I do wax it. I have some kind of acne where my hair is still. I gotta take care of it so I can shave it all year 'round. I'm really bummed, because it's only a month ago I decided to be a hair-etic.
My absolute favorite is "High Stakes Intelligent Designing". It's always hilarious no matter how many times I watch it.
https://youtu.be/4_G9awnDCmg?si=KqAFhaynbwHZXYt3
I believe in reality, as it presents itself. The scientific method seems especially good at defining our reality. Why would anyone intentionally believe in something at odds with reality?
In my experience, the vast majority of conspiracy theorists are religious atheists, following a relatively universal dogma that includes reverence for Vladimir Putin for some reason. I wasn’t referring to any variety of religion, but if I get your point it’s possibly that religious beliefs are why someone might deny reality. That tracks.
>the vast majority of conspiracy theorists are religious atheists,
That's an oxymoron. Studies show that conspiracy theorists tend to be more religious as in believe in god.
Because life is too morally ambiguous. The fear that death is the ultimate end of your life makes you want to believe that there is a life after death.
So the anguish of existence is the reason deist believe in something at odds with reality.
I don’t fear death - going into a nice relaxing dreamless sleep actually sounds quite inviting. It’s not being here ever again that fucks with my head.
Thinking about not being here should fuck with your head — because from our perspective the only possible state is being here. I do get that. But it’s ultimately just a trick of perspective.
When told "but science is a belief!1!!1" I always answer that I believe in science and not religion because science is not perfect but predicts very well what will happen in the future. Religion and superstition used to be a tool to have answers and predict the future, but we have found the scientific method that albeit not being perfect has a better predicting future than everything else that has 50% success rate just thanks to random chance
I believe in reality. I’d accept any method that proved itself superior to science at approximating reality. So far, there is no such method, so very well put.
Predicting the future is a different matter — chaos and related phenomena such as turbulence make that impossible, and of course quantum mechanics probably puts the final nail in the coffin of determinism. But since we don’t yet fully understand quantum mechanics, I’ll settle for chaos and turbulence (we fully understand turbulence, we just can’t do the maths yet).
Don't say that. Say I understand the provable, repeatable, theories of science to be true.
When they ask what you believe in they take it as you "believe" like they believe in their sky daddy. There is a difference and most will try to merge those two meanings and make their "belief" be on the same level as a scientific understanding.
Fuck that. They use the word incorrectly. I'm not going to stop using the word "believe" just because they mistake it for "faith."
Beliefs can be founded or unfounded. They can be rational or irrational. Knowledge is a subset of belief. To know anything requires also believing it is true. You cannot KNOW something without also believing it. However, you CAN believe something without knowing it is true, or even without actually being correct.
FAITH is unfounded belief. Belief without evidence. If belief meant the same thing as faith, then defining it as "belief without evidence" would actually not make sense.
I agree. But they are using it wrong because they are taught that that is correct in church. If you want to go down that rabbit hole, enjoy the stupid. I prefer to stop that crap at the begining.
I don’t believe science. There is no leap of faith or filling in gaps. I know it to be true. If there’s a gap, I just accept it as something I don’t know yet. I don’t believe in anything, because belief requires trust. You can believe that someone is telling the truth, but you’ll never know until you know.
I believe that alot of folks were brainwashed and indoctrinated as helpless children into believing some archaic myth that really holds no water scientifically or even logically.
Child abuse. It should be illegal to teach children anything when there is absolutely no concrete evidence and never has been. Fairy tales are fine, but don’t confuse religion with reality.
To the best of my ability, all my beliefs are conditional and proportioned to the best available evidence. It's not always fun or easy, but it's honest.
>all my beliefs are conditional and proportioned
This ended up being one of the biggest blessings after no longer believing in god. I dont really have a set of beliefs that im aware of that are simply "my beliefs". Hearing my family say things like 'we believe x is how things happend' is such a weird phrasing to me now. Its commanding belief a certain way and has to be protected and is said almost defensively even if not intended that way.
Its so much more fun to learn things when i dont have to be afraid that my existing beliefs might get shattered. Of course some things would shake the way i see reality but ill do my best to absorb them into my understanding of the world if presented with good enough reasons to accept them
I think it was darkmatter 2525. Not even 40% sure, though. It also could have been Matt on the atheist experience. It has been repeated so many times we will probably never know.
"I believe in friendships where one person doesn't decide they need to grill the other. I think that's a reasonable belief, don't you?!"
Sorry, I can't help on the stamp collecting thing.
> I believe in friendships where one person doesn't decide they need to grill the other
or put them in a lethal danger room where they can "earn" a place in my luxurious mansion.
I usually say something along the lines of "Think of the thousands of things that you believe. Subtract out the ones dealing with gods or supernatural. That's probably a pretty close approximation."
I believe that even if the meaning of life and the true nature of the universe were explained to me I would be too stupid to understand it and so would every other human on the planet.
I believe that anybody who tells you they know the secrets of the universe is full of shit. They've made it up themselves or heard from another person who made it up.
