What generally characterizes an atheist?

[pedrog]

Atheists are reasonable people who are able to understand the world that surround them without the need to appeal to magic/mystic.

They have the clear mind to seek reason in order to understand reality.

TLDR, atheists are not lazy people: they use their brain.

No!

Atheists do not believe in god or gods, period!

I know a lot of people who are atheist and they believe in a lot of crazy conspiracy theories, astrology, homeopathy, Feng Shui and a lot of other pseudo-science or New Age bullshit.

Atheism is not the same thing as skepticism.

[CryptoFutaba]

Atheists are reasonable people who are able to understand the world that surround them without the need to appeal to magic/mystic.

They have the clear mind to seek reason in order to understand reality.

TLDR, atheists are not lazy people: they use their brain.

No!

Atheists do not believe in god or gods, period!

I know a lot of people who are atheist and they believe in a lot of crazy conspiracy theories, astrology, homeopathy, Feng Shui and a lot of other pseudo-science or New Age bullshit.

Atheism is not the same thing as skepticism.

non sense

(I am skeptical about what you've just said)

[BADecker]

How might atheistic thought be superior to theistic thinking?

At one time Jesus' disciples said to Jesus something to the effect of, "Now we can see that you know all things, and that you don't even need anyone to ask you questions."

I still need people to ask me questions... at least much of the time.

In Mark 11:22-24, Jesus says that if you have faith in God, you can have anything that you say. Then He goes on to say that if we believe that we will receive what ever we ask for in prayer, we will have it. Then He says that if we don't forgive, we won't be forgiven by God.

The point is, an atheist knows that he doesn't have any sin. This produces an automatic self-forgiveness in him. Because of this, an atheist often gets what he asks for faster than a Christian. And what he asks for above many other things often is a peaceful life.

A Christian knows he is sinful. Knowing he is sinful makes it hard for the Christian to forgive the most important person in his life (next to Jesus, of course), himself. So, since the Christian won't forgive himself like he should, he gets what he is asking for... trouble in his life.

Now, I said this briefly. Think it over and put it into better wording for yourself. And if you are a Christian, start forgiving yourself. After all, Jesus and His Father both forgave you. So why shouldn't you forgive yourself, and start having a better life?

[pedrog]

Atheists are reasonable people who are able to understand the world that surround them without the need to appeal to magic/mystic.

They have the clear mind to seek reason in order to understand reality.

TLDR, atheists are not lazy people: they use their brain.

No!

Atheists do not believe in god or gods, period!

I know a lot of people who are atheist and they believe in a lot of crazy conspiracy theories, astrology, homeopathy, Feng Shui and a lot of other pseudo-science or New Age bullshit.

Atheism is not the same thing as skepticism.

non sense

(I am skeptical about what you've just said)

Haha, nice, but I don't think that's an extraordinary claim, you can take my word for it.

[mellzinha]

How might atheistic thought be superior to theistic thinking?

At one time Jesus' disciples said to Jesus something to the effect of, "Now we can see that you know all things, and that you don't even need anyone to ask you questions."

I still need people to ask me questions... at least much of the time.

In Mark 11:22-24, Jesus says that if you have faith in God, you can have anything that you say. Then He goes on to say that if we believe that we will receive what ever we ask for in prayer, we will have it. Then He says that if we don't forgive, we won't be forgiven by God.

The point is, an atheist knows that he doesn't have any sin. This produces an automatic self-forgiveness in him. Because of this, an atheist often gets what he asks for faster than a Christian. And what he asks for above many other things often is a peaceful life.

A Christian knows he is sinful. Knowing he is sinful makes it hard for the Christian to forgive the most important person in his life (next to Jesus, of course), himself. So, since the Christian won't forgive himself like he should, he gets what he is asking for... trouble in his life.

Now, I said this briefly. Think it over and put it into better wording for yourself. And if you are a Christian, start forgiving yourself. After all, Jesus and His Father both forgave you. So why shouldn't you forgive yourself, and start having a better life?

It is not true. We cannot sin, because God is almighty and would never let their children sin. God exists, and there is no doubt of it. He is your father. He loves you. And he commands the world. He is all powerfull and nothing goes on without his consent.

Accept that you, as sons of God, are gods yourselves.

And be happy!

