Anyone else here an atheist who wishes he were religious?
I wasn't raised in any faith and I can't believe. But I also believe that every human has a necessary capacity for faith. Whether people fill this with religion, humanism, communism or science is up to them, but it needs filling.
What do you fill your faith hole with, Sup Forums?
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buddhanet.net
amazon.com
amazon.com
buddhanet.net
en.wikipedia.org
youtube.com
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The quest for knowledge in all things spiritual, physical, emotional in the universe. Just because you don't have faith doesn't make the spiritual less real.
Look into William Lane Craig and John Lennox
cheers, hob dob gum
Houellebecq is shit.
I do. I don't get why so many other atheists get triggered by religions, especially Christianity. I think most religions (exceptions being Islam and the really fringe ones) are beautiful despite all the violence and shit they've led to. I'm still very much open to the idea that there is a God/gods, but I'm too much of a skeptic to believe any of it.
Me.
I'd like to move to the Southern United States where people are simple, be a big fish in a small pond get a cutie wife and enjoy the family style communities they have. It seems really comfy.
They all believe in God though and go to church and I'd be living a lie and not sure how long I'd make it through before Church sessions set me off to say something they found offensive. It's just such a waste of time.
The awnser is simple you change your perception
william craig is a God
Me. Since visiting Rome I've felt very spiritual. I hate other atheists and their hatred of Christians
I can help you understand faith, which would destroy your old mindset, and you realize you were a subverted believer all along.
Rather than being religious I wish I had been raised with more knowledge and awareness of local folklore and fairy tales. There just feels to be a distinct lack of culture around here that separates itself from the global western world. I wish it could be more like Japan, where despite being developed their pop culture and fiction is still rich with the influence of local superstitions.
Look into Buddhism, Taoism, and Neoplatonism.
They are pretty redpilled and don't rely on like self flagellation and rituals and faith. They're based on logic and critical examination of the world and the self.
I used to be a hardcore atheist but then I started trying to seriously answer the question of why reality exists, and I stopped being an atheist per say, although I still don't 'worship God' or anything like that.
I've got to admit that Buddhism makes me a recoil a little, but I'd be willing to try. Are there any texts you'd recommend?
>Anyone else here an atheist who wishes he were religious?
Ignorance is bliss, eh OP?
Go be a faggot somewhere else.
I used to be a hardcore atheist, then I went to prison, now I'm a Catholic
buddhanet.net
amazon.com
amazon.com
>now I'm a Catholic
No. Now you're just American.
I've never really studied any of them via books, mostly Wikipedia and reading Buddhist forum posts/articles, etc.
But I meditate, etc. at times and what I have found by looking inward seems to make the general aspects of Buddhism seem pretty true.
One thing is that there is like 'Buddhism' as practiced by the laypeople of Asia, which is like any old religion where you worship at statues, pray to gods/Buddhas, perform rituals, etc. This is not actual Buddhism. Actual Buddhism does not tell you to worship gods, but tells you what we are, and how our minds work.
This website is pretty interesting although I've only read a bit:
buddhanet.net
The concept I am trying to understand more and more nowadays is "anatta" or "non-self" which is the Buddhist concept that there is no permanent unchanging self at the core of our beings, and that by recognizing this we can free ourselves of suffering. After meditation and other introspective experiences I have found this seems to be true. Buddhism is something you can work on and discover for yourself, which I think sets it apart from other religions.
en.wikipedia.org
Nice french flag on the exhaust
is it? I always thought it was the Union Jack.
Exactly, the lack of evidence does that
You may find some value re:anatta in the third book referenced above.
As an ex-Atheist I think the Atheist fixation on the institution of science and empiricism is a bit naiive. Why does the universe exist, why do we feel conscious, why does time flow, why are there physical laws, why does matter exist? Science claims these are questions without answers, but there are other ways of experiencing reality than doing controlled experiments and statistical calculations.
Logic and introspection are other ways apart from science that we can discover the nature of this world and ourselves.
"Spirituality" doesn't just mean "ESP and ghosts and crystals maann". It can mean our connection to the totality of the universe, etc.
To hide ones head away from metaphysical questions like a frightened ostrich is to deprive yourself of a very interesting and fulfilling aspect of existence.
Thanks user.
anyone of those questions can easily apply to God so why add the extra step
why does God exist?
how can God be conscious?
where does God get his power?
so why add the extra step? its not needed. yes there are unanswered questions, but you do not fill those with more unanswered questions
I believe that if you cannot demonstrate something repeatably then it's not real, you can believe what you want, I encourage you to believe it if it makes you feel more fulfilled, but for me religion brought me nothing but suffering and I cannot rationalise how evil a lot of religions are, science on the other hand is cold, hard and real, sure people have used it to do terrible things, but that doesn't make it false.
...