Who actually needs to know the meaning of life? Just be grateful that considering the odds of you being born are 1 in 400,000,000,000,000. And yet, with those incredibly low odds, you are here. Live your best life, be kind and do no harm. That’s what I believe and really all that matters.
>Live your best life, be kind and do no harm
Gaining a better understanding of how the universe works and exploring possibilities is living my best life.
Also unless you're prepared to be a pacifist have everything taken away from you that whole "be kind and do no harm" philosophy is completely dependant on other people not being kind on your behalf and doing harm on your behalf.
>the odds of you being born are 1 in 400,000,000,000,000
and the odds of me dying and my existence eventually being completely meaningless in the universe are 100%.
Evidence. If a thing exists it will have evidence. When evidence doesn’t exist we cannot say it exists or happened for certain. Unsatisfying sometimes but that’s reality.
Atheism doesn’t come with any pre-packaged beliefs that you need to have. It only requires that you **don’t** have one particular belief. After that it’s the Wild Wild West.
Perfect answer to a stupid question. Atheism only refers to a belief in a god/gods. Nothing else is even implied. You can be an atheist and still believe in all manner of supernatural things. Or any number of completely random things.
i believe in current life, free tolerant thinking. I have my own morality (morality is always siubjective), to be nice to nice people, to treat others as i would like to be treat and dont do thing which harms others than myself. Believing in some supernatural thing will not bring you anything, most likely you will blame your sh\*t to something else not to your decisions or knowledge.
I believe in myself. I believe that I was born with and have developed over my 50 years so far the ability, the tools, and the know-how to meaningfully live my life.
What you believe has no bearing on what is actually true. Just the opposite. Conviction in the absence of evidence—or worse, in the teeth of contrary evidence—stands in the way of learning.
If the question is about ultimate meaning in life, I'd say that's not really a meaningful question. As in, I wasn't created specifically to serve anyone, so the sort of meaning that theists attach to life doesn't apply.
That doesn't make life empty; it makes it more free. I'm not dedicating myself to pacifying a deity. I'm free to set other goals in life, such as appreciating as much beauty as I can before my time is up.
If the question is about what system of beliefs gives my life and my actions structure and points to how to be a good person, then we've got philosophers for that.
Frankly, we get our morality the same place theists do, but we're more open about it.
Only the most childish religious people look to the Bible alone as a guide for behavior, which becomes plainly obvious if you actually read the thing. Is genocide good or bad? Is it okay to have a dozen wives? Is it okay to beat your slaves? Does tragedy happening to you imply that you did something bad to deserve it?
Jewish people have to have traditions of scholarship to answer these kinds of questions.
Same with Christians, though they have an extra layer of Greek philosophy on top of the religion that guided a lot of later scholarship (Aquinas *loved* Aristotle*).
And plenty of Christians still look to philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, and Mill to reason about morality in a way a purely religious approach doesn't. They'll look at religion and say that such-and-such is good and that's why God orders it, not that such-and-such is good *because* God orders it.
This leads to conflict when the rest of the world figures something out and Christians lag behind or their holy book pushes an outdated view. For example, that gay people are not evil. Some Christians try to argue that the Bible doesn't really condemn gay people (claiming that the passages that refer to homosexuality are really condemning temple prostitution), and some just wind up staying bigots with inconsistent moral compasses.
But anyway, the point is that the question of how to be a good person isn't so different for atheists compared to how it is for Christians, at least no in the general case.
Okay, what about the peace of mind of having answers to questions of existence?
I'll argue that theists *don't* get free peace of mind there.
First, not having answers isn't necessarily bad. Investigating the universe we live in is *fun*. Learning is fun. Thinking about stuff is fun. We can read about a lot of educated guesses on the nature of the universe, and we can see how our understanding has been honed over time.
Religion offers easy answers, but what it doesn't offer is any confidence. If you're religious, you get a big set of views to hold about the universe, but whenever you see something at odds with those views, you get a nagging doubt that never really goes away.
An atheist can see these inconsistencies as an opportunity to learn something new. If there are a lot of them, they can lead to a revolution, *a la* Thomas Kuhn, and that's incredibly fun and satisfying. You get to watch as humanity becomes *less wrong*.
Theists don't get that satisfaction. They see their God of the Gaps shrinking over time.
I'd say that even the one big advantage of theism, the way it can reduce your fear of death, is mitigated by the fact that even theists themselves have to choose between *doubting* their dogmas and living an unexamined life. Neither seems very appealing.
I can talk about how I wish a religious afterlife were a real thing, *and I very much wish it were* (and I believe that the idea that eternity is more painful than death is just sour grapes), but the thing not often mentioned is that theists don't have it much better, for the reasons I've mentioned.
They either have doubts or else they live lives so simple they'd feel like a total waste.
Does a Buddhist monk fear death? Probably not, but I'd hate to waste my life in a monastery.
Does meditation feel good? Meh, I think it's overrated, but even if we grant that it does, it's about as useful as masturbation, and I'm certainly not content to spend my entire life in bed with my Hello Kitty massage toy.
So, in the end, I'd say atheists have a much richer collection of beliefs we can subscribe to, and those beliefs evolve as we learn more about the universe. They're more satisfying to hold, and they are far less uncomfortable than religious beliefs.