[BADecker]

Well, today I learned that by definition, I'm an atheist. I originally thought that atheism meant that you didn't believe in anything other than what you can prove through science, but apparently it just beans that you don't believe in deities. I'm a scientist primarily, but if I know something in my heart and have seen personal evidence that I cannot prove, I classify those views as spiritual views.

I know through personal evidence that the cosmos does speak, (not verbally, of course) and you only need to know how to listen. For instance, the other day I was debating what happens when you realize karma for what it is. Does the karma become invalid if you're happily going through it so that no longer have that karmic consequence to deal with even though negative karma is not supposed to be enjoyable? I had to deal with perceived karma that would overdraw my bank account. My ATM pin wasn't working, the bank was closed, and everything was blocking me from making a deposit. Usually when something isn't working no matter how hard you try, it's a sign that it's not meant to happen. I realized that that was probably karma from something that I did. (I know what it was that caused the karma.) I called my dad and he suggested making a night drop deposit. I needed an envelope to do it, so I stopped into the store behind me and got a gift card envelope to deposit the funds and I used a blank check as the deposit slip.

So, I debated that if I didn't make the deposit, then the karma would be purged. If I made the deposit, would it still complete the karmic consequences or would it mean that I'd have to revisit those consequences another day? Well, while I was thinking about it, two people walked past talking about investment banking and I took it as a sign that I was meant to make the deposit. I went and made that deposit and the next day I found out that the bank gives me a $5.00 cushion before they start charging me fees up the wazoo, so being over by a few pennies wouldn't have hurt me. My guess is that sometime that knowledge will come in useful, so I needed it as a dependency for some future project rather than as a lesson to be leaned in karmic consequences.

The deposit was really only important if you were making it into the account of a seller of bitcoins (probably using BitQuick.co), bitcoins that he was going to transfer to you once he received the deposit.

[BADecker]

How might atheistic thought be superior to theistic thinking?

At one time Jesus' disciples said to Jesus something to the effect of, "Now we can see that you know all things, and that you don't even need anyone to ask you questions."

I still need people to ask me questions... at least much of the time.

In Mark 11:22-24, Jesus says that if you have faith in God, you can have anything that you say. Then He goes on to say that if we believe that we will receive what ever we ask for in prayer, we will have it. Then He says that if we don't forgive, we won't be forgiven by God.

The point is, an atheist knows that he doesn't have any sin. This produces an automatic self-forgiveness in him. Because of this, an atheist often gets what he asks for faster than a Christian. And what he asks for above many other things often is a peaceful life.

A Christian knows he is sinful. Knowing he is sinful makes it hard for the Christian to forgive the most important person in his life (next to Jesus, of course), himself. So, since the Christian won't forgive himself like he should, he gets what he is asking for... trouble in his life.

Now, I said this briefly. Think it over and put it into better wording for yourself. And if you are a Christian, start forgiving yourself. After all, Jesus and His Father both forgave you. So why shouldn't you forgive yourself, and start having a better life?

It is not true. We cannot sin, because God is almighty and would never let their children sin. God exists, and there is no doubt of it. He is your father. He loves you. And he commands the world. He is all powerfull and nothing goes on without his consent.

Accept that you, as sons of God, are gods yourselves.

And be happy!

All right, all right. Sounds like you got it made then. Lots of Christians have not forgiven themselves for all kinds of things that they have done, even though they know God has. And there are several places in the Gospels where Jesus says that if you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. Let's hope that all these unforgiving Christians finally forgive themselves before they die, even if it is on their deathbed.

[pedrog]

It is not true. We cannot sin, because God is almighty and would never let their children sin. God exists, and there is no doubt of it. He is your father. He loves you. And he commands the world. He is all powerfull and nothing goes on without his consent.

Accept that you, as sons of God, are gods yourselves.

And be happy!

Well, fuck that god then, for commanding/consenting child rape, and cancer, and AIDS...

[BADecker]

Atheists are the people who have given up on believing in any version of God for whatever reason. That's basically it though, naturally, some are more loudmouthed about it than others. If you want to see atheists in action, this is a decent subreddit to hang out in. http://www.reddit.com/r/atheism

The funny part about this is that, if God really is real, then what they have done is to put themselves up into the place of god by attempting to be more powerful than He through denying Him.

[BADecker]

Everyone deep down is agnostic to some degree. Even those that believe, must at some time have doubts...as goes for those nonbelievers.

Well, this is absolutely true. Nobody has seen God except the one and only Who He has sent. So, since we haven't seen God, there certainly are aspects about Him that we do not know. What else could this produce but a touch of agnosticism?

