Beliefs

[naomi24]

Where opposing beliefs are concerned, we are all atheists, so why are yours right and other people's wrong?

[Ankou]

upbringing, location, culture, personality, experiences.
lots of things.

[jomifl]

Hi Sandy, when did humility stop being a christian virtue to be replaced by self-righteous arrogance?

[naomi24]

So Ankou, as an atheist why are your beliefs right, and other people's wrong?

[keyplus90]

ttfn- You did not have to say what you said right at the end of your post. Once you mentioned that you did not have any problem with other people's belief, I worked that out that you couldn't have been an atheist.

[naomi24]

Actually Keyplus, your reasoning is completely skewed. Ankou is an atheist but he doesn't have a problem with other people's beliefs and you'll probably find one or two others around who think the same way. (Hope you don't mind me using you as an example Ankou - you were kind of handy there).

Anyway, that isn't the question. As I said we are all atheists in one way or another - even you Keyplus.

[naomi24]

Sorry, I should have said Ankou doesn't have a problem with other people's beliefs if they are religious.

[mibn2cweus]

Nothing says more about who you are than what you believe. And nothing says more about how much you care about this reality we share than the quality of your beliefs. Beliefs guide our choices and actions and ones willingness to expose their beliefs to criticism demonstrates a desire to be intellectually honest with others and perhaps most importantly with ourselves.

Simply adopting the beliefs handed down from generation to generation do not define you as an individual but as a clone of a clone. But the inescapable responsibility for your actions as well as the actions of others your beliefs sanction, nonetheless, rest squarely on your shoulders. The potential to reason is given but the choice to excercise that potential, to be a rational human being that acknowledges sole responsibility for their beliefs and subsequent actions, is yours.

Question the basis for your beliefs and present them to others as something to be questioned. Let others see and don't hide from yourself who you really are and even more importantly, who you intend to be, not someone who cherishes their beliefs because of who they came from but because you have rejected or confirmed them based on their validity and in the process reaffirmed your own legitimacy.

These are my beliefs and as always . . . open for discussion.

[keyplus90]

////Ankou is an atheist but he doesn't have a problem with other people's beliefs and you'll probably find one or two others////

Ankou is one of them and I have no problem with that but who are the other one or two? Of course there are all sorts of people every where but depends how many can you count. And you showed that you could only manage one or two. I personally believe there might be more than one or two but we talk about majority and in the case of AB majority prove my point.

[Vagrant]

// Where opposing beliefs are concerned, we are all atheists, so why are yours right and other people's wrong //

My (possibly non-existent) god is better than your (possibly non-existent) god?

[naomi24]

Keyplus, what are you talking about? You concluded in your post to ttfn that all atheists have a problem with other people's religious belief. I've demonstrated that you are mistaken.

[jomifl]

Naomi..I have no problem with other peoples beliefs, they can believe what the hell they like. Their actions however are a different matter.

[naomi24]

What I'm trying to get at are the reasons people have for thinking their beliefs are right and others wrong. Speaking for myself, my initial doubts in the veracity of that which was taught to me as a child were seeded by study together with the application of rational thought, and the more I investigated religion the more my doubts grew until eventually I had no alternative but to declare myself an atheist.

[RATTER15]

I'm male, of course I'm right!!!

I consider myself to be a realist, generally speaking with these questionable subjects like magic, miracles, gods, superstitions etc, I like to see fact, proof, I want to see it, smell it, hear it, at least witness something tangible, if not I don't believe it.

[jomifl]

Naomi I would answer your question if I knew that I had any beliefs. I believe that I may have some beliefs but I don't believe that that is the kind of belief that you mean. As we cannot really know anything then all we can do is believe, even if we believe we know things. I don't know what to believe but I know I must believe something. So are my beliefs right or wrong, well I believe that they may be.

[Ankou]

"So Ankou, as an atheist why are your beliefs right, and other people's wrong"

i don't believe i have ever said that. are you saying by implication of the label that it must be so? i would disagree.

i was bought up and generally allowed to follow any football team i chose, i didn't choose my local team but one slightly further away for various reasons that seemed to fit with the things i liked about the manager, the players and the way they played and took my preference. this doesn't mean that i am right and everyone else is wrong, it just has a personal meaning to me and i like my choice, i'll stick with it through wins losses, promotion, demotion and ridicule.

i guess this must be the same for those of a religious persuasion.

[naomi24]

Mibs, //Nothing says more about who you are than what you believe. // Whilst I think that's probably true, it's really very deep and probably a good subject for future discussion - or even for current discussion if anyone here would like to take up the baton.

Ratter, a man with feet planted firmly on the ground.

jomifl, I understand where you're coming from with that, but there are some things that other people believe that I cannot for one moment even consider might be right.

Ankou, since we're discussing belief I find the football team analogy rather superficial, but if that's how you see it fair enough.

[jomifl]

Hi Naomi, I was just trying to gain time with my previous post, I will come up with a serious answer when I have decided whether I do have beliefs and if so whether they are comparable with religious beliefs.

[naomi24]

Isn't that the point? An atheist doesn't have 'beliefs' - only opinions about other people's beliefs which for some strange reason have become the status quo making the atheist who remains intellectually in the human default mode the odd one out. If you really think about it, it's a very odd situation.

[Ankou]

because i don't have beliefs the football analogy was my closest assimilation. if you find that superficial or don't agree. tough, what do i care.

i guess this must be the same for those of a religious persuasion.

[naomi24]

Oo-er!