Hi, I noticed an "Ask an atheist" topic was recently locked due to the lack of maintenance by the creator. I wanted to go through and answer some of the questions that came up later into the conversation, starting with the ones that were directed at me. I'll probably move back through the other topic and answer those later as well. If anyone wants to add any more questions I will be happy to attempt to answer.
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Q: Like, how to explain the way the USA developed, back when most of government was God centered? I looks to us as if it was blessed. -RedTent
A: From the research I've done the government wasn't too God centered. A lot of the founders and members of the government took part in a lot of religious rituals; going to church, morning prayers, etc. However religion wasn't a part of there policy making. Many people in government were actually afraid of this, they thought that future generations will look back on the nation at that time I see it as ungodly. It was one of the reasons why "In God We Trust" started to be put on some coins after the civil war, people wanted to show that the nation was very religious. And the nation, as a whole, is very religious but the government of the USA was always removed from making claims about God. I think a quote from the US treaty with Tripoli expresses it best, "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;" -1796, signed by John Adams.
Q: We believe that God is a powerful force in the world and history shows that, how do you look at history as being without God? -RedTent
A: I am not really sure how to answer this question because I don't know what it is like to look on history with belief in God. There is a lot to learn from by human behavior in the past, there is a lot of terrible things that happened but also a lot of events that when into improving the human condition. I look at history and try to see where people came from and how we got into the state that we are now. I am not too sure if that really answers your question though.
Q: God blessed the Jews for being a race of people He used to show his principles through. Even though they still do not recognize Christ as their messiah, but think Christ will still come, their history tells the Christian that God is working with them. They remain a separate race, even with way over a thousand years without a country, they have been constantly disciplined, the orthodox still worship God in how God told them centuries ago. Do you think that just happened? -RedTent
A: A lot of religions have survived for centuries without too much change happening to them around the world. I don't see the Jewish people as any special case. Religion, subcultures, and linage are powerful things around the world. They stick with people, they spread to their children, and sometimes around the surrounding communities. Art is made due about them and that makes the religious beliefs even more important to those people. I am not surprised about the survival of the Jewish people, nor am I surprised by the cultural barriers that they have to make them be seen as a different ethnic group.
Q: Would you comment, if I promised to scold any poster who said you couldn't think in your unique way? -RedTent
A: I doubt there would be a need for that. I've been here for years and I think there has only been 2 times when people have had a very negative reaction to me expressing my thoughts here.
Q: okay... here's one. When did you become an atheist? -Mammachickadee
A: There are a different definitions for atheist, so when I became one will depend on the definition being used. I didn't grow up in a religious family, in fact I never had religion explained to me growing up. I learned about ancient Egyptian religion through books in the library but I didn't know that it was still common for people to be religious in modern times. So, if the definition is just someone who doesn't believe in a god then I have been an atheist for as long as I can remember. However, other people use the definition more specifically. I learned about Islam and Christianity when I was 10 years old and someone got in a discussion with my friend over his belief in Islam. The person asked him a lot of questions about Jesus and it got a little heated. This prompted me to learning about Christianity and Islam, which included reading the bible. Some might say I became an atheist after I studied the claims that these religions made and came to the conclusion that I didn't accept the claims that either of these religions made.
Q: Do you want the peace of knowing God to rest upon you, the love of God to reside in the extremest depths of your soul, the wondrous grace from the hand of God to touch you, Do you seek freedom from the cesspool that this world has us all drowning in, Do you want purity at it's best, righteousness at it's finest, Do you want Eternal Salvation? What you yearn for is Christ. -MaranathaSoonQuick
A: To be honest I don't know if there is anything beyond this feeble, humbling physical "container" that I call my body. I don't know if anything awaits me after my body dies, but based on what I have seen I doubt that there is anything waiting. I think that it would be great if there was I don't want my consciousness to disappear, but I don't have the evidence necessary to believe that it will live on after my brain stops functioning. When it comes to the specifics of wanting to know God, well yeah, if he exists then I would want to know that he does and I would like to understand the qualities he has and what kind of meaning that would have on my life, but I don't see that as something that is likely.
