Are People Afraid Of Being Atheist?

[cangor 0]

Mostly, when a person tells me they have no religion, they aren't atheist, they just mean that they have some system of beliefs or philosophy which isn't part of an organized religion. I guess atheist does have a bit of a negative connotation, though.

[Watermonkey 0]

To embrace "Atheism" as your own brand of religion, or lack thereof if you prefer, is the ultimate arrogance. To be Agnostic, means you accept there is a higher power, but you're still working out the answer to who or what that higher power is. To be atheist is to know there is no higher power, to know all religions are wrong and to know that after life there is nothing. I find this absolutely incredible. It's the intellectual equivalent of saying you know the earth is flat and observation completes your delusions! You're as fanatic about ignoring the obvious evidence to the contrary as Jerry Falwell was about preaching his brand of Christianity! Simple observation should indicate to you, as it did for Einstein and millions before him, that there must be some kind of higher power to make all this mess come together! Mathematics, many say the language of God, proves it!

[JasperIk 0]

To embrace "Atheism" as your own brand of religion, or lack thereof if you prefer, is the ultimate arrogance. To be Agnostic, means you accept there is a higher power, but you're still working out the answer to who or what that higher power is. To be atheist is to know there is no higher power, to know all religions are wrong and to know that after life there is nothing. I find this absolutely incredible. It's the intellectual equivalent of saying you know the earth is flat and observation completes your delusions! You're as fanatic about ignoring the obvious evidence to the contrary as Jerry Falwell was about preaching his brand of Christianity! Simple observation should indicate to you, as it did for Einstein and millions before him, that there must be some kind of higher power to make all this mess come together! Mathematics, many say the language of God, proves it!

I don't believe being Agnostic means you accept there is a higher power. It really means you don't deny one, but you can't prove whether one exists or not, so in most cases you don't worship a higher power. At least for me thats how it is, i usually actually deny a higher power, but because i have been known to pray occasionally, i cannot say i 100% believe there is no higher power.

[NNH1254 0]

I don't think people are afraid of being an atheist and having that label or something like that, I think they might be afraid of what it would mean if atheism was correct (which, I think, is more likely than not). If there is no higher being, then when you die, you die and that's it, all that you did in life meant nothing beyond how it affected other people, and those other people are also meaningless in a way. Not following an organized religion is different than atheism, they could be deist or agnostic.

[Kioku 0]

This topic title made me laugh. There's more of a movement where a person having a religion has to fear somebody else saying they can't have opinions or beliefs. Personally, I don't even practice religion but it's still pretty annoying that the people who do won't hear the end of it from some goth or extreme ACLU douche.Either way, I don't see why a person would have to be afraid of believing in nothing. There's no evidence to support a God or disprove a God. The logical choice is to not believe.

[garbage 0]

I dont think saying "I have no religoion" is a caude for being an atheist.. Becasue regardlesss of what it is you practice, its a for of religion.now this is my opinion...I think any form of practice is a type of Belief, which in my words is a form of religion .. because it is something you believe in. Regardless of what the Belief is. Some like myself believe in The scripture that God states he created man and the world we live in.. other believe we evolved from apes..and again regardless of what it is you think or say if you choose something its because you believe in that fact or myth.. this might not make much sense but tis the best I can explain it in my own words.. and this is just my opinion.

[thejestergl 0]

I wouldn't think that people are neccisarily AFRAID of being Atheist. Though some people look down on those without a religion or who believe in a supreme being, but that wouldn't stop people from, well, not believing! I know quite a few Atheists and they don't seem to be ashamed, or proud of being one. They simply are, just as many people are with their religions. For all those who are afraid to be an atheist I don't think that you should be, what you choose to believe or not is up to you. You shouldn't be scared because of what others say, such as, "You're going to H*** because you don't believe in our God or any for that matter". You should be who you want to be

[9block 0]

I (alos) wouldn't say people are afraid. i think that alot of people don't believe in your typical God so they don;t want to say they are atheist. In my POV... I don't believe in God himself (itself/herself - whatever), and I especially do not believe in the religion and how someone/something can tell me how to live my life. But I do sometimes find myself praying - to who I don't know. So with that, I don't want to say I am an athiest... but I also don't want to say im religious. Overall, I would say I'm athiest, since I don't believe of asupieror being. Perhaps (coming to think of it), praying is simply a way of expressing hope/gratitue feelings. Hmm.. I actually think that last statement was brilliant. I should copyright it.

