Heathens: so you don't believe ANY of the following exist?

The reason I'm an atheist is because people like you who call yourselves christian, but don't accept other people for who they are, are the example for Christianity. If I were to become a christian I would do it in spite of people like you. You wear a label. The difference between me and you is that I can accept christians, but they will never accept me.

Seems you let your venom run your brain.

The only part of that rant that is true is that I don't believe in supernatural stuff, including ghosts and such... and yes, you are a liar.

To respond to specific nonsense you posted:

"Do you really think the words would exist if there wasn't something else to life?"

So there really is a "Lord Voldemort"? And Morlocks? And Jedi? Because those words exist, and by your reasoning, that means that the things themselves must exist, too, right?

"but by definition it's all about YOU, right?"

Actually, I'd think that a theology that claims that your god made you special in his own image and made the whole universe just to house you is much better defined as making it all about YOU.

"I don't mean to offend by using the word 'heathen'..."

Oh yes you do. You mean it very much, as the venom in the rest of your rant makes clear.

And by the way, if you're so concerned at how "scripture" names things, then what do you call your computer?

"No made up god could have changed me."

No. You changed yourself. People do.

Now take your bigotry and pound sand.

Well, you are partly wrong.

"Supernatural things don't happen or exist.

Afterlife of any kind doesn't exist.

Spirits, ghosts, souls, evil, good.... they aren't really things... just all in people's imaginations, right?"

Correct. At least that's what I believe. Well, except good and evil. Those aren't "things," they are our opinions about what is right behavior and what is wrong behavior.

"there's no reason for life.

there's no purpose to it:"

Wrong. There is no reason for life given to us by some outside force. We make up our own reason for life - we a fully capable of doing so. Reason/purpose - same thing, isn't it?

"there's nothing to look forward to so living the most selfish, self gratifying life possible is what you should be doing at any waking moment."

Wrong. Since there is no afterlife, the life we have is all that we will ever have, all that we will ever know, and all that we will ever experience. Life is extraordinarily precious to an atheist in a way that that someone who believes in eternal afterlife can never appreciate. This applies to all life. We all (or most, not psychopaths/sociopaths) have a natural empathy towards others. If honoring this empathy is selfish and self-gratifying, then so be it. I don't see anything wrong with such behavior. We all, at least today, live in societies in which our well being is entirely dependent on others. Cooperation is critical, and the more you cooperate the more your life improves. Living "the most selfish, self gratifying life possible" is not possible in a literal sense.

Yet, isn't that what believers do? Aren't Christians, for example, living a selfish self-gratifying life? It's just that their choice of self-gratification is getting into "heaven." And isn't it extremely selfish to assert your ideas over others in society through laws simply so you can get into heaven? Opposing gay marriage, health insurance coverage of contraception, a woman's right to choose...aren't those all, in essence, selfish actions by Christians undertaken to achieve the most self-gratifying objective possible: eternal paradise in "heaven"?

"And there's no such thing as hope. The very word shouldn't exist."

This makes no sense whatsoever. What does a belief in god have to do with hope? I vote with the hope that the candidates I choose will better American, I vote for gay rights with the hope that anti-gay bigots will see the error in their ways and that America will move to a more tolerant and fair society. I have lots of hope, and no belief in god.

"Do you really think the words would exist if there wasn't something else to life?"

Yes. There is no evidence to suggest otherwise. Only human bias, but seeing what we want to see does not prove anything.

"Men since the beginning of time have had a built in instinct to search for the meaning of life.... seeking out something bigger than just themselves"

No, men since the beginning of time have had a built in instinct to search for meaning in the world around them. How it works, why it does what it does. We instinctively search for patterns and explanations. This instinct has been extraordinarily successful as we can manipulate our environment as no other species on earth can. The problem is that some of us, like you, let this instinct to ask and look get the better of you and you imagine there are patterns and meanings where there are none. Unfortunately, men since the beginning of time, have not had a built in instinct to validate and confirm. If we had, there wouldn't be any religion.

"but by definition it's all about YOU, right?"

No, not at all. As far as atheists are concerned, it's all about you and whether your claims about your god have any objective support at all or whether your claims about your god are just fiction and/or wishful thinking. Humans have an undeniable history of making wild, speculative, and unsupported claims. By definition, atheists ask one question: "All your ideas and claims about god, how exactly do we know what you are claiming is true?"

No, you are thinking of nihilist hedonists.

Life emerged because it could and we all have our own purpose and reason. Most of us have things to look forward to. Because we only have this life and there is no other, it is especially important that we safeguard human rights and look after each other. No consoling yourself that starving children go to heaven - we need to help them survive NOW.

