Those condescending atheists

[Murph]

Out of curiosity, have you any belief, faith, any spiritual thought in the least?
Or have you concluded there is nothing, you die, and that's it, poof, it's all over and your soul ceases to exist?

Do atheists believe they have souls?

[anti-American]

Why in the world would you ever believe in a God who could be explained?  The whole POINT of faith is that you have to believe without seeing, if there is proof, it is not faith.

Why would I believe in something that can be explained? Do I really need to answer this? Surely, despite your inexplicable belief in an inexplicable "God" you too believe in something that can be explained. It would be the height of absurdity to believe only in illogical things that can't be explained.

God was not created, He has always been and always will be...

I was a philosophy major so I don't automatically accept as true conclusory statements such as this one. Give me a logical argument, then we'll talk.

Do not try to fit God in your tiny box you call logic, He will never fit.  Many things can not be explained logically, yet they still exist.

You are now falsely equivocating the idea of explanation with proof of mere existence. Do you believe in Zeus? If so, why not? Why not have "faith" that Zeus is real.

Personally, I am glad that my God defies logic, a logical, boring, god that maintained the tiny parameters that Atheists would allow him, would be no God at all.

Assuming your version of "God" exists, "he," not atheists, inexplicably limits "his" power. In fact "God" does not have the infinite characteristics that you ascribe to "him" and this can be logically proven.

Out of curiosity, have you any belief, faith, any spiritual thought in the least?
Or have you concluded there is nothing, you die, and that's it, poof, it's all over and your soul ceases to exist?

In order for my soul to cease to exist it would have to exist in the first place. If it does, I know not the nature of it or what it is. Therefore, I cannot opine as to its demise when the body ceases to function.

I used to be a good Catholic. I went to Catholic school, I had a prayer corner in my bedroom, and I played Jesus in a Stations of the Cross demonstration with my confirmation class. Then I started to think for myself, I went to college, I learned how to think critically and logically, and, naturally, I now reject all mythology.

I do, however, "have spiritual thoughts" and I am very philosophical. I don't necessarily fully believe that "there is no God" but I rightly reject organized religion and mythological dogma. If I never believed in Greek mythology or Rumpelstiltskin, why should I believe in Christian mythology--it's the same illogical anti-intellectual nonsense, just another fictional story?

[Solar]

Do atheists believe they have souls?

Good question. I can't imagine how one could live life with the idea that when you die, you are gone forever.
What's the point of growth as an individual, or caring for another individual, why bother to have morals if when you die, it all ends with you as a person?
If it were true, that your entire existence were that of a blink in time, why not live your life as if there were nothing else but self gratification, no other purpose in life but to satisfy ones own personal desires.

Because the answer is, everyone alive knows there is more to humanity than what we experience, and to risk believing this is all there ever will be and to act as if there is nothing more to come after death, is to big of a gamble to take.

Too many atheists claim to denounce God, but in truth they are denouncing Religion, because they hate the idea of having to obey something they've never seen or talked to.
Most are spiritually bereft, not because they are somehow different, but because they've been stagnated out of their disdain for organized Religion, so they pursue proving it's a lie, all the while forgetting there might be answerselsewhere.

I speak from experience, most devout atheists are spiritually stagnated, they never move beyond their hatred, I too used to be like that, but after seeing many miracles, one has to question their very own existence, and to believe they are all that ever will be, is just another faith in and of itself, a misplaced faith, but faith nonetheless.

[JustKari]

Why would I believe in something that can be explained? Do I really need to answer this? Surely, despite your inexplicable belief in an inexplicable "God" you too believe in something that can be explained. It would be the height of absurdity to believe only in illogical things that can't be explained.

Actually, it would be the height if absurdity to worship something no greater than yourself, which is what you propose. 

I was a philosophy major so I don't automatically accept as true conclusory statements such as this one. Give me a logical argument, then we'll talk.

God is not logical, and you are not really looking for proof anyway because you already know that, you scream for logic so that you can have a rationalization for the devine.  What you really are trying to get us to do is explain away God.  That won't happen, logic is worthless when determining the devine.   

You are now falsely equivocating the idea of explanation with proof of mere existence. Do you believe in Zeus? If so, why not? Why not have "faith" that Zeus is real.

Zeus has no power, Zeus was believed in for a very short amount of time, historically speaking, because people realized he was false and powerless.  Even when believers have been whittled down to a handful, faith lives on, because the true God reveals himself to people.   

