Why do atheists waste their time on internet forums dedicated to religion and spirtuality?  Is atheism a cult?
830411
They are trying to convince themselves that they really don't believe. I don't think it's a cult, but rather a weird way to attract attention. Most other religious people do not run around telling all that they meet, what their beliefs are. I say each to his own! Try having an "athiest" tell you why they believe the way they do.....The answer is usually very long and drawn out.
266894
Human nature. Also, atheists might enjoy talking about religion more, even if they don't beleive in any.
1087591
I'm kind of puzzled about why you, as a self-described "non-religious person," would go into a site designed for religion and then ask this question.  I mean, aren't you asking why you're here, too?\n\nFor me, I think it's partly about education.  I'm not an Atheist, but I like that there are Atheists here, posting to the Religion & Spirituality board, because their POV is a part of the whole picture.  And everyone has a spiritual side, even if some people like to claim otherwise.\n\nIt's also partly about taking people down a notch when they get really smug.  That's petty, I know, but some of the so-called "Christians" on this site\nseem to spend a lot of time asking questions that are designed to just make them feel better about themselves, and that does breed resentment.  Especially when they wrap their prejudices up in the guise of piety, which I see a lot of.\n\nAnd, yeah, partly it's out of a resentment of the damage that religious fundamentalists seem to be doing in this country and the world.  And in a sense that's not fair, because the real damage is being done by leaders and fanatics, but then in a sense it is fair, because a part of the way they do this damage is through the voters, and that's all of us.
518368
I'm with you brother. Although I'm not fond of Christians claiming they were "born again" I have often wondered what keeps atheists going. According to them, our only purpose is to be born, grow, reproduce, and die. Where's the fun in that?
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Amen Christy! You've got a fire about you in this post, you sure you're not meant to be a preacher? Joking.\nI agree 100%. Forums like this always seem to bring out the bottom feeders. Then we end up with people screaming in frustration, "all you Christians are a bunch of jerks!" or "all you atheists are stupid!"\nThe BIG problem on this site is when a troll comes on here posting something controversial, people reward them by arguing back. Then you ask a serious question, and you get 5 or 6 answers. \nIf we really want the fighting to stop, both sides need to speak up and condemn those who are rude. Nonbelievers need to start speaking against rude atheists who call Christians names. Christians need to start rebuking uneducated Christians who give bad answers.\nAnd please, for the love of God, if you don't have an answer for an honest question, simply don't reply to it. Enough with the snide remarks that don't give the asker any help.
780422
Agnostics are merely people who question and are thoughtful. Very nice and friendly too. Many on Yahoo! answers are lovely people.
461080
First, tabbymomma is not making a statement or asking a question about whether or not god exists, or the veracity of atheism versus agnosticism versus Christianity.  What she is asking, is why do people call other people idiots when they are trying to convince them that their view is right?\n\nI agree with her.\n\nIt seems the "debate" in here consists of believers and non-believers calling each other idiots.  This is not a debate.  Neither is telling a non-believer he/she is going to hell, or telling a believer they are in the thrall of ignorant superstition.  Debate involves respecting your opponent, and his or her ideas, while you are pointing out what you believe are the fallacies.  In the very least, it involves a little civility.\n\n___________________________________________________________\n\nOh, and an agnostic is not a "pansy" atheist.  Agnostics hold that, ultimately, the existence or non-existence of divinity can not be proven one way or the other (and, the absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence), so this is a question which is ultimately unanswerable and unknowable.  This is different from atheists, who believe there is no god at all.
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Spiritual atheist speaking.  I love learning about various religions of the world, what they believe, why they believe this and not that, what deities they have, and about their sacred texts.  I still do not believe after all what I have learned. \n\nPlus, I do like giving the "other side of the coin" to a question.  It would get boring if all the answers were just one-sided, right?
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Hardly. On the Internet, I've really only seen a handful of Internet trolls who are actually as clever as they suppose themselves to be. \n\nFactoring out the Internet for a moment, I think atheists (not all, but some) tend to think Christians are less intelligent than a lot of them are. And I suspect many atheists also look at their reasons for disbelief, which they consider to be rooted in reason, and suppose that because their belief can be sourced to a rational outlook, that those of their would-be opponents cannot be. \n\nAs a result, atheists tend to play a pretty weak hand with Christians in debate - they really do tend to underestimate them. They ply them with pesudo-logical paradoxes (that in fact have serious logical flaws to them) such as "can God make a rock too big for him to lift it?" And they'll toss out such red herrings as the "Flying Spaghetti Monster", one of the most poorly devised apologetic devices ever constructed in the history of theological debate.\n\nI think the more convincing arguments made by atheists tend to be the ones that take religion seriously - Paul Chamberlain's "Can We be Good without God?" I thought was a superlative and well argued work, though I didn't agree with some of its conclusions about the nature of religious belief. \n\nBut I can imagine a person being convinced by an argument made like that, because you are being taken seriously. Mockery has been taken out of it. I doubt too many people ever change because they are made fun of - there's no quicker way to shutter someone's ears.
