to be saddened when people tick the 'no faith' box.

[Funsponge]

on forms when there is a Religion or Faith box and people put none.

No faith.

Realy?

No faith in anything?

It makes me feel sad for them. How empty and meaningless and small they must feel. Poor things.

You know we are small and largely meaningless other than to a tiny group of people. How aggrandising to use belief to pretend otherwise.

Dear OP

My DH & sons are Muslim and they are nice.
On the other hand some Muslims are not nice.

Lets see if anyone asks for the thread to be deleted on the basis of my post!

Here in Northern Ireland, on equality forms you are asked to state your faith, or lack of it, but then also on occasion, your historical tradition.

Literally, "but are ye a protestant atheist or a catholic atheist?"

As if they couldn't already tell from my last name, where I went to school, my address and how far apart my eyes are

Religion is insidious and used as a public barometer of morality. It should be a private issue, separate from state. Why does the government need to know which particular manifestation of the abrahamic god El I either do or do not choose to pander to?

The thread Hully started is actually really interesting, although she could have asked about the same things in a different way I think the answers are fascinating and its giving me an insight to people who think very differently to me.

This thread on the other hand is annoying and is pissing me off.

I hate it when people insinuate things, just make your point directly please, this wishy washy OP from Funsponge I have no patience for.

I am a Theobromian

i.e. a chocolate worshipper

A 1950s Irish Catholic upbringing up to my eyeballs with priests and nuns turned me into the happy atheist I am today. That and logical thought.

YABU.
One can have faith and belief and spirituality without having to belong to an organised religion.
Personally I don't feel that I need men in skirts, funny hats or with big beards to tell me what to believe in.
I find it quite refreshing when people choose "no faith".

Ahh bless you OP. But don't feel sad for me, I'm not feeling small, empty and meaningless at all. I have plenty of faith in the tangible things around me that make my life full, happy and meaningful - I just can't be bothered to waste time wondering about a floaty man with a long white beard on a cloud somewhere

thanks hyperballard, I started it quite spur of the moment so didn't give much thought to the way I couched the questions...

What are these 'forms' you have privy too and should you be disclosing what you have seen ?.

IMO having faith or not in whatever is a private thing so not something I would ever disclose on a form. I think its not very often a relevant question so refuse to answer....have you though of that..that some people might not be disclosing as they think its none of your business ?

....yer Hully, you've made me rethink my whole life with that thread....I really should start reading the papers and having a Sunday roast! Sounds bloody marvellous to me .

I'm an atheist, and the OP is right, my life is empty and meaningless. On the other hand, as we all know, atheists have no moral compass so I compensate by committing as many wicked acts as I possibly can (kicking cats, pushing over small annoying children and enjoying enormous quantities of depraved sex with a variety of people). So don't feel sorry for me.

I'll take meaningless over deluded

The things I have 'faith' in (science, rationality, the value of the here and now, the beauty and wonder of the world around me, the kindness I see in people, for example) aren't ever listed for me to tick.

Given a choice between any organised religion and no faith, I am 'no faith'. Although I don't like the use of the word 'faith' at all, really. It doesn't apply to the empirical way I see things. I KNOW the things I value are what they are. Having faith in them doesn't really enter into it.

My belief system (or lack thereof) is absolutely summed up in the quote 'Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?'. (And yes I do think this is applicable to the idea God as it is to the idea of fairies).

And I don't even really mind that the only box for me is 'no faith'. It doesn't make me feel empty and meaningless. If we're going to get all patronising, I feel sorry for people who find so little joy and satisfaction in the world around them that they have to kid themselves there is someone/something else they can't see, and who only feel important and valued themselves in that context. It genuinely baffles me.

Please, don't read my post if you get easily upset.
It's about dying.
I'm going to be very blunt to illustrate why i will never understand people who put all their faith in this life only.

I find the atheists totally bonkers when they try to console themselves about the horrid reality of us being very conscious species capable of love and at the same time facing a possibility of death, ours or a loved one's, at any moment, really.

I read their posts gashing about the wonders of the universe, the beauty of science, how they place their total faith in these. And I think how naive....

Let's take the beauty of physics for example. Isn't it wonderful that if my loved one crosses a road and some intoxicated idiot driver ( oh, the beauty of chemistry ! ) hits him, the wonders of physics will ensure ........

Oh, but the amazing doctors will make it all right. What? They failed ? But I had such faith in science...

