Atheism is hard but the truth normally is. =(

[__Kratos__]

Yesterday by a hour was father's day. The first father's day in my life that I was without one. I just went over to my mother's place to stare at the urn while we all got quite drunk then for whatever reason we watched the "Invention of lying". Which touched on on the subject of faith, happiness and living a bit too close to home.

The part where his mother is dying and he starts to lie to his dying mother to make her feel better because he can't stand the pain of her suffering and her being scared of death... Is where I cracked my shell of being the nonchalant atheist ahole of the family. Despite my father being a good bit of a drunk, jerk and all the rest... You can't forget the good sides of being a child. I remember camping, the bed time stories, the playing, the jokes, the sitting around the tv and watching the world news (why I'm always in the world news... it's in my blood, lol ) and his cooking among other things (I loved eating at home). I miss him. It sucks being an atheist because you know he's gone and will never see him nor will he come back ever at any time in life.

I guess I never really had anything come this close to home since really declaring myself as an unbeliever. My childhood dog died when I was in 3rd grade and that really screwed me up for months. I lost my best friend and the person I played with daily. I really felt so alone. I was raised on the outskirts of the city so what company I had was the one I created. But Cody was always there to play with me day or night. I loved that dog with all my childhood and all my heart. When he got cancer and had to be put down it was earth shattering to me. I don't think I've ever stopped missing him. Even now I'm tearing up at the thought of that furry bugger. But no amount of prayer or hoping and wishing helped. I know he's gone but he was my first and ever will be my best friend.

I guess what I'm saying here is that atheism is where you're just a bunch of cells come together over millions of years to create yourself over unspeakable challenges and probability. While this is the one life we have, we still face challenges in our every day lives that break against our truths and our one life. We should be happy, we should live to our fullest that we feel, we should be able to be who we are regardless of what others think and most importantly, we should accept ourselves to do these things.

The truth of having one life is hard to accept when you start to have things challenging this truth but you cannot fall prey to the ideology of mythology and superstition that would rather comfort you in a cradle then have you stand as a man or woman to the world. As an atheist thinking over these thinks, I get furious over the idea that people are using x ideology (who knows, there are thousands of fairy tales across the globe) to convert people in weak moments to them. So they keep spreading lies and falsehoods to others creating an entire group of ignorant people who don't know what is white or what is black unless some silly bearded man in the sky tells them what is what.

It's just sad. We have one precious life. Our every breathe is against all odds in this world and we've overcome countless odds to get here through our DNA despite all that has come before us and our ancestors. Millions possibly billions of years we've crossed and people want to dishonor our struggle by giving credit to a faerie in the sky? It's insulting to our being and to our struggles that such foolery has taken place.

What does religion really offer us? Pulling the wool over our eyes to hide us from the truth while stealing from us our lives and our money? It's all a scam and it's disgusting that some human beings would steal the lives of other human beings in what they think just so they feel better about dying and people around them dying. They're still scared little children unwilling or unable to face the music so they wish up fantasies and drag others into it to make their little reality stronger.

This is a mental disorder where you're creating worlds to coup with the real world. Imaginary friends, places and dreams that will never come true are a strong sign of mental instability. I feel sad for these people but also anger when they drag others into their world just cause they're weak as well. We have to deal with these people head on or nothing will change. The world is already starting to change. With more freedom and distaste for religious ideology, we have bus ads, billboards, support groups and forums from the real world to online helping people come to the truth of one life.

This has faced great resistance from the fairy tale believers that want to keep thinking of paradises and a twisted morality that shames most of the world from their view. We must keep fighting, we must keep the grind and run up that hill. Our lives may be filled with our own pleasures but we also must think of the lives of so many more humans that we are brothers and sisters to. Our humanity is what defines us from the believers that hate themselves and so many others. We cannot be like them to hate so much but feel so little for all of humanity, not just a select few that share our ideology.

In short, being an atheist facing the real world sucks... But it's our lives and what we do with them to make ourselves happy and to serve our brothers and sisters is what defines so many of us. What do you think?

