Ask an Atheist Anything

Ask about anything and I will do my best to give you a godless perspective on everything. May it be life in general, love, friendship, or how to handle grief, inevitability of death, or even more controversial issues like abortion, cloning, singularity.. etc.

I made this thread to advance discussions on the deepest questions of life. Is there a God or is there none? What are the moral implications of those two possibilities?

Not only is this for theists and atheists to hold a conversation or hold civilized debates, but also for fellow Theists, Atheists, Pantheists, Agnostics and Deists alike to ask questions to each other.
It is healthy to argue, and please avoid personal attacks, ad hominem of any degree, treat ideas as ideas not as people. and as what Ralph Waldo Emerson once said, and I quote "Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted."

A response or a rebuttal to any person's claim, argument or belief shouldn't start with - "I am offended", that is a non-sequitur.

I'm an Atheist, why did you make this thread?

I actually thought of making a thread related to atheism.

I'm sure you'll tell us all about it even if we don't ask.

nanox wrote: I'm sure you'll tell us all about it even if we don't ask.

UltimateAtheist

nanox wrote: I'm sure you'll tell us all about it even if we don't ask.

Your assumption is wrong, this is not an exhibition game. This is only for those who truly want to understand and have sincere questions to each other, just as I have questions and have the need to understand deeper those who hold a different view.

I would like to understand your point of view first. My understanding of definition of "Atheist" is one that believes there is no higher power being whatsoever, be a personal God or just higher power in general. How do you define your own view?

Secondly, how do you define God? Is it limited to the all-powerful personal gods in human religion, or being/s that have power beyond our understanding? On the Kardashev scale, human is very close to a type 1 civilization - mastering all the energy on their planet (we're short on controlled fusion). A type 2 (mastered their home star using Dyson Shpere or similar method), or a type 3 civilization (mastered their own Galaxy) would have technology so far advance compare to ours that they may *seem* like gods. Do those fall outside of your definition of God/s? Is it only defined by being/s that have power over the entire universe, and/or operates beyond our current understanding of laws of the universe? I find these definitions critical to clarify before starting this discussion.

Once we've defined those two terms... here are my views. I don't believe in personal gods described by any human religion. I however do not, and really logically cannot, rule out the existence of a higher being. It doesn't have to care about us or even know our existence. It could have existed before the Big Bang, or caused the Big Bang. Consider that we're so limited that there are parts of the universes that we will never be able to observe, due to the expanding speed, and that we can not even fathom what happened before or outside of the Big Bang, I don't feel I have enough evidence to completely rule out a higher being. My position is humbly unknown, and it doesn't feel proper to rule out the existence of something which its existence that we cannot disprove.

Whatusername wrote: I would like to understand your point of view first. My understanding of definition of "Atheist" is one that believes there is no higher power being whatsoever, be a personal God or just higher power in general. How do you define your own view?

Secondly, how do you define God? Is it limited to the all-powerful personal gods in human religion, or being/s that have power beyond our understanding? On the Kardashev scale, human is very close to a type 1 civilization - mastering all the energy on their planet (we're short on controlled fusion). A type 2 (mastered their home star using Dyson Shpere or similar method), or a type 3 civilian (mastered their own Galaxy) would have technology so far advance compare to ours that they may *seem* like gods. Do those fall outside of your definition of God/s? Is it only defined by being/s that have power over the entire universe, and/or operates beyond our current understanding of laws of the universe? I find these definitions critical to clarify before starting this discussion.

Once we've defined those two terms... here are my views. I don't believe in personal gods described by any human religion. I however do not, and really logically cannot, rule out the existence of a higher being. It doesn't have to care about us or even know our existence. It could have existed before the Big Bang, or caused the Big Bang. Consider that we're so limited that there are parts of the universes that we will never be able to observe, due to the expanding speed, and that we can not even fathom what happens before or outside of the Big Bang, I don't feel I have enough evidence to completely rule out a higher being. My position is humbly unknown, and it doesn't feel proper to rule out the existence of something which its existence that we cannot disprove.

Your point of view is very Carl Sagan-esque. I admire your approach and find myself in the same position most days. Although, I declare Christianity, I find myself wondering. My view of the religion seems different in my head. It is not that I believe in God. I believe there is a higher power of some kind and it may or may not go by many names. The gods of every religion is also the same in my opinion with varying interpretations of the sort. Whether that higher being chooses to listen or interfere in the daily lives is above me considering that I have yet to see or speak with them but there is something about the "interconnectedness" of the universe. The whole being comprised of the same matter bit mentally makes it hard for the separation in my opinion.