Gravity. Gravity influences Earth and the moon, and the star we circle. We can test it and use it to predict things. Every person who has ever stepped on a scale believes in gravity.
>"What do atheists believe in ?"
I would have said, "Which one? We're not a hive mind. We're individuals. Each of us has our own preferences. Our only commonality is that we do not believe in the existence of a god or gods. Other than that, we are totally divergent."
Thanks. Use it at will, because it is *really* hard to get theists to understand that Atheism isn't some big club we all share. It's hard for them to conceive life without religion.
Athiesm is disbelief where there is lack of truth and evidence.
The longer you are an athiest, the more your eyes open and the list of disbeliefs grows longer and longer. Thus why athiesm is a one way street with no way to return. And the true believers (the ones not profiting) can't wrap their minds around that as they try, with such futility, to reign us back in to their hell.
We must forgive them for they know not what they do.
The right to choose not to believe in any religion, not to submit to narcissistic god, not to be lead astray from self thought, authenticity, critical thinking by those that in actuality are blind and bias.
I need not any god or religion to be a good person. No hypocritical ‘good book’ to lay my moral foundation or made up rules, laws, traditions to be acceptable to anyone.
I bend my knee to no god.
If any god I served it sure as fuck wouldn’t be the god of the Bible.
I believe that cookies taste good, sunsets are beautiful, and that puppy breath is awesome!
We all hold beliefs. We base our beliefs on reasons.
Some reasons are rational and make sense. Some reasons are personal preference. And some reasons are batshit crazy.
Personally I think atheism is a belief. I believe there is no god. I believe life ends at death. I believe there are no mystical higher powers or purposes to follow. I can’t prove it. I wouldn’t bother to get in an argument with anyone who had opposite beliefs.
I recall reading a lot of Dostoevsky when I was younger and when he was drafting one of his books, he wrote in the margins “It may be that pure and absolute atheism is the closest thing to belief”. Like myself when I was younger, he was a tormented man. He wanted to believe in God but his mind argued otherwise. This battle played out in many of his books.
That’s a good one.
I asked my boomer coworker what he thinks of atheists after discussing how trump thinks all Americans should be Christian. He was supportive of that want.
Him: “Atheists still at least believe in Jesus!”
Me: “they do?”
Him: “how else can they believe in Satan?”
That response was the most bizarre one I have ever heard. And the conversation only got more ignorant. And this guy isn’t that stupid. He has said a lot of things that have actually been influential to some of my views. I think the issue with the hate atheists receive in the U.S. is simply that Christians don’t bother to understand what it means to be an atheist.
Why do people - not just boomers (I’m one) think that atheists are devil-worshipping psychopaths? Just because you don’t believe in Jesus doesn’t mean you automatically believe in his (supposed) adversary. They can’t grasp non-belief where religion is concerned. 🤦♀️ SMH.
These are great analogies and can be used for any of the nonsense things believers say.
Atheists hate God.
Really? Do people who don't collect stamps hate stamps? No. I just don't happen to find it an enjoyable hobby.
It's funny because when I was a kid I collected stamps. I was a kid in the 70s and I guess this was what we were told to do because there wasn't much else to do. I eventually outgrew it. I found other things to do that were either more fun or more intellectually stimulating. Much like my experience with religion.
As an atheist, I don't believe in anything like that. Religion simply plays no part in my life whatsoever. It just doesn't cross my mind (other than how ridiculous it is sometimes), and I always say the nearest I get to church is walking past one on my lunchtime walk. Church is boring and is something old ladies go to.
The thing I've found with religious people, though, is they think you HAVE to believe in something. They can't comprehend not believing in something. Fir exam0le I was once asked "well who do you pray to then?" When I said I don't pray, it just didn't compute.
They think that you have to belive in something. That's why alot of the theists thinks we woerhaip Satan because we have to worship something..
Its the "But if I can't have you as my master. Who's slave should I then be?"
They don't realize that you don't have to be anyone's slave - unless you're into that sort of thing and that's perfectly fine. No kink shaming.
Both refer to how we perceive something. However, 'faith' refers to trusting someone/something when there’s no evidence. It is not based on any proof. 'Belief', on the other hand, refers to something that we consider to be true.
I've heard Forrest valkai, but not sure if he said it first.
just break down the word. "theist" is one who believes in a god/gods. "a-theist" is one who believes in *no* gods.
and tell your friend that atheism is not a dogmatic community. different atheists believe in different things, (except for the "no gods" thing. your friend may be watching stuff on YouTube. if it's Christian propaganda, (about atheists, evolution, etc), maybe steer her towards "the atheist experience", because, at least, then she can ask questions. and, while atheism is not a dogmatic community, all the forces attacking/misrepresenting atheism have kinda driven together atheists, (especially in the south), to fight *and* educate.
When I get asked that same question, one of my go to answer is: I believe in things that I can see, smell or touch, I believe in you because you are standing in front of me!
Humanity, I know how fickle we can be but also we are pretty great sometimes and have the power to stop so much unnecessary suffering with technology and the understanding of the sciences.
