Why Do Atheists Feel The Need To Let Everyone Know That They Don't Worship God?

[goodlife]

All people are inclined to worship someone or something, even if it is one’s own self.

[andy-hughes]

goodlife - I don't tend to 'consider my life' - that miserable state of affairs is one to which Christians are condemned as they constantly fail to match up to the impossible standards of their God.

I just get on with living and being very happy - you should try it!

[RATTER15]

Goodlife, //You think mankind learn from the past, or are history’s lessons all wasted time on us?//

Man certainly learned from the past and man is still learning, that is why Atheism is on the increase as man learns that the "God" notion is nothing more than a fairy story. History was never wasted on me, it taught me a lot about evolution and that God is just a fanciful fairy story.

It is you that leeds to learn a few lessons Goodlife! you are living in cuckoo land.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Pascal's wager is weak because it a) implies that should God exist, he is unable to tell who is faking belief b) because it says nothing about which deity might exist - if you were going to use Pascal's wager as a basis for believing, the logical thing to do is examine all deities and discover which has the worst penalty for non belief and worship that one and c) it does nothing to prove the existence of any deities in the first place.

[LazyGun]

@ Ed - I think Waldo has probably answered your question about the fundamental weaknesses of Pascals Wager.

[jomifl]

As a follow up to the replies of Waldo and LG, it is worth pointing out that Pascal did not address the question of 'which god?' and 'via which religion?'. Once the idea is extended to cover all eventualities it becomes submerged in a morass of qualifying clauses and becomes patently absurd.I can't help thinking that Pascal's wager was a 'throwaway' designed to demonstrate the silliness of some philosophy... but no-one noticed.

[goodlife]

//goodlife - I don't tend to 'consider my life' - that miserable state of affairs is one to which Christians are condemned as they constantly fail to match up to the impossible standards of their God//

True I don’t, but mere existence, therefore, is not life in the full sense. A person lives, says psychotherapist, as long as he experiences his life as having meaning and value, and as long as he has something to live for.” But what meaning or significance does this world attach to life, when the vast majority of its teachers believe life to be, not a gift from God, but an accident of nature? Their theories plainly do not reverence life. Ideas such as the theory of evolution degrade human life by teaching that man is an animal,
A product of evolution. They degrade man by disclaiming the dignity that is his as a creation of God. These concepts have led many to treat life as something cheap.

[andy-hughes]

"They degrade man by disclaiming the dignity that is his as a creation of God. These concepts have led many to treat life as something cheap."

What - like the Crusaders? That sort of 'cheap'?

I know you believe in God, but some of the conclusions you reach via your faith stretch credulity beyond breaking point.

[chaptazbru]

"Why do atheists feel the need to let everyone know that they don't worship God? errrrrr I don't !!

[andy-hughes]

chaptazbru - no-one does, we just humour goodlife - those of us yet to lose the will to live on one of his threads!

[goodlife]

Simple you can see, the crusaders of about a thousand years ago also missed the point of living, because more than simply professing allegiance to Jesus Christ, It means living in complete harmony with the teachings of Jesus as found in God’s inspired Word, the Bible. (Matthew 7:21-23)

[chaptazbru]

Lol andy. I must admit I very rarely read these threads. Just though it was a daft question.

[mibn2cweus]

To worship a god is to sacrifice ones knowledge and reason on the alter of ones own ignorance and fear of that which only knowledge and reason can dismiss.

Belief is not an inroad to a knowledge of what one should believe but rather marks the end of ones pursuit of that knowledge with the refusal to question "why?"

[andy-hughes]

"Simple you can see, the crusaders of about a thousand years ago also missed the point of living, because more than simply professing allegiance to Jesus Christ, It means living in complete harmony with the teachings of Jesus as found in God’s inspired Word, the Bible. (Matthew 7:21-23)"

It appears that you can dismiss the travel of thousands of miles, and the deprivation, starvation, illness and death suffered by this group in the name of your God, when they cut a bloody swathe through thousaands of 'infidels' - all done in the name of God - because they failed to receive the message correctly.

Life is really simple in your world goodlife - anyone who doesn't see your faith as you do is simply missing the point.

[LazyGun]

@Goodlife - Yet more unattributed cut and paste, once again. More intellectual dishonesty from you, as we have all come to expect.

