How Did You Decide Which Religion To Follow?

[naomi24]

Leading on from Goodlife’s ‘Atheists: When Will You Finally See The Light?’ thread, most atheists reach their conclusions through analysis and a process of elimination, so how thoroughly did you investigate all the other religions before finally deciding that one of them was right – and what convinced you?

[mikey4444]

Keyplus...there is no belief called atheism...it is the total absence of belief that is at the heart of being an atheist. Therefore " a belief called athesism" is an oxymoron !

[naomi24]

Mikey, Keyplus cannot contemplate life without 'belief' and can't understand that everyone doesn't feel the same way. Atheism is a belief just as not collecting stamps is a hobby. ;o)

[mikey4444]

Naomi...that can't possibly be correct ! To be an atheist, you must have studied, even in a rudimentary fashion, a religion or religions and come to the conclusion that they comprise wholly of a irrational belief in illogical circumstances. That isn't a belief, that is a conclusion.

The moon is not made of green cheese, even the dark side that we can't see. I have concluded that this is the truth, because its daft....belief doesn't come into it !

[naomi24]

Mikey, did you read what I said?

Atheism is a belief just as NOT collecting stamps is a hobby.

[mikey4444]

naomi...I always read what you post.

Are you saying that if I don't collect stamps, I have a hobby of not collecting stamps ? , If that is so then I must have millions of hobbies, as I don't collect anything !

If that is what you are saying than you are talking more drivel than goodlife, and that is saying something !

[naomi24]

Mikey, I think you need to take a step back and do a bit of lateral thinking with this one.

[naomi24]

Mikey, trying again.

//If that is so then I must have millions of hobbies, as I don't collect anything !//

Exactly! You have no hobbies, just as you have no belief – therefore how can anyone claim you have a belief? Get it now?

[emmie]

keyplus atheism is not any type of religion, it just is, people who have decided that they don't wish to partake in rites, rituals they have no interest in. As for me i didn't have any particular grounding in religion even though i attended a C of E school, the church attendance was a bit of a pain, i was more interested in sports. I realised that i had no belief when i was bored listening to someone espouse on God sending his son down to earth to save us, well he didn't save me, nor my poor o/h, nor the billions who die in tragic circumstances, so what's to like.

[modeller]

Micky you have missed the point . A disbelief is just that . It is not another form of belief. It's nothing. You can't have a belief in nothing.

This has been discussed several times before on AB
Why is a disbelief so difficult to understand ?

[modeller]

I asked your OP question to a group of clerics and not one of them had studied alternative faiths.

[keyplus90]

////Its a good question. I would be very interested in seeing how many of those that have faith are now following a faith different to the one they were brought up in.////

What about your own self? Do you still believe in what you believed in when you were brought up?

////Keyplus, //I….studied all of the different beliefs// That can’t be true. Not so long ago you thought alcohol was banned to Christians, when in fact it’s crucial to what might be considered Christianity’s most important ritual.////

When I said that I studied then I meant Christianity and not the Christians. Mt feeling is that Christianity is based on Bible and here are the verses in the Bible speaking against the consumption of Alcohol. I will give you the reference and you study it. It may teach you something.

Proverbs 20:1
Ephesians 5:18

[naomi24]

Keyplus, read the verses you quoted – and think about what they are saying. You have never studied Christianity.

[vulcan42]

keyplus, did you not get as far as John 2: 7-9?

[seadogg]

Mountain worship is about the best I've tried. Had the greatest pleasure from my C of E childhood but I suspect that somewhere deep down is a Unitarian, which I discovered via the great essayist, William Hazlitt.

[mikey4444]

Sorry naomi...I am a bit confused here and I couldn't understand your double negatives...my apologies. Its been a tough day...stuck in the back of beyond with a knackered battery, for 5 hours, 50 miles away from my tablets and my dog.....don't anyone ever mention the AA again to me !

[naomi24]

Vulcan, Keyplus has never read the bible. He only knows what his Muslim teachers tell him - and he believes what they want him to believe.

[naomi24]

Mikey, //don't anyone ever mention the AA again to me !//

What a pain! (When you say the AA, I assume you're not referring to the perils of a surfeit of wine). ;o)

[naomi24]

Steve, //Old medieval supstitions never die do they naomi. //

Hopefully they're dwindling, Steve. One can but hope!