Can someone really be an atheist?

hard, prideful, it's all about me hearts breed destructive thought processes. Remember we live in a day of relativism, so if guy thinks he is an atheist he is an atheist. That is of course until he dies! Our silly little imaginations will never have the power to create reality. Every human on earth will meet God one day and I guarantee it's not going to be all about me,me,me when we meet him.

Atheism is a faith, just like Christianity. Agnosticism is the middle path.

Can someone really be a Christain? Lets say that a person has an incredible 1% of all the knowledge in the universe..Is it possible in the 99% of the knowledge that he does not have that there is in fact a race of technologically superior aliens dressing up as God and Jesus as a practical joke? So this would not make him a Christian, but a fool.

Therfore there is no such thing as a Christian, unless he is claiming to have all knowledge.

There is, conversely then, no such thing as a theist for the exact same reason. You also do not have all the knowledge available to make the claim that one exists. Therefore, you must be agnostic on the matter.

Please, spare us from these weak arguments. Your clarification only begs the question, it doesn't show a flaw in my statement above. Yes, you can "prove" gold exists if you find a nugget, but you can't prove God exists in the same manner. There is no objective test you can perform to show the existence of God. You cannot do anything but make a claim and pretend you have proven your claim just by virtue of having said it. It is not testable, unlike a gold nugget.

You should know that faith is not a matter of knowing, but of believing. If your belief is that there are no gods or God, than that is your belief and thus you are an atheist. An agnostic isnt sure what to believe by contrast and expects proof before he/she commits to any faith-based endevour.

It all depends on what you mean by 'God' too. With all the cultures, religeons, anscestors, faiths, spiritualities, and practices that we have here on Earth alone, what are the chances that there is only one god and he happens to be Yahweh from the ancient Hebrew culture? Im sure that sentient beings from other worlds may have faiths, religeons, and all that jazz too and I can confidently tell you that they have no clue who Yahweh or Jesus or Buddha or Allah are. There may well be a Divine Being who knows everything, but you have to consider what kind of mind that being would have. It would understand all the sensations that all matter, living and inert, feels, it would be aware of all thoughts and impulses from all living things, all at once, all the time. It would be aware of the movements of every particle of matter at all times. It would be far more complex than what we could immediatley understand and would be beyond the reasoning and rationality of human thought, which is only a small part of It's Being. Saying that an angry tribal god from the Middle East is, in fact, The God is pure BS. Find a nicer diety, please. How we interpret It probably doesnt matter to It. It's got alot on its mind and probably doesnt sweat the small stuff like what you call It, your sexual preference, whether you eat pork or not, or which gods you choose to see as representing It.

Being an athiest has nothing to do with KNOWLEDGE of a God.

It is the DENIAL of there being a God. You might have 100% knowledge of the Universe and still deny that there was a creator.

Atheism is down to free will. As is Christianity and all religion. Not kinowledge - free will.

By your argumnent, you would say that Christians are agnostic too - because they can't be sure that there is a God!

To sum up - in my opinion, Christianity is belief (not knowledge) of a God, Atheism is belief (not knowledge) of there being no God. So yes, people can be Atheists.

1. Yes. I am really an atheist.

2. I love your analogy about gold in China. When I make the same analogy I generally use life in the universe, but yours is much more easily related to, and I may steal it.

The fact, however, is that though you are right, you still haven't shown that one little piece of gold. You claim that it's there. You show me the testimony of people who have seen gold in China. You even claim to have pictures of people in China holding huge nuggets. Sadly, you can't produce a single shred of verifiable, testable proof that there is gold. Now, if you had a gold mining company and wanted me to invest, I'd need a little bit more than the say-so of a bunch of people or a book that says there is gold in China.

Until you can come up with actual verifiable proof of god or gold I'm going to hang on to my worldview.

A true atheist will actually deny their own existence. Since we have so many legal issues surrounding holidays such as Easter and Christmas, I'm assuming the true atheists out there are few and far between.

An agnostic isn't necessarily saying they're not sure... what they're saying is that they are without a certain religion and feel that hard, physical proof is needed to for them to confirm their belief or disbelief in God. We're the ones kinda riding the fence.

I see what you mean, but one could say the same about theists. As God's existence can't be dis/proved (or at least not in any scientific way) everybody should be agnostic.

Most people with a belief in God have had some kind of experience so they just 'know' that God exists. All though this doesn't satisfy everybody, it is good enough for them. I have never really understood the idea of atheism, surely you would need some kind of personal proof so you just 'know' there isn't a God. I have asked a question asking about this, but most people just said that we can't prove God exists. For me that isn't enough to get past agnosticism.

I suggest you read Bill Bryson's book: A Short History Of Everything while you busily extract your foot from where you just placed it. Few finer people exist in any world than atheists! Did you ever hear any stories about a group of atheists charging over the hill to attack anybody?

Your question contains a logical fallacy which should prevent you from ever getting out of grade school!

Your roots are steeped in wishful thinking which is the source of most religion. It stems from your having a basic fear of death

But consider the alternative!

As the Tibetans believe, "Who in their right mind would want to live forever?

Here's the real gospel. Grasp it before it is too late: God did not exist. It was necessary to invent him to keep the unthinking masses in line.

The meek shall inherit, indeed!

Stop wasting your last minutes on earth with this dusty old fairy tale.

Get a life before it's too late!

You've just demonstrated that you have a lot to learn indeed! Keeping an open mind is the first step. Let's fill both voids with understanding.

Yes he can be an atheist. If a person can believe in a God with that same 1% of knowledge, why couldnt someone with the same 1% not believe?

An agnostic beleives that the existance of God/higher power cannot be proven.

An atheist beleives that God/Higher Power does not exist. One does not have to have all the knowledge in the Universe to not beleive in something.

Knowledge has little to do with believing or not believing. Believing is a matter of faith. Some people believe there is no God (god) and that we are born,we grow and age and then we die, the end. There are many people who have very little knowledge of the world, let alone the universe, and yet they believe in God.