[TikiPrincess 0]

First of all, we need to define a few terms.

 

- a*theist from the Greek a meaning without and theos meaning god. Based on the entymology of the word, an atheist is someone who does not have a god or gods, which basically means that they don't believe in a god or gods. This means that they reject the Christian concept of God or any sort of deity including satanism and some forms of Buddhism that focus on the path to enlightenment to reach a state of nirvana and therefore do not believe in a higher being only a higher state of being.

 

- a*gnostics from the Greek a and gnosis meaning knowledge. The base word gnosis has evolved to signify the knowledge of the supernatural or divine. So an agnositic is one who is without knowledge of the divine or supernatural. They haven't rejected the idea of a divine being, but they haven't accepted the ones that have been presented. Most people are unfamiliar with this term since it was mainly used in the Catholic religion to describe non-Catholics. At least, that's how it was presented to me in my Confirmation classes.

 

As you can see, atheists can practice a religion like the strictest form of Buddhism, so just saying you're atheist doesn't mean you don't have a religion. Furthermore, saying you have no religion doesn't mean you're an atheist, because you can believe that there is some sort of divine being without actually belonging to a religion.

 

Perhaps people fear being called an atheist because it has negative connotations, perhaps due to narrow minds and slanderous remarks. Atheists can be seen as immoral because it's assumed that they don't follow a religious code. But religious belief doesn't always translate into moral behavior. When you delve into the history of the Catholic Popes, however, I'm sure you'll find behavior that would make many atheists blush. In fact, most atheists will follow laws and social norm (mores) based on reason rather than a sense of religious righteousness. For example, I will not steal because there are consequences. There are consequences because if something is stolen from me, then I would want that person punished. Therefore, laws and punishments are in place to protect me from stealing from other people, but also to protect other people from stealing my possessions. Someone acting on a Christian belief system would say that it's a sin to steal because The Bible says it's against one of The Ten Commandments, but Jesus forgives our sins if we feel remorse and ask for forgiveness. So if I feel really bad about taking this and ask for forgiveness, than I'll still go to heaven. (I don't mean to pick on Christianity, but it's the religion in which I was raised and which I'm most familiar with.) Of course, that's a complete generalization and not to be characteristic of any particular person in any way. But it gets my point across.

 

Personally, I have rejected to follow all forms of organized religion because the organization is a human construct and, therefore, fallible and subject to hypocrisy. I also refuse to close my mind to the multitude of belief systems that exist, which most organized religions ask you to do. They ask you to believe only in the teachings that they approve and those that don't believe will not receive the benefits, whether it's heaven or nirvana or enlightenment. But I do believe that a force exists that is divine and beyond my comprehension. I seek to understand but humble myself with the realization that I cannot know.

 

Absence of proof is not proof of absence. ~William Cowper

[Tetraca 0]

There are several reasons why people don't turn atheist:1. People want to believe in an afterlife. There could be no afterlife, but no matter the lack of evidence.2. People will not change their thousand year old beliefs, no matter how backwards some of them might seem.3. Christianity in particular teaches stupidity - I remember going to church one day and learning of the man that did not believe in Christ because he did not see him, so the desiples led them to Christ, who appeared before him and said that you should not need to see to believe in him. In genesis Adam and Eve bite into an apple from the tree of knowlege, leading to the downfall of man.The thing is, we are an insignifican't speck of dust suspended in a sunbeam in an empty space quadrillions of times larger than us with the potential for other races in other galaxies enormous. It is pompous to say that the universe revolves around us - a mote of dust in a 100 light year wide galaxy, and that a god would pay attention to this mote of dust and it alone. Imagine all the blood spilled for this insignificant dirtball - all the people that killed just to have a small piece of land, on a small planet, orbiting a middle-aged, middle sized star, inside a 100 light year galaxy filled with millions of these stars, trapped inside a spherical expanding existence of coldness with millions of thes galaxies existing in and out of our view. To say that existence is a test of our belief in god would be fallous.

