believers/atheists/humanists/agnostics; please help! answer questions? thanks :)?

Atheist:

1 - I was brought up a catholic. I can't remember a time I ever believed in God. Some of my siblings are atheists some are not. My cousins are too young to know I imagine. Most of the generations before as in parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts etc are religious.

(What happened to question 2?)

3 - I don't. As someone else said - I don't believe in God, which doesn't mean I do believe there is no God. I don't believe in God as I see no evidence, based either on empirical methods or logical ones, for a God.

4 - When I see people who need my help I do what I can for them. I sometimes do some charity work too and give some of my money to charity - mainly Médecins Sans Frontières.

I think it is flawed to try and compare how good people in what they do with reference to their theistic beliefs in this way - to try and judge whether people with one set of beliefs are better or worse than people with another set relies on you deciding what set of morals you use to judge them. Obviously, if you accept one set of morals, people who believe and follow those same ones will seem to you to do more good than those who don't, whereas if accept the other peoples morals then you will see things the other way around.

5 - No. I have no desire for an omnipotent universal dictator. I don't want someone to command me to love them, at the threat of an eternity in hell. Someone who would reward or punish me and others on the basis of how he himself created us.

@olivez

Presumably the intelligent designer himself would be in need of a designer to have created him too. After all, if an eye, ear or brain needs a designer, how could a being capable of designing and creating the entire universe not need one? And then his designer would naturally need one too. And if there is a designer that certainly doesn't justify the Christian concept of God. Why would an omnipotent and omniscient creator fill the universe with such an abundance of flaws, particularly with regards to living creatures. Flaws which are not enough to always cause those creatures to die out (though in plenty of cases they are), but still flaws. And as far as life is concerned, the alternative to a designer isn't accidents and chance, it is instead a very methodical process of natural selection.

Sure thing.

ATHEIST

1. Have you ever believed in God? were you brought up as an Atheist? or were you brought up as a Believer/Humanist/Agnostic? Is your Family/Relatives mostly Atheists/Believers/Agnostics/Humanists?

Not really. I was brought up by a Pagan/Catholic (yes, really) and an agnostic. Neither were terribly interested in "converting" me, so to speak. I never attended church, or really had much interaction with religion apart from reading about it for my own enjoyment. My extended family is mostly Catholic and Episcopal Christian.

3. How do you know that God is not real?

I don't. Atheism doesn't claim there is no god. Atheism states that since we have no evidence of a god, disbelief if the logical position. So when I say I'm an atheist, I'm saying that I don't believe in a god - not that I believe there is no god.

4. What kind of tasks do you perform to help the world/mankind?

I ran a pretty large fundraiser to help Japan recently. I try to stay involved with national and global news, and act when necessary. I did some volunteer quit-smoking material for about a year.

5. I know you do not believe, but, is there any part of you that secretly does/wants to believe?

Nope. I find the natural world fulfilling enough as-is.

Relatively the same answer I gave you an hour ago.

AGNOSTIC:

1. Neither.

2. I'm an agnostic atheist, you can be both a the same time.

3. I don't know, I only know that my parents are atheists.

4. Being an agnostic atheist, it's pretty obvious. I don't believe in gods/goddesses.

5. .... No idea. I guess I just try to be kind and offer to help people if I see they might need help, though that isn't usual for me to do around strangers, I'm really shy around people I don't know well.

ATHEISTS:

1. No, I haven't really believed in any god/goddess, I've always been pretty agnostic about it all. I wouldn't say I was brought up as anything, my parents didn't really say anything on the subject. I don't know what the majority of my family is, though I know my parents (and possibly an auntie and uncle of mine) are atheist.

3. Did you skip question 2? It just went from Q1, to Q2. Anyway, as I said before I'm agnostic, and I don't know either way.

4. Same answer as on the agnostic part.

5. No, I'm open to the idea if anything gets proven, though I don't personally believe, and haven't seen anything yet but arguments that have a lot of holes.

ATHEISTS:

1. Have you ever believed in God? were you brought up as an Atheist? or were you brought up as a Believer/Humanist/Agnostic? Is your Family/Relatives mostly Atheists/Believers/Agnostics/Humanists?

I was brought up C of E. My family are believers but not bible-thumping ones!

3. How do you know that God is not real?

I don't know for sure. I don't know that fairies are not real, but I don't believe in them. Sorry, fairies.

4. What kind of tasks do you perform to help the world/mankind?

Nothing special. I donate to charity sometimes. I don't have children so when I'm older if I have any money to spare I'd like to use it to help education in developing countries.