[BADecker]

Atheists are reasonable people who are able to understand the world that surround them without the need to appeal to magic/mystic.

They have the clear mind to seek reason in order to understand reality.

TLDR, atheists are not lazy people: they use their brain.

No!

Atheists do not believe in god or gods, period!

I know a lot of people who are atheist and they believe in a lot of crazy conspiracy theories, astrology, homeopathy, Feng Shui and a lot of other pseudo-science or New Age bullshit.

Atheism is not the same thing as skepticism.

Atheists have only convinced themselves that they do not believe in God. This makes all true atheists liars, lying to themselves, mostly.

[BADecker]

It is not true. We cannot sin, because God is almighty and would never let their children sin. God exists, and there is no doubt of it. He is your father. He loves you. And he commands the world. He is all powerfull and nothing goes on without his consent.

Accept that you, as sons of God, are gods yourselves.

And be happy!

Well, fuck that god then, for commanding/consenting child rape, and cancer, and AIDS...

In Isaiah in the Old Testament, there is a place where Isaiah explains that once this world has passed through the Judgment - he doesn't say that it is thrown into the lake of fire, but that is the time he is talking about - none of this life will be remembered or brought to mind. It will be taken entirely out of history, even of God's remembrance.

Remember how Jesus is called the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end? There will no longer be any middle. There will no longer be anything left of this life. It will all be the New Heavens and the New Earth. Even the people who don't get saved will be entirely forgotten.

Now, I don't like pain any more than anybody else. But I expect that I will die just like everyone else. The pain of death will probably come for me. So, I am not going to deny God in anger for two reasons:
1. I don't want the pain of everlasting hellfire;
2. And, more importantly, I don't want to miss out on that new, wonderful life in the New Heavens and the New Earth.

[obocaman]

Not believing in imaginary friends.

[RodeoX]

Everyone deep down is agnostic to some degree. Even those that believe, must at some time have doubts...as goes for those nonbelievers.

Well, this is absolutely true. Nobody has seen God except the one and only Who He has sent. So, since we haven't seen God, there certainly are aspects about Him that we do not know. What else could this produce but a touch of agnosticism?

I don't know who you are talking about? I am an ATHEIST not an agnostic. I do not live in some demon haunted world full of Gods and magical ferries. I have no doubt whatsoever about it.

[BADecker]

Everyone deep down is agnostic to some degree. Even those that believe, must at some time have doubts...as goes for those nonbelievers.

Well, this is absolutely true. Nobody has seen God except the one and only Who He has sent. So, since we haven't seen God, there certainly are aspects about Him that we do not know. What else could this produce but a touch of agnosticism?

I don't know who you are talking about? I am an ATHEIST not an agnostic. I do not live in some demon haunted world full of Gods and magical ferries. I have no doubt whatsoever about it.

As Heinlein said in Stranger in a Strange Land, "Thou art god." Do you grok it? 

[deepceleron]

I know through personal evidence that the cosmos does speak, (not verbally, of course) and you only need to know how to listen. For instance, the other day I was debating what happens when you realize karma for what it is...

Human brains have a flaw that is left over from our ancestors - we see patterns. We are so sensitive to recognizing them that we see them even where they don't exist. This pattern recognition isn't something that is conscious; it is the processing that tells us the grass is moving because a predator might be there, that the strange shadows could be holding something that will pounce on us. There was little evolutionary disadvantage to being too paranoid or seeing things that weren't there. This insatiable patterning gives us boogie-men when the lights are out, makes us susceptible to illusion, but more importantly, it makes us ascribe meaning and causality where there is none.

We are often able to reason our way out of our misperceptions using our intelligence, but for some, there is no examination of how intellectually a conclusion was reached. Even worse, we can apply attention to something (as the above quote does), and even though we have given it thought, our brains cannot overcome the dissonance that there must be a pattern, a reason, a bigger plan, a conspiracy, or a creator of all things. Superstitions are fun to mock unless they are our own, then we will defend them to our deaths.

An atheist can see that religion is a series of con-men taking advantage of this, telling stories about how failure to think certain things upsets a man in the sky who will punish you in a magical land after your die, or alternately you go to a happy place with clouds and only the dead people you like. He will get extremely mad if you believe in the other gods or make the wrong choice or don't follow the rules of the correct book. Good religions are ones who's "Darwinian" rules include converting others, having lots of kids/disciples (along with rules against parental planning), and of course coming to power and eliminating competition. Money is usually involved. A good atheist rejects religion not because they reject morals, empathy, or kindness, but because they seek the observable truth.

