A Quick Poll About Doubt

[afreethinker30]

Hey,
1) I doubt my disbelief in a divine force
a) never
I have in the past worried if my thinking is right.But that was 6 years ago.Honestly I could care less if I am wrong and there is a God.He/She/It has never shown the slightest interest in helping the human race.

2) I doubt my disbelief in the historicity of the Bible
a) never
I refuse to put any faith into a book that says slavery,sexism,murder,child abuse etc.. is ok.There is a passage "For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does..." 1 Corinthians 7:4 I as a woman would love to see the bible burned and banned for the hate it spreads.


3) I doubt my disbelief in an afterlife
a)never
There is no proof to support a soul or spirit.Ghost pictures float around but most are easily explained.Alot a hoax.People can be easily fooled because the want so much to believe.

4) I believe that morality is absolute
c) Sometimes I think it is, sometimes I think it isn't
Now this I'm not to sure about.I believe it depends on where you are in the world,time and many other things.

I'm at the point in my life I don't want to waste the time I have fighting and "debating" over if god was ever truly there.Just look at the natural world around you,that is mother nature not some object in the sky.But look at the people that is god not mother nature..I don't mean a sky god,I mean god as in those who created him.Men and women of course created someone in their image to love them eternal,always be the parent and keeper.

[Jolly Sapper]

1) I doubt my disbelief in a divine force

No, physics hasn't let me down yet (though it is mighty inconvenient at times).

2) I doubt my disbelief in the historicity of the Bible

No, I'm pretty sure that the King James version of the Bible contradicts itself enough to keep me firmly in this camp (not to mention that other sects of Christianity have their own "bibles" with more "canons" than the KJvB).

3) I doubt my disbelief in an afterlife

No.  It might be neat if it were true but once again, there's nothing that convinces me that there might be an afterlife that isn't selfish in nature.

4) I believe that morality is absolute

No.  I'd like it to be but reality rarely conforms to my wishes.

[Asmodean]

physics hasn't let me down yet (though it is mighty inconvenient at times).

*deep in memories of better days* oO(There was this one time I was flying in a dream. I must have been... Four..? Four to six, anyways. So I woke up convinced that the stunt could be repeated. Needless to say, the stack of crates I made was about one meter fifty. And one meter fifty was the exact distance of the flight. Cursed and thrice cursed be the theory of Gravity! It's all Newton's fault. )

[Loffler]

I'm surprised by so many fellow atheists answering "no" or "never" to these questions. Religion is born of instincts to child-like wonderment, instincts you can supplant but never really eliminate. Your rational mind may be disciplined and formal, but what's the harm in wondering from time to time? That's one of the benefits of atheism: you can take religious quandary lightly, like the academic exercise it is. Is there an afterlife? "Extremely unlikely" is different from "impossible." You don't owe it to your credentials to wipe mere curiosity from your mind. If you truly don't even doubt your own doubts, I'm baffled as to how you ever even arrived at atheism in the first place.

[Jolly Sapper]

I'm surprised by so many fellow atheists answering "no" or "never" to these questions. Religion is born of instincts to child-like wonderment, instincts you can supplant but never really eliminate. Your rational mind may be disciplined and formal, but what's the harm in wondering from time to time? That's one of the benefits of atheism: you can take religious quandary lightly, like the academic exercise it is. Is there an afterlife? "Extremely unlikely" is different from "impossible." You don't owe it to your credentials to wipe mere curiosity from your mind. If you truly don't even doubt your own doubts, I'm baffled as to how you ever even arrived at atheism in the first place.

But is my doubt based on want or actually having seen something that has changed the very core of my being?

If I'm ignorant of something being impossible is it still possible?  If there is nothing on my desk in front of me, it there not a book of stamps on my desk? or a kitten? or a pile of rotten meat?  If nothing is in front of me then the nothing can be anything.

[Asmodean]

If nothing is in front of me then the nothing can be anything.

THAT, I like.  

... ...

[willpower failure]Empty! But... But...   [/willpower]

[Loffler]

If nothing is in front of me then the nothing can be anything.

Well, that's kinda my point. Atheists are free to wonder if there's a Star-Trek-like truth to the meta-structure of the universe, if we're one card in an intricate card castle of adjoining, symbiotic universes, if we're a child-like super-being's plaything, if we're in a matrix-like computer simulation, if we're an arcade game played by the spirit world, if...

These are fun games to us. We don't have to take them seriously or wonder if we're pissing God off with our informal mental exercises. When it's time to get serious, sure, it's all about the scientific method and believing what there's proof in and withholding belief when there's not proof, etc. But look at it this way: if you were a skeptic living in a time before the discovery of the western continents, but had heard stories of their existence, would there be anything philosophical "sinful" about wondering?