5. I know you do not believe, but, is there any part of you that secretly does/wants to believe?

"Secretly does" - absolutely not. "Secretly wants to" - I can understand the attraction of faith, the feeling of overwhelming security that must come from accepting that some higher authority is taking care of things. I can be deeply moved by spiritual music or beautiful places of worship.

I'm atheist.

1. No, not really. I was agnostic until I was about 6, when I realized I was atheist.

2. I wasn't brought up as anything- my parents were atheist, but never talked about religion and I went to a Christian school.

3. I don't KNOW that God isn't really, but I am 99% sure he isn't- There is no proof for his existence, God is the same as Santa or the Tooth fairy to me.

4. Donating to charity, helping out at lost dogs home.

5. I think it would be nice to believe, in the same way it would be nice to believe in unicorns but I don't. I'm pretty happy being atheist.

Mmm, yeah. Religion doesn't have a big impact on my life, but I'm Australian and it isn't taken as seriously over here. I have no problem with any religions, I have a lot of religious friends but I don't like it when people use religion to discriminate and hate- against other religions, or homosexuals, etc.

Hope i helped :)

Are there sound reasons for believing in God?

Ps. 19:1: “The heavens are declaring the glory of God; and of the work of his hands the expanse is telling.”

Ps. 104:24: “How many your works are, O Jehovah! All of them in wisdom you have made. The earth is full of your productions.”

Rom. 1:20: “His invisible qualities are clearly seen from the world’s creation onward, because they are perceived by the things made.”

New Scientist magazine said: “The lay view persists—of scientists having ‘disproved’ religion. It is a view that commonly expects scientists to be nonbelievers; that Darwin put the last nails in God’s coffin; and that a succession of scientific and technological innovations since have ruled out the possibility of any resurrection. It is a view that is wildly wrong.”—May 26, 1977, p. 478.

A member of the French Academy of Sciences stated: “Natural order was not invented by the human mind or set up by certain perceptive powers. . . . The existence of order presupposes the existence of organizing intelligence. Such intelligence can be none other than God’s.”—Dieu existe? Oui (Paris, 1979), Christian Chabanis, quoting Pierre-Paul Grassé, p. 94.

Scientists have identified over 100 chemical elements. Their atomic structure displays an intricate mathematical interrelationship of the elements. The periodic table points to obvious design. Such amazing design could not possibly be accidental, a product of chance.

Illustration: When we see a camera, a radio, or a computer, we readily acknowledge that it must have been produced by an intelligent designer. Would it be reasonable, then, to say that far more complex things—the eye, the ear, and the human brain—did not originate with an intelligent Designer?

i'm an agnostic by the way.

1 I don't know. I would like to believe in heaven but i just don't see tanigible proof that a god exists. however, i am an apathetic agnostic believing that i have decided that if there is a god that it is a clockmaker god but since he is not a loving god, the question is purely academic. it made the world and them stepped away from it.

2 i was raised a chirstian but i became very angry with how the church treated me and others. that developed into atheism. once i calmed down years later i realized that i did not know.

3 my dads family are protestant chirstians and my mom's are all catholic expect for my mom who's a protestant. my sister refuses to think about god so she's probably an agnostic or a deist.

4 i would choose deism as my religion. since i've settled that if there's a god it is not loving and does not interfere with its creation.

5 i a cna in a nursing and rehab facility. i volunteer to help teach kids. i help feed low income and elderly people on holidays like easter, thanksgiving, and chirstmas. i redid a room at a local domestic violence shelter. i've helped out to make sure that low income people have coats, boats, and other appral to keep them warm in the winter by doing a coat drive. i've also in school to become a human services pratictioner and would like to work with the mentally ill. Volunteering and helping people in my profession is very imporant to me. if i don't who will.

i get made fun of a lot by chirstians for not having a religion and this bothers me. i'm not trying to convert them i'm just trying to live my life. people give me a lot of stares like i don't have morals and beliefs just becuase i don't have a religion--i have a lifestyle. my bf is also an agnostic, although he is a strong agnostic, believeing that no one can know that if there is a god. it was really wonderful for me to meet somebody that shared by beliefs and didn't think i was going to hell.

hope this helps!

1 - Never did. I was raised in a catholic and was a good little alter boy, but it never took. One day I asked my pastor a question he refused to answer. He hand an answer but refused. I discovered the answer on my own and never looked back.

3 - The god of the bible is a fairy tale easily proven.

4 - My wife and I raised $100,000 for schools in our area.

5 - Nope.

I think you've done a great job on these questions.

Asking the right question, in the right way, is key to finding the answer you seek.

Good work.