Atheists have you ever doubted or questioned your atheism?

I was listening to someone ask this question. He asked rooms full of athiests if they ever questioned their atheism and nobody did. He also ask the same for rooms of full of people who believed in whatever god they believed in and everyone did. I've mostly have had the same result to the people I've crossed path with only a few outliers so I bring the question here.

Atheists have you ever doubted or questioned your atheism?

Believers have you ever doubted or questioned what you believe in?

Please state which group you're in with the answer.

You could've asked them if they've ever questioned their faith instead and boy the results would've been funny.

I had plenty of doubts about faith and atheism when I was younger. Now, I’m an atheist without any doubts.

@morghulis: That sounds like a threat. And it frightens me.

I used to be an atheist. But then I took a trip to Vvardenfell where Vivec showed me his bussy. I've been a devout follower of almsivi ever since

@morghulis: oh, well I sincerely hope you are doing okay, pal.

Your faith is your rock, without that rock you can be blown in any direction.

In the beginning stages, yes, I had doubts.

Even though I wasn't brought up with religion, I believed in God as a kid. Letting go of that completely was a process, and I definitely had questions and doubts at that time. One could say, I was looking for any reason to keep believing. But as I learned more about the doctrines and history of the world's major religions, I became very confident that they were man-made, and that my doubt was unreasonable.

No, not really.

Never doubted my philosophy, nah. Never had a slipping moment where I became religious, if I ever came close to that I'd usually laugh it off. I think I'm pretty true to myself when I gave up religion.

"Believers have you ever doubted or questioned what you believe in?"

I believe in 1 God, and there is no room for doubts in my religion. I want to present my subject interest here. I hope no hate will form. Instead, we will be open to something else that will help us in the future.

For atheists here

You all believe in nothing. (Don't take this statement too literal as obviously, you believe in something like you believe I exist somewhere in the world) You don't believe in hell or paradise because if you do, that would mean you believe in a God.

For the sake of conversation, let's say atheism is correct that when we die, we are just atoms going somewhere, and there is no next after we die, right? It's a win-win situation for anyone who ever lived because no one will feel anything and the most important is no one is suffering from the hell fire punishment.

But

If we believers are right and you atheists are wrong, what will you bring to earn your place in paradise? None. You'll be burning for eternity in the hellfire. Imagine your di** is soaked in lava, your eyes are bathed in lava, and you are swimming naked. You are repeatedly burned alive without rest, and the worst part is forever. It's not just about the heat of the fire, but you can imagine the worst torture for a human, and that will be there.

Imagine Forever

Imagine if one quark is equal to 1 trillion years. The next question is, how many quarks are there in 1 atom? How many atoms are there in red blood cells? How many red blood cells are there in 1milimeter of veins? How long are veins in one human body? How many humans have been there since the beginning of the creation of Earth? How many Earths are in 1 galaxy? How many galaxies are in a universe? How many quarks are there in 1 universe? YET imagine after that one universe is only equal to one quark. And it repeats. This is one of the ways you can define forever.

For the signs of the Truth

Don't ever think that you, as one of the unquantifiable numbers of creation, have better reasoning and understanding of how things should work than your Creator.

For better questions,

be honest, and don't be in denial of your feelings. Don't you fear what is next after you die? Are you sure that we are all just atoms formed at a particular time and space, and when we die, our atoms will go somewhere else? What if you are wrong? What did you declare to earn your place in paradise?

@marplay: Ah, pascal's wager. The argument everyone uses because they fail to realize it could just as easily be turned on them from the perspective of another religion or denomination. Religion is just a big cope where the emotionally strong profit off of the emotionally weak. It's the perfect scam because it doesn't have to do anything for you until after you're already dead. All the promises and rewards of religion are beyond the pay wall of death.

It feels weird to use a word doubt in relation to lack of belief. There are possibilities of existence of countless unimaginable things, we know the reality is not the way we perceive it. Not believing is just a default starting point until the evidence is acquired to make a switch.

What if a creator of some sort is real, but he doesn't want people believing in him, bothering him with prayers and will send to hell everyone who's not an atheist? Think about it, if he wanted everyone to know of his existence he could provide the evidence with zero effort.

Believing in the existence of a God as a prerequisite for entering the heaven seems very arbitrary to me. Almost like it was a mechanism which evolved within religions, and religions which had this function spread faster than those which didn't.

