and her adventures in Atheism
5 Questions for Atheists
YouTube is a fabulous resource for nontheists all around the world to learn, connect, debate, and exchange ideas. I’m not ashamed to admit that watching videos on youtube was pivotal in my journey out of Christianity. Without the wealth of information, challenging ideas, and myriad voices found there, I might still be a theist today.
Since I’m still anonymous, I don’t have my own videos to add to youtube (yet?), but I would still like to respond to a survey posted by Bossman103, a theist. He asks atheists 5 questions, and I would love to hear your own thoughts as well! Comment here or post a video response to him on youtube.
1. What in your opinion is the biggest misconception about atheism?, why is it? and what would you do to change it?
One that comes up the most for me lately is that atheists leave previous religions for invalid reasons: i.e. they were never true believers; or didn’t fully understand their religion; or left for personal, not intellectual reasons; or they’re just going through a rebellious, sinful phase. the list goes on and on. Basically, theists claim that atheists weren’t ____ enough, and if they were, they’d still believe in God.
2. Do you think there is extra-terrestrial or extra-universal intelligence?
I suppose it’s possible, but I haven’t seen any evidence of it. It’s arrogance to say that we’re the only beings that exist and matter in this vast universe. But I do not believe that E.T. life has any involvement in our current reality today, no.
3. What in your opinion is the poorest argument for religion and why?
I can never settle on just one. I dislike the arguments that “Billions of people can’t be wrong,” or “It’s really old, so it must be true,” or “It’s too much for me to understand, so it must be God.”
4. What would would be your perfect society? Secular? non religious? Anarchic? Why?
I’m trying to stay practical in this reality, so I choose secular in terms of government. I don’t think we could become a non-theistic humanity in the future, so I’m simply hoping for a secular existence in peace. Personally though, I think of all religions as capable of destruction and the degradation of society, so I’d prefer people choose reason and non-theism over theism, but I don’t think that’s realistic.
5. If when you die Jesus is there how would you justify yourself to him and what do you think his response would be?
I don’t think I would have to justify myself, since he would probably be aware of my actions and motivations and thoughts. But I would want to have a discourse with him if I could, since I’d be surprised to see him. I think his response to my life thus far might be “well, you really ran the middle of the line. You tried to do well many times, and you were selfish and harmed other people many other times.”
If he follows the fundamentalist view, I might still be saves since I accepted him and knew him when I was younger.
If he follows the Catholic view, I might go to hell or stay in purgatory forever since I would have died without confessing mortal and venial sins.
I’m going to stop there since I can’t know which version of himself I’d even meet 
And I’m babbling.
Check out Bossman103’s channel here and watch his original video below:
(via YouTube user eddygoombah’s answer video.)
| Print article | This entry was posted by Godless Girl on May 10, 2009 at 6:36 pm, and is filed under Jesus, godless blogs, religion. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |
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about 10 months ago
I get number 1 all the time. I’m just an atheist because I want to sin! What can you even say to that? I normally just tell em “I guess that is possible but if it’s true I am unaware of it, and I think between the two of us if one of us was to know what I was feeling it would be me.”
That usually doesn’t work though. Logic rarely does.
about 10 months ago
I agree with your answers. As for number one, there are so many misconceptions. Another common one is that to be an atheist you must be certain that god does not exist. Which just doesn't make sense. We decline to believe in lots of things because of insufficient evidence. God is no different.
about 10 months ago
Of course first we have to define what God is
about 10 months ago
1. I think the biggest misconception is that atheists are 100% certain that no gods exist. This is a problem because it produces confusion about where the burden of proof lies and how evidence works. To change it, we need to continue to educate our readers about the meaning of atheism.
2. Possible but currently irrelevant without evidence.
3. They are all poor, but the worst is what I'll call the argument from morality (i.e., without gods, we would have no sense of right and wrong).
4. Secular.
5. Should he turn out to be real, I wouldn't bother trying to justify anything. But because the whole god thing is logically impossible, I don't see this happening.
about 10 months ago
1. Lack of morals…there is nothing to be done to change it.
2. There is life in the universe…intelligent life is possible, but it would not matter because we would never know of it because the universe is too vast.
3. Pick an argument…they are all weak.
4. Secular socialist government…I could care less if people want to dance around trees to imaginary beings.
5. He would need to justify himself to me.
about 10 months ago
For number 5 I'd like to think that if Jesus is really one of the triune of a loving God then I'd hope he'd understand that I made an honest effort to examine the evidence and I would be allowed to avoid the lake of fire that apparently exists if he does…
about 10 months ago
Dusty Smith, perhaps this answer to your dilemma will help: "The atheist realizes that every selfish or cruel act and its consequences would remain uncomfortably remembered by himself, believing that no divine forgiveness is available to assuage the pangs of a guilty conscience." Frank Swancara is credited with the line, and I tend to agree.
about 10 months ago
Extra-universal intelligence? Seems like a logical impossibility considering that the Universe encompasses everything in existence. If there was extra-universal intelligence, it wouldn't be extra-universal anymore would it?
about 9 months ago
Regarding #5: as Bertrand Russell once said when asked what he would tell God if God asked him why he didn't believe, "Not enough evidence God, not enough evidence."
about 6 months ago
Hey pretty kickass – I like your answers