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Personally I don't have any sort of spirituality.  There is such a thing as nontheistic religious humanism (see first source link), but if anything, I'd wager that atheists are normally Secular Humanists (see second source link).\n\nBasically to be an atheist, one must be without belief in deities.  There are different kinds of atheism, though: strong atheism, weak atheism, implicit atheism, explicit atheism, ignosticism and apatheism.\n\nStrong atheism: the belief that no deity exists. It is a form of explicit atheism, meaning that it consciously rejects theism.\n\nWeak atheism: the absence of belief in the existence of deities, without the belief in the non-existence of deities.\n\nExplicit atheism: refection of a belief in a god. This deliberate rejection of theism presupposes familiarity with theistic belief.\n\nImplicit atheism: absence of a belief in god without explicitly rejecting or denying theism. This form does not require familiarity with the idea of a god.\n\nIgnosticism: the view that the question of the existence of God is meaningless because it has no verifiable (or testable) consequences and should therefore be ignored. It is often considered synonymous with theological noncognitivism (the argument that religious language, and specifically words like "god", are not cognitively meaningful).\n\nAn apatheist is someone who has little or no interest in deities to point that he or she does not care whether deities exist and, typically, is not interested in deciding whether he or she believes in deities. In other words, an apatheist is someone who lacks belief in gods and lacks interest in gods to the point that he or she doesn't bother to determine whether he or she actually disbelieves in gods.
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It has always struck me as curious why those that claim no belief in God spend so much of there time trying to convince others they are right.\nIt would seem to me that if they are that enlightened they wouldn't want to waste time with those that believe.\nI personally think this is caused by a deep seated feeling that there is a God, all they need is someone to show them the way.\nBut then that's just my opinion.
498539
atheism religion?? What an oxymoron!!   ;)
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Some atheists like to pick on believers because they enjoy mocking anyone who thinks differently than they do. That is why they Troll the religion sections of most forums.Even if they had their own section they'd still harass people who believe in God or gods. I'm a Christian but I have no problem with a person being an atheist if thats the way they want to believe. The only problem I have is when certain Atheists go and ridicule and condscend to people who do have some sort of faith regardless of what that faith is outside of some form of cult. I ignore most of these Militant Atheists because most there arent a lot of them around they just like to make lots of noise and make most people intimidated by them. Why even give them attention I say. Keep the faith I say To Believers
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Yes. You are right. There is nothing scientific about atheism or any other religion for that matter, because there is no way (and never will be, until you die) to prove or disprove its claims. Atheists often think that they are better than religious people, because they aren't bogged down by dogma. What they don't realize is that they are making a claim just as outrageous as any religious person. They can't claim to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that their is no God any more than anyone else can claim to know that there is one. That's what faith is for. Athiests put just as much faith in what they believe as anyone else does. That's why so many scientists are not athiest, but are agnostic. They acknowledge the possiblility of God without making any any claims that they know more than they do. Agnostics realize that they don't have all the answers, so they rarely engage in religious arguments (unless someone is saying something truly wrong). Many athiests actually meant to be agnostic. They seen the many flaws with the current major religions, so they turn to atheism thinking that it's their only other option. But agnosticism rejects the current major religions without eliminating the possiblility of a God. Agnostics also are very tollerant of other religions (unlike atheists), because for all they know, they could be right. Agnosticism is the only belief that can't be proven wrong, because it doesn't make any claims except that we don't really know anything for sure.
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*blushes at Wrathpuppet's comment*  \n\nThanks! I made my grand entrance!\n\nI am a spiritual atheist.  Religion usually requires a "god" belief, or faith in "god".  Spirituality, otoh, does not require it. It can have it if the person wants a "god" belief, but it is not neccessary. Definitions: \n\nReligion    http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/religion\n\nSpirituality   http://education.yahoo.com/reference/dictionary/entry/spirituality
1130396
Atheists are just free thinkers who do not choose to believe in the specific constraints of organized religion.  Many are open to the idea that a god like creature or creatures could possibly exist.  They just find it very hard to believe that (for example) the Biblical description of the universe makes any sense.
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it may get depressing when u come to the fact that an atheist has no one to rely on for something like eventual salvation. a belief is a powerful thing even if its based on something false. it can give that reason to go on thinking u have a purpose. an atheist hasn't got that.