Support thread for all the atheist,agnostic,non-religious and secular humanist TTCers

So does that make us more or less evolved than religious nuts?! Lol!!!

Ah yes, I've read some Persinger! He can cause me brain cramps trying to figure out where my ethics stand!

But that is a crazy study. I'm really glad you mentioned it because I think it's important for 'non-believers' to see/understand that what religious people experience is actually an experience for them...not just a feeling or desire but something that physically happens in their brain - which makes it so real that people can say "I KNOW that God exists because I know". "Um, excuse me, you know that's not a valid reason, right?"

WOW! Pretty wild.

My lifelong best friend has just become Born Again Ugh, I don't even know what to say to that!

Originally Posted by eebee

So does that make us more or less evolved than religious nuts?! Lol!!!

Lol! I do think it says something for our social evolution to be able to be able to recognise an illogical biological urge and choose to follow our more developed parts of the brain and base our beliefs on reason! I believe that our species i finally at a place where we can can stop relying on superstition and fairytales and live rationally

Vankiwi, I know what you mean! Although I know there is a lot that is not under my control in the world, for the things that are I think I should try to control them - not wait for a god to make things happen. I don't think I could handle living like that.

I can relate to religious people because having grown up religious I can understand how it's comforting to believe in a god. It's comforting to believe in life after death. It's comforting to believe that there is a grand plan and purpose bigger than yourself. I think people generally believe what they want to believe. Logic kept intruding in on me though and eventually I had to admit to myself (even though I didn't want to!) that the sort of god I had grown up with just didn't make sense.

My friend made a very good point the other day: if it's in God's hands...don't you think the fact he gave us the intelligence and capability to develop medicinal techniqes to fix things is his way of saying "here you go"?

Originally Posted by eebee

My friend made a very good point the other day: if it's in God's hands...don't you think the fact he gave us the intelligence and capability to develop medicinal techniqes to fix things is his way of saying "here you go"?

Ha, yep, totally agree!

Can I ask you ladies a question?? I don't know many non religious people or atheists so I don't have anyone to talk to about this:

What do you think happens after you die??

As a total atheist so I don't beleive in heaven or hell but I get a but freaked out thinking that there's just nothing at all I think the scariest thing is that i won't even be aware of the nothingness cos I will be nothing too with no consciousness (I know this probably makes no sense sorry)

I cant totally see why people believe in heaven and hell it's a lot less scary than nothing but I just can't believe in something that I honestly don't just cos it's less scary!!

So what do you think happens? And if you think it's just nothing then how do you deal with that?? I never ever want to die!!

Sorry for bringing up death and being morbid (af started today so im a bit emotional and depressed!! )

I think that you die but that there might be an afterlife. I'm not sure if I believe in a soul though...although I'm pretty sure I believe in ghosts and I don't know how I would explain them, maybe more as energies... *shrugs*...

Beccaboop:
I have struggled with this issue so much especially in the last few years of my life. So much so that it became a mini existential crisis, I would literally lay awake at night just thinking about the problem. I came to a really peaceful resolution to this one day that dying is probably pretty much like things were before I was born. I dont remember being present when my parents were young or in the middle ages or in ancient rome, yet I dont feel like I "missed out" I simply did not exist. And when I die I will again cease to exist and it really wont matter.

In short it is super hard to convince your mind to be ok with no longer existing because our brains are not designed to cope with that reality. You cannot imagine not existing, but i think when the time comes it wont matter!