Edited June 20, 2011 by __Kratos__

[Habitat]

Without at least a germ of doubt, your wouldnt have gone to the trouble of posting this.

[__Kratos__]

Without at least a germ of doubt, your wouldnt have gone to the trouble of posting this.

I don't doubt. I just get upset at my brothers and sisters pushing a mythology on others.

I am open to facts and evidence and I've yet to see any from the believers of mythology. So till then I'll remain the atheist nonbeliever that I have been.

[__Kratos__]

Without at least a germ of doubt, your wouldnt have gone to the trouble of posting this.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

I find as time goes further by in my life, Foucault's comments ring truer and truer. If there is no God I gain nothing by believing and lose nothing by not, but if there is a God and I believe I gain everything and lose everything if I don't. So I believe I believe because I believe. It's rather depressing when put like that really. Arguably, I'm constantly reevaluating my beliefs everytime I talk about them, be it in my duties as a teacher or in my commitments as a Catholic but I don't believe for any other reason that I believe I'm right.

[SolarPlexus]

Without at least a germ of doubt, your wouldn't have gone to the trouble of posting this.

I agree with Habitat, this is my opinion as well.

Kratos, first you must understand that you do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. Body is similar to clothes you put on.

And do you know the first law of thermodynamics? That energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another.

[Rlyeh]

I find as time goes further by in my life, Foucault's comments ring truer and truer. If there is no God I gain nothing by believing and lose nothing by not, but if there is a God and I believe I gain everything and lose everything if I don't. So I believe I believe because I believe. It's rather depressing when put like that really. Arguably, I'm constantly reevaluating my beliefs everytime I talk about them, be it in my duties as a teacher or in my commitments as a Catholic but I don't believe for any other reason that I believe I'm right.

Which god?

[+Paranoid Android]

So we believe a crock, our puerile beliefs are a straightjacket to humanity, our beliefs should be abused by others, our faith is a joke, our God is a joke, our God is an embarrassment.....

And somewhere in all of this, the Christian who says "you are going to hell" is vilified as intolerant

[Rlyeh]

Kratos, first you must understand that you do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. Body is similar to clothes you put on.

You are a body.

And do you know the first law of thermodynamics? That energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another.

Do you even know what energy is? People who use it to support an afterlife really have no clue. Edited June 20, 2011 by Rlyeh

[+Paranoid Android]

What do you think?

I wonder how easy it is for a religious person in China who is put in jail for their beliefs. If only they could let go of their fairy-tales, then they wouldn't face possible torture and execution. For them, their beliefs are hard, but then I remember reading somewhere that the truth usually is.....

You speak as if religious folk don't have it as hard. Sure, I understand you are mourning your dad right now, but even so, that doesn't mean that religious folk are going to take it any less tough. Just because you don't believe in an afterlife doesn't mean much. After all, I will feel just as bad losing my dad as I would losing my brother - one of them claims to be Christian, the other does not, so assuming that the one who professes Christ is a Christian (and I think he is) I will only see one of them in heaven. I'm not going to blubber as if I won't see one ever again and rejoice at the other in the belief that I will see them in an afterlife. I will miss them both terribly, and mourn just as hard for both.

~ Regards,

[mssarahboom]

I respect your beliefs and all, but find it completely insulting that you consider each and every single believer to be an ignorant little sheep that doesn't know any better. Seems like you're suffering from an elitist-complex - and it's ironic, because you sound like those religious dogmatists that go "MY FAITH IS RIGHT, YOURS ISN'T".

I'm a believer that isn't ignorant, isn't comfortably sitting in the arms of a religious cradle, nor am I sitting here, missionizing people left and right by taking advantage of their weaknesses. There are plenty of people in the world that have taken advantage of religion or have been taken advantage of by people using religion, but there are also plently of people that have found basis in their traditions to do great things. I cherish my life, each and every single breath I take, and I am thankful for the millions of cells that make me who I am physically and mentally am. But, I also cherish the fact that out of all of creation, my humanity makes me a sentient being, and I have a right to believe.