Atheists are probably more tolerant of religion that religious people are of each other. We will usually let you believe whatever you want up to the point where your self-righteous ass-hattery fucks with our lives.

[BADecker]

I know through personal evidence that the cosmos does speak, (not verbally, of course) and you only need to know how to listen. For instance, the other day I was debating what happens when you realize karma for what it is...

Human brains have a flaw that is left over from our ancestors - we see patterns. We are so sensitive to recognizing them that we see them even where they don't exist. This pattern recognition isn't something that is conscious; it is the processing that tells us the grass is moving because a predator might be there, that the strange shadows could be holding something that will pounce on us. There was little evolutionary disadvantage to being too paranoid or seeing things that weren't there. This insatiable patterning gives us boogie-men when the lights are out, makes us susceptible to illusion, but more importantly, it makes us ascribe meaning and causality where there is none.

We are often able to reason our way out of our misperceptions using our intelligence, but for some, there is no examination of how intellectually a conclusion was reached. Even worse, we can apply attention to something (as the above quote does), and even though we have given it thought, our brains cannot overcome the dissonance that there must be a pattern, a reason, a bigger plan, a conspiracy, or a creator of all things. Superstitions are fun to mock unless they are our own, then we will defend them to our deaths.

An atheist can see that religion is a series of con-men taking advantage of this, telling stories about how failure to think certain things upsets a man in the sky who will punish you in a magical land after your die, or alternately you go to a happy place with clouds and only the dead people you like. He will get extremely mad if you believe in the other gods or make the wrong choice or don't follow the rules of the correct book. Good religions are ones who's "Darwinian" rules include converting others, having lots of kids/disciples (along with rules against parental planning), and of course coming to power and eliminating competition. Money is usually involved. A good atheist rejects religion not because they reject morals, empathy, or kindness, but because they seek the observable truth.

Atheists are probably more tolerant of religion that religious people are of each other. We will usually let you believe whatever you want up to the point where your self-righteous ass-hattery fucks with our lives.

Of course, then there is the rest of the deep examination, that concludes that there are many determinations found through examination of the same things. The consensus that is agreed on isn't always even near what is the truth.

That last paragraph is good, though.

[noviapriani]

Atheism is not the same as religion.  Religion is crap, makes no sense, and is an intellectual dead end.  Belief in a higher power is not so, it allows continued questioning of the "how" of our existence and doesn't settle on an answer written by stupid people a few thousand years ago.

[noviapriani]

Another thing that both Krauss and Dawkins spoke about that was interesting is the "why are we here" question that is an origin of religion evolutionarily and very much ingrained in our species. That question, while ingrained into our evolution, it a very silly question.  In a Universe that came from nothing, in the darkness of space in areas of no matter, where things pop in and out of existence continually and "nothing" turns out to be far more interesting than we thought.  "Why we humans are here" is a very silly question.   Live well.   "How are we here" is the question.  How did this happen, how did these things evolve?   When God is the answer then you have stopped to seek.  What was once plausible has been proven possible so many times.  Plate tectonics was at first plausible before fact, evolution was plausible to Darwin long before it became fact, the earth revolving about the sun was plausible to galileo, life from matter in a universe from nothing is also quite plausible and frankly, approaching facthood.   Not that the Universe from nothing theory precludes the multiverse theory.

If we ultimately find "god," it aint gonna be the god of the bible with any of the hoakster "prophets" at his side.

[noviapriani]

I imagine people like Krauss and Dawkins look at people like DC, Curm, Freebird, etc etc  much like a scientist looks at his lab rats, or the kids look at the baboons at the zoo. "Oh look Lawrence, there is one of them in a WalMart parking lot, hand me the binoculars.  I understand American polls suggest 47% of these people believe Jesus is returning in their life and a full 13% of them believe the antichrist is currently alive as president Obama....."   That they lost to cretins like us has to be a huge embarrassment for all eternity to Britain....but they could use some understanding of dentistry as well...among other issues (pronounced is-use).
I guess that is my answer.  While many smart people are theists, more smarter (pun intended) people are by and large atheists or at least question all those mountains of horseshit in everyone's special religious books from the Mormons to the Christians to the Muslims.