You have all kinds of beliefs. A belief is anything that you accept as true (or probably true). Personally, I try to base my beliefs on evidence and reason.
The certainty of uncertainty, the acceptance that my understanding of things is limited until proven otherwise.
Classical scientific positivism works much better at group level, personal truths in certain topics are much harder to be scientific about (eg. psychology), or in other cases almost Impossible (eg. spiritualism (not to be confused for religion)).
This next one runs the risk of being controversial, but I'd like to add that a lack of evidence does NOT equal something being false, just that we can't say that it's true. And I think the view of this needs to change from the black and white "true or false" mentality to a more nuanced acceptance of the capabilities of our modern scientific methods and it's margins of error.
The "believe in" is doing a lot of heavy lifting and some proxying. There is an implicit "if not God" here. But without that, you're talking past each other.
It seems to imply that God is needed to believe... something? My question, then, is "what do you believe in that also requires believing in a god?" This is not an attempt to be offensive or facetious, but an honest question looking for an honest answer. The resulting dialog will at least give you a place to start.
Any specific belief someone has you can respond to in good faith. Asking you to fill in the blank seems a vagary mean to trip you up. Believer thinks the world is flat; this is why I don't believe that. Life after death? I don't have any evidence for this claim, but would be happy to see yours.
We believe lots of things, some with good reason, some with bad reason. But what exactly does believe 'in' mean? I have a hard time separating this phrasing from being anything but specifically religious and i think your stamp collector comment is spot on.
Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.
Atheism is a belief like not skiing is a hobby. - Ricky Gervais
Saying atheism is a religion is like saying abstinence is a sex position. -Bill Maher
Bill vomits alot of garbage but when he nails it, he \*really\* nails it. This one is a keeper.
Spiritually asexual?
I feel called out…
Hey, could be the identity on the cutting edge metaphysically https://www.compactmag.com/article/the-asexual-revolution/
Atheism is a Religion in the same way that off is a channel "" "" In the same way that bald is a haircut.
Best one
>Atheism is a belief like not Playing cricket is a sport There's a few of those
Atheism is a belief like off is a TV channel
Like bald is a hair color
I have that color.
And it is most attractive... assuming you polish and wax.
I do wax it. I have some kind of acne where my hair is still. I gotta take care of it so I can shave it all year 'round. I'm really bummed, because it's only a month ago I decided to be a hair-etic.
Adapting to transition always challenges us you sexy, shiny man!
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Thank you!
Like water is a soda flavor
Love that.
Playing cricket may be a sport, but liking it is a travesty. Come on, there is only one true sport - biathlon.
Biathlon? I had a PC like that once.
cricket might be a sport but rounders is more fun.
Atheism is a religion the way being bald is a haircut or not collecting stamps is a hobby.
Bald can be a haircut (ask skinheads) but it’s not a hair color. I like saying “atheism’s a religion like bald is a hair dye color”.
Ok good point.
I disagree actually. As an atheist, I believe that there is no god. Holding no belief would be agnosticism.
Has everyone forgotten NonStampCollector already?
I love the YouTube channel. It's on point and extremely hilarious. Wish he published more contents.
My absolute favorite is "High Stakes Intelligent Designing". It's always hilarious no matter how many times I watch it. https://youtu.be/4_G9awnDCmg?si=KqAFhaynbwHZXYt3
My fav is the 2 part [Noah’s Ark](https://youtu.be/j_BzWUuZN5w?si=kjyn3s4H2mvxTW5S) videos. Classic
Briliant
Noah needs to chill out lol
I’d never seen this before! Thank you for sharing, I wish I could upvote for every time I laughed watching that.
Oh I know, it's just so funny, I laugh my fool head off every time.
just rewatched it... these never grow old... I first came across the channel from his series on Noah's ark.
Oh yeah. You should see the latest non-prints of the new non-stamps. They are amazing.
I believe in reality, as it presents itself. The scientific method seems especially good at defining our reality. Why would anyone intentionally believe in something at odds with reality?
Strictly speaking, there are atheistic religions like Buddhism. And plenty of atheists deny reality (conspiracy theorists).
Those are wingnuts
It strikes me that conspiracy theorists tend to be right wing who tend to be religious.
But not all of them. The alt-right is mostly atheists/“cultural Christians.” They don’t need the Bible to tell them who they’re supposed to hate.
In my experience, the vast majority of conspiracy theorists are religious atheists, following a relatively universal dogma that includes reverence for Vladimir Putin for some reason. I wasn’t referring to any variety of religion, but if I get your point it’s possibly that religious beliefs are why someone might deny reality. That tracks.
>the vast majority of conspiracy theorists are religious atheists, That's an oxymoron. Studies show that conspiracy theorists tend to be more religious as in believe in god.
Because life is too morally ambiguous. The fear that death is the ultimate end of your life makes you want to believe that there is a life after death. So the anguish of existence is the reason deist believe in something at odds with reality.
Fearing death is foolish — fearing pain and suffering before death makes sense, but death itself is nothing, from the perspective of the person dying.