Edited June 20, 2011 by mssarahboom

[__Kratos__]

I agree with Habitat, this is my opinion as well.

Kratos, first you must understand that you do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. Body is similar to clothes you put on.

And do you know the first law of thermodynamics? That energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another.

Umm, I am a body living this one life.

Yes, in fact I do. I am well versed in the ways of science. If you were to propose another theory or facts, I would be vastly open to them.

So we believe a crock, our puerile beliefs are a straightjacket to humanity, our beliefs should be abused by others, our faith is a joke, our God is a joke, our God is an embarrassment.....

And somewhere in all of this, the Christian who says "you are going to hell" is vilified as intolerant

It is a joke and it is an embarrassment for humanity. I may agree with him that faith is a joke but that's as far as it really goes as in I strongly disagree.

I don't believe you should be tortured or burned during this life and then for all of time it's self as christians like to believe what's going to happen to the other 6/7th of the world resulting in billions if not trillions over time of lives.

I wonder how easy it is for a religious person in China who is put in jail for their beliefs. If only they could let go of their fairy-tales, then they wouldn't face possible torture and execution. For them, their beliefs are hard, but then I remember reading somewhere that the truth usually is.....

You speak as if religious folk don't have it as hard. Sure, I understand you are mourning your dad right now, but even so, that doesn't mean that religious folk are going to take it any less tough. Just because you don't believe in an afterlife doesn't mean much. After all, I will feel just as bad losing my dad as I would losing my brother - one of them claims to be Christian, the other does not, so assuming that the one who professes Christ is a Christian (and I think he is) I will only see one of them in heaven. I'm not going to blubber as if I won't see one ever again and rejoice at the other in the belief that I will see them in an afterlife. I will miss them both terribly, and mourn just as hard for both.

~ Regards,

In China, they're idiots to the strongest idiots possible. Yet they allow religious belief in their own ways. Outside of that you're rarely jailed or killed for such crimes. Much unlike I can say for the rapes, conquests and murders of millions of people over thousands of years by religious people. You speak of horrors and intolerance against religious people but completely ignore what religious people have committed. While no excuse for nonreligious people to act the same but nonreligious people are each their own person... Not following a single book or religious that commands them to act like idiots to their brothers and sisters like religious people do!

But as like I said, nonreligious people are each their own person. So comparing them to the profiling of china is like saying all black people are car thieves! It's stupid and it's bigoted with no basis in fact!

I agree they have it has hard, they just use crutches like mythology and fairy tales to support themselves in such times rather then the truth. It sucks but it's the way of the world. =/

I respect your beliefs and all, but find it completely insulting that you consider each and every single believer to be an ignorant little sheep that doesn't know any better. Seems like you're suffering from an elitist-complex - and it's ironic, because you sound like those religious dogmatists that go "MY FAITH IS RIGHT, YOURS ISN'T".

I'm a believer that isn't ignorant, isn't comfortably sitting in the arms of a religious cradle, nor am I sitting here, missionizing people left and right by taking advantage of their weaknesses. There are plenty of people in the world that have taken advantage of religion or have been taken advantage of by people using religion, but there are also plently of people that have found basis in their traditions to do great things. I cherish my life, each and every single breath I take, and I am thankful for the millions of cells that make me who I am physically and mentally am. But, I also cherish the fact that out of all of creation, my humanity makes me a sentient being, and I have a right to believe.

As a nonbeliever, I look at science. You prove what you claim!!! I'm not an elitist for wanting to see evidence of your silly claims but rather a mortal human being curious of your far out claims. When you present actual evidence, I'll stop what I'm doing. Fair deal I'd say!

A believe in what really? Nothing you can prove or show but tell others of it! Even now you are defending ghosts and figments of imagination as your "right" to believe as a human. While your supposed "right" carries on throughout humanity blocking science, research and pushing our bounties of knowledge you sit back and claim that there are such things without a shred of evidence but because you're human and that you can think of such things they must be true! No evidence, no facts not even a picture of this great divine that makes you so happy. But yet your story and so many other's seems to have the right to block our pushing forward for a hopefully better humanity for all our brothers and sisters!

