Why people believe what they do.

 I often wonder why (how?) people believe in theism as an atheist. Essentially it all comes down to a person's world-view. A world-view is a collection of believable (believable to the individual) ideas organized as being objective; i.e. exists "out there". For something to be added to a person's world-view it must be believable to them. It is believable ideas that compose our world-view. For example, I believe Christians have inaccurate world-views, which is a world-view in itself (it is believable to me).

Atheists have a world-view that does not include a god, and view those that do have a god as being wrong (obviously). God is the foundation of a Christian's world-view. They take all the information they view as believable, and rationalize it as coming from God, and doing this further confirms that God exists. For example, when a Christian looks at life, they see "proof of God" in that life. When an atheist sees life, they see proof of evolution in it. This is all obvious, but it is exactly why Christians are not typically convinced by atheistic arguments. They are unable to organize their world-views in a way that is godless (so much of their world-view is dependent on it). On the other hand, as atheists, our world-view is very dependent on science. If we were to somehow find reasons to believe science was invalid, then this would certainly cause problems for our world-view. Basing an entire world-view on one thing it is required for a solid world-view. That said, it also makes it impossible see any other possibility that contradicts the assumed accuracy of the base (for Christians, that there is a God and there can't possibly not be one).

This isn't to say that all world-views are equally valid. Even though many atheists are relativists when it comes to world-views, I do not believe all people's world-views match up equally with objective reality; in other words, some people's world-views are more accurate than others.  An atheist bases his/her world-view on science (what is observable, testable, etc.). A Christian has a world-view that is based in trusting certain types authority (an authority that makes claims, but provides no observable evidence) - which, like all world-views, is a structure of patterned ideas.

Many Christians do not understand how an atheist is "unable to see the light".

"How can atheists believe there is no God?"


In the end, all of our differences are found within our contradictory world-views. A world-view is just a world-view in the same way that a thought is just a thought. What makes one world-view better than another is if that world-view is shown to be reliable in the context of what we value as being true. Objective reality is what individuals and groups agree to be true, which typically comes through a synergy between trust and observation. In the end, actually observing something makes it much more believable, and observation is the bread and butter of the scientific method. In other words, Christians rely more on trust, atheists rely more on valuing observable reliability.

In short, people believe what they do because it is believable to them. I know, mind-numbingly obvious, but it is an interesting area to put thought into. 

Is Justin Bieber an atheist?

I've noticed on the internet that a lot of his fans wonder about his religious beliefs. From what I have gathered, it appears he is a Catholic (it's taking everything in me to not make a molestation joke). Which shouldn't surprise anyone, being that he is a talentless tool that didn't even know Germany was a country. If Justin Bieber was an atheist, his music would be much more depressing, and definitely not as corny...

Valueing coldness

problem with supressing emotions like crying....gets replaced with emotoins like anger to deal with emotional problems to cope....which is a poorer strategy

The greatest blog ever?

The blog is called Babbling Joe, and it's hilarious (if you have a weird/twisted sense of humor). Here is an example of one of the posts.

hai guyz and galz. todai i wana tauk aboot abortoin. Aburrchun iz a grate thang becuz woman shuld hav teh rite to kil offf ny lief thet livez in themm. Actualy womban that get sadd shuld hav the rite to comit suicidee az wel, IT IS THERE BODEES! it iz moore impoted too let woman hav az mooch sex az ttehy wana ...regrardless of how mainy poeople died fromm thems bein whorz. sexx is pwer for womben...if tehy can kiled teh babyz tehn theye can hav al teh pwer tehy wana....unles tehy r ugley then tehy must make sandmiches and claen after men. don tak teh only pwer woman hav taht is beter than men....if u mak it soo woman cannt kil there babys thane wut pwer wil tehy hav lefte? ifa womban gott preggers afta bonnin there first gai then non wud goo to colege to git there ejubacation. tinkn aboot it!

