What it's like to be an Atheist.

I'm not sure if someone else has posted a link to this or not, but I'll do it again anyway :D

"What it's like to be an Atheist"
by DarkSyde

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/11/15/12016/649

It's pretty good, kinda funny, kinda abrasive, kinda good! Enjoy

Grinching out sometimes.

Nailed it,the story of my life..damn.

And they call me crazy....

I go one step further, I think Gods are mankind's inventions that can be a tool or symbol to tap unknown brain/coping mechanisms or lead a brain into altered states of awareness/consciousness far more amazing and strange than the god concept,but organic inside me. I do not believe in god(S)as in dieties...as rulers or benevolent beings outside of our own minds.. but I do admit I don't know all there is to know about this reality too.And in no way does it entitle me to tell anyone else what to see with their own eyes.
God(s) never do squat to fix the human condition,I guess it's up to us to try to see beyond our own ignorance,insecurity and self made blindness and fumble in the dark to try to stop some of the pain in a world that is bat shit insane and will not face that fact because God tells them to not ask questions.So they stop asking,and as adults do not ask..sad ain't it?

I'm enraptured by this story. I haven't even finshed it and this guy is telling me my thoughts. Spooky, almost.

It's the one question I've been asking all my life. If there is a God then why did he only reveal himself to a minor, semi-nomadic people living under oppression over 2000 years ago?

Why not the Egyptians with their mighty empires? Or the Chinese with the highest population densities? or the Incas or Aztecs with their superior record-keeping and observance skills?

Which leads to the biggest question of all. Where is he (or she, although I believe that a God would be genderless) now? His creation is in greater danger and turmoil now than it's ever been. After all, we now have the capability to destroy ourselves several times over now, taking life as we know it with us.

Where is this heavenly guidance now?

In that case, can I have your car? :)

I just posted in another forum about this point from your post:

"I guess it's up to us to try to see beyond our own ignorance,insecurity and self made blindness and fumble in the dark to try to stop some of the pain in a world that is bat shit insane and will not face that fact because God tells them to not ask questions.So they stop asking,and as adults do not ask..sad ain't it?"

Why do people not want to discuss their beliefs? Why would they want to be in a "club" that does not allow them to have thought different from the dogma of long-dead leaders? We need to think, damn it.

This DarkSyde guy gives me hope. Hope that tells me critical thinking and intellectual honesty are still alive and well.

I am so tired of things, good or bad, being done in some mythical supreme being's name.

nominating

Egads! Holy Shit! You suddenly feel a little bit lonely at age sixteen as you come to realize that you may surrounded by fully grown adults who are delusional incompetents that cannot distinguish fiction from fact and are enthralled by some kind of massive group hysteria! They're most of them all like that! And they all think you're nuts for not buying into their delusion! What the hell is wrong with these fucking people, can't they see how crazy this shit is?

Exactly how I felt. I couldn't even comprehend the idea of legitimately believing whole heartedly in any religion. I always wondered, "do you actually believe this wacked out stuff or do you say you do just because you're pretty sure you should?"

I enjoyed the diary. It was a good read. It's a strange world we live in for an atheist.
I work for a greeting card company and this time of year is specially weird to me. It's almost surreal watching people with good brains loose their minds in the christmas frenzy world of retail.
I mean no offense it is just how I percieve things. I honestly can't figure out why humans have not evolved away from this worshiping.
Look forward to part two!

when people ask me if I believe in God, I simply respond that I consider the question unimportant.

Nominated! :thumbsup:

Thank you for sharing it!

Can't wait for Part 2. :thumbsup:

I'm printing this out to show to some friends.

http://brentrasmussen.com/log/node/364

...

"This example of what I feel is nonsense bears special emphasis by graphic comparison: Casey Sheehan was sacrificed; Pat Tillman was sacrificed; People in New Orleans were sacrificed; Every fireman that ran into the WTC was sacrificed. What makes those tragedies a sacrifice is not just that we know they happened or the cause they died for, but that it meant they were gone forever. OTOH, being unconscious for three days and then coming to as the Immortal Ruler of the Universe is not a sacrifice, it's a stunt. And the consequences for the stunt man are the sweetest deal in the history of mankind.