[Beckys_Mom]

Pat is right about how the religious react if you do not say what they want to hear...if you use reason, they really do dismiss it all

IE - People who will tell you - You have no right to question god...yet at the same time will preach what they feel is gods word.... They do not see the irony of this.. They think they can speak for god...tell us all what god wants from us.. but how dare we question god??

Only real reason as to why any of them will rant if you question their faith... is because when you offer reason... and it really makes what they have preached about look silly... that's when the anger comes in and ranting begins...then you will hear - Who are you to question god?

Any time I offer reason.. or any form of real logic ( meaning from the real world fact that can be seen by all)... I have had to listen to ranting, telling me I cannot do this, I fail..and I just don't understand <-- this old record is played by a lot of people..and it really is silly... This is why I feel if I were to take steps back to the fold and follow it all again how they do...I would have to chuck out all logical facts of the real world ..and that to me is dumbing myself down....I prefer to take steps forward and not backwards

Edited June 20, 2011 by Beckys_Mom

[Beckys_Mom]

As a nonbeliever, I look at science.

But you do not just look at science, you also look at the real world and how it is right? You observe what you hear and see everyday of your life in the real world...and you know everything you hear and see, others have as well.. and all of this can be proven easy.. it is not all in your mind, it is REAL...right? that's also an important factor

But those with blind faith...not many of them are willing to admit they observe the real world as much.. When you use an analogy to argue a point that is fact and we all know it and have observed it as fact....the religious one that is arguing will dismiss it regardless..because it makes too much sense...and that has no room for what they follow

Edited June 20, 2011 by Beckys_Mom

[shadowhive]

Yesterday by a hour was father's day. The first father's day in my life that I was without one. I just went over to my mother's place to stare at the urn while we all got quite drunk then for whatever reason we watched the "Invention of lying". Which touched on on the subject of faith, happiness and living a bit too close to home.

The part where his mother is dying and he starts to lie to his dying mother to make her feel better because he can't stand the pain of her suffering and her being scared of death... Is where I cracked my shell of being the nonchalant atheist ahole of the family. Despite my father being a good bit of a drunk, jerk and all the rest... You can't forget the good sides of being a child. I remember camping, the bed time stories, the playing, the jokes, the sitting around the tv and watching the world news (why I'm always in the world news... it's in my blood, lol ) and his cooking among other things (I loved eating at home). I miss him. It sucks being an atheist because you know he's gone and will never see him nor will he come back ever at any time in life.

I guess I never really had anything come this close to home since really declaring myself as an unbeliever. My childhood dog died when I was in 3rd grade and that really screwed me up for months. I lost my best friend and the person I played with daily. I really felt so alone. I was raised on the outskirts of the city so what company I had was the one I created. But Cody was always there to play with me day or night. I loved that dog with all my childhood and all my heart. When he got cancer and had to be put down it was earth shattering to me. I don't think I've ever stopped missing him. Even now I'm tearing up at the thought of that furry bugger. But no amount of prayer or hoping and wishing helped. I know he's gone but he was my first and ever will be my best friend.

I guess what I'm saying here is that atheism is where you're just a bunch of cells come together over millions of years to create yourself over unspeakable challenges and probability. While this is the one life we have, we still face challenges in our every day lives that break against our truths and our one life. We should be happy, we should live to our fullest that we feel, we should be able to be who we are regardless of what others think and most importantly, we should accept ourselves to do these things.

The truth of having one life is hard to accept when you start to have things challenging this truth but you cannot fall prey to the ideology of mythology and superstition that would rather comfort you in a cradle then have you stand as a man or woman to the world. As an atheist thinking over these thinks, I get furious over the idea that people are using x ideology (who knows, there are thousands of fairy tales across the globe) to convert people in weak moments to them. So they keep spreading lies and falsehoods to others creating an entire group of ignorant people who don't know what is white or what is black unless some silly bearded man in the sky tells them what is what.