Make sure to check it out!

http://babblinggjoe.blogspot.com/

The top 25 atheist blogs

I just wanted to quickly throw this link up on here. If you enjoy reading atheist blogs, there is a good list of the top ones on this site. Check it out :)
The Top 25 Atheist Blogs You Must Read

Disturbing process of becoming an atheist?

Scary title right?

In this blog post, I want to discuss the downsides of leaving a religious faith by becoming an atheist. While many atheists talk about how great becoming an atheist is (mind-expanding, liberating, etc.), the difficulties are often not discussed (or the general process). For me, becoming an atheist took a few years. The source of my atheism was the nagging skepticism; I would often think the following things..

 "Is all of this real?"
"How can I know my religion is the right religion?"
"What if there is no God?"
"If God can read my mind when I pray, doesn't He already know what I want?"
"There can't be a God, otherwise my life would be better"
"How can God allow that to happen?" (whenever I would hear something horrible on the news, etc.)
"Am I wasting my time praying?"
"Why is believing important?"
"Why aren't we judged only by our actions?"
"What if I'm wrong?"


As far as I can remember back, I was always skeptical about my Christian faith. I always wondered if it was real (especially in the repressed part of the back of my mind). I suppose what really brought my skepticism out was the internet. I would surf around, looking for information about religion and atheism. This may sound all well and good, but at the time, it was terrifying. This was because during this moment, my world-view was being flipped on its head - source of existence, meaning of life, sense of purpose, security, source of morality - all of which were severely disrupted.

For me, becoming an atheist was a scary process...but, it was needed due to my paranoia of believing false information. I'm the sort of person that finds it very difficult to trust people, and I believe part of that is due to the awareness of having been fed false information for the greater part of my life (up until the age of 16-17, I considered myself to be a Christian...more specifically, Methodist).

Becoming an atheist for me made a lot of sense, due to my skeptical nature...but at the same time, it was far from an easy process. The way an atheist views the world is much different than a believer does. If a person becomes a full-blown atheist relatively rapidly (over a few days/months), it can be very disturbing psychologically. I suppose one of the biggest issues I faced was the fear of death - I was led to believe that I would live forever, it was very depressing thinking about the permanence of death (no more heaven). The concept of mortality wasn't thought about much for me because I always would fall back on heaven. In other words, someone going from Christianity to atheism can be susceptible (or at least I was) to things like depression, stress, and anxiety.

Am I glad that I became an atheist? I suppose I have to be, there is no going back at this point. However, I do recognize the consoling aspects of Christianity. The nice thing about becoming an atheist is that it makes a person scramble (or it did for me) to understand the universe (believing God did it all took the mystery out of life). I believe becoming an atheist should be done very slowly, and a person should legitimately think about the issue (some people blindly go to atheism merely because they view it as the intellectually superior position and/or peer pressure). Newly converted atheists should immediately try to replace their shattered world-views with ones that don't conflict with atheism (with meaning of life, morality, purpose, etc.) - doing so helps rebalance a person to emotional equilibrium much faster.

I hope you enjoyed reading this blog post (for the sake of irony). Thanks very much for stopping by :)

Donald Trump for president?

"You're fired!"

Apparently he is thinking about running in 2012. The 2012 presidential election is going to be colorful.

Trump/Palin 2012?

If it happens, the Apocalypse definitely might probably could happen (let's hope it doesn't).

What is up with Republican candidates not "coming out" (not the gay closet...I think)? Not one has officially declared their candidacy. Am I the only one that finds this strange? They wouldn't admit it, but I think they are afraid of the political attacks from the media (digging up dirt, etc.). Don't be scared!

I'm curious (too lazy to look it up) what Donald Trump's religious views are. I assume he is some sort of protestant... or maybe a secret atheist! Despite what people think of the guy (I think he is a scumbag), he is fairly intelligent. I'm curious to see how he would fair in politics, I mean, way to jump in the deep end head first (he should have ran for treasurer in some hick town as a warm-up)....