When I express that I am an atheist, many people often first ask "why?" or say something like "how could you abandon your faith like that?". The more I think about those reactions, the more I realize and understand that it is not a personal decision. I want to preface; By saying this I'm not saying I resent myself or feel guilt or feel unhappy about it at all, I'm actually quite content with my non-belief. But my point here is that I didn't suddenly, or gradually, 'decide' to think this way. And no matter how much I would ever try to believe in God or any superstitious religious ideas, I simpy cannot just WILL myself to believe something which completely goes against my ideas and my logic and reasoning. So my question is, do you think that atheists DECIDE to not believe, or do you understand that it is less a factor of control than most people perceive?
If it's actually God in which the atheist disbelieves, as distinct from such corrupt representations of Him as often come from religionists, then he has no control over his disbelief, because he's under the control of what makes disbelief in God attractive.
I too used to be religious. I grew up in a religious household when I was younger. My "conversion" to Atheism came around the same time that I started critically thinking for myself as a kid. I was always sort of a "smartass" child that tended to irritate my mother when it came to religious subjects seeing how she is a die hard Christian. I always hated going to Church not simply because it was boring but because it was on one of the only 2 days that I had off from school a week. I remember asking my mother one day while getting ready for church "why do we have to go to church to worship God anyway, God is almighty isn't he? We pray before dinner and apparently he hears that so why can't we pray and worship him from home? Can't he always hear us?" She of course didn't like that much. But that started me thinking more and more about what I was doing. Why do we pray at all? God is almighty he can hear my thoughts and stuff why do I have to stop and pray to him? Does he only hear me when I clinch my hands? Is clinching my hands the magic secret to opening up the channel to God? How come God says he created the Earth 6000 years ago? The Earth is older than that by A LOT. How did people fit 2 of every animal in a big boat? That's literally impossible. How come God hears some people pray and not others? How come God allows so many bad things to happen to people? Who says Jesus is real? People thought that there were Gods of everything before Jesus was here. Were they all wrong? Says who? Most people on Earth don't even believe in Christianity they believe in something else. What if they are right and we are wrong? These were questions I was asking at around 10 years old. From there it was just no turning back. The more I learned about science the more the concept of God just didn't make sense anymore. As I started seeing more and more of the Bible disproved by science I began to wonder just how much of this book is actually true? Is this part true and that part fiction? But God wrote the Bible all of it should be true...But its not. I don't understand. Maybe this whole book is just a story. Maybe God didn't write it at all maybe people did, they wrote a lot of books back then. Now decades later I am simply too far gone to even entertain the concept of religion anymore. To me it just flat out doesn't make sense at all. As you said, I cannot MAKE myself believe in what I don't believe in. I can play the game all day long and go back to church and pray and worship etc but it would all be a lie because I just do not have the ability to believe in it. And if God is real im pretty sure he can see right through that lie so it would be pointless for me to even fake it in the hopes of getting to "heaven". I don't feel guilty about it by any means.
I guess you're under the control of the same thing - the thing that makes your disbelief in all other gods attractive.
Whatever anyone believes is a decision. Now some believe simply because it is all they've ever known, but that is their choice to not do their due diligence.
I was raised in what I refer to as a 'neutral' state. Neither religion (as reality), nor atheism (as a position) were expressed or modelled. We were given an overview of various religions, in the same way we were given an overview of literature, politics, music, commerce, etc. It was just another academic exercise. Our parents dabbled in Buddhism (purely the philosophical, no worship) etc when we were well past the age of reason, and I did spend a few years doing the same in my mid-late 20's. From there I explored Islam, then decided I ought to take a tilt at the Bible. Nothing took. It all struck me as utter nonsense when taken as truth. I enjoyed the mystical elements of Islam, and never once felt pressured to join. Buddhist meditation etc was quite pleasant, and the traditions and rituals associated with it are lovely. But protestant Christians scared the living cr#p out of me. I found the whole shebang disturbing, and quite dark. From the indoctrination of small children via threats and the use of possibly the ugliest book ever written, to the high pressure tactics used to recruit new cult members - and their demonization of non-belief. Besides, there's something anti-human about the bland colourlessness of protestant churches. Catholicism on the other hand, not so bad. Rich and lush traditions of ritual, and no Catholic has ever been remotely interested in converting me, nor has shown any discomfort with my atheism. So, is that a choice? I don't know. But I can no sooner belief in a jewish deity named Yahweh, than a Christian can believe in a hindu deity named Vishnu.
I as a Deist understand what you have said more than many other theist do. When a Christian tries to get me to go to Church I tell them I am almost 50 and if one could find Jesus through osmosis... or fake it till you make it... or through pure force of will.... that I would have been a true follower of Christ long ago... but these things do not work for me. One either believes or one does not... period! And I do not. On this very forum I have asked Christians to prove to my satisfaction the resurrection of Jesus and all who have tried have failed. I use to be an atheist and I never chose to be an atheist, I simply did not believe in God... period! Many of my fellow theists try to make atheism something more than it is... which says more about them than anything else. An atheist does not believe in God... a theist does... period!
I certainly didn't have control over my inability to find faith. I never had it to begin with and was fascinated by the fact that so many around me seemed to take it for granted. I seemingly lack the emotion of faith. OTOH, I did and do have control over the breadth and depth of my intellectual quest to answer the BIG questions. After many years, I am now very comfortable with the answers I have arrived at.
you have a faith, you have a belief system, you have a god. like all atheist liberals you worship at the alter of big government it is why you elevate your leaders to god status that cant never do no wrong
I do not have a faith. I do have a belief system entirely predicated on the reality of the natural world that neither has nor requires a supernatural supreme puppet master, nor any identifiable dogma. Your bigotry against liberals and atheists is apparent. Such truly stupid generalizations relying on bumpersticker notions of both atheists and liberals is yet another demonstration of the divisiveness of intransigent partisanship.
Many believers, certainly the more fundamentalist or evangelical Christians, can't accept that a person with no agenda and reasonably intelligent.....doesn't automatically ACCEPT Christianity (the resurrection of Jesus, his miracles, etc.) as "obviously true and indisputable." It's why they have to disparage atheists.....saying they "hate God" or "just refuse to accept clear evidence because they want to continue their sinful lifestyles". To consider that THEIR belief is not "obvious" and "logical" and "free from personal agenda or desire or fear"....simply is impossible for them.