Q: Who do you thank for the life and breath? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do you know? Justice can never be achieved if there is no existence beyond the grave. -nl
A: Who do you thank for the life and breath? I don't thank any specific being for "life and breath". If I am going to thank beings for my life I would thank all of my ancestors who had to tough it out through great hardships in order to survive and have children, even though they didn't really have me in mind when they were doing it. Where did we come from? I'm guessing you are referring to people in general. I believe in evolution, not all atheists do though, so I think that we evolved from more basal apes. We made huge development in cultures over the last couple hundred thousand years and then much bigger developments do to the agricultural revolution that started more than 10 thousand years ago. The invention of writing to share our thoughts with future generations and really changed what it meant to be human. Where are we going? I differ from most atheists on this, but I think that a big part of human civilization has been to try to escape from the dangers of nature. So I think that the trend of invention will continue and human civilization will continue to have more and more influence over how the world functions. I think that the human race will continue to spread, even beyond the earth. If you meant those questions in a more spiritual way, such as "Where did our souls come from?" then my response is that I don't accept the premises. I think that "we" as people are a function of our bodies. How do you know? I believe that the scientific method is functional for finding information about the universe, and I have seen a lot of supporting evidence for evolution, and for human thoughts being a process of the brain. I think that our methods for studying history are fairly functional as well for modeling the past, so people who research these things in a manner that can be tested by other should be taken seriously and so I listen to what they say and apply it to my models of the world. Justice can never be achieved if there is no existence beyond the grave. Maybe not completely, and that is a shame but that doesn't mean that something has to exist beyond the grave. It just means that we live in an unfortunate world where justice is never fully achieved, but knowing this should drive us to try harder to get close to justice on earth because it does not seem likely that it will be automatic after death.
Q: As an atheist what is your belief about the different realms in our world? Do you believe there is a spiritual realm? -RedTent
A: I don't know much about the subject so it is difficult to comment on. I haven't seen evidence of these things and they seem like something that there would be evidence for, but unless I really know what I am looking for it is hard to make any comment on it.
Q: We see much order in the physical. Tides, how the stars operate, time, etc. What is your explanation? -RedTent
A: Because the universe seems to be based on complex interactions between simple forces. Not every in history has saw these things as having order, it was only considered to have order after we were able to recognize certain trends in the behavior. We see a lot of order in these things because of we are able to model the properties of them. I think it says a lot about the power of observation and desire to understand the world around us and less to do with the actual reality of it all.
Q: What was the first cause? -RickShafer
A: I am not even sure if there has to be one because I don't know the nature of reality when to events that happened before the kinds of interactions I am familiar with. If there is a first cause, I think, based off the trends I've seen, that the first cause would be something incredibly simple. I would not define something like this as a god, because when people talk of gods they usually refer to a complex, intelligent entity.
Q: Just one to tickle your mind I hope. As a former Atheist I do believe I had a very strict belief system, i.e. :Filling in all the gaps in the theories of evolution, cosmology, micro/macrobiology, and other areas required me to believe that one day science would come up with the answers. Do you hold these same beliefs? If you do, then don't you extend a bit of faith in what you support? -MattW
A: No, I don't believe that it is necessary for science to one day be able to answer all of these questions we have about the universe. The universe saves pieces of a lot of the information that happens in the past but it doesn't seem to do this in a manner that implies a will to be understood. It is very possible, and likely, that much of the information we would need to understand these things scientifically have been lost with the flow of time. Here is something relevant to this idea; let us imagine a galaxy that would exist several billions of years in the future. There is a planet in this galaxy that has complex life. This life develops civilization and something akin to the scientific method. They would discover a lot about the universe, but because of the changes that would have happened to the universe as a whole from now to then we are able to make a very interest claim about what they wouldn't know. Because of the universes expansion, we know that these lifeforms would never know that there are other galaxy outside there own because they wouldn't be able to observe any since the light would never reach them. It would be impossible for them to explain the "beginning" of the universe as well as we have.
Now, do I extend a bit of faith in what I believe? Of coarse, there is always varying degrees of faith and there is always new information to be gained. Right now, the beliefs that I hold about these subjects have yet to be falsified, but every piece of new evidence has the chance to disprove them.