[mrwynd]

I don't see the plausibility of Christianity. I mean, if I had been born somewhere else I might have grown up, lived a long life, and died without ever hearing about a singular god or his son dying for "sins".

I don't understand what I would doubt? I've read most of the bible, many parts multiple times. I would be terribly depressed if I truly thought we were living under a microscope that some great being is watching. Do Christians really believe a god is watching and analyzing everything you do? He'd have to be a sadistic voyeur.

 I would go so far as to say if the god from the bible was real, manifested himself in front of me at this very moment - I would never follow him. I would accept his existence, but to follow a god as terrible as the bible portrays is not worthy of my praise, worship, or life.

[Loffler]

Do Christians really believe a god is watching and analyzing everything you do?

Yes.

[susangail]

Death (fear of "life after death") doesn't scare me. It's the just-before-death part that does...

Seconded. Well, more or less. I am not scared by the prospect of not existing, but I do find some ways of dieing un-nerving.  

Yeah that's what I meant. Death (nothingness) itself doesn't scare me. It's how it's gonna happen (like slow and painfully) that does.

[susangail]

If nothing is in front of me then the nothing can be anything.

THAT, I like.  

... ...

[willpower failure]Empty! But... But...  roflol  
I like that too Jolly Sapper.

[Whitney]

Hey,
1) I doubt my disbelief in a divine force

none of the above

I don't think it is possible to be certain that a non-involved non-religious based creative force that we would not define as natural does not or did not exist.   I do not question my disbelief in religious notions of gods because they are all obviously  man-made.  I do not question my disbelief in an involved god because, imho, it is obvious that a no deity is interacting with our universe.

2) I doubt my disbelief in the historicity of the Bible

a) never

While some parts of it may be based on historical events/places, there is a lot of magic, contradictions, and exaggeration in there.

3) I doubt my disbelief in an afterlife

a) never

As much as certain afterlife types may be desirable, I have come across no reason to think one exists.  I will sometimes what if the idea of an afterlife, but that's just for the fun as a mind exercise.

4) I believe that morality is absolute

b) No

I think a quick study of history proves that, while some moral concepts have been largely stable over time, their interpretations and use in practice have changed drastically.  If there is something that could be an absolute moral it would be something along the lines of 'don't kill or harm those whom you depend on'.  I think morality is something which evolves with societies (in all pack based animals in various levels) and is rooted in the need to be able to get along with each other in order to survive.  I have been known to state that morality is absolutely based on humanity...but I don't say that anymore since it is an improper usage of absolute, should not be strictly associated with humanity, and tends to confuse things.

[afreethinker30]

I'm surprised by so many fellow atheists answering "no" or "never" to these questions. Religion is born of instincts to child-like wonderment, instincts you can supplant but never really eliminate. Your rational mind may be disciplined and formal, but what's the harm in wondering from time to time? That's one of the benefits of atheism: you can take religious quandary lightly, like the academic exercise it is. Is there an afterlife? "Extremely unlikely" is different from "impossible." You don't owe it to your credentials to wipe mere curiosity from your mind. If you truly don't even doubt your own doubts, I'm baffled as to how you ever even arrived at atheism in the first place.

I haven't always been athiest I was a light theist as a child.But as a child I also didn't believe much that was in the bible.I think some do doubt for a few sparing moments their atheism,but I know for me those where moments of fear.A fear that maybe everyone theist and atheist are wrong.What if there is something beyond a god that we could never understand.What if all human meaning of god is totally off.Those moments are few and far between I haven't had one for 6 years.Things are different for everyone.Can you really know if what you see is the same thing someone else sees.

[rlrose328]

Death (fear of "life after death") doesn't scare me. It's the just-before-death part that does...

Seconded. Well, more or less. I am not scared by the prospect of not existing, but I do find some ways of dieing un-nerving.  :eek2:

[rlrose328]

I'm surprised by so many fellow atheists answering "no" or "never" to these questions. Religion is born of instincts to child-like wonderment, instincts you can supplant but never really eliminate. Your rational mind may be disciplined and formal, but what's the harm in wondering from time to time? That's one of the benefits of atheism: you can take religious quandary lightly, like the academic exercise it is. Is there an afterlife? "Extremely unlikely" is different from "impossible." You don't owe it to your credentials to wipe mere curiosity from your mind. If you truly don't even doubt your own doubts, I'm baffled as to how you ever even arrived at atheism in the first place.

I've got a quote that answers this better than I ever could:

"I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I've been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say that one is an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn't have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or agnostic. I don't have the evidence to prove that God doesn't exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn't that I don't want to waste my time."
--Isaac Asimov