Assuming your version of "God" exists, "he," not atheists, inexplicably limits "his" power. In fact "God" does not have the infinite characteristics that you ascribe to "him" and this can be logically proven.

God does limit his power to that which is holy and that which he has promised. 

In order for my soul to cease to exist it would have to exist in the first place. If it does, I know not the nature of it or what it is. Therefore, I cannot opine as to its demise when the body ceases to function.

I used to be a good Catholic. I went to Catholic school, I had a prayer corner in my bedroom, and I played Jesus in a Stations of the Cross demonstration with my confirmation class. Then I started to think for myself, I went to college, I learned how to think critically and logically, and, naturally, I now reject all mythology.

I do, however, "have spiritual thoughts" and I am very philosophical. I don't necessarily fully believe that "there is no God" but I rightly reject organized religion and mythological dogma. If I never believed in Greek mythology or Rumpelstiltskin, why should I believe in Christian mythology--it's the same illogical anti-intellectual nonsense, just another fictional story?

Perhaps you would be surprised to know that there are very few things that the Lord hates, religion is one of them, religion is not faith, in fact religion is a killer of faith.  Dogma and religion (both man-made) seek to usurp the holiness if God through human action.  Because they are human, they also do much more harm than good.

As an aside, have you ever read Confessions, by St. Augustine?

[Murph]

As an aside, have you ever read Confessions, by St. Augustine?

For those that haven't here is a condensed version of the Five Proofs

http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/aquinasfiveways_argumentanalysis.htm

or a longer one:

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1002.htm

[taxed]

What kind of answer is that? You didn't address my assertion, which is that Christian dogma contains a larger unsolvable mystery than would otherwise exist. If the explanatory power of a worldview such as Christianity or Atheism is what is important in evaluating which worldview is "better" than the other and that explanatory power is measured by the magnitude of the unsolvable mystery under each worldview then Atheism is "better" than Christianity.

I'm not saying one is better than the other.  I'm saying there is plenty of unexplained phenomenon, and am simply making the case that you can't say Christians have it wrong when you yourself have no clue about mysteries of life and the universe.

You can't "argue against" my baseless belief ("faith") that there is a unicorn-dragon hybrid that lives in my backyard. There are a variety of other exceedingly silly beliefs that cannot be disproved, mainly for reasons related to the problems inherent with attempting to disprove a negative.

That's apples and oranges, because we know there are no unicorns.  If we start seeing a lot of history of people seeing unicorns, like Bigfoot, then its worth a discussion of the possibility, as silly as it may be.  In the unicorn example, the belief of it and attempt to support it wouldn't be started from a conversation about our creator or the unexplained in the universe.  Also, the "negative", in the context of the discussion, is who created us, so your point doesn't fit.

One who asserts a fanciful claim to explain a mystery, especially if the claim is tautological to the mystery it seeks to explain, bears the burden of proving that his prima facie ridiculous conclusion has some basis in reality. Those who don't blindly believe silly beliefs do not bear the burden to disprove such assertions.

All of which you can't do, as an atheist, because you yourself don't know what our reality is, in the scope of the universe.  You have as much understanding about our creation as everyone else, hence, the "faith" part by Christians.

The theory of evolution is a real theory that is scientifically strong. Religious belief based on nothing but "faith" and, in some cases, misguided logic, is hardly a theory in the scientific sense of the word.

The same thing is said about man made global warming, but it's a fallacy.

[anti-American]

For those that haven't here is a condensed version of the Five Proofs

http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/aquinasfiveways_argumentanalysis.htm

or a longer one:

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1002.htm

Like I have said, one of my college majors was philosophy, so I learned about St. Thomas' "proof" of God's existence. According to your first link, his motion argument has premises (or corollaries) stating that "nothing can move itself" and "each thing in motion is moved by something else" and a conclusion stating that something exists that wasn't moved by anything else.

[JustKari]

For those that haven't here is a condensed version of the Five Proofs

http://web.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/web%20publishing/aquinasfiveways_argumentanalysis.htm

or a longer one:

http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1002.htm

I believe St. Thomas Aquinus and St. Augustine are two different men.

[Murph]

I believe St. Thomas Aquinus and St. Augustine are two different men.

DUHHH

Now I feel stupid.
How in Hell did I confuse Confessions and the Summa? Need more sleep...

