
I believe in a thing called love
Just listen to the rhythm of my heart.
Ok, I'll give it a shot.
I believe that I can never know as much as I'd like to, though I'll spend this lifetime trying. I believe that education is the key to happiness and to accept everything around you without questioning it is a waste of a lifetime.
I believe that the more I learn about other peoples, societies and cultures, the more I learn about myself and my own society. It is because of this I can see how irrational and unreasonable prejudice and racism is in all its forms.
I believe that the only person who I need to prove my self worth and integrity to is myself. I cannot and will not follow those around me because it is what society deems 'right' or 'moral'.
I believe in providing for yourself and not leeching off of others or society as a whole. If you fall, or you fail, brush yourself off and get back. I have very little patience for those who complain about their situation but do nothing to change it. We are responsible for our every action. Each reward we earn belongs soley to us and each failure or consequence lies directly on our own shoulders.
(Might as well throw it in) I believe that there is no god. Man wrote the bible and likened that terrible god after their own images. I believe that religion must be stopped before it fully penetrates our government. It is time for religion to be criticized and questioned.
If god takes life he's an indian giver
The Darkness can swallow my testicles.
I love these two points and wish I had the insight to include them in my original post.
Thanks Jane for saying some of the things I wish I had.
So many thoughtful answers that I am afraid mine will pale in comparison, but here goes:
I believe that I am part of something greater than myself and that thing is called humanity; not god. I believe that it is our responsibility and privilege to care for ourselves, each other, all living things, this planet and the universe. When I realize how I came to be here at this moment, I am astounded and humbled. I am nothing more than a bumbling human trying to make her way through life and I believe that without my friends and family I could not survive and would not want to.
I believe that the human mind is capable of amazing feats of strength, compassion and intelligence and brought together, the force of that is greater than any weapon that could ever be designed. I believe that we are born without prejudice and we should stay that way. I believe we are born without a belief in any god and we should stay that way too.
I believe that a child’s curiosity should NEVER be stifled but celebrated and guided so that they may continue the journey toward understanding. All too often, religion stifles this curiosity and encourages a lack of responsibility for actions. Parents are terrified to question and teach their children not to question. Teach our children (yours, your nieces/nephews, and neighborhood children) to ASK questions. Go ahead and show them that we don’t have all the answers and that it is okay. Have the courage to be wrong and admit it!
I believe that I have seen no evidence of a deity that could enhance my life or bring me better understanding of my world and therefore I believe there is no god.
And lastly, I really do believe in the power of cake.
I believe there is an inherant goodness in most people that comes from within themselves, not from a list of rules supposedly written by an invisible friend.
I believe the power of French Fries trumps the power of cake.
Atheist Books, purchases on Amazon support the Rational Response Squad server.
I believe you may be right! LOL
(expanding on a point in the original topic)
I believe the understanding of how significant our lives are is one of the most important things we can learn.
To understand the scope of events that had to occur to lead to your birth is awe inspiring.
A little more than 14 billion years of cosmological events produced this galaxy, this solar system and this planet we live on. To begin everything as we know it matter, energy and space expanded outward in all directions eventually cooling enough 'clump up'. Stars were born and died creating the heavier elements, nebula compressed and coalesced to form new stars and the process repeated itself until our solar system, our sun and our planet were born.
Approximately 3 - 4 billion years of life on this planet followed the natural processes of birth and death, evolving and adapting along the way. Multitudes of species evolved and later became extinct making room for others to thrive. Natural selection and speciation changed the variation of life on this planet, weaving an intricate pattern through time. Eventually came the primates, then after many generations and a long struggle for survival the humans gained a foothold. A long line of homo sapiens mated, our long dead ancestors decisions and survival led to the eventual birth of our grandparents, they met and produced our parents who met and gave us life.
All of ancient history in a cosmological sense and a biological sense led to our birth and I believe this to be most significant.
I believe I am special, not because of a god, but because of the intricate weave of history.
I believe that how we treat others directly has more of an affect than in all prayers ever said. To be a good father, husband, and person in general requires kindness, compassion, and honesty.
I believe that by rolemodeling the above traits to my children and others, I can help make the world a better place and my children better people.
I believe that it is better to spare the rod to keep my childrens trust and that there are other, equally or mor effective ways to discipline my kids than hitting them.
I believe that I am a flawed, feeling human being who is good at heart. I believe the same for the vast majority of humans.
I believe that I am insignificant in relation to the universe. But that's okay because in the eyes of my children I am anything but.
I believe that there is no such thing as immortality. To seek it is selfish folly and blinds people to the truly important.
I believe that this is the only life I have to live and it is better to make the most out of this one than to wait for the promise of a new and improved one after I have died.