patriots pam
2014-15 Game Day Thread Champion
- Joined
- Oct 8, 2009
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- 3,560
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- America's weenus
- Website
- badpixofgoodfood.pamsez.me
Question was in the OP.
Thanks from dropping down here, I've muddied up the couches a bit.
I like you. This board needs more Patriots Pam types if you ask me, which no one did.
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No point in buttering me up, I don't have any pull with the mods.
Actually, I thought you had already been pardoned, but I guess not.Anyhoo, from your OP: "Without bringing up organized religion, why would someone be an atheist?"
Well, one would be an atheist mostly because they don't believe in God.
As to the how and why one would develop/maintain that [lack of] belief, that varies amongst atheists that I have encountered, for some of the reasons already mentioned. Some rebelled against a strict religious upbringing. Some were devoutly religious themselves, and then experienced some type of crisis of faith, and changed teams. Some (probably the fewest, in my experience) were brought up in atheist/agnostic households. And some (like me) just never really "bought in" to the whole concept for whatever reasons.
My parents believe in God, although we were never a regularly church-going kind of family. My sister and I were definitely raised to believe, though. Moreso via my (Catholic) mother's expressed beliefs, than by my father's (a non-denominational, Supreme Being kind of guy.) My sister believes in God, and even went to catechism on her own in her late teens and became a confirmed Catholic. I however, just never really bought in, as I said above. My recollection is that even as a little kid, the concept of God just didn't really jive with me. By the time I was 12 or so, the existence of God just kind of ceased being a question of interest for me. Nothing dramatic, no watershed event, I just was never able to make the leap of faith necessary in order to believe. And a Pascal's Wager type of thing seems both hypocritical and pointless IMO.
I should note that I probably lean more towards agnostic than a true atheist: I personally do not believe that there is a God(s)/Supreme Being of any sort. But I don't feel correct in declaring that there absolutely is no god, because who am I to say. :shrug: To that point, I used to say that I was agnostic, but people tended to interpret that as meaning I was undecided, which is not the case. So I just go with "atheist" as a kind of short hand to make it more clear that I definitely don't believe in God, nor am I interested in further examining the question or being persuaded. And usually only when I'm asked, I'm not militant about it or anything, and rarely mention it unless asked directly.
tl;dr version: I don't believe that there is a god, I never really did, and don't expect that I ever will, but who am I to really say definitively for anyone else. It is what it is, so to speak.
