What comes naturally?

[Gawen]

Then that would be the main difference between us (other than the belief in god) in that i take full credit for personal achievements (and blunders) whereas, you cannot.
In my opinion, that equates to an enslaved mind.

A slave to Christ, most certainly, im eternally indebted. I could take credit for my achievements, but it would lift me to the status of a God, clearly i am not, so it seems pointless. An enslaved mind, if only it was that simple.

And who is the mindless drone?

[Tank]

So, some people are atheist right?

True.

Now, does it feel natural to believe in no God?

No idea, never believed. You tell me.

Do you feel at peace when you go to sleep at night?

Of course not. I'm doing the third year of a degree I computing and I have assignments to worry about  lol [/quote]
I know the feeling, I frequent a Christian forum just to see how the other half lives and it's so boring I want to rip my eyes at times.

do try and be honest, otherwise it defeats the purpose of the exercise.

That comment was rude and unnecessary but reveals a great deal about your prejudices about people not in your own in-group.

Welcome aboard.

Regards
Chris

[Kylyssa]

So, some people are atheist right?

Yes.  Do you know what that means?

Now, does it feel natural to believe in no God?

Yes.  I was born that way.  Do you actually believe you were born believing in Jesus?  So, seriously, a baby born in the depths of Africa, in a tiny tribal village already believes in Jesus Christ before anyone ever tells him about that particular God?

Do you feel at peace when you go to sleep at night?

I can be sure you'll twist this but no, and I have it on good authority that Christians who have had similar experiences to mine do not feel at peace, either.  In my experience with devout Christian trauma victims, they tend to hold on to the harmful idea that they are responsible for what happened to them longer than those less devout.  I think it stems from the idea that God has a plan for them which, for some reason, includes getting raped, tortured and forced to live in a damaged or even mutilated body.  

Do you feel like your living a fulfilled life?

Since my illness I've had a hard time finding fulfillment.  I was used to working 60 hour weeks and making people happy.  I also volunteered with local charities including Habitat for Humanity.  Now, I'm helping homeless people by donating my services as a writer.  Just last week, a young New York woman was taken in by a nice young couple inspired by something I wrote. About twenty thousand people read my pages on homelessness last week and many of them clicked through to sites accepting donations to help homeless people.  Still others have written to me about their plans to help those living in deep poverty both directly and indirectly.  I get at least one of these emails per week telling me how I've inspired someone to help homeless people.  So, yeah, I'm feeling fulfilled.  

I understand your sales point - if you have Jesus, you don't need to do anything to feel fulfilled.  It really holds no appeal for me.  I'd rather work for my fulfillment.
 

I got bored so i came here to talk with some atheists  

do try and be honest, otherwise it defeats the purpose of the exercise.

I can't tell if you are being condescending or bigoted here.  So, which is it?

[Davin]

So, some people are atheist right?

Some people are atheists, yes.

Now, does it feel natural to believe in no God?

I don't believe in no god, I just don't believe in a god. The distinction is important because the former is a positive claim and the latter is not.

Do you feel at peace when you go to sleep at night?

I'm not sure what this means, I'm an insomniac so two to fours of sleep is all I've ever gotten for as long as I can remember. Also, I'm a very calm person, I tend to feel at peace 99% of the time. If you're asking if I'm comfortable with not believing in a god then yes. I'm very comfortable only believing in that which I understand and has enough reasonable evidence to support it.

Do you feel like your living a fulfilled life?

Yes, very much so. I think only making decisions on what one can be sure is real will help any one to be sure that they're living a good life.

Do you feel like your on the right path in life?

If I didn't feel like I was on the right path, then I would see if it were true and if it was true, then I would determine what the right path is and go down that path.

I got bored so i came here to talk with some atheists

That's great, a bunch of theists often stop by to talk for a bit.

do try and be honest, otherwise it defeats the purpose of the exercise.

What is the purpose of this exercise?

[Davin]

ill make sure to be more clear, when i say nothing, i mean in the way of God. The very reason for my questioning is i do not know wether or not you have a "hole" inside you.

Here's the problem I have: when I was young and believed in god and Jesus and all that stuff, I had a huge hole. I filled that hole with logic and evidence, and buried all my beliefs because they're effectively useless. Reality doesn't care what you believe in, it doesn't care about anything, it just is. By masking reality behind the veil of superstitious beliefs only somewhat refined from bronze aged desert nomads, I only distanced myself from what I wanted; as accurate a representation of reality as possible. You don't get to understanding reality by guessing with feelings and faith.

