Atheists Do Not Need to Have All the Answers

[cleanhippie]

I do not remember the moment when I first realized I was an atheist. It was a gradual process that unfolded over at least a couple of years and did not end in some flash of realization. However, I do remember the reactions of my family and friends:

-You're not really an atheist; you're just mad at god.

-If you're an atheist, then why is the universe here?

-Man, something really bad must have happened to you.

-So you just worship yourself, huh?

What I remember most about these statements and the hundreds of others like them I have heard since I accepted reality is their tone. They were nearly always delivered with an air of conceited certainty, as if each posed some sort of insurmountable challenge for me. But that was never the case.

It is not that I have all the answers. I didn't then, and I don't now. But I recognize that some questions do not have answers and that others have answers we just haven't found yet. I also recognize how ridiculous it is to assume that god must be the default answer for every unknown.

I used to wonder why so many Christians seemed unable to understand this. I suspect now that these Christians did not want to think because doing so might jeopardize their faith. Perhaps this explains why so many Christians seem so hostile when asking such questions. The atheist has to be wrong for them to be right.

http://www.atheistrev.com/2011/11/atheists-do-not-need-to-have-all.html

[Kurmudgeon]

1. When you assume hostility, it puts you potentially at odds with anyone.

From your surmise, it appears that atheism was foisted upon you by misapplication of faith.
Christ's Words are nothing like the examples you gave, check them out for yourself before you discard them because of the actions of others.

[cleanhippie]

2. Thank you for proving the OP's point.

Well done.

:applause:

[Iggo]

7. Got it in one.

Nice.

[Deep13]

4. *delete*

[edhopper]

13. Which words in the Bible

can I be sure are Christ's words?

[Iggo]

31. The ones in red, silly.

Jeez.

[NMMNG]

15. There you go proving the OP's point

From your surmise, it appears that atheism was foisted upon you by misapplication of faith.

AKA

-Man, something really bad must have happened to you.

AKA

You never were a True Christian to begin with!


You realize we've heard it all, which is what the OP was saying?

[Reptilublican]

3. I can remember when I began to break free from the god plantation

I was 6 in Sunday school and the "teacher" was saying how Earth was only 6,000 years old or some crap like that. Thankfully for me I was more interested in dinosaurs at the time which carbon dating proves that they existed 50 million years ago so that alerted my bs sensors. It was all down hill for religion as far as I was concerned since and viewed religion to be a complete canard by the time I was 12. If only the majority of adults in this country could be so rationale.

[Deep13]

5. Yeah, I am often surprised by the reactions I get.

My mother wanted to know why I would choose to cut myself off from all human kindness. WTF? First of all, what human kindness? Secondly, who said anything about that?! One guy tried and failed to prove logically that god exists. (It was a repackaging of Pascal's wager.)

As of the typical questions posed:

"-You're not really an atheist; you're just mad at god."

--No, there is no god. I'm getting made at you, though.

"-If you're an atheist, then why is the universe here?"

--I don't know and neither do you, so if you can't stop lying to yourself, at least stop lying to me.

"-Man, something really bad must have happened to you."

--Besides meeting you? Sure, bad things happen to everyone, something believers have never adequately explained.

"-So you just worship yourself, huh?"

--I'm not the one who thinks the universe was created for me or that it's creator cares what I do. One is perfectly free to go through life without worshipping anything. We don't need god, which is good because we have never had god.

[humblebum]

6. "Atheists Do Not Need to Have All the Answers" - that's an understatement. nt

[dmallind]

9. Nope - it's an absolute statement, which can neither be over nor understated

I suspect what you WANTED the statement to be was "atheists don't have all the answers", so your 3rd grade level retort would make sense. But instead it was that atheists don't NEED to have all the answers. You can't not need something to a higher or lower level of "not needing". It would be like being more not pregnant or less not pregnant - impossible. Such a negative absolute cannot possibly be an understatement.

[humblebum]

12. Careful. You'll confuse yourself. nt

[dmallind]

38. Can't imagine how. I can understand simple words. nt

[Humanist_Activist]

10. Its better to admit you don't have all the answers than to pretend you do. n/t

[cleanhippie]

11. Human Activist for the win!

[laconicsax]

8. Rec'd to zero. n/t

[Demstud]

36. Umm... congrats?

[NMMNG]

14. I've heard all of those and more

I can't figure out why "I don't believe" elicits such agitation, even outright hostility. My best theory is that it disrupts the usual flow of external validation they get from others in their environment.


