As an atheist, do you find an inner resource of strength?

[zeromiles]

I am conducting a survey for an essay I am writing about the existence or non existence of personal/ situational ethics in the lives of Atheists. Please answer the following question with only yes or no,  please.
1. As an atheist, do you find an inner resource of strength and discernment? Yes or no.
2. Where does this inner strength come from? Is it a personal/rational resource? Yes or no.
3. Is it something unexplainable? Yes or no.
4. From birth to death, do ALL people have a potential chance of realizing this inner resource of strength? Yes or no.


Thank you for taking my survey.

[Ninja Donkey]

yes
yes
no
no

[MommaSquid]

1. yes
2. Strength comes from experience and rationality.
3. no
4. no

[Tom62]

yes
yes
no
no

[tigerlily46514]

#1--YES.

#2-- YES, and ditto to Momma Squid's answer.  My own inner convictions, and the peace of mind that following them gives me, give me strength.

 My 'internal compass' is very powerful and based largely on things i have been through, learned from interacting and watching others go through their lives, read, etc = experience.  Compassion, logic, understanding, reason and kindness form the basis of my own personal set of ethics.
 
#3--NO

#4---sadly, no....

EDIT--
ah, you've changed the questIon AFTER we answered!!   Looking over the relatives and coworkers i have, even some of my social gang, i think i will still stick with "no" for question #4.....POTENTIAL chance....hmm.  maybe at birth!!!  but are we talking about grown ups who are already messed up???  ha ha!!

[rlrose328]

1. Yes.
2. Yes.
3. No.
4. Yes.

[SteveS]

Okay, I'm game:

Short version, as requested,

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No
4. Yes

Long version (Qualifications):
1. Yes - I consider my "inner strength and discernment" to be my consciousness.
2. Yes - Consciousness is a brain function, so this comes from my brain.
3. No - See #2.
4. Yes, but with qualification.  This is far and away the most difficult question on the survey!  I answered "yes" because I read "all people" to mean "all people with nominal brain function" because I felt that was most inline with the intent of the survey (maybe I'm incorrect).  If somebody suffers from serious mental health disease or disorder, then presumably they might not possess this ability while they are sick, although if they could be "cured" then they surely would.  I would consider some sort of "disassociative" disorder to be the kind that would affect them in this regard.  It would have to be something truly insane.  Presumably I could only answer "yes" to the first two questions because I'm not insane, so I had to assume sanity was presumed by the questions.

Good luck with your survey - perhaps you will come back and share the results with us?

[Whitney]

I am conducting a survey for an essay I am writing about the existence or non existence of personal/ situational ethics in the lives of Atheists. Please answer the following question with only yes or no,  please.
1. As an atheist, do you find an inner resource of strength and discernment? Yes or no.
2. Where does this inner strength come from? Is it a personal/rational resource? Yes or no.
3. Is it something you cannot explain? Yes or no.
4. Do all people have the ability to find an "inner resource of strength?" Yes or no.

Thank you for taking my survey.

Do we get to see your essay after completion?  If this is for an essay, why do you only want yes/no answers?  What are the result of your findings and how many people did you poll?  Did you also ask the same of theists?

Anyway, I'm going to answer your questions.  Please answer mine as well.

1. Yes
2. Personal and rational/Ratinal respectively (this really wasn't a yes no question)
3.  no
4. Yes (as long as they are mentally healthy)

[McQ]

I think I'll wait this one out. I would like an introduction first. I would like to see you answer all of laetusatheos's questions as well.

[tigerlily46514]

wow, all you people who can honestly answer "yes" to #4, you have relatives and coworkers that are way  COOLER , more evolved people than mine!!!  

i personally know people, some for decades, that certainly seem completely incapable of finding inner strength to even deal with any drama at all...  very high maintenance.....yet they are sane, but so out of touch with their own psyche !!!  so weak, so helpless -- some even develop hypochondria as a last resort coping method... :roll:

okay, sorry, we're losing the thread...back to the 4  questions...

EDIT: AS the wording on #4 is now asking about potential, i'd say maybe at birth, before so many people learn twisted habitual ineffective coping mechanisms that prevent them from ever realizing their full potential..... sane, -yes they are, but yet unable to tap into their inner selves in any meaningful way.  But maybe FROM BIRTH...... there could be potential.  But there ARE an inordinate number of "NO to #4" type people running around, ha ha!!