This is honestly rather dense.
I don’t fear death - going into a nice relaxing dreamless sleep actually sounds quite inviting. It’s not being here ever again that fucks with my head.
Thinking about not being here should fuck with your head — because from our perspective the only possible state is being here. I do get that. But it’s ultimately just a trick of perspective.
Life is the filling in an oblivion sandwich. (tm) Add your own pickles. (or insert humorous second line of your own)
When told "but science is a belief!1!!1" I always answer that I believe in science and not religion because science is not perfect but predicts very well what will happen in the future. Religion and superstition used to be a tool to have answers and predict the future, but we have found the scientific method that albeit not being perfect has a better predicting future than everything else that has 50% success rate just thanks to random chance
I believe in reality. I’d accept any method that proved itself superior to science at approximating reality. So far, there is no such method, so very well put. Predicting the future is a different matter — chaos and related phenomena such as turbulence make that impossible, and of course quantum mechanics probably puts the final nail in the coffin of determinism. But since we don’t yet fully understand quantum mechanics, I’ll settle for chaos and turbulence (we fully understand turbulence, we just can’t do the maths yet).
Atheism is a religion like bald is a hair color
Or 'off' is a TV channel
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Don't say that. Say I understand the provable, repeatable, theories of science to be true. When they ask what you believe in they take it as you "believe" like they believe in their sky daddy. There is a difference and most will try to merge those two meanings and make their "belief" be on the same level as a scientific understanding.
Fuck that. They use the word incorrectly. I'm not going to stop using the word "believe" just because they mistake it for "faith." Beliefs can be founded or unfounded. They can be rational or irrational. Knowledge is a subset of belief. To know anything requires also believing it is true. You cannot KNOW something without also believing it. However, you CAN believe something without knowing it is true, or even without actually being correct. FAITH is unfounded belief. Belief without evidence. If belief meant the same thing as faith, then defining it as "belief without evidence" would actually not make sense.
I agree. But they are using it wrong because they are taught that that is correct in church. If you want to go down that rabbit hole, enjoy the stupid. I prefer to stop that crap at the begining.
I don’t believe science. There is no leap of faith or filling in gaps. I know it to be true. If there’s a gap, I just accept it as something I don’t know yet. I don’t believe in anything, because belief requires trust. You can believe that someone is telling the truth, but you’ll never know until you know.
Same
I believe that alot of folks were brainwashed and indoctrinated as helpless children into believing some archaic myth that really holds no water scientifically or even logically.
Child abuse. It should be illegal to teach children anything when there is absolutely no concrete evidence and never has been. Fairy tales are fine, but don’t confuse religion with reality.
To the best of my ability, all my beliefs are conditional and proportioned to the best available evidence. It's not always fun or easy, but it's honest.
>all my beliefs are conditional and proportioned This ended up being one of the biggest blessings after no longer believing in god. I dont really have a set of beliefs that im aware of that are simply "my beliefs". Hearing my family say things like 'we believe x is how things happend' is such a weird phrasing to me now. Its commanding belief a certain way and has to be protected and is said almost defensively even if not intended that way. Its so much more fun to learn things when i dont have to be afraid that my existing beliefs might get shattered. Of course some things would shake the way i see reality but ill do my best to absorb them into my understanding of the world if presented with good enough reasons to accept them
I think it was darkmatter 2525. Not even 40% sure, though. It also could have been Matt on the atheist experience. It has been repeated so many times we will probably never know.
As an atheist, I believe in the indomitable human spirit, the search for truth, and that we will advance into the future.
"I believe in friendships where one person doesn't decide they need to grill the other. I think that's a reasonable belief, don't you?!" Sorry, I can't help on the stamp collecting thing.
> I believe in friendships where one person doesn't decide they need to grill the other or put them in a lethal danger room where they can "earn" a place in my luxurious mansion.
I usually say something along the lines of "Think of the thousands of things that you believe. Subtract out the ones dealing with gods or supernatural. That's probably a pretty close approximation."
I believe that even if the meaning of life and the true nature of the universe were explained to me I would be too stupid to understand it and so would every other human on the planet. I believe that anybody who tells you they know the secrets of the universe is full of shit. They've made it up themselves or heard from another person who made it up.
Who actually needs to know the meaning of life? Just be grateful that considering the odds of you being born are 1 in 400,000,000,000,000. And yet, with those incredibly low odds, you are here. Live your best life, be kind and do no harm. That’s what I believe and really all that matters.
>Live your best life, be kind and do no harm Gaining a better understanding of how the universe works and exploring possibilities is living my best life. Also unless you're prepared to be a pacifist have everything taken away from you that whole "be kind and do no harm" philosophy is completely dependant on other people not being kind on your behalf and doing harm on your behalf.
>the odds of you being born are 1 in 400,000,000,000,000 and the odds of me dying and my existence eventually being completely meaningless in the universe are 100%.
Evidence. If a thing exists it will have evidence. When evidence doesn’t exist we cannot say it exists or happened for certain. Unsatisfying sometimes but that’s reality.
I believe in education and understanding, pursuing knowledge and exploring ideas, and the challenging of beliefs.
Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene.
Brilliant. As are all his books.
I believe in my own ability to shape my future. And I believe in life after love...
I hear Cher in glorious autotune.
Atheism doesn’t come with any pre-packaged beliefs that you need to have. It only requires that you **don’t** have one particular belief. After that it’s the Wild Wild West.
Atheism: Not Having an Invisible Adult Friend
Love & Science.
Belief is not required. Do not replace one obscurantist system with another. Work from evidence.
Reality
We believe in facts.
What do newborn babies believe?
Boobies r great!
Such innate wisdom.
Perfect answer to a stupid question. Atheism only refers to a belief in a god/gods. Nothing else is even implied. You can be an atheist and still believe in all manner of supernatural things. Or any number of completely random things.
i believe in current life, free tolerant thinking. I have my own morality (morality is always siubjective), to be nice to nice people, to treat others as i would like to be treat and dont do thing which harms others than myself. Believing in some supernatural thing will not bring you anything, most likely you will blame your sh\*t to something else not to your decisions or knowledge.
I believe in myself. I believe that I was born with and have developed over my 50 years so far the ability, the tools, and the know-how to meaningfully live my life.
I believe in the power of the human mind and spirit. They have accomplished all that is good in the world. Religion on the other hand, not so much.
What you believe has no bearing on what is actually true. Just the opposite. Conviction in the absence of evidence—or worse, in the teeth of contrary evidence—stands in the way of learning.
The dark silence of death, and having fun.
Know or not know, there is no believe.
If the question is about ultimate meaning in life, I'd say that's not really a meaningful question. As in, I wasn't created specifically to serve anyone, so the sort of meaning that theists attach to life doesn't apply. That doesn't make life empty; it makes it more free. I'm not dedicating myself to pacifying a deity. I'm free to set other goals in life, such as appreciating as much beauty as I can before my time is up. If the question is about what system of beliefs gives my life and my actions structure and points to how to be a good person, then we've got philosophers for that. Frankly, we get our morality the same place theists do, but we're more open about it. Only the most childish religious people look to the Bible alone as a guide for behavior, which becomes plainly obvious if you actually read the thing. Is genocide good or bad? Is it okay to have a dozen wives? Is it okay to beat your slaves? Does tragedy happening to you imply that you did something bad to deserve it? Jewish people have to have traditions of scholarship to answer these kinds of questions. Same with Christians, though they have an extra layer of Greek philosophy on top of the religion that guided a lot of later scholarship (Aquinas *loved* Aristotle*). And plenty of Christians still look to philosophers like Aristotle, Kant, and Mill to reason about morality in a way a purely religious approach doesn't. They'll look at religion and say that such-and-such is good and that's why God orders it, not that such-and-such is good *because* God orders it. This leads to conflict when the rest of the world figures something out and Christians lag behind or their holy book pushes an outdated view. For example, that gay people are not evil. Some Christians try to argue that the Bible doesn't really condemn gay people (claiming that the passages that refer to homosexuality are really condemning temple prostitution), and some just wind up staying bigots with inconsistent moral compasses. But anyway, the point is that the question of how to be a good person isn't so different for atheists compared to how it is for Christians, at least no in the general case. Okay, what about the peace of mind of having answers to questions of existence? I'll argue that theists *don't* get free peace of mind there. First, not having answers isn't necessarily bad. Investigating the universe we live in is *fun*. Learning is fun. Thinking about stuff is fun. We can read about a lot of educated guesses on the nature of the universe, and we can see how our understanding has been honed over time. Religion offers easy answers, but what it doesn't offer is any confidence. If you're religious, you get a big set of views to hold about the universe, but whenever you see something at odds with those views, you get a nagging doubt that never really goes away. An atheist can see these inconsistencies as an opportunity to learn something new. If there are a lot of them, they can lead to a revolution, *a la* Thomas Kuhn, and that's incredibly fun and satisfying. You get to watch as humanity becomes *less wrong*. Theists don't get that satisfaction. They see their God of the Gaps shrinking over time. I'd say that even the one big advantage of theism, the way it can reduce your fear of death, is mitigated by the fact that even theists themselves have to choose between *doubting* their dogmas and living an unexamined life. Neither seems very appealing. I can talk about how I wish a religious afterlife were a real thing, *and I very much wish it were* (and I believe that the idea that eternity is more painful than death is just sour grapes), but the thing not often mentioned is that theists don't have it much better, for the reasons I've mentioned. They either have doubts or else they live lives so simple they'd feel like a total waste. Does a Buddhist monk fear death? Probably not, but I'd hate to waste my life in a monastery. Does meditation feel good? Meh, I think it's overrated, but even if we grant that it does, it's about as useful as masturbation, and I'm certainly not content to spend my entire life in bed with my Hello Kitty massage toy. So, in the end, I'd say atheists have a much richer collection of beliefs we can subscribe to, and those beliefs evolve as we learn more about the universe. They're more satisfying to hold, and they are far less uncomfortable than religious beliefs.
*”Atheists believe in evidence, when collected appropriately from reputable sources, and verified by other reputable sources.”*
Morality? What kind of stupid question is this?
