| Q: Isn’t atheism a religion? A: No, it is no more a religion than not believing in Santa or invisible pink unicorns are religions. To say that atheism is a religion trivializes what a religion is, and would render virtually everything a religion. It is necessary to change the concept of religion, in order to make it applicable to atheism. In such a case, you make almost anything become a religion, such as reading or having a favorite food. Q: This is your site, but it is mostly links to other sites, why? A: It's my site and that's how I want to do it. Mostly because I don't have time to write my own stuff to put on here. If all goes well, I'll slowly add more and more of my own material over time. Q: I've debated with you in the past, now you won't debate. Why? A: While I enjoy debating and have spent much of my time in the past dedicated to it, I can no longer do this as it started to take time away from my family. Also, I simply don't have time to debate with everyone who requests a debate with me from my site (I get very many). Instead, I'd like you to write an essay stating the case for your position for me to add to my site. I do this not only for the theists who visit my site, but to give the atheists who visit an idea of what he or she may be faced with in his or her own debate. Q: Do you hate God? A: This isn’t possible, as an atheist doesn’t believe in a god. Q: Do you honestly not believe in God? A: I honestly do not believe in your god, or any others that have been provided to me thus far. Some people claim that atheists are "in the closet" so-to-speak theists who don't want to be held accountable for their actions. Such a claim is false. Atheists are real. I am real. Q: Why do you want to be an atheist? A: It isn’t something that someone chooses or wants. It is something at which someone arrives. Atheism is an end point, it is a result. This may not be true for all atheists; it is so for me. I’m an atheist in that I don’t see that the most common concept (that I am exposed to) is probable and I just don’t believe in it. If you have a god you think I may believe in, explain what it is to me and I’ll tell you whether or not I believe in it. I do not believe in magic. I do not believe anything escapes the laws that govern our universe. Q: Isn’t it true that most atheists are just young people going through a rebellious phase? A: A large proportion of atheists are young, but not rebellious teens, they’re people in their twenties. When people enter their teens, they begin to develop their own personal philosophies. They become capable of more advanced philosophical thinking. Often times questions of gods and religions will be among those things pondered. I imagine some bounce back and forth between agnosticism and atheism and theism before settling into one, but I would never dare say most or all atheists are being rebellious. There seems to be a correlation between atheism and education. The more educated you are, the higher the chances are that you’ll be an atheist. This may have something to do with the high number of atheists who are in their twenties, as they are in or just out of college. Q: Why are atheists so angry and depressed? A: This is a myth. All humans are subject to anger and depression. An atheist is no more likely than anyone else. Just because you may need to have a theistic point of view to be happy, doesn’t mean everyone else does. Some people out there can do just fine by themselves. In general, the atheists I know seem pretty happy. I’ll admit, they can be caustic at times, but that is more in spite than anything. Q: Why won’t you read the Bible, so that you can know the truth? A: A lot of atheists have read the Bible. It is my experience that atheists tend to know a lot more about the Bible than Christians. I've read the Bible, it strengthened my belief that the Christian religion is false. Q: How can an atheist not believe in God? A: That is for the individual atheist to answer. To start you on your way, I’ll ask you this: Why don’t you believe in Krishna, Zeus, Horus, Poseidon? The answer to your question and mine may be very similar. |