[JustKari]

DUHHH

Now I feel stupid.
How in Hell did I confuse Confessions and the Summa? Need more sleep...

No worries. 

[Alexander]

Do atheists believe they have souls?

Most atheists don't, but this isn't necessary for an atheist to believe. You can believe in an afterlife and the supernatural and still be an atheist. Being an atheist only applies to your belief about gods.

[Alexander]

Out of curiosity, have you any belief, faith, any spiritual thought in the least?
Or have you concluded there is nothing, you die, and that's it, poof, it's all over and your soul ceases to exist?

Atheism isn't the belief in "nothing." Everything in the universe is quite a lot, after all.

When people ask us (atheists) if we believe in "anything," they are typically asking a more specific question, such as, "Do you believe in anything supernatural?", which is a different question entirely.

When you ask us about "faith," I'm not sure what you mean exactly because I hear so many different definitions of the word. In our normal/everyday conversations the word 'faith' typically means a specific form of religious belief. Under that definition, I do not have any type of faith. But some others, like Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, say that every possible worldview and belief is a form of faith. So under that view, I have tons of faith.

The term "spiritual" is probably even more convoluted these days, sadly. I don't believe in any type of supernatural spirits, but I would describe many experiences as spiritual. Although I would probably avoid using that term just because most people would take it to mean something supernatural. Sam Harris (who is an atheist) has constantly said that there is nothing to exclude people from spiritual experiences regardless of what they believe.

I don't know what happens when I die, but I would be very surprised if it is anything like the afterlife described by the many world religions. I don't believe in a literal afterlife, but I do know that some part of us will always continue on, even if it is just our particles. And just for the record I don't believe in a dualistic soul.

[Solar]

Atheism isn't the belief in "nothing." Everything in the universe is quite a lot, after all.

When people ask us (atheists) if we believe in "anything," they are typically asking a more specific question, such as, "Do you believe in anything supernatural?", which is a different question entirely.

Actually the question wasn't one of atheism  so much, but directed at the poster, because he comes across a spiritually void.
But thanks for the response nonetheless.

When you ask us about "faith," I'm not sure what you mean exactly because I hear so many different definitions of the word. In our normal/everyday conversations the word 'faith' typically means a specific form of religious belief. Under that definition, I do not have any type of faith. But some others, like Norman Geisler and Frank Turek, say that every possible worldview and belief is a form of faith. So under that view, I have tons of faith.

The term "spiritual" is probably even more convoluted these days, sadly. I don't believe in any type of supernatural spirits, but I would describe many experiences as spiritual. Although I would probably avoid using that term just because most people would take it to mean something supernatural. Sam Harris (who is an atheist) has constantly said that there is nothing to exclude people from spiritual experiences regardless of what they believe.

I don't know what happens when I die, but I would be very surprised if it is anything like the afterlife described by the many world religions. I don't believe in a literal afterlife, but I do know that some part of us will always continue on, even if it is just our particles. And just for the record I don't believe in a dualistic soul.

Strange as it may seem, we are much alike, though I believe in God, just not in the form as you stated, Religious institutions put forth.

Which is why is was trying to get American, (I think that was the posters name) to be a bit more open in his approach to all things spiritual, he strikes me as someone damaged and disillusioned by a specific Religion or Religion in general, which is rather quite common among those claiming Atheist status.

But my take on God is not one of an individual, rather a collective, as one might find in the insect world, termites, ants etc, for lack of a better description.
I see all of us an extension of God, in other words, mankind is God as a collective.
But that's how I've always viewed it, even as a child and it was strengthened after dying a few times.

[Murph]

Most atheists don't, but this isn't necessary for an atheist to believe. You can believe in an afterlife and the supernatural and still be an atheist. Being an atheist only applies to your belief about gods.

I' not a theology major, but isn't that closer to transtheism?

[Alexander]

I' not a theology major, but isn't that closer to transtheism?

From my understanding a 'transtheist' still believes in some form of god (or gods). An atheist doesn't believe in any god or gods. People often apply other beliefs to atheism that aren't necessarily so, but are commonly believed to be part of the deal because the majority of atheists hold these views. Examples would be not believing in the afterlife or the supernatural, accepting evolution and rejection creationism and Intelligent Design, etc. Some even seem to think certain political views are required if you're an atheist. But this isn't the case, it only applies to your views on God.