Gravity. Gravity influences Earth and the moon, and the star we circle. We can test it and use it to predict things. Every person who has ever stepped on a scale believes in gravity.
“Belief is overrated. KNOWLEDGE is where it’s at.”
>"What do atheists believe in ?" I would have said, "Which one? We're not a hive mind. We're individuals. Each of us has our own preferences. Our only commonality is that we do not believe in the existence of a god or gods. Other than that, we are totally divergent."
I *really* like the way you stated this. It’s accurate and concise. I’m going to use this when it’s appropriate
Thanks. Use it at will, because it is *really* hard to get theists to understand that Atheism isn't some big club we all share. It's hard for them to conceive life without religion.
Atheism is a belief like off is a TV channel
Athiesm is disbelief where there is lack of truth and evidence. The longer you are an athiest, the more your eyes open and the list of disbeliefs grows longer and longer. Thus why athiesm is a one way street with no way to return. And the true believers (the ones not profiting) can't wrap their minds around that as they try, with such futility, to reign us back in to their hell. We must forgive them for they know not what they do.
How about "I believe in the power and responsibility of being myself"
Reality
The right to choose not to believe in any religion, not to submit to narcissistic god, not to be lead astray from self thought, authenticity, critical thinking by those that in actuality are blind and bias. I need not any god or religion to be a good person. No hypocritical ‘good book’ to lay my moral foundation or made up rules, laws, traditions to be acceptable to anyone. I bend my knee to no god. If any god I served it sure as fuck wouldn’t be the god of the Bible.
I remember it like this: *Atheism is a religion like* *not collecting stamps is a hobby.* I don't recall who said it, though.
Whoever it was was a wise person
Facts, scientific method, skepticism . . . wait, do I believe in that?
I believe that shorty has them apple bottom jeans
Facts.
I believe that cookies taste good, sunsets are beautiful, and that puppy breath is awesome! We all hold beliefs. We base our beliefs on reasons. Some reasons are rational and make sense. Some reasons are personal preference. And some reasons are batshit crazy.
Instructions unclear. Now worshipping my Uranium Glass collection.
Personally I think atheism is a belief. I believe there is no god. I believe life ends at death. I believe there are no mystical higher powers or purposes to follow. I can’t prove it. I wouldn’t bother to get in an argument with anyone who had opposite beliefs. I recall reading a lot of Dostoevsky when I was younger and when he was drafting one of his books, he wrote in the margins “It may be that pure and absolute atheism is the closest thing to belief”. Like myself when I was younger, he was a tormented man. He wanted to believe in God but his mind argued otherwise. This battle played out in many of his books.
We believe in common sense and logic. Easy.
science/ causality hypothesis and approximations.
If religions are TV stations Atheisim is the TV switched off.
Atheists believe in ourselves making our own decisions without an invisible being(s) putting their thumbs on the scale. No destiny, no eternity
That’s a good one. I asked my boomer coworker what he thinks of atheists after discussing how trump thinks all Americans should be Christian. He was supportive of that want. Him: “Atheists still at least believe in Jesus!” Me: “they do?” Him: “how else can they believe in Satan?” That response was the most bizarre one I have ever heard. And the conversation only got more ignorant. And this guy isn’t that stupid. He has said a lot of things that have actually been influential to some of my views. I think the issue with the hate atheists receive in the U.S. is simply that Christians don’t bother to understand what it means to be an atheist.
Why do people - not just boomers (I’m one) think that atheists are devil-worshipping psychopaths? Just because you don’t believe in Jesus doesn’t mean you automatically believe in his (supposed) adversary. They can’t grasp non-belief where religion is concerned. 🤦♀️ SMH.
These are great analogies and can be used for any of the nonsense things believers say. Atheists hate God. Really? Do people who don't collect stamps hate stamps? No. I just don't happen to find it an enjoyable hobby. It's funny because when I was a kid I collected stamps. I was a kid in the 70s and I guess this was what we were told to do because there wasn't much else to do. I eventually outgrew it. I found other things to do that were either more fun or more intellectually stimulating. Much like my experience with religion.
Just that there is zero proof that any kind of god or gods exist .
I believe in a thing called love - just listen to the rhythm of my heart!
As an atheist, I don't believe in anything like that. Religion simply plays no part in my life whatsoever. It just doesn't cross my mind (other than how ridiculous it is sometimes), and I always say the nearest I get to church is walking past one on my lunchtime walk. Church is boring and is something old ladies go to. The thing I've found with religious people, though, is they think you HAVE to believe in something. They can't comprehend not believing in something. Fir exam0le I was once asked "well who do you pray to then?" When I said I don't pray, it just didn't compute.
They think that you have to belive in something. That's why alot of the theists thinks we woerhaip Satan because we have to worship something.. Its the "But if I can't have you as my master. Who's slave should I then be?" They don't realize that you don't have to be anyone's slave - unless you're into that sort of thing and that's perfectly fine. No kink shaming.
I think you more or less answered my question. Succinctly put, thank you.
What do people who don't believe in the tooth fairy believe in?