Q: Have you read the book "God Doesn't Believe in Atheists?" -Nuns_n_roses
A: I keep it next to my computer. A Christian gave it to me for free after I talked to him for a half hour at an Earth Day fair. I find the book pretty comical.
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Q: Like, how to explain the way the USA developed, back when most of government was God centered? I looks to us as if it was blessed. -RedTent
A: From the research I've done the government wasn't too God centered. A lot of the founders and members of the government took part in a lot of religious rituals; going to church, morning prayers, etc. However religion wasn't a part of there policy making. Many people in government were actually afraid of this, they thought that future generations will look back on the nation at that time I see it as ungodly. It was one of the reasons why "In God We Trust" started to be put on some coins after the civil war, people wanted to show that the nation was very religious. And the nation, as a whole, is very religious but the government of the USA was always removed from making claims about God. I think a quote from the US treaty with Tripoli expresses it best, "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion;" -1796, signed by John Adams.
Q: We believe that God is a powerful force in the world and history shows that, how do you look at history as being without God? -RedTent
A: I am not really sure how to answer this question because I don't know what it is like to look on history with belief in God. There is a lot to learn from by human behavior in the past, there is a lot of terrible things that happened but also a lot of events that when into improving the human condition. I look at history and try to see where people came from and how we got into the state that we are now. I am not too sure if that really answers your question though.
Q: God blessed the Jews for being a race of people He used to show his principles through. Even though they still do not recognize Christ as their messiah, but think Christ will still come, their history tells the Christian that God is working with them. They remain a separate race, even with way over a thousand years without a country, they have been constantly disciplined, the orthodox still worship God in how God told them centuries ago. Do you think that just happened? -RedTent
A: A lot of religions have survived for centuries without too much change happening to them around the world. I don't see the Jewish people as any special case. Religion, subcultures, and linage are powerful things around the world. They stick with people, they spread to their children, and sometimes around the surrounding communities. Art is made due about them and that makes the religious beliefs even more important to those people. I am not surprised about the survival of the Jewish people, nor am I surprised by the cultural barriers that they have to make them be seen as a different ethnic group.
Q: Would you comment, if I promised to scold any poster who said you couldn't think in your unique way? -RedTent
A: I doubt there would be a need for that. I've been here for years and I think there has only been 2 times when people have had a very negative reaction to me expressing my thoughts here.
Q: okay... here's one. When did you become an atheist? -Mammachickadee
A: There are a different definitions for atheist, so when I became one will depend on the definition being used. I didn't grow up in a religious family, in fact I never had religion explained to me growing up. I learned about ancient Egyptian religion through books in the library but I didn't know that it was still common for people to be religious in modern times. So, if the definition is just someone who doesn't believe in a god then I have been an atheist for as long as I can remember. However, other people use the definition more specifically. I learned about Islam and Christianity when I was 10 years old and someone got in a discussion with my friend over his belief in Islam. The person asked him a lot of questions about Jesus and it got a little heated. This prompted me to learning about Christianity and Islam, which included reading the bible. Some might say I became an atheist after I studied the claims that these religions made and came to the conclusion that I didn't accept the claims that either of these religions made.
Q: Do you want the peace of knowing God to rest upon you, the love of God to reside in the extremest depths of your soul, the wondrous grace from the hand of God to touch you, Do you seek freedom from the cesspool that this world has us all drowning in, Do you want purity at it's best, righteousness at it's finest, Do you want Eternal Salvation? What you yearn for is Christ. -MaranathaSoonQuick
A: To be honest I don't know if there is anything beyond this feeble, humbling physical "container" that I call my body. I don't know if anything awaits me after my body dies, but based on what I have seen I doubt that there is anything waiting. I think that it would be great if there was I don't want my consciousness to disappear, but I don't have the evidence necessary to believe that it will live on after my brain stops functioning. When it comes to the specifics of wanting to know God, well yeah, if he exists then I would want to know that he does and I would like to understand the qualities he has and what kind of meaning that would have on my life, but I don't see that as something that is likely.
