My main reason for being an atheist is that I have no reason to be a theist. God beliefs answer no questions or provide any useful information, being a skeptic I require a reason before believing, and religion meets no unmet need.
I returned to atheism after about a decade as a Christian for these reasons. The religion wasn't serving any useful purpose, and it became clear to me that I had misunderstood my euphoric experiences that came in the early years, but disappeared when I returned home after a military discharge, visited several other dead congregations, and finally realized that what I was interpreting as the Holy Spirit was just my own mind successfully aroused by a very charismatic pastor. I could see in those other congregations that this religion wasn't keeping its promises in this life, so why should I believe its promises for an afterlife?
I also got married during that decade based on those feelings. I believed that the Holy Spirit had selected my future wife based on one of those euphoric experiences. Worst mistake of my life. We really weren't compatible. It was as if I picked somebody at random. I guess I did.
Life got better eliminating magical and faith-based thinking, and returning strictly to rigorous reason and evidence-based methods for determining what is true about the world. Incidentally, I'm remarried, chose her the right way - by getting to know her and making an evidence-based choice that time. We're coming up on our 29th anniversary soon.
there’s zero evidence outside of personal experience for atheism too
I'll just reaffirm here what others have already said a few times. Atheism requires no evidence. It's merely the "no" answer to the question whether one believes in a god or gods, theism being the "yes" answer. I expect the theist to give me a reason to believe in gods, but I have no duty to defend the fact that I am unconvinced.
My atheism is just like my avampirism and aleprechaunism. I don't believe in gods because I have no reason to. And none of them represent existential claims about reality, nor define my worldview beyond the fact that it contains no gods, vampires, or leprechauns.
The claim that God or gods exist as opposed to the claim that no God or god exists are opposing points of view.
But not comprehensive. I'm an agnostic atheist, and hold neither of those positions. Likewise with agnostic theists.
I accept there are difficulties and controversies in defining atheism reflecting in part a spectrum or range of beliefs.
As you have been told on this thread, there is no range of beliefs or system of beliefs that define atheism. There are many different kinds of atheists, and not all atheistic worldviews are rational. Astrology removes gods from the universe and is thus atheistic, but it's still irrational and not evidence-based, which of course is why it's useless. Stalinism might be another atheistic alternative to secular humanism, which sharply condemns brutal, totalitarian regimes. The Secular humanist, Stalinist, and astrologer might have nothing else in common in their worldviews than their lack of a god belief.
The only beliefs involved in my atheism are that that nothing should be believed without adequate supporting evidence, and that the evidence offered to date for gods is unconvincing. Every other belief I have derives from that rational, skeptical, empirical perspective, not from atheism. Nor avampirism.
I appreciate atheism isn’t a religion but it seems clearly a belief and an important part of one’s worldview.
Do you still think that after reading what I just wrote? Is your aleprechaunism (I'm presuming that you're an aleprechaunist) an important part of your worldview? Why is this point so difficult to convey?
most people don’t believe in unicorns whereas most people believe in God or gods. Why do you think that is?
For the same reason that kids raised in the Santa tradition believe in Santa, the difference being that their parents eventually told them that Santa was mythical. Those same kids would also believe in unicorns if brought up to do so.
A big reason that religion and god-beliefs are more universal in human belief systems is that unicorns don't have institutions to spread the belief in unicorns. They didn't have Emperors and kings sending out armies of Roman legions, Crusaders, and Conquistadores to spread unicorn belief, because unicorn belief was of no value to them, but religion was. Where are the unicorn missions, or the unicorn scriptures being printed and given away free of charge to anybody that will accept them on faith?
It’s great to hear all the reasons God can’t and doesn’t exist
If "God" refers to the god of Abraham, that god can be ruled out with pure reason the way that married bachelors can. Somebody screwed the pooch claiming that their god was omniscient, but also possessed and granted free will. They didn't think that through, which is how we can tell that the scripture writers were just giving their own very human opinions.
One aspect of my God believe is that He is an unknowable essence so the best way we come to know Him is through His Chosen Messengers or Manifestations
I find that contradictory. If the god is unknowable to me, it is unknowable to other humans. The willingness to trust and believe such other humans is an example of the kind of thinking I'm no longer willing to engage in - faith-based thought.
I suspect once you have had an experience of being a genuine theist, you wouldn’t go back to atheism.
I did. Of course, for many theists, that just means I was never a genuine theist. If so, that definition excludes all of those able to burrow out of religion. By definition, such people had weak faith. I see them differently. I'm one. The religion failed. It was brave and difficult to shed it, but it was the best thing for me. Subsequent personal history supports that claim. I am very content with my life these last few decades as a secular humanist.
The example set by the and Teachers of the Abrahamic Faiths is evidence for the existence of the God of Abraham.
Not to me. There is no human being whose life suggests to me that there is a god. And of course, the teachers of the Abrahamic faiths include all of its adherents, which is not a very flattering crowd to be included amongst. I learned as much about Christianity from teachers like the Palins and Duggars as I did from any other Christians.
I believe God is the most hidden of the hidden, and the most manifest of the manifest
That's the kind of thinking I find commonplace in religion, but that I can't use. Does that mean anything?
My biggest concern is it creates an us and them divide between theists and atheists.
That comes from the theists. In my world, the Christian West, it comes right out of their Bibles. This is the filth and hate speech that people reading the Bible are taught
:
[1] "The fool says in his heart,'There is no God.' They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good" - Psalm 14:1
[2] "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, and all and the enemy of a good god." - Revelation 21:8
[3]"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"- 2 Corinthians 6:14
[4] Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ." - 1 John 2:22
[5] "Whoever is not with me is against me" - Luke 11:23
[6] “Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.” - 1 Timothy 5:8
[7] "They are puzzled that you do not continue running with them in the same decadent course of debauchery, so they speak abusively of you" – 1 Peter 4:4
This Bible calls unbelievers like me lying, corrupt, vile, wicked, abominable, decadent, debauched, godless vessels of darkness in the service of evil, not one of whom does any good, fit to be shunned and to be burned alive forever as enemies of a good god, and the moral equivalent of murderers and whoremongers.
Drop dead, Christianity, and do the world a favor. Atheists don't need or deserve this.don't need this.
My wife had a similar experience with her flat mate before we married. They had been close friends then her flat mate converted to a rather fundamentalist version of Christianity and started obsessing about how her non Christian friends were all going to hell. They went from being best friends to progressively more distant.
And there is the divisiveness of religion. It's not due to secular humanists. Once again, eff those people. They're not my fellow anythings. May they please leave the earth and make it a better place.