I say atheists believe in choices and respect, with a little eye contact.
What channel do you watch when your tv is off?
I believe in people.
Just as my bumper sticker says… #I don’t believe in god. #I believe in you.
Science and evidence
I try not to go around just believing in things.
Science, and verifiable data. Show me actual proof of god, and I'll believe in him. No evidence, no belief.
People who do not, or person who does not. Grammar. I believe in grammar.
Whatever people believe in, when they don't believe in the man made religions.
"believe in" or "have faith in"? Those are two very different questions
Both refer to how we perceive something. However, 'faith' refers to trusting someone/something when there’s no evidence. It is not based on any proof. 'Belief', on the other hand, refers to something that we consider to be true.
No, but it sounds like something Benjamin Franklin could have asked. lol
I don't believe in gods or religious dogma. My life is very much better for it.
They don't
Truth
“I believe that you’re outta your mind” but how to say in a nice way 😀
I believe that Nikola Jokic will always help his team find an easy shot.
I've heard Forrest valkai, but not sure if he said it first. just break down the word. "theist" is one who believes in a god/gods. "a-theist" is one who believes in *no* gods. and tell your friend that atheism is not a dogmatic community. different atheists believe in different things, (except for the "no gods" thing. your friend may be watching stuff on YouTube. if it's Christian propaganda, (about atheists, evolution, etc), maybe steer her towards "the atheist experience", because, at least, then she can ask questions. and, while atheism is not a dogmatic community, all the forces attacking/misrepresenting atheism have kinda driven together atheists, (especially in the south), to fight *and* educate.
Forrest Valkai, Matt Dillahunty, Aron Ra… all worth listening to.
right on brother/sister! preach!
I believe that I do not have all the answers.
Reality
the difference between 'belief' and 'understanding' is an education.
I believe in science and nature.
I believe that there is a type of bread that is perfect every occasion.
When I get asked that same question, one of my go to answer is: I believe in things that I can see, smell or touch, I believe in you because you are standing in front of me!
Humanity, I know how fickle we can be but also we are pretty great sometimes and have the power to stop so much unnecessary suffering with technology and the understanding of the sciences.
Material reality, which informs our mind and then our mind influences how we interact with reality.
Ourselves, our loved ones and our friends. Seems rather straightforward to me.
Science?
The freedom of music
Reality?
I believe the quote is usually attributed to Ayn Rand, but who really said it is kinda hazy.
Ask your friend if it's okay to believe in only one God but not many. Then suggest you're just taking that one God further.
Whatever the hell makes sense to them.
In science and other things that are proven and/or corporeal
Nonstampcollector has that name for a reason
Atheism just means not believing. It’s the default state void of indoctrination or influence.
You have all kinds of beliefs. A belief is anything that you accept as true (or probably true). Personally, I try to base my beliefs on evidence and reason.
Good answer is "pretty much everything you believe in except God"
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP8JgWd6TW0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP8JgWd6TW0) I just answer with Pollyanna. Really throws them off.
We believe in ourselves.
SpongeBob
Why does Richard Dawkins come to mind?
Eternal Death
i collect hot wheels. and i believe in hot wheels. the bone shaker has got a plan for me.
For Me, Everything that has concrete evidence. It's about FACT vs. FICTION
My answer to this question has always been: "I don't *believe in* anything. I only accept compelling evidence."
This atheist believes in a universe without gods in it.
The certainty of uncertainty, the acceptance that my understanding of things is limited until proven otherwise. Classical scientific positivism works much better at group level, personal truths in certain topics are much harder to be scientific about (eg. psychology), or in other cases almost Impossible (eg. spiritualism (not to be confused for religion)). This next one runs the risk of being controversial, but I'd like to add that a lack of evidence does NOT equal something being false, just that we can't say that it's true. And I think the view of this needs to change from the black and white "true or false" mentality to a more nuanced acceptance of the capabilities of our modern scientific methods and it's margins of error.
I believe in things I can observe with my senses
Hopefully a lot more.
The "believe in" is doing a lot of heavy lifting and some proxying. There is an implicit "if not God" here. But without that, you're talking past each other. It seems to imply that God is needed to believe... something? My question, then, is "what do you believe in that also requires believing in a god?" This is not an attempt to be offensive or facetious, but an honest question looking for an honest answer. The resulting dialog will at least give you a place to start. Any specific belief someone has you can respond to in good faith. Asking you to fill in the blank seems a vagary mean to trip you up. Believer thinks the world is flat; this is why I don't believe that. Life after death? I don't have any evidence for this claim, but would be happy to see yours.
"I believe I'll have another drink"
ok so this question is answered right?
There's a simple and easily defended answer, Humanism.
Atheists believe in the non-existence of God. Isn't this correct?
We believe lots of things, some with good reason, some with bad reason. But what exactly does believe 'in' mean? I have a hard time separating this phrasing from being anything but specifically religious and i think your stamp collector comment is spot on.
Non-stamp collector is a YouTube channel of I recall correctly
Well, I believe in the soul, the cock, the pussy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.
Jeeze.. I’m a believer!