[...]This belief in God gives me my very life! Before it, my life was a constant search for pleasure and purpose. Things changed when i decided to search for God and find out for myself if He existed![...]

This finding out he existed, how did you do that? Where did you find god? Can you provide reasonable evidence with an argument that this god does exist?

[trexshinigami]

Ive never felt this real and awake than in the past ~2 years since i stopped believing in god.  I guess its natural to question and seek answers, but i also know that nobody alive really knows those answers, so it doesnt keep me up at night

i stopped believing in god because i sat down and really thought about the world and what I have experienced and if there was a god how he should be and act  (it doesnt involve mass killings of infants and allowing people to die and kill in my name for a start).  Its pretty embarrassing for me to say i blindly believed what i was taught and never really thought about it truthfully.

I get very bitter at my parents for teaching me christian dogma when i was young and im still trying to unlearn all that and to adjust to a life without that fear of the psychotic sociopath above my head watching my every move.

So because of all those years of being taught about god, there is going be an adjustment period where i have to unlearn all that bs.  Otherwise I feel amazing, I already know the difference between right and wrong and i accept people and love them so effortlessly now.  God and religion definitely did not teach me that.

[DropLogic]

dionyisou's post reeks of condescension.  I'm surprised how many people actually entertained his questions.  

If you are genuinely curious about how we live with ourselves, then you've come to the right place for the answers.  If you came here to be a close minded bigot, there are at least a dozen people here who can and will politely demolish any argument you might have to justify your preconceptions of Atheism.

Love,
Matt

[Tank]

Ive never felt this real and awake than in the past ~2 years since i stopped believing in god.  I guess its natural to question and seek answers, but i also know that nobody alive really knows those answers, so it doesnt keep me up at night

i stopped believing in god because i sat down and really thought about the world and what I have experienced and if there was a god how he should be and act  (it doesnt involve mass killings of infants and allowing people to die and kill in my name for a start).  Its pretty embarrassing for me to say i blindly believed what i was taught and never really thought about it truthfully.

I get very bitter at my parents for teaching me christian dogma when i was young and im still trying to unlearn all that and to adjust to a life without that fear of the psychotic sociopath above my head watching my every move.

So because of all those years of being taught about god, there is going be an adjustment period where i have to unlearn all that bs.  Otherwise I feel amazing, I already know the difference between right and wrong and i accept people and love them so effortlessly now.  God and religion definitely did not teach me that.

Don't fret over believing your parents, you had no choice. Now I don't mean that you believed them because they all said the same thing or because you were only exposed to one idea (although that would have helped). Ever since our ancestors have been able to hold abstract ideas and pass them on as language children have done (and believed) what their parents have told them. You are evolved to believe your parents as authority figures. Why do I think this is so? Well take two kids, one that automatically obeys what they are told and one that does not, each is told 'Don't touch that!'. One touches the snake and one does not. Which one gets to reproduce and pass on their behaviour? Exactly, the one that obeys automatically. We are also a hierarchical social species where reproductive power has shaped how tribalism and authority are mediated. In this case failure to be obedient to authority results in subtle, or not too subtle, peer pressure to conform to authority. Hence a monarchy is a 'natural' societal organisation. As all societies have been pervaded with superstition I would contend that humans would endow their supernatural world with a mirror image of their social reality and bingo! You get God.  

Religion is simply institutionalised superstition science is institutionalised curiosity and law is institutionalised socially acceptable behaviours. Each of these, Religion, Science and the Law are continually refined, they evolve, they are each subjected to appropriate selection pressures. If you see the world in the context of our ancestors trying to make sense of the unknown, the known and each other then for me humanity make sense. With this understanding we do have a chance of making things better for us and our descendants.

[dionysiou]

My intentions are as i stated, to try and see wether or not people fell as if they have something missing in their life. Why are some of you so easily miffed by me? You should drop any pre-conceptions, im not here to convince you. I asked for honesty because without it, this exercise is pointless. Dont read into it so much, its as i say it is.

So far, some great responses, goodstuff.

[McQ]

My intentions are as i stated, to try and see wether or not people fell as if they have something missing in their life. Why are some of you so easily miffed by me? You should drop any pre-conceptions, im not here to convince you. I asked for honesty because without it, this exercise is pointless. Dont read into it so much, its as i say it is.

So far, some great responses, goodstuff.

Not miffed, but wondering why your boredom should make us want to engage in discussion with you. Pointless is someone coming into a forum just to engage in an "exercise" for their own entertainment, and not for legitimate discussion. Read the forum rules, please. Also, try first to understand, then to be understood. You'll get farther.

