What do atheists believe?

It is easier to believe that we created god than that god created us.

Of the first I have proof - we carry on this discussion of god and have so amny different opinions. We created god simply by the act of speaking about god.

Another theory is that of creation. Maybe. But if god is a creator, she is now busy creating yet another universe and has no time for a personal relationship with me or 7 billion other humans on earth.

Hi Tabish

I joined techreplublic in November 2002, just before the invasion of Iraq. It has been interesting to interact with Americans during this period.

As I have had a strong interest in religion and related subjects all my life, I am known for starting religious discussions here at TR.

However there is a handful of members who are atheists and who do not miss an opportunity to remind us "lesser mortals" who believe in some kind of religion or other, that they (the atheists) are supposedly more insightful or intelligent.

And so I decided to start this discussion specifically so that these members can explain their viewpoints.

I have done all the research that I am likely to need, but I do enjoy participating in online discussions. Currently I am posting regularly to an American website: meetchristians.com

While I am not, nor ever have considered myself to be a Christian in any normal understanding of the term, I do know quite a bit about this religion and its Scripture.

So for the most part I play devil's advocate -- challenging the Christians to re-examine their beliefs. The website features members from extreme fundamentalists to quite scholarly people. It is awesome to see to what lengths the fundamentalists will go in order to "prove" that the Bible (preferaby KJV) is literally true in every way.

1. The atheists do not seem to be doing a very good job of defending their beliefs, and I may as well point out a few flaws.
2. I learnt my definition of creation in primary school.

It's non-belief and that's very different but I don't seem to have ever been able to get that across. See my gentle prod of John wills, above, where I've tried to define what I don't think...

Personally, I only argue religion as a sport anyway, because religion, per se, is not important to me but debating is fun. I wouldn't argue religion against Tigger, for instance, to try to undermine her beliefs because she's nice but if someone else comes onto TR and tries to kick butt over religion, I'll do my best to poke their eyes out but I won't start it.

Neil :)

If you lose a hand, you don't HAVE to take your kit off - they aren't real, you know.

What you need to do is look at the question you have written.

Atheism is one response to one question, which could be written as "do i believe there is enough proof for there to be a specific god figure or deity that created us"?,this can apply to one who is written about in so called holy books, or in general, as you can imagine the answer is no.

To an athist the above question has not been proven within reasonable doubt, in fact it would be fair to say that most come to the conclusion that the wild claims of most religion have very little basis in reality itself.

Some even would say that books such as the bible prove the exact opposite of some sort of devine creator.

Regardless however, Atheists can beleive in the supernatural or not, they can believe in scientific process, alien creators or in witchcraft, or purely in science, these are really other opinions which have nothing to do with Atheism.

Some other comments, regarding issues such as morality are really irrelevant.
We all (christian, muslim, atheist) develop skills from our environment and culture, parents, friends, and from how we perceive the world, no one is morally superior.

You do NOT need religion to develop a sense of morality, compassion and other positive human emotions are that, human emotions.

The burdon of proof is with you my friend, as you are making a claim about the existence of something, I am not.

I wasnt going to but i will respond to your post.

1) Quoting bible verses does not make something true.

2) The evidence is unfortunately not there, if there were it would have been on the front page of every paper and we wouldnt need these sorts of discussions.

3) My Atheism has enhanced my life, not because of me "being free of the shackles of religion", but because of how wonderful you see life as.
There are great mysteries and there is knowledge to be acquired, because i dont say its gods work as a default answer to everything i can explore and expand my mind.

4)RE Personal ethics, Hitler was a catholic, George Bush is a Christian, Ahmendinejad is Muslim, uk voodoo women performaing rituals on children, the great witch trials performed by religious prejudice, i could go on, but i hoppe this illustrates my point that religion does not make you morally superior, in fact i think time and time again if we look at it objectively religion causes more division and prejudiced against various people in society.

I guess source of ethics, would be other people (such as friends and family), education, my own free will to decide to be a decent person, the fact that I sincerely value life, I could go on.

"I did not intend to be disingenuous with my remark about disproving, but I stand by it. If you cannot disprove that there is a god, then you are not in a position to judge or assess the validity of religious faith."

I go back to my first comment, i have nothing to disprove, basically because it is your job to prove the existance of god, and you havent done that, no one has, and i suspect ever will.

The sole purpose of this thread was to give aheists an opportunity to state their beliefs (or disbeliefs) and give reasons.

There is no burden of proof on me because I am not challenging atheism. I am just asking for your beliefs which you have stated very clearly.

Thank you for your post but do not read into my initial post something that was not there.