[zeromiles]

HI everyone. Thanks for your input. From some of your comments, I can see that my survey could be a little more concise. Anyways, it is what it is and the responses are very helpful for my work. Also, I would like to wait a bit longer before I tell you anymore about the survery, because I don't want to influence the results; however, I can understand some of your distrust. So I will let you know where I stand. I am not a Christian. I am not an Atheist either. I am a Miles. (that's my name) And through whatever circumstances unfold in life, I am interested in being what I am. Who I am is a whole can of worms that would be really fun to open after the survey is complete. Until then, I want to remain as neutral as possible so as not to screw anything up, and once it is all done, I would love to share my findings and my essay with all of you.
-miles :roll:

[zeromiles]

ALso,
I really hate to do this, but I wish I could re-word question #4. It is misleading. So I am going to edit it to the following.

From birth to death, do ALL people have a potential chance of realizing this inner resource of strength? Yes or no.

Sorry for any invonvenience. For those who may have already answered #4, feel free to reconsider.

[SteveS]

Thanks for the clarification - I'll let my answer to #4 stand.

I am not a Christian. I am not an Atheist either. I am a Miles.

Okay - and I am most definitely a "Steve".

What I'm getting at, just a comment, is that being an atheist says more about what you are not than about what you are.  I believe almost all of the atheists on this board would say that being an atheist means they do not have a belief in god.  That's all.  This is not the same as asserting that we "know" god is false - we just don't believe in god.  Opposite of theist (one who believes) would be atheist (one who does not believe).

Just wanted to clarify this as it is a somewhat misunderstood topic among non-atheists (and since you are writing something on the subject).  Forgive me if you already knew this, I'm certainly not trying to "lecture" - just want to make sure I'm being represented fairly.

Anyway - happy essaying/surveying!

tigerlily - I certainly agree there are a lot of people out there that would seem to qualify for "No to #4".  But - having the ability to do something doesn't mean you are going to be successful.  My point is that I don't think anybody truly has to rely on something outside of themselves to know themselves.  I think when they make ethical or moral decisions they are relying on internal guidance, even if they do not realize it.  This would explain why religious morals have changed during the ages, even though the scriptures themselves have not (seems to imply that they aren't really relying on the scriptures - its more as though they are a product of what Richard Dawkins calls the "Changing Moral Zeitgeist").

Eh, put me in for another 2 cents.....
 :wink:

[McQ]

HI everyone. Thanks for your input. From some of your comments, I can see that my survey could be a little more concise. Anyways, it is what it is and the responses are very helpful for my work. Also, I would like to wait a bit longer before I tell you anymore about the survery, because I don't want to influence the results; however, I can understand some of your distrust. So I will let you know where I stand. I am not a Christian. I am not an Atheist either. I am a Miles. (that's my name) And through whatever circumstances unfold in life, I am interested in being what I am. Who I am is a whole can of worms that would be really fun to open after the survey is complete. Until then, I want to remain as neutral as possible so as not to screw anything up, and once it is all done, I would love to share my findings and my essay with all of you.
-miles :roll:

Miles, I don't find that you are not being concise, but you are being vague. And you haven't yet answered the questions posed to you that would clarify anything. I'm not asking you to skew the results of your survey. I'm asking you for clarification on the purpose behind it. As well as who it is being conducted for. Is this something assigned to you, as in a class project, or some such thing? Will the results be published? What is the sample size going to be? Who will interpret the findings?

In other words, is this a meaningful, scientifically conducted survey, or something less stringent? My guess (since you are in here asking the survey questions), is that it is not the former. Knowing these things has a bearing on whether or not I answer the survey, but not on my answers themselves, so it does not skew the potential results.

[zeromiles]

Hi McQ,
I plan to contrast the answers I find on this website, with the answers I find on a Christian Website. http://foru.ms Hopefully the essay will be published, perhaps in a literary quarterly or some other periodical that publishes thought inspiring articles. In otherwords, I have no publisher yet. The sample size will be as many responses as I can gather. So far I only have 8 I think, and I'd like it to be much bigger than that. But there will be the same amount of christians as there will be Atheists. I will interpret the findings, since I am the writer. By all means, don't answer the questions if you don't want to.
-all the best.
miles