Originally Posted by latecomer

Sorry it's so long and I'll probably regret this later on. Normally I wouldn't have put it so strongly, but after reading about nerdman978's plight, I felt it's no holds barred. Catholics really have no shame as far as indoctrination goes.

One of the things I find particularly irksome about christians, is their blathering on about love, almost monopolising it, as it were. You know the stuff: living in god's love, loving your fellow human being, etc... as if not being a christian automatically makes you incapable of experiencing these feelings. Their general lovey-dovey attitude and radiant positivity inevitably push whoever is arguing them into the role of the big meany, come to spoil the party. Bad, bad atheist, all negative and mean. So to remedy that, I thought, why not start a thread where us freethinkers celebrate our experiences, and maybe show any religious passer-by what we're really about. Tell people about how you came to be an atheist, why you love being an atheist, or anything positive that you've encountered through being an atheist... whatever, you get the general idea. Let the blathering commence.
I apologise beforehand for the soppiness of that which is about to follow, but let's just say that the christians don't hold the monopoly on soppiness either. So, on to the atheist experience of life.
When contemplating life, the universe and everything, I'm almost moved to tears sometimes by the sheer splendour of it all, and I consider myself lucky to be alive in this day and age. Here we are, humans by name, evolved primates by nature, with the capacity for abstract thought, able to reflect on this process that led to our existence. And what a magnificent process it is, indeed. From such simple beginnings, a few billion years ago, life has evolved into the myriad manifestations we can witness today. Mere words cannot do justice to the beauty of this.
And, naturally, we wonder how all this came to be. So we formulate theories, some of which seem initially promising, but later on turn out to be dead ends, others bear more fruit. And we prod a little here, and we observe a little there, and, slowly, we begin to find out how it works. But, unlike some cheap magician's trick, finding out how it works in no way takes the sheen off it. Quite the contrary, it only increases the marvel; this is good stuff. And to realise that this process is just sort of happening, in and of itself, for no particular reason, with no particular meaning, but that, nevertheless, we ARE part of it, that just fills me with such joy that I want to stretch out in the grass, in the sun, like my cats, and tell them: Yeah, you guys are right. It's fucking GREAT to be alive.
Then I look at my fellow human beings, and I think Yeah you guys, we're all on this trip together. Each one of us, a meaningless blip in a stream that's been flowing for billions of years, but who gives a shit about all that, right? It's our blip, and you only get the one. And I feel a great love for my fellow human beings, and I love our collective struggle for meaning. This doesn't mean I go around liking everybody, because, let's face it, a lot of people have unpleasant personalities. But that's just personalities, right, that's something you can change. Deep down, I love them for what they really are. And I know that loving them is a choice I make. I am free to love or not love them, it doesn't really matter, either way, although, usually, the latter tends to turn you into one of the unpleasant personalities.
So, imagine then, how dreary, how positively banal to have to think that some mysterious being is behind all this, some grand puppeteer who makes it all happen. Um, where did this puppeteer come from? 'Nowhere, he's always been here'. I see. Where exactly is this puppeteer? 'Hard to say, everywhere, I suppose.' I see. What exactly is this puppeteer? 'Hard to say, you shouldn't really be asking such questions, just accept 'something' exists and say you believe in it.' And you want me to do what?! No, seriously, some omniscient, omnipotent father figure standing in the wings, looking out for us, making sure everything will be ok, as long as we love each other and, most importantly, him (which usually means doing the bidding of whoever happens to be his direct contact on earth)? I'm sorry, but when I was a child, say six, seven years old, I used to think that my dad knew everything, could do everything too, but I grew out of it. This mental image of the all-knowing father figure is just a phase you go through as a child, but it seems to leave an indelible mark on a lot of people.
And the funny thing is, these christians are absolutely convinced that they'd be doing us a favour in converting us. Narrowing our glorious panorama down to a little, barred window of a cell, turning us from free spirits into followers, arresting us in our development into fully aware beings who know the score.
No, thank you, but I think I'll pass.

Originally Posted by hairy_Palms

the moral argument is one i find very demeaning, and obnoxious, the general line of there argument goes
1) morals are from god
2) atheists have no god
3) therefore atheists have no morals

the love argument is used the same way,

1) love is from god
2) atheists have no god
3) therefore atheists cannot love

both of which are totally ridiculous.

Originally Posted by JoshJ

You tend to see this argument from people who also seem to espouse the rather confusing idea that everyone is right.
It goes something like this:
"I am a Christian, so when I die I go to heaven. When a Hindu dies, he gets reincarnated. When an atheist dies, nothing happens."

Originally Posted by SigmaX

I hear about people who say that all the time. Many Christian preachers say that's the definition of "post modernism" (Though I think it should have a much wider definition, even wider then deconstructionism). However, I have yet to actually hear someone say they believe that. Do die-hard relativists actually exist?

Originally Posted by backslash

You cant paint all Christians with the same brush, they may be more similar than atheists, but they only have one thing in common which is Christ, the same as we have in common is no God.

Fight those who make you want to fight, fight them, not everyone else. That's as ignorant as racism.