There is no evidence of an afterlife or anything supernatural. Yes, mythical creatures all exist in people's imagination. I bet you realise this for the vast majority of them too? Or do you really believe in everything that people have been sure existed? As sure as you are of your god? 30,000 gods? Vampires? Leprechauns? Mermaids? I doubt it. I suspect you rationally disbelieve in 99.9999% of supernatural entities but then get all outraged and incredulous when people disbelieve in yours - as 2/3rd of the world's population does.

We began searching for answers and reasoning when we learnt to cook meat and yes, this has resulted in thousands of gods being invented. Yours is one of the more recent ones.

No the universe is not all about us. You are thinking of Christians - they are the ones who think they were made in the image of the creator of the universe with whom they have a relationship and that they have immortal souls and the world was made for them. We atheists tend to know we are just lumps of carbon temporarily formed into primates on a planet of no particular significance.

You can call me a heathen if you want.

Edit - Did another Rebecca answer you? have just reread my answer and cannot see where I have judged you in any way. It was you who made assumptions about my selfishness?

I know that many people feel that a god helped them change for the better. We had a Muslim here yesterday saying that was how he knew Islam was the one true faith. He had been a bad person as a Christian but been able to turn his life around when he accepted Islam and knew this was because the Allah version of the god was the right one.

This is a very common psychological process. People with mental health problems who commit violent acts but come to a point in their lives where they want to turn it around, do not have faith in their own ability to do so and so seek an outside source in order to make a complete change. This often takes the form of religion or some sort of spiritualism or self help books. You should give yourself more credit. You wanted to be a better person and reached out for something good. You did that. You chose Christ but it does not really matter which method you chose. You wanted to do good. You could have been the kind of Christian who uses the bible to justify violence and hatred but you became the kind of Christian who is patient and kind. That was your choice. Try not to be so judgmental of atheists tho - we are good people too.

I take it that you believe that at least one of the reasons for life is to worship your god, what an ego your god must have to want that kind of thing.

Saying that all Atheists are selfish is plainly stupid.

The supernatural is just something we have not found an explanation for (yet).

As far as an afterlife goes I neither believe nor dis-believe.

Spirits, ghosts, who knows.

And I just love the hell-fire and damnation for eternity bit, that sounds like a really just and loving god.

You're wrong. What you have there is religious propaganda made so that you would see us as less then human. Making us less then human makes it easier to defile and ostracize us. Yes, it's how scripture defines us. You believe what it says. But I'm here to tell you, it's wrong. But of course, you don't care and won't listen. Because the belief of that book is what defines you. But see, we don't believe your book. It doesn't define us. And we know it's wrong.

Funny, I've been on this forum for a few years my self. It's Christians who keep pushing us to define ourselves according to YOUR doctrine. The thing is all atheists are not the same but you keep saying we are. You hear what you want to hear.

hope and faith are human emotions produced by longevity of emotional production.

The reason for life is life itself, survival. I believe you to be an extremist or an activist.

Look at dogs and other animals, they don't know god yet they have a reason to live.

For themselves, their families their friends and to spend time doing these things.

There are much things to look forward to, what do you look forward to besides sitting at home reading a bible? You look forward to congregating with your friends and doing outside activity no?

The world spun even when christianity was not created. People look forward to living their lives, what the bible offers, is the same things wrapped into some ancient form of monarchy and political grouping and control.

Incorrect, I have a reason and purpose, but I found reason and purpose myself, it was not inherent in the universe.

I take pleasure in being selfless and helping others, and making the world a better place, and I don't even need threat of eternal torture to do it! So again incorrect.

Your third statement is absurd, I hope for things in this life, I hope for things for generations that follow me, I just don't believe in an eternal fairy tale happy ending.

Indeed supernatural things don't exist, yes they are all in people imaginations.

We have an in built instinct to search for causality, to figure things out, it is part of our problem solving biological trait, that which allowed us to adapt and survive and build tools etc. It just so happens that there is no cause to existence, it just exists, it is a fools errand looking for the meaning of life and the fact we have tried for so long in no way implies there IS a meaning of life.

It's about whatever I decide it to be. There is no objective 'about'. You don't really have the hang of this do you..

Just because your life would be meaningless without religion as your crutch doesn't mean everyone else's would be. Most people are perfectly capable of finding a purpose for themselves in life. Try not to make such rash judgments of others. after all, the bible says not to judge.

I would like to point at the poster of the question above as an example of the christian propaganda being set out there. Sadly there are people who don't think for themselves who belief this evil crap. Hopefully as people become better educated they will see the pointless drivel that this is and it will become more rare and finally disappearing altogether.