Understand Atheists

Do You Consider Yourself an Atheist?

Yes	26.4%	[ 48 ]
No	29.7%	[ 54 ]
I am agnostic.	23.1%	[ 42 ]
Gold....GOLD!!!!!!!	20.9%	[ 38 ]
Total Votes:			[ 182 ]

[Sarla-chan]

Hello all you out there in Gaia world...this is a question that's kind of been bothering me for awhile and i hope maybe some of you can explain it to me. I am a pretty religious person but I don't force my ideals on people. Basically, if you ask about my religion I will tell you about it but I won't be like JOIN NOW JOIN NOW! I guess my question is how do you atheists live with the thought of no higher being? I am not trying to be offensive but like you don't think there is an afterlife or a higher being and to mean that kind of sounds depressing. It just seems easier for me to go through life because I truly believe that when I die I will go to Heaven and be with God. I guess the better question is how do you feel about dying? Like I said it just sounds so depressing when people are like "there is no higher being we just die." Death is not a happy thing and I know that but I don't want to worry about it and to me believing there is a higher place makes me feel better. I guess it's delusional but it makes me happy. Most of my friends that are atheist seem kinda depressed. I know that's not with all atheists but I dunno I am trying to not be offensive 'cause I have nothing against atheists. But I guess like when people question the existance of God this is my way of questioning your beliefs and trying not to piss anybody off (if I happen to piss you off I didn't mean too sweatdrop )

[Kiyoshi Hayashida II]

They neither desire nor need to believe in a higher being. It's that simple.

[sheeps eyes]

I'm a Secular Humanist. Humanity is responsible for happiness, truth is also what I care about. I just don't believe in an afterlife, it's as simple as that.

[Yellow-M]

I don't want to live forever.

[CB_Young]

I'm an athiest and happy with life. I live day by day and enjoy what I've got.

[Propaganda.exe]

I think that most atheists are content with the fact that there will be no higher place and strive to do better in life to achieve that happiness before "everything goes blank." I wouldn't consider myself atheist because I don't believe in a supreme being but I'm also not sure if there's nothing out there. I guess I'm pretty much agnostic and I'm fine with not knowing what's out there. I have this feeling: If the being wanted to be known, it would have shown it's presence in a way that I could believe and not just through stories written by humans.

[Asmodaari Baal]

I admit that it would be comforting to believe that I would live after death, but just because it's a nice thought, doesn't mean I can believe it.

One of my idols had this to say on the topic:

Carl Sagan

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

[Reinna Astarel]

I'm an atheist, and I don't see anything really depressing with the thought of no higher power, or anything beyond death. I think we just go out, like a snuffed candle. Gone. It's not that scary nor bad of a thing, to me. If you're nonexistant, you can hardly be afraid, or be in pain, or miss something that you never know you had, because you don't have a mind anymore.

[Yellow-M]

Think about it this way.

When you go to sleep, are you particularly worried incase you don't have a dream?

[agent.freak]

I've heard for a few Christians that it seems depressing not believing in any god. But personally I don't find the thought of a god and afterlife anymore confronting. Actually to me the thought of a god constantly watching me would be a great discomfort. As for the feeling on death thing I'm not afraid to die, I don't want to, but if I do oh well. Life will go on. The people close to be will be sad, but after a while they'll feel better. I won't care because I'm dead.

[Olethros]

you know you're an atheist too. you just believe in one more god than the others.

[RavenMcCoy]

When you believe that your time is limited and that nothing happens after you die, it's easier to live in the moment. It's also easier to do what makes you happy, because you don't believe that everything you do has the possibility to throw you into a world of fire and brimstone for all eternity.

Does this open the gates for shameless hedonism? Yes. Yes, it does.

(As a sidenote, believing that death is death also helps one come to terms with death as an inevitability. It is what it is.)

[corollary]

i think its because they think that with no other higher being, they have no other person to answer to. what better thing to know than that you are being a good person and not just to get into 'heaven'.

[katealaurel]

Unfortunately, too many people out there believe that because any atheist could be a shameless hedonist, all atheists -are- shameless hedonists. In reality, though, I have never found the lack of a belief in god to be comforting. I'm not particularly afraid of death because it's a normal, natural process: like most of the people who have already responded here, I would compare it to sleep. There is no reason to waste my life on worrying that I have inherited some sort of 'original sin' and therefore owe penance to a figment in the sky. I live as moral a life as I can and try to do what's right for my own reasons, not because of the threat of going to 'hell' afterwards. In my opinion, that's a course of action much truer to oneself than relying on religion as a crutch.