It's just sad. We have one precious life. Our every breathe is against all odds in this world and we've overcome countless odds to get here through our DNA despite all that has come before us and our ancestors. Millions possibly billions of years we've crossed and people want to dishonor our struggle by giving credit to a faerie in the sky? It's insulting to our being and to our struggles that such foolery has taken place.

What does religion really offer us? Pulling the wool over our eyes to hide us from the truth while stealing from us our lives and our money? It's all a scam and it's disgusting that some human beings would steal the lives of other human beings in what they think just so they feel better about dying and people around them dying. They're still scared little children unwilling or unable to face the music so they wish up fantasies and drag others into it to make their little reality stronger.

This is a mental disorder where you're creating worlds to coup with the real world. Imaginary friends, places and dreams that will never come true are a strong sign of mental instability. I feel sad for these people but also anger when they drag others into their world just cause they're weak as well. We have to deal with these people head on or nothing will change. The world is already starting to change. With more freedom and distaste for religious ideology, we have bus ads, billboards, support groups and forums from the real world to online helping people come to the truth of one life.

This has faced great resistance from the fairy tale believers that want to keep thinking of paradises and a twisted morality that shames most of the world from their view. We must keep fighting, we must keep the grind and run up that hill. Our lives may be filled with our own pleasures but we also must think of the lives of so many more humans that we are brothers and sisters to. Our humanity is what defines us from the believers that hate themselves and so many others. We cannot be like them to hate so much but feel so little for all of humanity, not just a select few that share our ideology.

In short, being an atheist facing the real world sucks... But it's our lives and what we do with them to make ourselves happy and to serve our brothers and sisters is what defines so many of us. What do you think?

First, I'm sorry about the loss of your father. I never had one, so the closest thing I had was my grandfather who died a few years ago, so father's day is just as hard as me.

I don't disagree with most of what you've said. Religionous people often need a better grasp of reality. The problem with religion is that it requires so much belief in something you (essentially) can't see. It's a bit like an imaginary friend, although harder to disprove. If a child acted the way some religious people do and blamed an imaginary friend for their actions they'd be told clearly that said friend was wrong and they shouldn't have done it. However when you ahve an adult who does something because of god, it becomes much harder to do anything about it.

There's nothing wrong with spirituality on paper. It's just it leads to much judgement and condemnation, and yes, losing touch with reality. For example religion basically says treat others as you wish to be treated, which is a positive sentiment. However religious people have a tendncy to ignore that and laws have to be put in place in an attempt to ensure they teat others equally. (Although all too often religious groups want magic exemptions from such laws.)

As for the afterlife... well, long ago I seperated belief in the afterlife from religion. This can be basically explained by how Christians see the afterlife (heaven). Christins see heaven as a 'members only' club, that is that only THEY get to heaven. Pagans, atheists, agnostics etc... they're immediately denied the afterlife (essentially murdered foreevr) simply because they weren't Christians. The basic premise leads to problems as a serial killer who was Christian could get into heaven, but someone who dedicated their lives to helping people would not simply because they were an atheist.

Now that, to me, doesn't seem right. It doesn't seem right at all. In fact it sounds akin to insanity.

So my belief is that the afterlife is open to all. Christian, atheist, agnostic, pagan and anything else and you won't be turned away for something foolish as being angry, being gay or lusting after someone (unlike the Chrstian idea of heaven). That to me makes a lot more sense than the Christan belief does and I think it's likely closer to the truth.

Humanity is all important though, not what a god or gods says we should or shouldn't do. The key is that we should treat each other equally. We can't prove if god exists or not. We CAN prove that we exist. So we should focus more on caring for one another, than trying to appease an entity that may not exist to begin with.

I wonder how easy it is for a religious person in China who is put in jail for their beliefs. If only they could let go of their fairy-tales, then they wouldn't face possible torture and execution. For them, their beliefs are hard, but then I remember reading somewhere that the truth usually is.....

