I love being an Agnostic. I have peace in my life.

When I was a teenager I really tried to love Jesus. I went to church, was baptized and prayed every day. But I felt nothing. I told the minister I felt nothing and he prayed with me and I really tried but I felt nothing. They had a prayer circle for me and I felt nothing. After a while, they asked me not to attend their church. I tried many different religions and I felt nothing. One church asked me to give my testimony to Jesus and I said I hope Jesus finds me, cause I can’t find him.

I felt enormous guilt and shame. I thought God hated me, cause I couldn’t feel Him. Then I came across a book about Agnosticism. It was like a gift from an imaginary deity.

It was okay to feel nothing. As a matter of fact most folks feel nothing, but they just lie to fit in.

It okay if there’s no God or nothing after death. It’s okay to live your life happily until God makes up His mind to make contact.

I am happy .. really happy and my Christian friends can’t understand how can I be happy without God. They think that God should at least punish me for not worshiping Him.

I say to them I think He did punish me when I did worshiped Him. Every time I went to church I was miserable. Maybe God just doesn’t like me. Maybe our personalities just don’t mix. Maybe God forgot to put the radio transmitter in my head so that I could communicate.

Go figure.

These were very funny, however: save them for the main part of your website. This is one of the few places that I’ve found where one can find an intelligent, nuanced discussion of religious themes anywhere on the web, and I like to be able to direct my religious friends to your blog so that they can see the opposing side of view. I understand that it’s April Fools and you want to be funny, and it was funny, but it takes away from the rest of the blog.

I guess some people might be offended or upset about a comment like that — tempted to say “can’t you take a joke,” or something like that. But I honestly appreciate the sentiment. This blog is indeed supposed to be a place where we can talk rationally about religion without mean-spirited comments from me, and I am glad that it is being received in that spirit.

I should be back to my regular erratic posting of real material in about two weeks. Thanks for hanging in there with me!

you people need a LIFE ok

The Arugment Against Athiets page is pretty funny and pretty embarassing for any Christian who has ever posed about 95% of those arguments. I appreciate the reminder that education and common sense are two vitally important elements every human being should pursue. It is a shame most “Christians” are their own worst enemy.

Unfortunately, when we are talking philosophy and ethics, many people are their own worst enemies. Whether or not they are religious.

On you opening page you ask if ‘you want to ask about your new religion.’

That is as far as I’ve gotten because I felt that the ‘religion’ reference deserved a response. (It is funny.) But certainly you must know that being an atheist is the opposite of having a religion. As in, not subscribing to any superstitions whatever.

Best to you. B

Good point. That was a mistake on my part and I have remedied it.

Hello, first of all I’d just like to say that it’s so refreshing to read intelligent arguments about this subject rather than the stubborn abuse you usually find. I just wrote to recmommend a TV show you may enjoy though I expect you’ve already seen it, I’m recommending it just in case you haven’t. It’s called The Power of Myth and it features Joseph Campbell. It gives a nice insight into religeon looking from a mythological point of view.

Anyway if you’ve seen it that’s cool, if you haven’t I’d recommend you watch it.

The Power of Myth is indeed very interesting (I’m more familiar with the book than the TV show). It not only helps explain the origin of religion, it also says a lot about how we build stories that become an important part of our culture. Studying this and books like Brunvand’s series on urban legends can go a long way toward explaining how a religion can arise and develop without anyone setting out to intentionally deceive. For atheists in particular, this may be very useful knowledge.

By the way, in arguments against atheist, Einstein did not believe in a “personal” God.

“It was, of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it.” (1954 “Albert Einstein: The Human Side”)

You are, of course, correct. This points out one of the problems we have when discussing atheism – there are a lot of definitions of god floating around there, but people tend to assume that the definition they use is the one everyone uses. The same kind of problem turns up with the word Christian – some people call Thomas Jefferson a Christian because he spoke of God and Jesus, but his beliefs (which were very close to atheistic) would not fit with those of any major Christian religion in the U.S. today.

on the atheist rights and responsibilities page, one through ten, is that a joke or blatant mockery? im not sure if you realize, but the ten commandments were simply reworded in places and plagiarized in others. i would really love to write more but i broke my hand and it hasd taken me ten mintues to write thus far. you have my pleas for worth!

I’d say it’s satire — a joke and blatant mockery with a message. The page is intended to point out to those who think atheists can’t be moral without religion that moral atheists have beliefs that are very similar to the beliefs of moral theists.

Your comment about hitler was an atheist is wrong. He was a catholic till the day he died. He hated the religon but was a practising catholic

On the page you are referring to, I don’t say that Hitler was an atheist. Rather, I’m quoting a common argument against atheism that includes that pseudo-fact. From the little I know, Hitler’s religious beliefs were unconventional at best.

Well…that certainly changed my mind. Kind of sad, though, that it could be changed so quickly.