Your cut and paste author scripted this drivel
"But what meaning or significance does this world attach to life, when the vast majority of its teachers believe life to be, not a gift from God, but an accident of nature? Their theories plainly do not reverence life. Ideas such as the theory of evolution degrade human life by teaching that man is an animal, a product of evolution. They degrade man by disclaiming the dignity that is his as a creation of God. "

First, explain how being a creation of God imparts dignity to man, when according to you and your acolytes he created everything anyway?

Understanding how life evolves, what branching pathways it took, the interconnectedness and the relationship of, well everything living really- does not in the slightest degrade man except in the warped worldview of the fanatical few.

Quite the opposite, in fact. It teaches a greater reverence for life, a greater appreciation for the marvel that is life, and how everything all comes together.

And you and yours persist in ascribing a meaning to life that comes from some sort of divine creator - But once again - you have no evidence for a creator god, despite thousands of years of worship and "study". So the meaning of life becomes what we make it - as individuals, as parents, as brothers, sisters, wives and husbands. As contributors to our human society - as caretakers of the world around us, and in following those things that motivate us to work, study and play.

Thats life - nothing more, nothing less. No divine imperative, no master plan. No false "dignity" accorded our species because we are supposedly special in gods eyes.

The sooner you grasp this fact, the happier we all shall be.

[WaldoMcFroog]

"True I don’t, but mere existence, therefore, is not life in the full sense. A person lives, says psychotherapist, as long as he experiences his life as having meaning and value, and as long as he has something to live for.”

Meaning and value are determined by the individual.

"But what meaning or significance does this world attach to life, when the vast majority of its teachers believe life to be, not a gift from God, but an accident of nature?"

What significance can you place on life believing that you are plaything of an insecure deity that requires constant reassurance that He's great?

"Their theories plainly do not reverence life."

I think you mean 'revere'. In any case, you make a category error in assuming that the theory of evolution expresses a value judgement as to what it is describing. That is not the purpose of scientific theories (indeed Dawkins, for one, has been careful to express his view that a human society based on so-called Darwinian values would be one to be avoided at all costs).

"Ideas such as the theory of evolution degrade human life by teaching that man is an animal, a product of evolution.

Man *is* an animal. This is established beyond any serious doubt.

"They degrade man by disclaiming the dignity that is his as a creation of God."

The toy of a petulant and apprehensive deity?

"These concepts have led many to treat life as something cheap."

As opposed to the great value put on human life as evidenced by those Hitler exploited by stirring up the hundreds of years of antisemitism inculcated in European Christians, particularly Germans, by Martin Luther, I suppose?

Or on the lives of Palestinians in Gaza by many Israel? Or the lives of Israelis by many in Gaza? Or the Sri Lankan Buddhists now intent on destroying Islam following the Muslims' defeat in the civil war? Or the genocides of Muslims in the former Yugoslavia by Christians?

Need I go on? I can, if you think it necessary, but I hope the point is clear.

[birdie1971]

WaldoMcFroog - “... Need I go on? I can, if you think it necessary, but I hope the point is clear...”

The point will never, ever, be clear to Goodlife. His grasp of logic and rationality is tenuous to say the least.

His original 'question' is a case in point. In his illogical mind, he thinks that atheists (in the course of their everyday lives) ram their non-belief down the throats of believers when it's patently obvious to anyone with eyes and ears that this is simply not the case.

[modeller]

I've never known an Atheist open a conversation with the words of
" I am an Atheist " but I've known many Christians who let you know their belief within the first sentance.

I've neither worshipped anyone nor anything. ! Even respect it is of short duration once I got to know them. However I can respect the work or actions of others separate to the person themselves.

[goodlife]

///I've never known an Atheist open a conversation with the words of
" I am an Atheist//

Well there 700 a day comeing to be a JW, some were atheist

[LazyGun]

@ Evidence - 700 atheists a day converting to JW?! 250,000 atheists converting to JW a year? Are you out of your mind?

Evidence to support such a preposterous suggestion.

This probably is up there in the all-time top 10 gems of nonsense from you goodlife. So the question is- is it just you lying for jebus as usual? Or is it an error? Decimal point in the wrong place perhaps?

[goodlife]

LG@ Can you not read? I said, "some" were atheists, not all 700!
If you want to check it out, next time a JW calls on you, ask him how many were atheists in his congregation.