I'm not a Christian/monotheist.
I don't believe "God created the universe".
And I understand the negative mental impacts and backwardness of modern monotheism. But that is not all spirituality is.
This is where athiests fail to understand that there are other realms of thought and experience than scientific experiments and discovering physical laws.
I believe in something that came to me over time. It is not moral, not about pleasing or obeying a god, or getting into a heaven where pleasures await me. It's about understanding this reality and my place in it. Does that make sense?
I marvel at the mystery of the universe in its size and complexity, at the mysteries of life and death and time, at why there is anything at all rather than nothing... you don't need religion when you skip right to the deep questions and mysteries.
Yeah this basically. You don't need rituals, prayers, candlelight mumblings, etc. But seeking answers to the deeper questions is like the real value of spirituality.
Sure, but to me that's quite arbitrary. My place in the universe doesn't matter, I don't matter, I'm a but a combination of the right materials at the right time who gets to experience consciousness for a few years before my materials are put into the ground to become another living things materials later down the line, I create my own meaning by the people I spend time with and how I chose to live my life.
Like I said before, I encourage you to believe what you believe if it helps you, but so far there hasn't been anything to suggest to me that anything outside of the natural exists
What I find funny is that most of the atheists who give primacy to science don't know basic stuff like statistics and calculus. Their knowledge of the scientific method is often very limited as well.
Most of their knowledge springs from trust on someone else's conclusions.
Why does matter exist, why are there physical laws and material that obeys those laws, that allow you to come into being physically? Why are you aware of your existence? Don't those questions warrant answers?
william lane craig is a fucking retard
i studied philosophy at the best university in the world, the tutors there all ridicule Craig for being such a shameless charlatan and self publicist
wlc is the richard dawkins of religious people, he says things that you already agree with and you all bark like seals and ask for more
read anyone other than craig ffs
Yeah lol. People who "support science" often just treat the current scientific models of the world as absolute dogma to be parroted without question. But not all of them. I understand the atheistic viewpoint. But I started meditating, thinking about why reality exits, etc. and I found an answer which makes sense to me whereas 'science' could provide nothing.
We can find objective flaws in the way our minds work and process reality - again through scientific methods - making introspection a poor tool for discovery. The principal idea behind the rules of science is to create a method of validating ideas as objectively as possible, and that method is telling us that almost all ideas we have about ourselves, our ways of thinking and our possible meta-origins are deeply flawed, and ultimately rooted in physical circumstances.
Your mind is the only tool that allows you to experience reality. Your entire experience is carried out in your mind. How can you call it flawed and dismiss it so easily?
But why does it matter if we answer those questions? Does anything change once we for certain know where the universe came from?
From what we know is that matter and energy can phase in and out of existence, one moment they're there, the next the cease to exist, only to pop back up again, this is possibly how the universe came to be too, nothing existed then bam, energy existed and then space time expanded into what we have now.
No idea where the laws came from, but I'm honestly not really fussed by that question, all I care about is understanding them, seeing how they can be used to make things and improve the world
Its ok to say that we don't know
What is that answer, just to be curious?
Not an atheist, I believe there is most likely some kind of deity but not the one worshiped by the usual religions.
I would like to be religious because of the community and purpose it would give me, but I just can't accept christian cuckery and beside, I would be the first to hop on the transhumanist train if it ever happen
Try science
I don't know if I believe but I'm thinking of going back to church
I miss the sense of community
i love him. Only modern author i really like
Not 100% an atheist but I sometimes think if I were religious I'd be happier because I'd believe I live in a fair and comfy world were we matter, our lives have a sense, our actions a great purpose, in the end Evil is always punished and Good prevail. There would be someone up there for me than can answer my prayers, death would not be the end, I would be "eternal" and my loved ones too, etc.
But to me, all human religions are nonsensical because they are anthropocentric and came from the brain of some primates that didn't know anything about the world around them, so I can't just pick the one I like the most.
I think I "fill that hole" by keeping an open mind and having some sort of spirituality, a pantheistic view of the universe of something like that.
I like him
I am driven by a powerful desire to understand this world. I read about the current scientific models, theories, facts, etc. And it's all very interesting. But it only allows us to answer questions of a certain scope. And for questions outside of that context, we have to turn to other means.
Why does it matter? For me I just like to understand things.
It might not sound very convincing due to brevity but I'll give an outline.
Matter in our physical universe is seemingly completely adherent to physical laws. In other words it is completely described by mathematics. So what is matter aside from mathematics/logic? There can be no matter without laws to govern it. So I think the prime (and only) stuff that makes up our universe, is not some "matter" that exists on it's own, per se, but what makes up our universe is logic and math. Our whole universe exists or can be compressed into a mathematical expression or object. All moments in time, events, locations, are contained within that mathematical object. Much like a curve in math y=x^2 produces a parabola that extends to infinity in the 2D plane, yet that infinite curve is perfectly contained and generated by the simple expression y=x^2. So the flow of time and particularity of our individual locations in space, and our feeling of being individual beings, are illusions produced by our biological brains, which develop and process over the course to time in the universes' physical laws. But actually the entire universe exists as a transcendental logical object outside of time and space (because time and space are parameters within the object itself).