[Persimmon Hamster]

This belief in God gives me my very life! Before it, my life was a constant search for pleasure and purpose. Things changed when i decided to search for God and find out for myself if He existed!

I'd like to hear more about this (see emphasis).

First, I'm interested in your definition of pleasure and purpose.

Second, you kind of make a constant search for them sound like a bad thing.  What I'm wondering is, isn't that what we are technically all doing, our entire lives?  Whether we are religious or not?

Third, you seem to imply that now that you found God, your search for both has ceased.  Is that a correct interpretation of your statement?  If so, is that really true?  Can you state an absolute purpose you've found, and quantify/qualify the pleasure you've found or explain why you no longer seek it?  I'm expecting you might say that God gives you "pleasure" in some way (joy, fulfillment, etc)...but don't you still have to actively, constantly seek that pleasure as part of a lifelong effort to follow/understand God's Will and accept/enact His Plan?  I'm also expecting you'll say the latter is your purpose...but aren't you still constantly seeking it?  To understand your part in it, and what you should do next, even if the form that seeking takes on is regularly engaging in a dialog with God and looking for His influence in the world?

Basically it seems like you are implying that your search for pleasure and purpose is over, and also that that makes your path somehow preferable to the path of an atheist, for whom you appear (?) to believe the search endlessly continues.  I'm not really buying that you can make any of those claims.  Maybe you can convince me?

For the record, I think I mostly enjoy the search for pleasure and purpose.  It's sort of the definition of life, maybe.

[Thumpalumpacus]

My intentions are as i stated, to try and see wether or not people fell as if they have something missing in their life. Why are some of you so easily miffed by me? You should drop any pre-conceptions, im not here to convince you. I asked for honesty because without it, this exercise is pointless. Dont read into it so much, its as i say it is.

So far, some great responses, goodstuff.

Honestly, I have better things to do.  No, I'm not "miffed".  I just don't really care what someone else thinks of me, my sleeping habits, my beliefs, or my sense of fulfillmient, and don't really see them as being terribly important in the scheme of things.

[dionysiou]

This belief in God gives me my very life! Before it, my life was a constant search for pleasure and purpose. Things changed when i decided to search for God and find out for myself if He existed!

I'd like to hear more about this (see emphasis).

First, I'm interested in your definition of pleasure and purpose.

Second, you kind of make a constant search for them sound like a bad thing.  What I'm wondering is, isn't that what we are technically all doing, our entire lives?  Whether we are religious or not?

Third, you seem to imply that now that you found God, your search for both has ceased.  Is that a correct interpretation of your statement?  If so, is that really true?  Can you state an absolute purpose you've found, and quantify/qualify the pleasure you've found or explain why you no longer seek it?  I'm expecting you might say that God gives you "pleasure" in some way (joy, fulfillment, etc)...but don't you still have to actively, constantly seek that pleasure as part of a lifelong effort to follow/understand God's Will and accept/enact His Plan?  I'm also expecting you'll say the latter is your purpose...but aren't you still constantly seeking it?  To understand your part in it, and what you should do next, even if the form that seeking takes on is regularly engaging in a dialog with God and looking for His influence in the world?

Basically it seems like you are implying that your search for pleasure and purpose is over, and also that that makes your path somehow preferable to the path of an atheist, for whom you appear (?) to believe the search endlessly continues.  I'm not really buying that you can make any of those claims.  Maybe you can convince me?

For the record, I think I mostly enjoy the search for pleasure and purpose.  It's sort of the definition of life, maybe.

My purpose now, is whatever God wants it to be. haha im a bit of a tool i suppose. I dont seek pleasure anymore because, my pleasure is doing Gods work. Yes this requires effort from me, but nothing compared to some others. Yes i take on dialog with God, tell him whats happening and whats next? I dont know what the path of an atheist is, thats why i ask questions.

oh and thumpa if you dont care about what im saying, why bother posting?

In closing, this is not the time nor place for me to be giving testimonies. For those of you who develop a "tug" on your heart, i would recommend seeking God, thats the only way it will stop.

[hunterman317]

dionysiou, you brought up the easiest argument to refute. A better question would be: do you think something is missing in God's life?

[Asmodean]

A slave to Christ, most certainly,

Slavery is slavery, no matter who the master.

im eternally indebted.

For what exactly? You didn't ask for anything Jesus did. He did it of his own accord. Thus, he can not demand repayment and you are, per definition, not indebted in the slightest. (That assuming there even WAS a Jesus and assuming on and on and on...)

I could take credit for my achievements, but it would lift me to the status of a God

No. It would mean you know your own worth.

An enslaved mind, if only it was that simple.

It is.