You speak as if religious folk don't have it as hard. Sure, I understand you are mourning your dad right now, but even so, that doesn't mean that religious folk are going to take it any less tough. Just because you don't believe in an afterlife doesn't mean much. After all, I will feel just as bad losing my dad as I would losing my brother - one of them claims to be Christian, the other does not, so assuming that the one who professes Christ is a Christian (and I think he is) I will only see one of them in heaven. I'm not going to blubber as if I won't see one ever again and rejoice at the other in the belief that I will see them in an afterlife. I will miss them both terribly, and mourn just as hard for both.

~ Regards,

PA, the casual callousness your god displays for the human soul makes your god just as bad as those Chinese. Probably worse.

[libstaK]

Much unlike I can say for the rapes, conquests and murders of millions of people over thousands of years by religious people. You speak of horrors and intolerance against religious people but completely ignore what religious people have committed. While no excuse for nonreligious people to act the same but nonreligious people are each their own person... Not following a single book or religious that commands them to act like idiots to their brothers and sisters like religious people do!

But as like I said, nonreligious people are each their own person. So comparing them to the profiling of china is like saying all black people are car thieves! It's stupid and it's bigoted with no basis in fact!

I agree they have it has hard, they just use crutches like mythology and fairy tales to support themselves in such times rather then the truth. It sucks but it's the way of the world. =/

You do not like it when Unbelievers like the Athiest Communist Regime of China gives you a bad name and say it is like saying "all black people are car thieves" (there is a whole secondary level of problems with that statement alone which we can save for another day) BUT you can blithely label all religious people as rapists and murderers because of what some religious people have done with NO PROBLEM at all.

This is the same old, same old. Atheism does not come with any more guarantees of a good outcome for society than religiosity does in the end. We have many many examples of atheists who have committed utter attrocities in history too.

When do both sides drop the accusations and start to accept that we are not all going to agree with each other (nor are we obliged to) without demonising each others version of the truth about life?

Or we can just keep playing "what is good for the Goose is good for Gander" ad nauseum. Yes the truth is hard, in fact while duality of thought exists it is actually impossible that applies to all parties concerned quite frankly.

I am sincerely sorry you have lost your father, I wish you well in your healing of your life and the lives of your loved ones, I know this is a journey with many ups and downs, stay strong and be well.

[Beckys_Mom]

This is the same old, same old. Atheism does not come with any more guarantees of a good outcome for society than religiosity does in the end. We have many many examples of atheists who have committed utter attrocities in history too.

Can you list any of those that atheists have done in the name of atheism?

[mssarahboom]

As a nonbeliever, I look at science. You prove what you claim!!! I'm not an elitist for wanting to see evidence of your silly claims but rather a mortal human being curious of your far out claims. When you present actual evidence, I'll stop what I'm doing. Fair deal I'd say!

A believe in what really? Nothing you can prove or show but tell others of it! Even now you are defending ghosts and figments of imagination as your "right" to believe as a human. While your supposed "right" carries on throughout humanity blocking science, research and pushing our bounties of knowledge you sit back and claim that there are such things without a shred of evidence but because you're human and that you can think of such things they must be true! No evidence, no facts not even a picture of this great divine that makes you so happy. But yet your story and so many other's seems to have the right to block our pushing forward for a hopefully better humanity for all our brothers and sisters!

You tell me to prove to you that G-d exists. Well, why don't you show me evidence that G-d DOESN'T exist? I cannot prove G-d exists, but you can't use your little science machine that He doesn't either. I called you an elitist not because you ask me for evidence, I call you an elitist because you make assumptions about believers - and your dire assumptions are also stereotypically lumping every believer into a negative formation - as if all believers are little lumps of clay that are molded at the hands of religious leaders and the like. Believe me, buddy, your lumping of believers is ignorant, which, once again, is quite ironic given your high and mighty "I am above all because I trust science more than anything" mindset. Great people have been religious believers - hell, some have even PUSHED humanity toward betterment (what you claim that cannot happen with religion).

