Atheists - is there anything about faith that appeals to you, would you like to believe?

[Italiangreyhound]

Hi, I've been reading a few threads and I've heard atheists say stuff in the past about belief in God. Stuff like they don't believe in God but they would like to or they can see why it would maybe give peace or would be nice etc. I am just curious how atheists feel a bout this and if they want to talk about it?

I am a Christian, I hope I am an open and tolerant person and I would not want to cause offence. I am just curious, as we come into Easter if anyone wants to chat about this.

If not, may I wish you a peaceful and happy Easter, even if all it means to you is some chocolate eggs.

I know that (if that was directed at me)...

Aaahhh bloody hell, why am I now googling communism? I don't care about communism right now, right now I want to sleep.

Yes, MrsHiddlleston you are making sense.

Yes, atheists are not all communists and maybe communists are not all atheists but communism is essentially atheistic I think or (some one correct me??).

Dear old Wikipedia says under Communism special ally under China ... ?The Communist Party has said that religious belief and membership are incompatible.[43] However, the state is not allowed to force ordinary citizens to become atheists?

MrsHiddleston do not want to delay your sleep. I simply meant that in all kinds of societies, including those without organised religion, there is evil and people do things wrong. I think religion is a useful thing to hide behind, and much evil has been done in the name of religion. I can understand that that puts people off God, and that is very sad, but it sounds from what many people say that it is not actually that that puts people off, it is that they simply do not believe in God.

I think what you mean, pianomama is that while adhering to no belief in the supernatural, communism is also a form of social control.

Yes, communism, or at least leninism, has all the markers of a religion.
As to religions bringing a 'sense of peace' to individuals... Well, yeah, sometimes, probably. So does having a wank, or listening to a nice piece of music, or watching a sunset. However, nice pieces of music and sunsets don't generally make you miserable and anxious that you're Doing It Wrong, whereas quite a few superstitions are riddled with all sorts of unpleasant taboos, so that people can make themselves horribly miserable by worrying about what their imaginary friend is going to do to them if they find some aspect of the ritual, or the institution's inherent bigotry, a bit of a problem.

Still bloody googling communism and atheism here....

People doing bad onto each other in the name of religion doesn't 'put me off god'. I believe that there is no god. people doing bad onto each other in the name of anything just puts me off people.

MrsHiddleston very well said, the people bit. Go to bed, you are tired, we will talk tomorrow (said in a very unbossy, un-bun-throwy-un-nut-job-three-bible-verses sort of way!)

SBG, it's not just imaginary friends, but the imaginary enemies of said imaginary friends.

I've not noticed that religious people/people with strong faith are more at peace when bad things happen, in fact I think it can be incredibly challenging. If you truly believe that god has a plan and then something terrible happens - say your child is very ill, then you have to feel that god is somehow responsible, and that you somehow deserved to suffer in some way. I cannot see how holding such a belief is in any way comforting. Of course there is no comfort in feeling that such events are random/just part of life but at least there's no blame either.

Of course I might just have this view because the faith I was brought up in was Catholicism!

I can confirm that the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America has women and men on equal footing. And openly gay clergy.

Not strictly about faith but some churches do a lot for their community, food banks, visiting the sick, I read a bout a group of women from a church working with prostitutes, handing out condoms and listening to problems.

I'd like to be involved with something like running a food bank, but you cannot do it on your own and there doesn't seem to be an atheist organisaton.

I also like the community. It would be nice if we were new to an area to have a ready made social group.

Oh, it would also be nice to not be in the minority and therefore discriminated against (I live in the US where in some places you can't even run for public office!). It would be nice if the scouts would not discriminate against my sons.

I wish that someone else would make volunteering really easy for me too ;) but that is me being lazy!

Spoony - why would you want your sons to join the Scouts if you don't agree with their ethos? Why don't you enrol them in a secular club, if you think that's more appropriate?

thanks italiangreyhound I have considered the Alpha course, but I think it is focused on Christianity, and I wanted something broader. I imagined a week-long course (residential, with nice food ) covering all the major religions and some of the minor ones.

Perhaps not Scientology. I don't think that counts as a religion.

Scientology is as much a religion as any other. Some might use the word cult, but actually the terms pretty much interchangeable, just that the more well established religions would object to being referred to as a cult.

Sashh, you can volunteer at an actual foodbank. The one in my area that supplies the churches with most of their food is completely secular. And in need of volunteers.

There are a lot of organizations, both secular and religious that are beneficial no matter your beliefs. And in the US at least the religious ones are pretty ubiquitous and powerful. And well run, mostly. Scouts is something I would consider because of the skill set offered. Iknow many shirts who participated, a well as gays...

Scientology was not a religion when it was invented by Hubbard, but became formally reclassified as a religion because it is a way of getting around the legal restrictions on telling lies and making false claims. Hubbard just meant all this stuff very literally and saw it as a factual description of how things are (which tangentially made him eligible to receive lots of money).

I am the staunchest of atheists, very much 100% convinced there is nothing beyond science.

However, I find some elements of faith/religion very beautiful. It's hard to explain for me, but just the idea of such a profound belief that is at the same time so simple.

Phyllis, I don't want my sons to join the scouts, not while they still discriminate against children, but it would be nice for them if they weren't left out.

I mean it would be nice if they were the ones choosing not to join, not being told they weren't welcome. It is early here, not woken up yet!

Scientology is a religion - it's just a newer one. All the rest were made up by people who saw a way of controlling the gullible; the older ones are just percieved as more 'respectable' because they have been around longer. They're all bullshit, Scientology no better or worse than any other.

MechanicalTheatre that is a lovely thing to say.

aliasjoey I don't think you will find something that gives you a kind of smorgasbord of all religions. You'd have to try and hop from one to the other. I have been to a Sikh temple and had food there, very nice, and visited a mosque for a talk about it on a couple of occasions. I visited many Buddhist temples when is Asia and one Hindu one and also at least one synagogue in the UK a long time ago. If you are genuinely interested in visiting places of worship it is quite easy to gain access to them but I think learning what all religions believe is much harder.

I read about all the world?s religions when I was younger, I did Religious Studies A-Level but not sure how much of my study and reading was directly related to it.

My experience of Christianity began with me being invited to a church in my teens and I made commitment a year or so later. I will have been a Christian for 30 years next week, I have never regretted it at all, and it is wonderful. I am very lucky that my faith has grown and developed over the years and brought me into contact with some very lovely people. I know some people are very negative about faith groups and some have had very bad experiences and I am very sorry for that.

PS I love your dog photo; I clicked on your name by accident!