And, where does logic/math come from? Saying 1+1=2 relies on the assumptions of algebra. But once we have those assumptions (axioms/definitions of 1, +, =, etc.) then infinite statements and equalities of algebra are generated. 1+1=2, 5-2=3, etc. etc.
So the logical object of "algebra" generates infinite algebraic statements. (to be continued)
Propane. heh
The logical object of "triangles" generates infinite possible specific triangles of varying angles and edge lengths. Likewise, our universe is generated by the abstract concept of "mathematically defined universes"
These abstracted logical objects ("triangles", "algebra", "mathematically defined universes" etc. ) however are in turn generated by higher order (more abstract) concepts, and more basic/fundamental logical axioms. If we follow the chain of abstraction back to its source, we find the most general, abstract "concept", basically just the "potential for logic". It is an empty statement yet generates the infinite things of existence. This core of logic, this "Absolute" is what I consider to be the divine source of all things.
Everyone is capable of faith. Just don't look for it in ready-made things or in other people's idea of faith necessarily.
For me it came as a result of studying physics and philosophy (sounds douchey, but I do one for a living and the other pretty seriously) and vaguely drifting more toward the mystical feeling that there is something. I don't know what it is. But I feel sure there is something "beautiful" or "important" in all this, and we are wending our way toward it. Something that would make it all make sense, even the ugliness of it - and not in a shallow way, but in a way that truly elevates all this, so that if you stood with God at the end of the universe and truly understood the whole thing, you'd go "ohhh, even the ugliness / the setbacks / the messiness of it all, it was all something."
I don't even mean that it's all just fate, in a roundabout way. I think our freedom to fuck it up, to fuck it up badly, maybe even our freedom to throw it all away, is an essential part of it.
It's easy, I believe in a god but I am unsure of his message. I think it is evident by the nature and existence of our universe that it (and perhaps we) must have been created.
I have a few ideas, but they are all pretty much terrifying so I settle with the fact that I am "unsure" about the nature and meaning of life, and what it all entails.
Yes, I'm unable to believe in any God or religion, my logic will simply not allow me to fall into such a delusion when there's no proof, but im extremelly jealous of religious people, they must feel at peace if they truly have faith.
I'm a pro-christian atheist
>What do you fill your faith hole with, Sup Forums?
Sarcasm and shit talking like a true Australian.
God lies in nature, and that's where I gain my spirituality. easypes
I was an atheist for nearly my whole life, but a few months ago after a bad breakup I started practicing Judaism. My life has improved quite a lot, and the Jewish communities I am part of provided me with so many opportunities that I would have never found anywhere else.
I know it's hard to just believe in God after a life of atheism, but God's existence starts with you: God is only where you let him in.
>theres_no_replies.png
I was raised agnostic, stayed that way until I was in my 20s.
Then I found a way to reconcile spirituality with science. By realizing science, itself, takes a leap of faith. It assumes objective reality exists. This is unverifiable.
There's no reason you can't make your own personal god, and/or create your own spirituality. There's no law saying you have to join a religion to be a spiritual person.
Start with finding the one thing you can know for certain. Then use logic to find other truths, or to make "best guesses". Chose your own values. Bam. You get all the benefits of religion without having to believe retarded, illogical shit.
Non-catholic Europe should die out, so no, don't believe in anything
This is absolutely false.
We live in the natural world with certain laws that create this question to begin with. God would be definitively super-natural, unrestrained by whatever we have conceptualized.
>muh special pleading
Literally two different scenarios, natural vs supernatural. Things couldn't gt more different from our perspective than these two thins are
>. I think our freedom to fuck it up, to fuck it up badly, maybe even our freedom to throw it all away, is an essential part of it.
How do you mean? We individually can throw it all away or we collectively?
As the latter, that's a pretty raw deal.
Interesting.
I used to be an atheist. That started to change once I came to understand that Christianity was necessary for the rise and success of Western civilization, and that Christian morality was the eucivic force that drove its development. For a while I held the opinion that Christianity is correct in terms of morality, but not in terms of metaphysics/spirituality; eventually I came to see this as a contradictory belief, because Christian morality is dependent upon its metaphysical and spiritual perspective. I didn't really have much choice at that point but to admit to myself that Christianity must be at least mostly correct.