It makes no sense that God would disguise himself as a human, fake his death, and expect us to drop to our knees in abject awe at his 'sacrifice', because it pales in comparison to the ones we mere mortals face. In my view, it's frankly a grotesque insult to humanity to try and pass that off as anything close to the fear, horror, and pain that real people have to deal with under torture and execution. And it makes little sense to me that a being which creates Quasars and butterflies would come up with such an empty and downright bizarre stunt as a solution to problems they intentionally created in the first place and expect us to whimper in admiration at their sense of compassion. Especially since by all accounts they could have remedied it with the snap of their supernatural fingers, or just not let the problem happen in the first place. "

...

atheists.

We really can't get over the fact that "they ACTUALLY believe that stuff".

This is the most brilliantly written description of the way an atheist sees the world that I have ever found.

Also highly recommended is Sam Harris excellent book, "The End of Faith".

:headbang:

As promised in the introduction to "What it's like to be an Atheist", the author has provided a second post, "Why I Am an Atheist":

Why I Am an Atheist" by DarkSyde
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/15/23544/992

make the bad man stop!! he's scaring me!!!
make him say there's a santa!!! WAAAAAHHHH!!!!!111

:rofl:

seriously, GREAT essay!

"God - you Americans are crazy"

http://dailykos.com/story/2005/11/16/91240/008

...I think it applies as much to Atheists as Theists.

The gist: Who gives a damn crap? Can we talk about something that matters?

if anyone is interested.
What it's like to believe in Santa.

"I know it's true because I just feel it"

or

"Most people believe, you know"

or

"God cannot be subjected to the limits of human reason"

then I'm sure some of us might be interested in your reply. Otherwise it's just more of the same.

Go check it out...I think I steer prety clear of that.

There's 991 comments to dig through. Care to pinpoint yours, or copy it to a post over here?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=214x35837

Sorry; I thought it was high up on this thread.

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

DarkSyde is timely AND funny AND brilliant!

I did a study of the origin and evolution of religion some years back. Need I say more?

I enjoyed reading this very much and can't wait to read part II!!!!!!

Rev. Moon was crowned the Messiah on Capitol Hill!!!!!!!! Any remember that?

When there are only about 30 or so that I can see?

Is it some kind of divine intervention?

that got deleted. A pity, in some ways, since it was an enjoyable slugfest. I didn't get to see if my one contribution got a reply before the whole thing got deleted.

On edit: The subthread has risen again! It's currently getting ressurected at post #30. Watch this space (or see it get deleted as rehashing the same argument).

...clinically insane, dangerously immature, often violent, historically monstrous, completely irrational... people.

Glad that's cleared up!

Quoting the full sentence for context:

A world gone bonkers, populated and completely run by a majority of people who are frankly clinically insane, dangerously immature, often violent, historically monstrous, completely irrational, closed to any internal questioning, convinced you're either stupid, evil, or dangerous, and hoping for all they're worth to infect you with the same mimetic virus.

Consider first that a majority of people supposedly did elect G.W. Dumbshit as well as pass gay marriage bans in just about every state they've tried so far. Consider second how well those words describe the boy king himself and most of his administration. And consider third that this sentence came at the end of his exaggerated example where the reader is asked to imagine him- or herself in a world where Santa Claus belief was the norm. If you were plucked out of this world and dropped into the one where that was really happening, you wouldn't see anything amiss?

Then, look at this sentence where he wraps up the parallel to the real world:

It's not like we're living everyday in mortal fear, but it's nevertheless a little nerve racking that we find ourselves surrounded, defenseless, and at the mercy of hordes of people that for all the world appear to have lost their minds.

Key word: APPEAR. Believing in things that can't be seen, etc., to many of us APPEARS to be irrational. Is it wrong to say that?

Imagine that you live in a world where 90% of the people around you sincerely believe in something that appears to you to be downright whacky

90% did not elect Bush. The author is talking in circles. Atheism seems to make it's most compelling argument against fundi's, and then proceeds to lump everyone who believes in a "God" into the mix.

at the mercy of hordes of people that for all the world appear to have lost their minds

Oh phew we only "appear" to have lost our minds.

These kind of remarks would not stand against any other group of people who participate here.