This post sums up my thoughts. ^

The default starting point is not having a position on the issue, though. Not believing is in itself a position towards the issue.

A) Doing right simply for some reward in afterlife is pretty shallow, and not so much "pure faith in good," as submission to fear,

B) Even if you accepted God, there's still the tiny issue of selecting which of the thousand different religions claiming to be right is actually right about morals (if any of them is), so accepting God in itself is not really getting you much closer to paradise.

@theinsufferable: if you don't have a position about x, then you also don't have a belief in x.

I think Igtheism is being totally unaware of the claim or idea of there being a God while Atheism is a rejection of the claim itself.

I'm Apatheistic, meaning that I don't care whether there is or isn't a God/s because they nor Religion has zero bearing on my life in any way, shape or form. As a former Christian-turned-Atheist before deciding my final belief system, I had learned for myself that a God/s doesn't exist and I wouldn't let that determine how I live. Additionally, so long as others don't preach or try to enforce their own beliefs onto me, I've no issues with the subject.

- Your King, Majestros.

@mortein: Well, atheism is, for the most part, understood as having the position that deities do not exist, and while it's true that it has also been used in a broader sense to refer to any position other than belief in deities in general, that's a less standard usage of the term which is so general that its usage is pointless compared more exact categorizations like apatheism, agnosticsm, and the usual sense in which atheism is used, and if you want to bring up the word's etymology, don't bother, because a word's current usage is not always determined by the original meaning dictated by its etymology.

Interesting discussions above. But arguing definitions can be overly pedantic. Personally, I embrace the broad definition of atheism, since Atheism is conceptually broad and most definitions I see include both strong rejection of belief and the weaker passive lack of belief, which I see myself fitting into more.

Back to OP's question: Since becoming an atheist, I've had no doubts in that. It took a lot to reach that position coming from a religious family. You might come across fewer atheists doubting themselves since a lot of people may have to work to get to that conclusion if it's not their default, making people more likely to be confident in what they feel they have worked out for themselves over time. In some ways, that should probably apply to religious people too, once they've devoted a significant portion of their life to belief, they will likely also have reached a confident position where they do not doubt or change their minds easily.

What caused you to believe that you were a Christian? How did you know that you were a Christian?

I literally and truthfully had a moment where I was going to stop taking a part of the Bible seriously, which was probably going to start a process for me, and had my flame, sort to speak, sparked by God, starting a process of adding real substance to my faith, confidence, and firm knowledge that what I think is really true; and, it was just reinforced several times last week; this confirmation and verification has been reinforced for me as long as I've needed it.

@theinsufferable:

From my experience, weak atheism, the lack of belief in gods is what most atheists I meet subscribe to.

The strong atheism, belief that there are no gods, is what theists usually are referring to when they are talking about atheists.

This way both groups tend to talk past each other a lot.

@dshipp17: I was baptized at 7 and fully believed in the Bible and that God was real.

You may not have known this, as many people leading in Christian churches don't, but, being Baptized in water is not the starting point for being a Christian in the Age that we currently live within, although I was Baptized in water, as well (e.g. mines was at a very young age, as well, but, there is something in addition or whether the water baptism would be the addition, but it isn't really required). Knowing the Bible, you'd know this certain key distinction. Are you saying that you believed everything in the Bible? Fully believing in the Bible is certainly a prerequisite to being a true Christian, but there's a certain force that helps a true Christian interpret and understand the Bible. Did you encounter some sources and information that made you stop believing that God was real or was it brought about by something else, and, if so, what was it?

@dshipp17: I was young and ignorant and was told to believe everything in the Bible by my parents. When I turned 15 or 16, I was old enough to understand the Bible a bit more clearly and most things did not sound right nor held a place within my certain beliefs at the time. I had the pleasure of meeting several people that were able to open my eyes wider and I came to the conclusion that, based on what I researched and learned for myself, that God wasn't real and the Bible was full of fictional stories. After a while, becoming Atheist made my life better, until I decided that religion really bore no weight on me and I truly didn't care.

Well, that wasn't you believing in the Bible, as that statement gave the impression of some certain level of personal knowledge about the Bible; your parents believe the Bible; here, it sounds like you don't believe things that you were told about the Bible by your parents and others versus an actual personal knowledge of the Bible; you sound like you still are ignorant of the Bible; but, this still does not denote that you were ever actually a Christian.

