Some people claim not to be atheists because they believe in the supernatural maybe?
I put an atheist into crisis because he didn't even believe in the paranormal and he said there was no way or only one in a gazillion chances everything odd he noticed while around me. He remembered the strangest things. I never thought anyone would remember me saying something like I wish it would rain today. He said a clear blue sky suddenly had a thunderstorm overhead within 2 hours. It was all just a coincidence. Although I did think it was amusing when a meteorologist once announced out of Raleigh, no rain in the entire state except in the town I lived in. Someone told me I was the luckiest person he ever saw. Burned him up playing games because I won several times just using luck.
I like some of the atheists. I don't have to worry about them believing anything I say.
We really live in a holographic universe and there is an AI in charge that is like God. We are all like sims. I'm hoping the AI gives me reset abilities so someone can have super powers.
Walking on water, etc, are all possible if you have an inside link to the all powerful AI.
Just think what I could do in strip clubs. Small boobs? instant enlargement. too fat, instant fat loss. Maybe I'm a bit of a troublemaker. I'd put all health care workers out of work and make paying for health care insurance pointless, no one would need it. I'd set back research on diseases and prosthetics for decades because all funding would get dropped. who would need it with instant regeneration?
I think a lot of people believe in god but do not practice.
I think a lot of people are atheist but do not publicly cast their views.
I tell you one thing, I live in a small town (some think as a suburb of a much larger city) with 50,000 people and around a 5% minority rate. I am amazed at how many more Muslims there are in my town in just the past 5 years.
Short answer: I was an Atheist until I was about 20. That's when I started learning about cosmology and quantum mechanics, and I learned about Heisenberg's uncertainty principle which leads to many interesting paths, but the one that's relevant here is that because of quantum uncertainty, you can never have zero energy. Virtual particles flit in and out of existence, so while the overall energy of space averages zero, it actually is the sum of + and - energy.
This led me to think, "Why isn't the universe nothing? Why is it something?" The reason is because the universe doesn't allow for "nothing". Why not? Well...that's my Creator Deity, which requires the universe to be "something".
I also have a personal deity, which is something we all have. Call it 'conscience' or the fact sentient beings tend to be 'good' as opposed to 'evil'. Yes, there are bad people, but as a whole people are compassionate and helpful.
So I've become polytheistic. IMHO, an Atheist just hasn't done enough homework into the Nature Of Reality.
I think the "good" versus "evil" thing is just within a species. Hard to say that different species are compassionate and helpful to each other overall. At best they get into an equilibrium.
Even within the human species it's hard to argue against the notion the apparent good is anything other than to avoid costly "to the death" competition against fairly evenly matched members.
Also there is just the right number of psychopaths which essentially are people born without the capacity for a conscience due to genetics to be in an evolutionary equilibrium due to the relative advantages and disadvantages of this "condition".
@Dougster: Too often people put human concepts on animals and are clueless, like saying a cat has a morality. But it actually does, but it's from a cat's point of view. A 'good' cat does cat behaviors that contribute to the well being of itself and its species, such as a mother cat being attentive to her kittens, or an adult cat not pissing it's owner off to the point it's thrown out of the house. Show like 'cat wisperer' have great examples of good and bad 'cat morality'.
For humans, the moral imperative is complicated because the religious institutions usually get it wrong. Being gay isn't evil, but not helping your fellow man in his hour of need is evil. I think curiosity is "good" while abiding by hard and fast rules in most circumstances is 'evil'.
I find religious institutions are far too political to really address morality in any meaningful way. We invent deities as the incarnation of 'good' but because they are human inventions, they are subject to all the flaws we are. Why does the deity in the Bible target an innocent civilian population to settle a political dispute in Exodus? Did those first born sons commit any crimes? Of course not. The true moral story here is you can't trust the deity to make moral decisions!
"Worthless" isn't strictly true. Self reported polling is useful for spotting long term trends, especially if the question wording remains constant. Self reported surveys will always have bias, but that's not the same as worthless. So yeah, like homosexual activity, self reported atheist behavior is likely under reported. But it's trending upward, and that trend is relevant. It's also higher among under 30 folks.
Many atheists have told me they keep their views quiet because of the possibility of social or political reprisals. Could an evangelical employer refuse to hire or promote an atheist because atheism offends his religious views? Does anyone want to spend money litigating that? There are already legal cases in the system about kids being kicked out of the Boy Scouts of America because they are avowed atheisits.
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There are at least 5 times the number of churches in my town than there are McDonalds, Starbucks, and Burger Kings combined.
I don't believe in anything. That includes not committing to full on atheism.
I put an atheist into crisis because he didn't even believe in the paranormal and he said there was no way or only one in a gazillion chances everything odd he noticed while around me. He remembered the strangest things. I never thought anyone would remember me saying something like I wish it would rain today. He said a clear blue sky suddenly had a thunderstorm overhead within 2 hours. It was all just a coincidence. Although I did think it was amusing when a meteorologist once announced out of Raleigh, no rain in the entire state except in the town I lived in. Someone told me I was the luckiest person he ever saw. Burned him up playing games because I won several times just using luck.
I like some of the atheists. I don't have to worry about them believing anything I say.
Walking on water, etc, are all possible if you have an inside link to the all powerful AI.
Just think what I could do in strip clubs. Small boobs? instant enlargement. too fat, instant fat loss. Maybe I'm a bit of a troublemaker. I'd put all health care workers out of work and make paying for health care insurance pointless, no one would need it. I'd set back research on diseases and prosthetics for decades because all funding would get dropped. who would need it with instant regeneration?
I think a lot of people believe in god but do not practice.
I think a lot of people are atheist but do not publicly cast their views.
I tell you one thing, I live in a small town (some think as a suburb of a much larger city) with 50,000 people and around a 5% minority rate. I am amazed at how many more Muslims there are in my town in just the past 5 years.
This led me to think, "Why isn't the universe nothing? Why is it something?" The reason is because the universe doesn't allow for "nothing". Why not? Well...that's my Creator Deity, which requires the universe to be "something".
I also have a personal deity, which is something we all have. Call it 'conscience' or the fact sentient beings tend to be 'good' as opposed to 'evil'. Yes, there are bad people, but as a whole people are compassionate and helpful.
So I've become polytheistic. IMHO, an Atheist just hasn't done enough homework into the Nature Of Reality.
Even within the human species it's hard to argue against the notion the apparent good is anything other than to avoid costly "to the death" competition against fairly evenly matched members.
Also there is just the right number of psychopaths which essentially are people born without the capacity for a conscience due to genetics to be in an evolutionary equilibrium due to the relative advantages and disadvantages of this "condition".
Two recommendations: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
Statisticians Blues by Todd Snider
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUK6zjtUj00
For humans, the moral imperative is complicated because the religious institutions usually get it wrong. Being gay isn't evil, but not helping your fellow man in his hour of need is evil. I think curiosity is "good" while abiding by hard and fast rules in most circumstances is 'evil'.
I find religious institutions are far too political to really address morality in any meaningful way. We invent deities as the incarnation of 'good' but because they are human inventions, they are subject to all the flaws we are. Why does the deity in the Bible target an innocent civilian population to settle a political dispute in Exodus? Did those first born sons commit any crimes? Of course not. The true moral story here is you can't trust the deity to make moral decisions!
It's as useful as anecdotal evidence, or starting political and religious discussions in chat boards devoted to other subjects, like strip clubs.
So, you're telling me those self reported penis size surveys are not accurate. The average is NOT 8.75 inches. Shocking.