I've been reading plently about this subject and the more I read about atheism, the more I like it and I am really intersted in becoming one, but don't know how to go about doing it.

Any suggestions?

1. Sacrifice a chicken to Marduk under a blood moon.

2. Swear a blood oath to deny all things Christian, even when you don't have a good reason.

3. Devote your life to Dungeons and Dragons.

4. Get heavily involved in your local pagan scene.

5. Drugs.

6. Booze.

7. Unprotected sex while on the pill. That way you avoid abstinence, while still pissing off Christians by using birth control.

Search around on the internet. I'm sure you'll find the whole list.

Or you could just stop believing.

http://www.mwillett.org/index.htm



Here's an interesting site.

quote:Originally posted by BrokeThePope:

I've been reading plently about this subject and the more I read about atheism, the more I like it and I am really intersted in becoming one, but don't know how to go about doing it.

Any suggestions?





If you have actually done the reading you stated, you would know that you don't have to do anything tobecome an atheist. Atheism is not a religion. It is simply the lack of belief in any god/gods.



[This message has been edited by truckfixr (edited 11-04-2004).]

read nietzsche. he was a REAL atheist. and that means no morals or non-material anything. no souls - no mind beyond physio-biological connections, no life after death, no good-ness or badness, only people too stupid to realize that the strongest person wins and soon we will evolve into the UBERMENCH. and then anyone who can't kick the shit out of everyone else will either die or be subjucated in the constant struggle to the top. if you ever want to be nice to anyone for any reason other than personal gain (wanting to have a friend doesn't count) then you can't possibly be an atheist.

atheism is not a religion, it is not a routine, it is not a club, it is only not beliving in god.

you want to be an atheist? ask yourself this "do i belive in god?". if the answer is no, you are an atheist, congratulations, here is your certificate.

quote:Originally posted by Roisin:

read nietzsche. he was a REAL atheist. and that means no morals or non-material anything. no souls - no mind beyond physio-biological connections, no life after death, no good-ness or badness, only people too stupid to realize that the strongest person wins and soon we will evolve into the UBERMENCH. and then anyone who can't kick the shit out of everyone else will either die or be subjucated in the constant struggle to the top. if you ever want to be nice to anyone for any reason other than personal gain (wanting to have a friend doesn't count) then you can't possibly be an atheist.

Any one with that mindset would worship a God regardless. The combination of Bacon's philosophy and how much it would help in life to have others think you were religious would outweight the meaningless personal satisfaction of beeing free from religion. Every atheist I know (three) is a virtuous person. The decision to turn your back on everlasting life, even the hope of it, requires a considerable amount of courage.

Thank you for the site.

Very informative.

nietzsche was an uberschmuck.

the only way to be a real atheist is first to find out if there is or is not a god, then to locate him, and finally to kill the rat bastard... until then, your conviction in the non-existence of a higher mind is as baseless as the converse belief.

the term 'atheist' is just a euphemism for narrow-minded, delusional, self-righteous, prick.

much like the term 'pious' actually.

quote:Originally posted by Eil:

nietzsche was an uberschmuck.

the only way to be a real atheist is first to find out if there is or is not a god, then to locate him, and finally to kill the rat bastard... until then, your conviction in the non-existence of a higher mind is as baseless as the converse belief.

the term 'atheist' is just a euphemism for narrow-minded, delusional, self-righteous, prick.

much like the term 'pious' actually.

It always amuses me how agnostics (I am making an assumption there) distain both atheists and theists as narrowminded, as though their own intellectual insecuriries grant them moral superiority. For most atheists, it's more like this:

(Think right after game three of the world series)

Yankees: Christianity (or whatever their first religion is)

Red Sox: There is no God

Arizona: There is some from of God

Also, I'm from Boston

I'm pretty certain the Red Sox are going to win, but the cardinals have a shot in hell, and there is one case of prescedent. But I know damn well that the Yankees won't win, and I'm going to go put some money on the Sox.

quote:Originally posted by Roisin:

read nietzsche. he was a REAL atheist. and that means no morals or non-material anything. no souls - no mind beyond physio-biological connections, no life after death, no good-ness or badness, only people too stupid to realize that the strongest person wins and soon we will evolve into the UBERMENCH. and then anyone who can't kick the shit out of everyone else will either die or be subjucated in the constant struggle to the top. if you ever want to be nice to anyone for any reason other than personal gain (wanting to have a friend doesn't count) then you can't possibly be an atheist.

That sounds more like a nihilist to me. Atheists just believe that there is simply no god.



Ah, Marduk. Damn Tiamat.

An actual athiest holds humanity as his God.

The term atheism (French athéisme, from athée, meaning atheist, from Greek '**913;**952;**949;**959;**962;, atheos, meaning godless : a-, without; + **920;**949;**972;**962;, theos, meaning god; it has Indo-European Roots) is formed of the Greek prefix **945;- (a-), meaning "without" or "not," and the Greek-derived theism (from **920;**949;**970;**963;**956;**972;**962;, theismos), meaning a belief in a god. The literal meaning of the term is therefore "lack of belief in a god."

athiest = doesn't believe in god.

yes, nietzsche was a nihilist. i'm not saying it's necessarily necessary to be a nihilist to be an athiest. and most athiests i know are 'virtuous' people too (I like nice people) but to me that seems to indicate a belief in something, even if it is undefined and unacknowledged. at least it implies a belief in Goodness, which is only one step away from an undefined God.

cuz why be good when nobody will ever know the difference, or if it makes your life harder? and yet many 'athiests' have morals which are just as strict as some christians'.

sometimes these morals go against what would make people happier (in this life) and yet people who believe that this is all there is can be highly principled. this seems to me to indicate a subconscious belief in something...

quote:Originally posted by Roisin:

athiest = doesn't believe in god.

yes, nietzsche was a nihilist. i'm not saying it's necessarily necessary to be a nihilist to be an athiest. and most athiests i know are 'virtuous' people too (I like nice people) but to me that seems to indicate a belief in something, even if it is undefined and unacknowledged. at least it implies a belief in Goodness, which is only one step away from an undefined God.

cuz why be good when nobody will ever know the difference, or if it makes your life harder? and yet many 'athiests' have morals which are just as strict as some christians'.

sometimes these morals go against what would make people happier (in this life) and yet people who believe that this is all there is can be highly principled. this seems to me to indicate a subconscious belief in something...



It's more a factor of being intelligent. I often help random people because I would hope that if I were in a similar situation, someone would help me. Maybe I hope that there is such a thing as karma. I hope that justice would prevail. And I hold myself to much higher standars than other people. Thats also an arrogance thing.

quote:Originally posted by Roisin:

athiest = doesn't believe in god.



.....sometimes these morals go against what would make people happier (in this life) and yet people who believe that this is all there is can be highly principled. this seems to me to indicate a subconscious belief in something...





You are quite correct. They believe in themselves. It's known as having character and integrity.

Also, the subconcious belief that is wired into us that if we want to survive longer as a whole(or just ourselves even), we shouldn't be doing things like murdering.



Just to address the original poster's question:

I don't think that Atheism or any of your beliefs are a matter of choice. They are just the logical conclusions that your brain makes given what you know. However, I guess it's fine to call yourself an Atheist if your conscious mind seems to agree with the subconscious part about your conclusions regarding the existence of a god.