People aren't atheists by default. Something must have happened in your life that made you an atheist...

People aren't atheists by default. Something must have happened in your life that made you an atheist. Can you tell me what that was?

scientific education

...

Application of logic and reason.

>People aren't atheists by default.
this is a lie and your whole premise is flawed.

Funny thing is the more I was pushed toward religion, the more I wanted to find flaws in it

I default didn't conceive of a god until I was told one existed then immediately disbelieved, but storyline about that moment I guess
>spend early years reading a lot about mythology; Greek, Norse, Egyptian etc.
>bringing in groceries one day, around 8-9 years old
>drop bag on foot
>exclaim "Jesus Christ!" which I only really thought of as an exclamation towards misfortune
>mom yells at me about saying it
>ask why I can't say it
>user "you just don't"
>why?
>"cause it's god's name"
>consider my mom stupid for thinking all those stories were real

so yeah is right

reading the various religious texts pushed me away further than I already was.

9th grade biology bro.

same here
Going to church every sunday as a teen is what made me stop being religious. I realized that every time I questioned something the church members just got frustrated. They wanted to shut down questioning.

Nigga every sentient creature is born atheist. As an infant, the closest thing we have as a concept of God is our mother. Like any detailed concept, "God" has to be taught.

turned 6 years old
santa wasn't real either go figure

Not being born with a mental disability

Same with religious schools. You challenge a science teacher and they explain what they know, you challenge a religion teacher and they shut down the conversation

>grow up around a bunch of Christians
>notice they never really follow the shit they talk about
>notice they hate others for their religion
>notice other religious people do the same
>Man this shit is stupid
and that's how I stopped giving two fucks about the bastardized concept called modern religion.

Honestly it just seems like a way for adults to bully children into acting how they want and nothing more. Like telling children if they're not good Santa won't bring them presents.

I read the Bible as a teen and deduced from just basic common sense that it was utter fucking bullshit.

Believing the Bible is literally the same as believing in Santa or watching Jurassic Park and believing there is a dinosaur park on an island halfway across the world.

That's the saddest part, really. You can obviously never get honest numbers, but there are loads of 'religious' people who realize too late that it's bullshit, but are too proud or too stubborn to quit. They shut down logical questions from younger people because they know damn well that there aren't good answers.

>Something must have happened in your life that made you an atheist
like being born

contrary to what the church folks say, the bible does not have "all the answers". they get really upset if you expose that. happened here too.

I was born.

Whoa now, let's not get Jurrasic Park involved here. I want to believe...

>I want to believe...
Religion in a nutshell

Yeah I was born into a cold, cruel world where God doesnt exist and the scariest thing is that no one is actually in charge

I was raped by a priest

Can someone save me some research and give me the quick rundown of why faithful people decided that a bunch of old records and stories was their one true religion? I always feel like I'm missing part of the logic.

My parents never took me to a church or spoke to me at all about religion. And I didn't turn out religious. People are religious because they teach you that shit when you still believe in fairy tales and by the time you reach the age of reason most people don't have the courage to admit everything they've believed is wrong.

I rapped with a priest.

Education

>logic
>religion
pick only one

I became happy after leaving behind the people of the religion I was born into.

According to them I could only be happy by following god. I'm happier now than I ever was with them.

I still haven't been smote.

If you want the exact event, it wasn't a single thing, it was a full decade of depression cause by their guilt tripping teachings.

...

Pure indoctrination, they are more than happy to consider themselves superior to those who "have no faith" or "lost their way"

my nigga!

not sure why they do that, but the funny thing to me is that both the bible's new testament and the quron are based on the torah. Those fuckers can't even agree on which version of the same religion is true. Christians are the worse about this, which is why they have so many denominations.. they can't agree on what the bible says or how to interpret it.

No it's not. Jurassic Park is way more believable.

If God isn't real then why is there thousands of people who had near death experiences and said they went to heaven? Or on dmt.

People aren't religious by default. Despite what religion teachers may have you believe.
>be 24 yo me about 8 years ago
>private Catholic grade/high school
>last year of college
>decidedto kill myself over some faggot girl
>think to myself if God is real hellsave me or some shit
>had been debating and was actually scared shit to denounce God etc
>occams razor only thing holding me to religion at this point
>massive Sup Forumstard think this place is what made me start to question things due to logic
>drink an entire case of beer and start driving
>I remember going 140mph on a downhill highway that leads into the big city intersection
>get to lights, going so fast
>instinct kicked in and somehow I swerve into a narrow driveway into a business parking lot tires screeching etc
>pass out in parking lot
>remember waking up hours later and thinking how fucking dumb it would have been to say God did that
>was my bad decision and physics could have accounted for how I actually survived by "miraculous" odds
>next day I remember just not giving a shit anymore
>still favor science over religion and am a big believer in "I don't know" what's out there, but to say a higher power with out any tangible evidence is asinine.