The author of the essay is asking people that aren't atheists to put themselves in the situation described and then ask yourself how you would handle it, what you would think, etc.

To me (someone raised Catholic but now an atheist), Grandpa in the sky is whacky. Plenty of people believe in him. It is the reality that I live in that most everyone I come in contact with believes in something that I see as a fairy tale. Again, the author is just trying to get you to see the world through my eyes for a minute.

Again, the "hordes of people" quotation comes from the scenario that the author is presenting to help you feel a little uncomfortable in the "pretend world" he has created in an attempt to make you walk in my shoes for a bit.

The kind of remarks made the way you take them out of context are made about atheists by people who participate here all the time. Yet noone here is posting anything like you say we are.

atheists to live in any society as I've stated before given most people believe in something you don't. I can only imagine that one in such a position feels they have to push back hard? It has happened through out history thus the Mayflower Journey. One group feels persecuted and revolts in one form or another because they are not allowed to just "be." The problem as I see it is always a lack of respect for the beliefs of others. I don't care if were talking about the Spanish inquisition or calling other people insane for believing in God. The roots of both are a lack of tolerance for the beliefs of others. I respect your right to believe there is no god, I respect my sisters right to be a pagan, I respect my mothers right to be a jew, I respect my step dad's right to be an atheist. Thankfully though, we all voted for Kerry. ;)

I only wish people who did not believe in "god/grandpa/santa" showed respect for those who do when they participate here. This article lacks respect, as I said. It lacks tolerance. Call it what you like.

I'm out.

:hi:

"It has happened through out history thus the Mayflower Journey. One group feels persecuted and revolts in one form or another because they are not allowed to just "be.""

Weren't the people on the mayflower running from other christians? I mean it's not like it was these pilgrims running from paganist england. If i also remember correctly these pilgrims were also the ones who had the witch trials in america. These pilgrims weren't all that different from modern day fundamentalists. Puritans.

because the Church of England wouldn't let them persecute others.

Another parallel to today's fundies.

I'm not defending pilgrim beliefs, rather I'm making a parallel about how the so called persecuted can become the persecutors. I felt it was quite obvious. Perhaps I should have excluded pilgrims from my example so as not to confuse?

The Puritans were already persecutors, in a way.

It is in this context that I made my remarks.

Only 41 of them were Pilgrims--religious dissenters called Separatists, who had fled England for Holland. Now they sought a new life in America where they could practice their religion in the manner they chose.

http://www.crf-usa.org/Foundation_docs/Foundation_lesson_mayflower.html

I have not done an in depth study on the rationale of Pilgrim beliefs, but I'm not surprised they were involved in some type of persecution prior to fleeing what they deemed the same? It seems a bit cyclical. ;)

I'm saying that tolerance is at issue in all cases. Pilgrims ran from religious persecution only to persecute others. It makes no sense regardless.

bad example to use though.

The auther of the article stated clearly from the begining that the article was abrasive to some and stated his positions clearly. I think it moves us to tolerance in understanding the view point of some atheists. Liking and tolerating are two different things.

I don't require/desire anyone like my beliefs, as they are my own. And, there is no one who will agree with my on everything as it relates to my personal spirituality. However, I prefer not to be deemed insane for believing in a spiritual force of some sort.

Thanks for the dialog.

way things look sometimes i think being "sane" is overated.

But, uhm that's got little to do with my belief in Santa. ;)

Peace

i saw santa trapped in a big plastic snow globe lawn ornament at walmart....i tried to help him escape but walmart had me thrown out of the store and now have santa on security lock down....now i'm having charges filed under me by the patriot act.....

(feeling chipper today sorry for the excessive sarcasm today everywhere in my posts)

Hey are you sure it wasn't Mumia you saw?



;)

I know, bad taste ... I'm guess feeling a bit punchy myself.

was one of the most shameful acts of political pandering I've ever seen.

It reminds me of how the churches were full of people celebrating the latest decision to write discrimination against homosexuals in their state constitutions.

Revolting.

What the hell is wrong with people? Writing discrimination into the documents that are supposed to guarantee freedom and then celebrating their hatred.

And lazy.

They believe everything they're told.

As far as I'm concerned, there isn't any difference between someone who votes for discrimination and Fred Phelps.

One is just louder than the other.