I understand that this thread is for Ask an Atheist but I just found your post in particular interesting and felt compelled to write

I've said it before and I will say it again now:

Atheism requires the same faith in one's own certainty about the universe that theism does. Neither knows, yet both claim to know what is unknowable.

"A wise man knows that he knows nothing. The fool thinks he knows all."

Whatusername wrote: I would like to understand your point of view first. My understanding of definition of "Atheist" is one that believes there is no higher power being whatsoever, be a personal God or just higher power in general. How do you define your own view?

Atheism is basically unbelief to a supreme being for the reason that there is no valid evidence or persuasive argument on its side. Nobody can disprove the existence of a God, just as nobody can disprove the existence of unicorns, fairies and leprechaun and etc, the evidence for their existence is equally poor as the evidence for a God. And what is asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence. My position is, I do not know, and nobody knows either, and that it is highly unlikely than otherwise. Also, if pushed, I am more likely to side with the deists, who believe that a supreme being created this universe, created the world and then left, not wanting to take any part of it right after. However, it is even much a greater leap to believe that such being is concerned with human affairs, answers prayers, and had himself sacrificed in the stoniest part of the middle east without oil.

Whatusername wrote: Secondly, how do you define God? Is it limited to the all-powerful personal gods in human religion, or being/s that have power beyond our understanding? On the Kardashev scale, human is very close to a type 1 civilization - mastering all the energy on their planet (we're short on controlled fusion). A type 2 (mastered their home star using Dyson Shpere or similar method), or a type 3 civilian (mastered their own Galaxy) would have technology so far advance compare to ours that they may *seem* like gods. Do those fall outside of your definition of God/s? Is it only defined by being/s that have power over the entire universe, and/or operates beyond our current understanding of laws of the universe? I find these definitions critical to clarify before starting this discussion.

This is a difficult question to answer, even since I was young, I didn't have the urge or the feeling of acknowledgement of a higher power. I cannot resonate with it since a personal god, who answers prayers, who creates a plague to weed out the evil-doers, strengthen the resolve of those who have faith in him, not only there is no evidence to support it but also because it is highly immoral. The deist belief I can say, is benign, but the problem is, if you account the creation of the universe to a god, then you will find yourself in a viscous circle: god A was created by God B, god B is created by God C and so on. I think it is much more reasonable to just assume that nature has always been here, it didn't need a creator just as theists believe that god itself didn't need to be created, just as my counterparts claim that God is eternal, then it is safe for me to claim that Nature is eternal and the laws that bind it.

Believing that something cannot come from nothing, thus a need for a creator who himself, or itself doesn't need a creator is asinine. When you take the point that the laws of nature have always been here, as rudimentary as they are, there is no mystery anymore, though where those laws come from is still a big question, but it answers more questions than it confuses. When you assume that nature is eternal, and the laws that go with it, it is compatible with the fact and history of our lowly origins, how we evolved from less complicated lifeforms to a complicated one as we are. Just as if I take a man from the 15th century, and bring him to this day and age, he would fall on his knees worshiping an Iphone, or a car, or a simple television set, he might as well call it gods, and supernatural and can only be the work of a supreme being. But it isn't. And should we travel 500 years into the future, the physics, the biology, the technology would exceed so far of what we have now, that we cannot even begin to comprehend it and we might fall to the trap of calling it as supernatural also, but they are not. They are simply the EVOLVED Natural, just as what we have now.

Whatusername wrote: Once we've defined those two terms... here are my views. I don't believe in personal gods described by any human religion. I however do not, and really logically cannot, rule out the existence of a higher being. It doesn't have to care about us or even know our existence. It could have existed before the Big Bang, or caused the Big Bang. Consider that we're so limited that there are parts of the universes that we will never be able to observe, due to the expanding speed, and that we can
not even fathom what happens before or outside of the Big Bang, I don't feel I have enough evidence to completely rule out a higher being. My position is humbly unknown, and it doesn't feel proper to rule out the existence of something which its existence that we cannot disprove.

I very much agree to most of what you believe. My position too is that I do not know, nobody knows, and if someone claims that he or she knows, then in order to persuade me would be through the principles of logic and reason, other than that, I just cannot. I do not rule out the existence of a god though, just as I do not rule out the existence of a unicorn or Cthulhu Mythos, but it doesn't deserve my time to think about it, unless someone can provide a convincing argument for its existence or a falsifiable evidence.