Oh, but the beauty of that loved body returning to earth, that beautiful cycle of life, look at those cute microbes devouring the eyeballs ,oooh, I love decay.
So glad we made it a main feature of the funeral, the glorious return to mother earth. Why can't I find good uplifting songs about earthworms chomping on the flesh ?

Bonkers.

Death is horrid , monstrous, nothing good or pretty about it.
Science, the working of it, can be extremely cruel.

Death and the cruelty of science as it is, was not the intention of God, that I believe in , when he created people and the universe.

But there is hope and that's where I put my faith in.

Without faith in God and the afterlife, I do not think I would ever be able to cope if tragedy struck my family. According to atheists it is because I am a weak individual. How insulting. I am tempting to say it's because maybe I love my family a lot more than you, if you think you would cope. But I know that's not right, I guess you are just very very naive.

You enjoy your faith and take comfort from it and good for you - each to their own. But don't pity me (how patronising ) for not sharing your views.

I'll take my chances with science thanks.

It would be really nice if that question was replaced by some other tick box question.

Which of the following trees do you like the most? Who is your favourite poet? Do your prefer cats or dogs?

Hopefully, one day religion will no longer be a matter requiring a tick box on any official form.

twinkletwirl

Ok, life is mean and nasty and inflicts awful pain on us. To deal with it you decide to believe in god and heaven and angels sitting on fluffy clouds etc etc. Someone else deals with it by believing that teddy bears are actually alive and skip hand in hand through bluebell woods, young forever. This image makes them feel happier when they think about sad things.

Are both people crazy, or only one?

This thread is an expression of the viewpoint that no one should be disparaging about religion (any particular one or generally), and that if they are, we should see that as an attack on religion.

I strongly disagree. Freedom of religion includes the right to be irreligious. And making disparaging remarks about religion is not, usually, an attack on anyone else's right to practise it.

I also think the suggestion that people wouldn't make the same remarks about Islam is a complete fallacy. They can, and they do, but if people are of a nominally Christian background and education, Christianity is what they know, so that's the religion they tend to comment on.

"Death is horrid , monstrous, nothing good or pretty about it.
Science, the working of it, can be extremely cruel."

yes, but what does faith and religion have to do with it?

It's still all those things with faith and religion.

I am not an Atheist I just have no religion. The way I was born with no religion. There's no rejection of anything here, I had nothing to reject.

twinkletwirl that's hilarious!

Actually, it goes further than a lack of love for my children , for example.

I am glad - happy that I do not have to believe in an afterlife. I am delighted that there is no invisible policeman causing me to behave in a religiously acceptable way. I make my own choices, and take the consequences.

The thought of an afterlife makes me shudder. Heaven sounds appalling. I don't choose to worship a capricious, misogynist, homophobic, inconsistent and ultimately insecure deity in life, nor would I in death. So that's hell for me then! Oh look, a deterrent.

Decay is beautiful. There is beauty in everything. I've spent a lot of time with dying people. There can be beauty in death; there is certainly often love there. Death is not always a horror, it is the way things are. Sadness is not terrible. Grieving is not a bad thing. God cannot stop unpleasant things happening (even though those of you who believe in the utter logical inconsistency of intercessionary prayer seem to think he/ it will)

I say it again, I am glad of it. Being an atheist has freed me. I love my life.

Yes death is horrid... etc. I agree.

Yes I have struggled to come to terms with the death of people I have loved (as everybody does, I think).

Didn't make me believe in fairies though

HoneyDragon Of course you're real

I have to ask though, are your lederhosen integrated into your scales like this ?

...or are they a separate garment entirely?

It keeps me awake at night, it really does

It is human nature ( after all , your amazing science of psychology) for me to pity you that if your loved one dies you believe you will never ever see them again . How horrible, I cannot help but be sorry for you.

I believe the people I love are a lot more than just soulless more developed monkeys , they are children of God, created not for this life only, which can be very short and cruel , but for eternity in what would be the sum of all the beauty and dreams we see/have now. I believe this to the very core, never doubted. I thank my parents, the community, my religious native country that I was brought up like this, so it is very natural for me to believe.

I cannot imagine telling my children there is no God, we die and that's it. Horrid thought.

I hope one day you will find faith

I see my dead parents in photos whenever I wish to look at them. They 'live on' in my memories.

I don't want to find faith. I have no need of it.