Q: Who do you thank for the life and breath? Where did we come from? Where are we going? How do you know? Justice can never be achieved if there is no existence beyond the grave. -nl
A: Who do you thank for the life and breath? I don't thank any specific being for "life and breath". If I am going to thank beings for my life I would thank all of my ancestors who had to tough it out through great hardships in order to survive and have children, even though they didn't really have me in mind when they were doing it. Where did we come from? I'm guessing you are referring to people in general. I believe in evolution, not all atheists do though, so I think that we evolved from more basal apes. We made huge development in cultures over the last couple hundred thousand years and then much bigger developments do to the agricultural revolution that started more than 10 thousand years ago. The invention of writing to share our thoughts with future generations and really changed what it meant to be human. Where are we going? I differ from most atheists on this, but I think that a big part of human civilization has been to try to escape from the dangers of nature. So I think that the trend of invention will continue and human civilization will continue to have more and more influence over how the world functions. I think that the human race will continue to spread, even beyond the earth. If you meant those questions in a more spiritual way, such as "Where did our souls come from?" then my response is that I don't accept the premises. I think that "we" as people are a function of our bodies. How do you know? I believe that the scientific method is functional for finding information about the universe, and I have seen a lot of supporting evidence for evolution, and for human thoughts being a process of the brain. I think that our methods for studying history are fairly functional as well for modeling the past, so people who research these things in a manner that can be tested by other should be taken seriously and so I listen to what they say and apply it to my models of the world. Justice can never be achieved if there is no existence beyond the grave. Maybe not completely, and that is a shame but that doesn't mean that something has to exist beyond the grave. It just means that we live in an unfortunate world where justice is never fully achieved, but knowing this should drive us to try harder to get close to justice on earth because it does not seem likely that it will be automatic after death.
Q: As an atheist what is your belief about the different realms in our world? Do you believe there is a spiritual realm? -RedTent
A: I don't know much about the subject so it is difficult to comment on. I haven't seen evidence of these things and they seem like something that there would be evidence for, but unless I really know what I am looking for it is hard to make any comment on it.
Q: We see much order in the physical. Tides, how the stars operate, time, etc. What is your explanation? -RedTent
A: Because the universe seems to be based on complex interactions between simple forces. Not every in history has saw these things as having order, it was only considered to have order after we were able to recognize certain trends in the behavior. We see a lot of order in these things because of we are able to model the properties of them. I think it says a lot about the power of observation and desire to understand the world around us and less to do with the actual reality of it all.
Q: What was the first cause? -RickShafer
A: I am not even sure if there has to be one because I don't know the nature of reality when to events that happened before the kinds of interactions I am familiar with. If there is a first cause, I think, based off the trends I've seen, that the first cause would be something incredibly simple. I would not define something like this as a god, because when people talk of gods they usually refer to a complex, intelligent entity.
Q: Just one to tickle your mind I hope. As a former Atheist I do believe I had a very strict belief system, i.e. :Filling in all the gaps in the theories of evolution, cosmology, micro/macrobiology, and other areas required me to believe that one day science would come up with the answers. Do you hold these same beliefs? If you do, then don't you extend a bit of faith in what you support? -MattW
A: No, I don't believe that it is necessary for science to one day be able to answer all of these questions we have about the universe. The universe saves pieces of a lot of the information that happens in the past but it doesn't seem to do this in a manner that implies a will to be understood. It is very possible, and likely, that much of the information we would need to understand these things scientifically have been lost with the flow of time. Here is something relevant to this idea; let us imagine a galaxy that would exist several billions of years in the future. There is a planet in this galaxy that has complex life. This life develops civilization and something akin to the scientific method. They would discover a lot about the universe, but because of the changes that would have happened to the universe as a whole from now to then we are able to make a very interest claim about what they wouldn't know. Because of the universes expansion, we know that these lifeforms would never know that there are other galaxy outside there own because they wouldn't be able to observe any since the light would never reach them. It would be impossible for them to explain the "beginning" of the universe as well as we have.
Now, do I extend a bit of faith in what I believe? Of coarse, there is always varying degrees of faith and there is always new information to be gained. Right now, the beliefs that I hold about these subjects have yet to be falsified, but every piece of new evidence has the chance to disprove them.
Q: Have you read the book "God Doesn't Believe in Atheists?" -Nuns_n_roses
A: I keep it next to my computer. A Christian gave it to me for free after I talked to him for a half hour at an Earth Day fair. I find the book pretty comical.