The Bible is very real; all of the events in the Bible have been verified with very solid proof; only a few crackpots dispute these events described by the Bible, but, unfortunately, they're given lots of oxygen; these aren't things that you can truly say about the Bible, while being in complete ignorance about the topic under discussion. You're trying to tell someone like me who is actually in the know that the verified events aren't real, when they really are real and verified; you've only head about things that you want to believe about the Bible for whatever reason but that isn't the way to go about this.

God is giving you time to escape your ignorance about the Bible. But, these claims weren't really specific in any way; for example, Jesus is a real, historical person that's verified by solid evidence; the Exodus has been verified; properly interpreting geological features tells us that there was indeed a global flood, just to name a few, but, it would be good if you would be more specific about what you've been told; sounds like you haven't really verified what you've been told like someone being truly objective would be looking to do (e.g. if you're wrong and you pass away, you're stuck in Hell for all eternity; there's no coming back; with so much at stake, you should be way more serious, if this is truly how you feel, which I strongly doubt).

@dshipp17: No, I believed the Bible was truth because my parents told me it was; I had also studied the Bible and was an avid church-goer. As I explained, I did lots of research to find the answers I needed. It's after I grew up that I realized it was all fake, full of fictional stories and a false God at the helm. Lay off the personal jabs.

I've contemplated it, at least. I don't think I've ever come close to seriously believing in a God, but I would say I've become more agnostic in the last few years.

I've done lots of research, but, I still ask that you be specific about what you found, starting by citing your sources; my sources had an interest in getting it right, but, once you've experienced the promises from the New Testament just like I have been, as the result of the experiences becoming firsthand, this so called research is largely unnecessary and unpersuasive (e.g. no amount of alleged research is going to be able to convince me that I didn't almost help an Indian lady and her son with their grocery expenses this past Friday; no amount of alleged research is going to convince me that I didn't just receive more answered prayers last week).

With all due respect, this just sound like spite speaking; even though you attended church a lot, the promises didn't come your way like the Christians around you (e.g. and this approach is just all a big misunderstanding); just attending church isn't going to make you Christian, either, although it can certainly help along that path; the events described in the Bible have been soundly verified by different sources, but, you'll need to go to the right sources for information; it's about being objective in your approach; but, not experiencing any of the promises, it sounds like you went out and did this subjective search; the events described in the Bible couldn't be both solidly verified and fake, all at the same time, but, only the really crackpot would think that Jesus isn't real, and, if you launched yourself towards one or more of those type sources than I strongly suggest that you go do actual, real research, given how much is at stake for you; but, just finding claims doesn't take away from my experiences and the experiences of the Christians who were around you that always described their answered prayers to each other, as you listened on to them.

@dshipp17: I'm not interested in going any deeper than I already have with what I've said, so I'll leave it at that.

- Your King, Majestros.

All of them do, sooner or later. Godless society.

Fine, but, I was just advising that you not call yourself Christian, because what you describe isn't the experiences of real Christians; you only believed that you were Christian. Also, despite your having no interest in hearing the truth, I still have to prevent the spread of misinformation, as the events described in the Bible aren't fake, as they're supported by multiple sources of evidence and information; I was only reaching out to that general reader who might view this text and see it as true, so I was stopping the spread of misinformation about the Bible and Christianity (e.g. you can't provide your sources, which is a problem); that's something way larger than both you and your feelings. While you have an interest in deriving misinformation about Christianity, I have an interest in seeing it corrected.

@dshipp17: To be clear, you don't decide what a "real Christian" is, and it's not your place to determine that. You can have your opinion, but that's all it is. I said my piece regarding how I became Atheist -- now Apatheistic -- from choices that were and still are the best for me, as that is what the initial post for this thread was asking. Whether you agree with it or not is no concern of mine, since it changes nothing; what you deem for yourself is your own business.

- Your King, Majestros.