I don't have all the answers, nor do I need to. The journey of discovery is what makes it all so fascinating.

[beam me up scottie]

16. This is like the defensive reaction I get when people find out I'm a vegetarian.

They think that I'm judging them because they eat meat, you know, 'cuz it's all about them. :eyes:

I try like hell to keep it a secret but it's not as easy to hide as atheism.

[NMMNG]

17. I'm a lesbian atheist vegetarian

I know just the sort of reactions you're talking about.

[beam me up scottie]

20. Wow, a triple whammy!

Your existence is offending people all over the place. :evilgrin:

[NMMNG]

21. Indeed

I'm a lesbian because I hate men.

I'm an atheist because I hate God.

I'm a vegetarian because I want to deprive everyone of their juicy steaks.



It's true. I've been told so.

[beam me up scottie]

24. Screw 'em.

They can have my Carl Sagan books and my Tofurkey when they pry them from my cold dead hands!

[NMMNG]

25. You're a radical, fundamentalist atheist vegetarian!

:P

[beam me up scottie]

26. And militant, don't forget militant!

People ask us why we are what we are, but they really don't want to know.

[NMMNG]

27. Oh, that reminds me

We have that stealing-Bibles-from-toddlers event planned this weekend. Are you coming?

[beam me up scottie]

28. Wouldn't miss it!

It's a shame we're not allowed to eat them anymore; it's one of the reasons I gave up meat.

[laconicsax]

29. If you want to eat one, I know a guy...

I just treated myself to a newly baptized, blond baby with blue eyes. So succulent...

[beam me up scottie]

30. Ah, my weakness!

I dread the withdrawal symptoms though, it's hard to find clinics that provide christian baby methadone.

[NMMNG]

32. Any Tofu-babies?

It wouldn't be fair to leave us vegetarians out...

[laconicsax]

34. Try this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hufu

[NMMNG]

40. ROFL

I never heard of that before. I shouldn't be surprised someone came up with it, though. :rofl:

[laconicsax]

18. I'll bet you don't even prepare meat for non-vegetarian dinner guests!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKTsWjbjQ8E

:hide:

[beam me up scottie]

19. argh!

You know I have dial up and still you torture me! :D

[laconicsax]

22. It's a short video.

The wait is probably worth it.

[beam me up scottie]

23. Thanks!

I'll give it a try.

edit: won't play on Opera, let me try Firefox...

[PassingFair]

37. Those two are hilarious!

Message in a melon:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=ZCL4dXUtblg

[Worship Money]

33. "I don't know"

It's amazing how liberating saying "I don't know" can be.

I don't know what happens after death, or why something instead of nothing, or what lies at the heart of the universe. But YOU don't know either.

[Iggo]

35. You don't know that.

:P

[Worship Money]

39. Actually

(And I was thinking about putting this in my original post, but anyway...)

I'm technically open to the possibility that someone "knows" or has found out the answer to one of these questions. It's literally possible, but extremely unlikely. As in...extremely unlikely.

I say that because if someone indeed was so fortunate to have been graced with ultimate truth that eludes the rest of us, there's no reason they could possibly give to convince me that this is indeed accurate (and they are not under the effect of an already known mental process or phenomenon) and that I MUST believe it too. Occam's razor, and all.

Just wanted to add that.

[pokerfan]

41. I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing

“I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it is much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers that might be wrong." (Richard Feynman)

[laconicsax]

42. Those are words to live by. n/t

[Starboard Tack]

43. The answers only serve to justify the questions

Ask the tough ones and you get "God moves in mysterious ways" or "That is for us to question and only God to know".
I wonder if most angry atheists started out as Roman Catholics. They let everything go except the need to confess.
Jewish atheists tend to be far more tolerant in their views on religion. Maybe because Judaism encourages serious debate on an intellectual level, rather than drawing that clear line between reality and faith.

It sounds like you are confessing to us by your statement
"I do not remember the moment when I first realized I was an atheist." Like you're coming out of some closet.