I now believe that God was reaching out to me by means He knew I would be most receptive to: through a gradual process of thought and reason, slowly revising my position until I embraced Christianity. I think that He probably presents the truth to each person in different ways, based on what He knows they will respond to the best; but He ultimately almost always leaves it to us to "take the bait," so to speak, rather than forcing it upon us.
>I can't believe
I used to think that about myself, too. Belief isn't an on/off kind of thing. It took me months before I could "feel" like I believed even a little, even though I was certain that God exists. The emotional, feeling aspect of belief takes time and effort.
God is dead, user.
Raised a Catholic on one side and Jew/Athiest on another.
Religion is a thing of the past. We need a new way forward.
Beware the Talmud. That's all I'll say.
Skyrim HD Remaster. I'm pretty set.
former atheist here. 2005-2013. I ended my atheism after choosing to ingest a drug that I had no idea would enlighten me. I thought I'd hallucinate and just feel good. I did. but, I felt a mantra of "I am love I am light I am LORD" that was unmistakable. I believed in God and souls again as soon as the drug had worn off.
(drug is DMT. if you really wanna cure your atheism, a very small amount should do it)
>i studied philosophy at the best university in the world, the tutors there all ridicule Craig
Im not surprised since most of academics are cuckmunchicng leftist atheists, and if that is the case they also probably redicule platigna, RD is untermensch compared to WLC
read Kierkegaard, that guy saved my faith
+1 for Michel
he should be Sup Forums's approved writer
>Michel
redpill me on him, he is often mentioned but not sure why is he importantant...why is he good? and why does he hold ciggies like that?
This hippy-fag gets it. For the most part, anyway.
The way forward is not a white dude, but whatever the fuck is out there.
There are answers through experimentation or just purely ignoring the overly narrative of the retardation of humanity-as-a-whole.
I would like to try DMT one day. But alas I live in Japan and it is hard to come by.
Beautiful.
It sounds to me like an appropriate musical expression of the sentiment user talked about.
As if they were articulating the same thing.
Esoterism and conciousness.
I was an atheist as well
having done many psychedelics including DMT, I think it's all in your head. Everything you experience on those drugs is generated internally not externally, the presence you saw/felt were different dimensions of your own psyche
also
>a very small amount should do it
wasn't the case for me, when I do DMT I have to take several hits if I want anything more than vibrations and that initial vortex stage of it
>Unironically wishing to believe you were trapped in a divine totalitarian dictatorship that will have you captured from cradle to grave and beyond with no recourse for reform and no hope of escape or revolution
You're wrong. You were raised with religion; the religion of the state.
Norwegian here. When I was a child, I used to pray with my dad on my bed every night. I think it was a nice thing to do, and I don't believe in the stuff from the bible, but I'm too afraid to say that I don't believe in Jesus.
I love the Christian traditions of burials, getting married and all that church stuff.
Anyways. I don't believe in all that stuff, but i wish I did. Deep down I'm too afraid to deny it, but it makes no logical sense.
I have been looking into old Viking believes and they are open to add gods to their faith and I miss having some direction in my life and the community.
>it's all in your head
So is love, mate. It's still worthwhile.
You dont have to believe in god as a child believes in magic, do it throuh the screw of doubt, force yourself to believe.
of course, hallucinogens can provide very productive experiences but I think it can be dangerous when you start believing they are 'real'
Why? Hes intellectual brilliant sometimes.
As long as you understand that real things are 'real' as well, in a sense, that problem doesn't exist.
Nope, some people say they have better morals because they're religious, but sooner or later some of those people do something monumentally callous and can't be reasoned with.
Religion is a time bomb.
I honestly wish I could believe in it 100% like my gf does, I go to mass with her and celebrate the holidays but deep down I just can't be convinced of it.
I can't dismiss it either because even using reason I get to the conclusion that there must be a god. Feels bad I guess senpai.
fuck fedora tippers tho
Who's to say anything this "real".
Greeks used to consider their "Logos" as being outside themselves (who the fuck knows if that is true.). But they considered it some sort of truth.
Here the fuck we are now, still wondering if we're in some kind of fucking Matrix or just goddamn insane.
Nothing's truly changed for the human experience. Except some retards have accepted a whole lot of bullshit, while other retards have discarded it and then taken advantage or their bullshit mindspaces and greed to their advantage.
Get a grip and take control of your own futures.
Nothing out there (if there is anything out there) cares one way or another.
Yes, but I have already been wavering in my non-faith. I have had spiritual experiences in 2016, before and after the election, and am motivated enough to seek out Christianity further in the new year.
The founding fathers were deists. They were men of reason, white identitarians, liberals and patriots. The lying commies made this seem like they were atheists in the early days of the internet, but this was propaganda. I am thinking of starting there, since while they were not all Christians, they believed in a deity and must have come there through a position of reason. Atheists are not necessarily more scientific and correct, they probably just have better propaganda and language manipulation than the Christians.