That shit just seems exhausting.

The odd thing about that is that the bible doesn't mention anything about an after life. The closet thing is Sheol.

See

Being a Costco member has its perks not only in the store but you can get discounts and benefits at certain affiliated businesses as well simply because you're a Costco member.

Religion often works the same way. Members of a church give other members benefits that non-members don't receive. This extends from the local to the federal level and always has since the beginning of religion in human history.

Misinterpretation, people take what they want from a situation.

One man sees a child's balloon that floated away into the distance, another man sees a ufo and starts preparing for an alien uprising.

from being combative in the 4 years of Catholic theology class I was forced to attend the closest thing I got to a solid answer on this was as part of an explanation on why Protestants were silly, basically since Protestants view the bible above any church and the Catholic Church established the bible as we know it the authority can't come from the bible, since it was established by men, but it also can since they were guided by the Holy Spirit

for most other religions I'd gather its a similar combination of tradition + "guided" by whatever deity + it was just decided at some point

Because people tend to :
-exaggerate
-lack knowledge of how the brain shuts down
-straight up lie

science and never witnessed an "act of god"i used to pray but none of that shit ever happened. also, religious freaks are crazy

Cool story. Fun to visualize.

Its not like a race or bunch of people looked at a bunch of old scriptures and picked up religion. It's been going since the sands of time. Some stories of the Bible, while most are untrue (miracles), could have been very truem

Soddahm and gommora(sp?) were real cities. People were animals back then. Governments of the time saw religion as a tool as its always been. Keeping the higher borns in power and taking from the lower.

Its been going on for years and won't be gone in our lifetime. It's exploits have made so many rich and has done some good in terms of stemming laws from commandments and keeping people in line.

Its a lot bigger than you're thinking. There's no one person who can teach you this. You must research.

Eddie Izard stand up made me question

It's strange how as scientific knowledge has advanced, gods miracles get less and less impressive

To many people have had these experiences for that statement to be true

Yeah, I sort of assumed it was simply me of those things where it's such a huge institutionalized thing now that nobody involved really questions the origins all that much. Like, my grandpa is religious but he basically just does what his reverend suggests and doesn't question it.

how did they know they were in heaven? have they visited it before?

Thousands of people believe elvis is still alive. By your logic that means it is true.

Kill yourself

Try dmt. God can't be proven or disproved. The universe is connected somehow and maybe "god" isn't an entity, but a particle in everything.

Yeah but I said that I don't want to research!

There's a difference between people who have experienced something rather than people who think Elvis is real because they saw a person who looked like him in a grocery store

Why are atheists closedminded, ignorant knowitalls? They don't even understand spirituality, which is different from religion.

>particle in everything
That isn't a god based on religion then, because then it would involve science. christians don't believe in the demonic propaganda like particles or science.

Could be them assuming of what they believe is heaven or hell.

My heart stopped when I was in emergency surgery. I had some crazy fucking dreams that seemed like they lasted for days, but I'm not deluded enough to think I saw heaven.

But I can understand how people could have a super intense near death experience. Doesn't mean what they saw was real.

I'm pretty sure people have to feed you a bunch of lies before you believe you are some giant-toddler-in-the-sky's play thing

Maybe God is a giant bobcat that resides in the Bermuda triangle and consumes travelers that come too close.

As the group with the less believable stories and lack of evidence, it is up to the religious to either prove their god exists or keep their beliefs to themselves.

The simplest answer to your original question would probably be, power.

You want to know how it all came to be? Or why people continued believing in these, what we can now thankfully debate, crazy teachings?

It came to be when people wanted answers to questions unknown. Simplest answer to the latter question is family tradition mostly oral in the beginning and just passing it on. Questioning it 500 years ago meant death, violently. So it kind of got engraved into society.

Again, no they haven't.

You are relying on the same thing that disproves it. All of these near-death fags "see the same thing" yes, but it's not because they all go to the same place. It's because humans all have the exact same organ in their skull, and when it starts to shut down, the signals are the same for everyone. A tunnel, moving toward the light, etc... It's all your brain doing what it does.

Not really. The story of original sin has Adam and Eve living in God's false paradise so long as they remain blissfully ignorant. Satan sets them on the path to learning the truth of the world which means to gain knowledge of it. Adam and Eve are awakened to the truth that the world is actually a cold, harsh place where every day is a struggle to survive. They find out that God lied to them.

Hahaha yeah. Why would multiple people lie after literally almost dying? They wouldn't.

Most aren't. It's the idiot atheists that are like that. The ones who think it's cool. Just like religion has its zealots. We too have ours. Ironic imo.

because being too open minded just makes your brain fall out

There is zero evidence for a deity or an afterlife. It is faith based. Faith is belief in something for which there is no evidence.

Do you know what else is belief in something for which there is no evidence? Delusion...