Give me a break. Your science and research wasn't there during the Civil Rights Movement here in America. Brave, religious believers such as Martin Luther King were at the head, Bibles in hand, speaking of how the betterment of humanity is prescribed in religion. Even today, many scholars use religion as a way to BETTER humanity. Perfect examples are Muslim feminist theologians who are using the Qur'an and Hadith in order to turn around the situation of women in the Middle East.

You want to talk about science and research and all that jazz bettering humanity? Ha. Yes, it has bettered humanity (and there have been amazing results due to science and technology), but just like religion, it has also reared its ugly head. Your little high and mighty science has also produced outrageous results. Want to talk about how your science and techonology implosion has put the natural environment in a huge danger zone - not only putting many plants and animals in danger, but the future of humankind as well? How about we talk about how your science and technology has put a larger hole between developed countries and underdeveloped countries? As these developed countries eat your technology up for luxury, developing countries are being stripped of their resources in order to fuel the science and techonology implosion. Better yet, let's talk about the science and technology behind nucleaur weapons?

Please. Don't pretend like science and technology is all about bettering humanity. Let's not be ignorant here.

[Beckys_Mom]

PA, the casual callousness your god displays for the human soul makes your god just as bad as those Chinese. Probably worse.

I agree... Humans do not like being condemned, nor do they like being told how to live....its fact...So when a religious person takes it upon themselves to judge you and even condemn you... this will cause problems... The world is used to this more so than the good...

What many religious don't realise is... that when they do these things... it will over shadow any real good religion has done

[SolarPlexus]

Kratos, first you must understand that you do not have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body. Body is similar to clothes you put on.

Umm, I am a body living this one life.

Hey there Kratos,

We can always go each to his own opinion . But like a poster previously pointed out, i doubt you would have posted this if there was not a grain of doubt in your mind.

Personally, if you'll allow me to explain my point of view, i see many proof that we are soul, and no proof that the body is anything more than a vessel.

For example, we call both the sky and blue jeans by the same color: Blue. However, clearly a pair of jeans and the sky are not the same color; moreover, the wavelengths of light reflected by the sky at every location and all the millions of blue jeans in every state of fading constantly change, and yet we somehow have a consensus of the basic form Blueness as it applies to them.

Also, no one has ever seen a perfect circle, nor a perfectly straight line, yet everyone knows what a circle and a straight line are. Perceived circles or lines are not exactly circular or straight, and true circles and lines could never be detected since by definition they are sets of infinitely small points. But if the perfect ones are not there, how can we recognize them?

This is just some of the proof that somehow we have residual notions, like of colours and geometry, somewhere in the back of our mind. Which would imply that we have lived before.

There is also the question of deja vu, the feeling that one has already witnessed or experienced a situation...

[SolarPlexus]

And do you know the first law of thermodynamics? That energy cannot be created or destroyed, only converted from one form to another.

Yes, in fact I do. I am well versed in the ways of science. If you were to propose another theory or facts, I would be vastly open to them.

Just saying that electrical activity in the brain must go somewhere after the body crumbles...

[libstaK]

Can you list any of those that atheists have done in the name of atheism?

Communism is intrinsically atheist in its principles so Stalin for one and of course the continued Chinese vendetta against the Tibetan Monks.

[Leonardo]

I have said in the past that most religious believers live their lives in preparation for death, and my view on that has not altered over the years I have been a member of UM. Oh, I'm not saying that believers dwell on this every moment of every day - but the core of their religion is that death is not the end and some reward awaits them for being 'good'. When all the fluff surrounding religious belief is stripped away, belief is selfish.

Not all religions incorporate this, but the vast majority do.

[Beckys_Mom]

Communism is intrinsically atheist in its principles so Stalin for one and of course the continued Chinese vendetta against the Tibetan Monks.

Cheers....But the main idea of communism was to make everyone equal...problem with that was - The main dictator was the rich one... What I was thinking was - Atheists at random, hurting, condemning and killing in the name of Atheism.. like so many religious are famous for

[Habitat]

This is just the 'Human Condition'. Suffering hits hard. But who among us would swap our lot for that of another person, a random selection out of the whole of humanity ?