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Atheism
Atheism is the disbelief in or denial of the existence of God or gods.
1,002 Questions
Can you be an atheist if your parents are Christian?
Of course you can be an atheist if your parents are Christian. You can also be an atheist even if they had you baptised according to their beliefs, and you need not do any more. Whether or not you are an atheist depends on what you genuinely believe and genuinely do not believe, so no ritual or convention can change that.
Your beliefs are a personal matter, so it is a personal choice for you whether you wish to tell your parents that you are an atheist. If you feel that this would hurt them, you can delay this until a better time. Atheism does not require anyone to tell others about what they believe or do not believe. However you may feel more comfortable by telling other people whom you feel should know that you are an atheist.
How is science proving religion wrong?
In short it's not. The odds of the exact sperm and egg combination that made you 1 in 1e+27. The odds that your parents meeting and making a baby 1 in 3,000,000,000. The odds of all there parents meeting and the exact sperm and egg combinations matching up for 4,000,000,000 years is an estimated 1 in 1e+347. The odds of earth being perfectly capable of supporting live are astronomically small. Pardon the pun. Factor in that you could have been a frog, some fungus or a pineapple. What is consciousness anyway? There more to existence then can be quantified.
Every atheist is an individual, the only common thread is no belief in a god or gods.
How does atheism affect family life and relationships?
Is there any atheist Wrestler?
Jesse Ventura who is a former wrestler and a atheist. I do not know of any current ones however.
Is Atheism a Non-Profit Organization?
No. Atheism is not any type of organization. Atheism is a lack of belief in the supernatural.
To quote the late George Carlin, "Atheism is a non-prophet organization".
How can you compare hypertonicity to death and afterlife?
You can't compare them. Hypertonicity is a term used in biology, therefore it is part of reality. Death is the only certain thing in life and the afterlife is a term, thought up by people who are afraid of death, which has no basis in reality.
Why does Socrates say that atheism is the stock charge against all philosophers?
Probably because he was "accused" of being an atheist (in Socrates' time it was capital offence to be an atheist).
What is it called when somebody doesn't believe in god but believes in good?
Who establishes the value of good? Without a baseline what is good? It varies from person to person. For instance a huge debate is in the rights of transgendered people to use the bathroom. An effort is made to make them feel more comfortable and accepted, but to do that you have to make other people feel uncomfortable. Who gets to decide who matters the most? You say society in general should but it matters less to men than to many women. We have in many cases adopted ethics established by bible principles but some wish to change them to fit their lifestyles without concern for others. So it does not seem you can believe in good with out god to set the baseline
Why do all atheist pretend there is no God when everyone of them really knows for a fact there is?
To answer the question, an Atheist does not accept god claims due to lack of testible proof. There are no facts, just faith (belief in something without, or in spite of, proof) and conclusions without verifiable evidence. If there were varifiable evidence of a god, an atheist would have no choice but to accept there is a god claim as being factual and true.
Why Atheism is the most common religion in North Korea?
Because they believe in philosophy more than religion.
No. Not that I know of. There is no evidence to support that idea.
What are atheistic human values?
Doing no wrong to others and keeping yourself happy.
Answer:
The only common "value" held by atheists is that there are no gods. All other topics are up to the individual to decide for him or herself. In most cases atheists exhibit enough altruistic beliefs to keep a society functioning successfully without degrading their own honest share of the benefits of that society.
What is the difference between agnostic atheism and nihilism?
Proponents of agnostic atheism do not believe in any particular deity because they feel it is impossible to know whether such beings exist. Nihilists feel that there is no point to life. These are completely different world views.
Are there indigenous people who are atheists?
Yes, probably Huns. According to the 4th century Roman historian Ammianus Marcellinus: "Huns were not bound by any reverence for religion or superstition".
Since you posted in Native American Spirituality, I will tell you that I have never met another Native who is Atheist and it would be rare to meet one. Almost all Natives believe in a Creator.
Yes, there are groups of indigenous people in the Amazon that are atheists. See the related link below.
There is also a Lenape man named Dan Barker that is a prominent atheist author and lecturer.
It's uncommon but not impossible. There were also tribes that believed in a creator but did not actively worship one.
Spielberg is Jewish but a distinction between cultural and theistic Jews should be made.
He described his family as "store front Jew's" as they kept up appearances for their Jewish communities. It is likely Spielberg is a cultural Jew and if not atheist then possibly agnostic.
He has said in interviews that the irish catholic churches and religion in general are destrying humanity. He does identify as an atheist with his remark, "I was a quarter catholic, a quarter Protestant, a quarter Jewish, and a quarter nothing - the nothing won out.".
How many atheist are there in the U.S.?
Nobody is really sure. Many parts of the USA are not tolerant of atheists, so it would be difficult to publicly state that one was atheist without facing discrimination.
Certainly, not many politicians state it when in public office (Abraham Lincoln famously stated that he was not a Christian in his private letters - though that doesn't mean he was an atheist necessarily).
Scientists are more forthcoming (see related link, below).
Various polls give various figures, but one must be wary of polls because they can be designed to give the answer which the questioner wants to get.
One can be sure that the USA is by far the most religious Western nation by quite a long way, especially when compared to countries such as France, where some estimates put 50% of the population as non-religious
Most sources give a figure of less than 10% of the American population.
What is undeniable, however, is that atheism is growing very rapidly in the USA (or at least more people are stating in public that they are atheist).
See the related link for the numbers, but from only 1,000 in 1900, atheists have risen in number to 200,000 in 1970, then to 880,000 by 1996, and 1.5 million by 1998. The numbers decline sharply and suddenly after that in the linked table, but note that the number was a projection made in 1995 when the existing known numbers were much smaller.
The most likely explanation for this sudden rise is that people are more willing to state that they are atheist: not that there are suddenly that many more atheists. Atheism is growing, but I doubt it is growing at that rate.
What are some negative behaviors of atheists?
An atheist is someone who does not believe in any gods, there's no associated personality or behavioral traits attached to that.
An atheist could aggressively push his/her viewpoint on others, but so could a religious person, it's a personality trait independant to their faith or lack of faith.
What pilgrimage is best for a not very religious person?
You can join any piligrim group and make it one week covering few temples. There are many travel agencies to guide you. If you are not religious, but follow customs attached while visiting religious places.
Not to my knowledge. Since they are Armenian they might be Eastern Orthodox.
Is this true or false Johnson was an atheist?
There are many people with the surname "Johnson" that are Atheist. There are many who are not. So, TRUE and FALSE.
Is there any point to religion?
I'm a little biased, as I'm a Christian. So I'm obviously going to say of course there's a point. However, we are all different, and are allowed our own beliefs and religions. Some people prefer not to follow any religion, and that's fine....some people devote their lives to religion. And that's fine too. I will say however, my beliefs come from gods word. And by following them, I've been able to live a good life. I'm not your adverage do-gooder...and I don't dress in Sunday best.. Infact to look at me, I don't look like a typical Christian. But because of my faith, I don't steal, I don't take drugs, I don't judge, I don't cause anyone any harm..I devote time to helping people get off drugs and alcohol, helping homeless, raise money for cancer charities and have an adopted child in Africa. So my religion has a point.
Answer:To the religious organizations religion is their business, it provides them with an income and a centralized source to wield their power from.
The employees of the religion make their living from the "faithful" and receive a fair amount of personal power and influence in their communitiesfrom their position.
To the members of a religion it gives them a unsupported belief or sense that maybe they aren't powerless in the face of natural disasters, that they are part of the in group, that they won't just vanish when they die.
To governments religions and their supporters are often seen as a convenient bloc of voters who can be used to further their goals.