A delusional person is somebody who believes in something for which there is no evidence.

See this is where the bullshit starts.
As soon as it's obvious that the literal god of the bible is just plain silly and impossible, people start to make him more and more acstract to save some grace.
He goes from the man in the sky to 'some entitiy that lives in every particle'. What is that even supposed to mean? It's just some wishy-washy pseudo-spiritual bullshit.
If you have to remove 'god' from every and any tangible way of witnissing him, you've lready lost the debate.

Loads of atheists are spiritual, what are you talking about?

No one's any religion by default. Don't be stupid.

Oo also, the idea of hell to a layman is scary as fuck. I struggled with it for years and finally let go. He'll had me so scared, taught year after formative year, that I'm technically immortal, and would burn for eternity ONLY if I renounced God, kept me in for years. It was basically the only thing you couldn't go to confession and be absolved of. Even murder you can get into heaven.

I think the idea of hell is the most brilliant social invention of all eternity so far. I guess you could call it the greatest con of all time too, though. Brilliant none the less for keeping people in.

>Going to church every sunday as a teen is wh
So you dont even praise the Zeus bro?

>Going to church every sunday as a teen is wh
So you dont even praise the Zeus bro? Wtf?

That is the "strong atheist" who actively believe there is no god. But they have a belief and turn it into their religion. It's the weak atheists and agnostics who actually lack a belief, and also are less likely to be pushy or annoying about it.

This is why I have given up debating religious people. It is a waste of time. I just skip to the question:
>Is there anything that could ever shake your faith in god or make you question his existence?
If they say no then I'm done. I would rather pull my teeth with a pair of pliers than try to have a discussion with people like that.

Kek.
You're really unopen in believing anything, even in everyday life I can tell.

Their experiences can be different. No one even said anything about the "light at the end of the tunnel" meme

>People aren't atheists by default.
Yes they are. All religion is taught. Dipshit.

God told me he didn't exist so I became atheist

Yeah okay, that makes a lot of sense. Essentially Christianity really had to take hold when they did and become as powerful as possible, or else they would never have been the forced they are now once the masses learned to read and write and question authority.

Good work, Christians, I guess?

>7 billion people
>+all other people who have ever lived
>depictions of the afterlife have a lot in common with one another
>thoughts about death including the afterlife can reasonably be assumed to flood ones mind before any near death experience
>wishful thinking
>hallucination is a thing that happens
>improbable things happen

given that scale, prevalence and similairty of afterlife myths and imagery, likely state of mind before the afterlife vision, and that improbable things happen it is actually entirely possible that a god doesn't exist and the brain can see create images resembling an afterlife to fill lost time

>People aren't atheists by default.

uh, you got that backwards there chief.

they don't know that they are lying, it's their brain that is lying to them. Religious people often use their beliefs to fill in the blanks of what they don't understand. What if somebody who was an atheist had the same experience?

That same reasoning can be used to justify alien abductions and the chupacabra. People lie, people have delusions, it's just a fact of life.

>be me
>mom doesn't take us to church growing up
>go to church with gram when staying with her
>older sister starts going more often
>older sister gets confirmed
>have religious gf
>have religious friends
>talk WITH them
>think about it
>but science
>maybe there is room for both
>attend private lutheran college
>have to study many religions
>all while getting STEM degree
>make up mind

Honestly, I'm closer to a nihilist at this point. But I feel like a entertained the idea well enough. I even used to go to all my friends' churches with them. I think the communities they form are generally positive and supportive of their communities.

I even worked for a faith-based company for some years.

But I can't bring myself to believe anything, especially the idea that we would be able to know anything about it even a little (if it did somehow exist). It doesn't float well with me.

Just started thinking

Or people are just afraid of death and the idea that you can continue to live after you die is an idea idiots worldwide find appealing.

GOD CAN NOT BE PROVEN OR DISPROVED.

/THREAD

That's cool man. I was a Catholic four years until I realised it essentially disproves itself, but you just keep being superior.

It really is impressive. They still are a major power in the world. You're dead on with knowledge. The knowledge age will eventually kill it all.

The retardation of this post is astonishing.

It's not as black and white as that. These people will embellish or exaggerate for any number of reasons. It can be comforting to the rest of your family to say "heaven is real" or "I saw grandma".

Also, people love the fucking spotlight. If you almost die, you are suddenly a bit more interesting, so you make shit up to get more attention.

What's your point? You can't prove or disprove that an omnipotent zombie kitten golem doesn't live on Mars and rules over us telepathically with his magic artichoke either.

you're literally born with no knowledge of a god until you're told or taught that one exists.

...

If there's no afterlife then how do ghosts exist? Don't say they're not real. I've seen 5.

We're all born agnostic. Not athiest.

You didn't read my post at all.

God is midichlorians.

The point is what's the use in arguing for centuries when no one will ever be definitively right or wrong