Edited July 26, 2007 by Tetraca (see edit history)

[Dooga 0]

I don't think that Atheists should be considered evil... I mean it's just like another religion, in a way. I myself don't really have a religion, I don't know if that makes me an atheist. I don't actually deny the existence of God, but I don't necessarily believe he does. If Atheists are evil, then other religions would be evil as well... since they believe in different things. Religion itself is too sensitive, but in my humble opinion, it is sometimes obstructive and problematic...And another thing... saying that you don't need to see it to believe it is like scientists telling you what happens around us. We can't see or prove it, but we sort of have to believe it, because it's not like our opinions matter or work....I guess society just follows authority and knowledge.

[Plenoptic 0]

People aren't just afraid to say they are Atheist, but a lot of people don't like to state their religion because some feel other people will look down upon them for being apart of that religion, and that isn't just if they are Atheist but also if they are Christian, Jewish, etc; You are supposed to openly practice your religion, but do you see people saying a prayer before a meal when you go to any restaurant? I don't do it a lot of times, and surely not aloud when I go to a restaurant and I'm Catholic. I feel like people will think I'm weird or something so I don't do it. Why should I feel that way though? I shouldn't but the world is different these ways. In the world today people do crimes that hurt others just because. Whether it's religion, race, height, anything. I ought to practice my religion more openly though, no matter what people think.As for having no religion, there are many religions in this world, and sometimes it's hard to know what to believe in. You usually start out with the religion of your parents, either one or two if they are different. If you start to question your religion, you may look for something that may fit more into your beliefs but you don't know what it is. So people may state they have no religion because they may not know that they have one of either their own or one with a name. It's kind of hard to explain.

[Joshua 0]

I think it has to do with the very meaning of the word atheist. According to Webster's New World College Dictionary: Fourth Edition, the word atheist means "a person who believes that there is no God." In the synonym section, it also notes "an atheist rejects all religious belief and denies the existence of God; an agnostic questions the existence of God, heaven, etc. in the absence of material proof and in unwillingness to accept supernatural revelation". So, there's a difference between saying you KNOW God doesn't exist and saying you DON'T KNOW if God exists but don't believe simply for lack of proof. To say for certain God doesn't exist, i.e. atheism, you would arguably have to know everything in the universe to know for sure God doesn't exist and hasn't provided proof for His existence. It's much safer to simply call yourself an agnostic.Maybe I'm wrong about that being the reason, but it would make sense to me if that is the reason some people are less likely to call themselves atheists as opposed to agnostics.

[Tetraca 0]

I don't think that Atheists should be considered evil... I mean it's just like another religion, in a way. I myself don't really have a religion, I don't know if that makes me an atheist. I don't actually deny the existence of God, but I don't necessarily believe he does. If Atheists are evil, then other religions would be evil as well... since they believe in different things. Religion itself is too sensitive, but in my humble opinion, it is sometimes obstructive and problematic...
And another thing... saying that you don't need to see it to believe it is like scientists telling you what happens around us. We can't see or prove it, but we sort of have to believe it, because it's not like our opinions matter or work....

I guess society just follows authority and knowledge.

The problem is is that people think that it's there duty to yell and scream that people that Atheists are going to go to hell and it's the downfall of morality. They're fully aware that if the Abrahmic god exists, they will go to hell, and they don't need people to tell them this. There's also a flaw in their logic that Atheism is the downfall of morality. This is false. Atheists draw on logic to create morality, or even astronomy. Astronomy is a real builder of character and morality, as it teaches our true place in the universe, in addition to its beauty.

You yourself are a Freethought (that is the proper term to one that doesn't believe in a major religion), but it seems that you are also Agnostic (A term meaning that you are neither Theist nor Atheist - you will neither confirm nor deny the existence of a god because there is no evidence of a god existing but at the same time there is no evidence that a god doesn't exist). I myself am a Freethought Agnostic Deist.

[thejestergl 0]

I would have to say that a lot of people do tend to feel as though they need to think that there is something more out there. Even when it doesn't have to do with "God" or a "Supreme being" people like to explain things through supernatural activity if it cannot be explained scientifically. So in that sense I do feel that people are afraid to be atheist. Some doubt themselves, thinking "what if there is someone or something". Others just want to feel as though they can believe they will be somewhere else after death, and not simply have everything go "blank" so to speak. Overrall what I'm trying to say is that in my opinion people are afraid to be atheist for the most part. Because to me people created God, and God did not create people. People simply wanted to believe there is something more. Although I am not atheist, and I do believe in Supreme beings, that doesn't mean I am afraid of believeing in nothing.