I do indeed and can decide what a real Christian is, because it's based on my actual experiences, what the Bible says, and what others describe, as real Christians; and, your experiences do not coincide with ours, so, I know for sure that you shouldn't be calling yourself a real Christian (e.g. you presented your description of experiences as if it represented real evidence, somehow, that should then make true Christians doubt themselves, simply because you're lost and confused on the subject of being Christian, which involves peoples' experiences; and that additional part about alleging that the events in the Bible are fake, when they are supported by multiple sources of information and evidence as true); it's far more precise than just my opinion, it's based on facts, information, and experiences that I compare to claims made by just anyone. After having these experiences, while also understanding the ramifications of those feelings and choices, Christianity is very important and no real Christian would either abandon it so haphazardly or even want to abandon it in such a haphazard fashion; basically, its confirmation and verification of monumental significance, except you need to experience it first (e.g. answered prayers, for example); again, this is for the reader, the protection of the Bible, and the protection of Christianity, not simply about how you want to feel about this matter, even though I don't take a claim seriously from someone that an eternity in Hell isn't a real concern; my business is God and Christianity, and eternity.

Sure, you said your piece, except you also included the spread of misinformation about the Bible and Christianity with your piece, where being a true Christian is apart of my experiences, where what you said does not jive with them, where I know why they aren't jiving. And, because my experiences are real and actual, I have to disagree for the purpose of preventing the spread of misinformation, where again, this is about the reader, not just you; your caring or not caring isn't somehow taking away from my experiences with answered prayers, the happiness of knowing that I'm in God's flock, and that I have the Holy Spirit, thanks to the work and Blood of Jesus, so, no need to mention it, as far it goes for me, but, maybe that helped you some, but, just letting you know that you lost that punch; naturally, I only see you as confused and struggling, where, initially, I was trying to help you, but, it's more about the reader now than just you.

@dshipp17: Oh well.

I'm more agnostic than I am atheist (I think?), so I question what god, if any, exists. So in a way I'm both constantly in doubt and in no doubt.

Say this prayer out laud: I believe that Jesus died and then rose again for my sins; I confess my sins, both known and unknown; Jesus, please come into my heart and be my Lord and Savior; Jesus, please help me develop my faith in You; Jesus, please send me a sign so that I can confidently believe in you and become a Christian; if it helps, think of this request as an Eleventh Commandment; you'll be sealed by the Holy Spirit until the Day of Redemption. Whenever I contemplate doubting, Jesus usually send me signs but you have to really be looking out for them, that is, after you've become Christian.

I hate sounding harsh to that other poster, I'm really not trying to be, but, I'm very defensive of God and Christianity, where the Bible is the association; I'm not sure to what degree God, Christianity, and eternity can be my business, but, I want to be God's business, as a member of His Flock, being brought there by the work and Blood of Jesus Christ, in becoming a Christian. I only want to help people avoid an awful fate in the eternal afterlife.

Everytime I look in the mirror

I must totally agree with that.

Every person knows deep down that God exists (Romans 1:20). Those who outwardly claim to be unbelievers are in denial of the obvious.

An accidental universe is foolishness.

I don't agree with this as someone who want to know and believe but doesn't.

I mean, citing bible as evidence for the validity of an argument doesn't do much for someone who hasn't accepted bible in the first place.

Grew up in a relatively religious household, now I hold views more in line with agnosticism. I am not against the idea of something being out there or nothing at all, if it does exist I just don't think it would be in the form of any organized religion.

Why wouldn't it? The Bible is holding up to the required scrutiny. By the same token, citing comments that the universe came into existence via a point mass doesn't help people who haven't accepted that to be the case; citing comments that living organisms came about from inorganic molecules that originated from the stars doesn't do much to help people who haven't accepted it (e.g. and those supposedly evolved into more complicated organisms); and, evidence so far hasn't been found to support these two propositions. The constant theme supporting these two is hat there's a history component to them, where the Bible has proven to be a very reliable source of history, where your side is then trying to tell us that we should have a knee jerk skepticism for the Bible so that we can then have faith that you'll one day support these ideas, even after more than 150 years of failures, even though we have extensive experience based evidence of the promises from the New Testament operating in our lives. You haven't to think outside the box and accept that you're being indoctrinated in school, where we're not primative because we can see right through it whereas you'd rather refuse, simply because you don't want the Bible and us to be right about this issue.

Dang, you can her Randy's neck snap here:

All of that is irrelevant when someone HAS NOT ACCEPTED THE BIBLE. Whether or not it is true is not even relevant to my point. As long as someone hasn't accepted the authenticity of a source, they won't accept it as a basis for argument. It doesn't matter how true or special that source is. Unless you believe that every human in the world has accepted the bible, your whole argument is pointless.