Calling all Agnostic/Atheist Mommas

[Noelle610]

ps. I LOVE cake!

Something that atheists, agnostics and religious folks alike can agree on!

 

[SpringerS]

I think that anyone who claims to know for certain, without a doubt, whether there is or isn't a god, is just being arrogant.

Is it arrogant to say there are definitely no unicorns? Or that Thor is not a real thunder controlling hammer toting cloud dweller? Just because belief in a monotheistic god has been all the rage for the last few millenia doesn't make him any more likely to be real than unicorns or Thor and it's no more arrogant to disbelieve in God than the former two.

 

[AngelUK]

I am at best (or worst, depending on ones position) a deist but I do think that there is a difference between believing in a higher power and believing in unicorns and Thor.

I tend to stay out of these debates usually cause while I too think religion is a kind of delusion, I do not think that ppl who have faith are nuts. And while I cannot get on board with them in that respect, I can still value and even love them for other aspects of their personality and I hate hurting ppl whom I value or even love. So what is the point? They won't change their views and neither will I. So I usually suggest to them to let's instead have a laugh about our OH's and eat cake.

 

[bumpy_j]

It's like you're looking for a confrontation. I am not religious but I know better to call the way some people cope with the completely insanity of life a 'fairy tale'.

Tbh, I think someone who comes onto a thread aimed at the non-religious and gets offended because one of those non-religious people has a dim view of religion is looking for confrontation. Mommyjogger was just answering the topic honestly.

You'd be asking for confrontation if you openly bashed formula feeding in the breastfeeding forum, saying you don't respect people who make that decision - this example can be used with all dimensions of parenting.

This is an open community, and a little decorum and thoughtfulness go far.

 

[SaraEmily]

I think that anyone who claims to know for certain, without a doubt, whether there is or isn't a god, is just being arrogant.

Is it arrogant to say there are definitely no unicorns? Or that Thor is not a real thunder controlling hammer toting cloud dweller? Just because belief in a monotheistic god has been all the rage for the last few millenia doesn't make him any more likely to be real than unicorns or Thor and it's no more arrogant to disbelieve in God than the former two.

I already apologized multiple times for saying that. Why must you bring that back up? And I agree with you. I don't believe in any particular god either. What I was trying to get across at the time is that overconfidence in one's beliefs makes some people too quick to put down others, which was happening in the thread and it annoyed me, which made me word it harshly and I apologized. Let's move on now, please. This thread finally got friendly again lol.

 

[SaraEmily]

But I do think there's a difference between claiming that there's no such thing as unicorns or Thor, and claiming to know that no divine entity exists whatsoever.

 

[onetwothreebp]

I'd love to believe that Thor is real.

 

[AngelUK]

I had a thing for Thor in the Avenger comics when I was a pre-teen. I was a nerd even then

 

[AngelofTroy]

I am not looking forward to this issue! I'm atheist and OH is... I don't know what really.. and lapsed Catholic? He mocks religion in front of his very Catholic mother.. but is equally as uncomfortable with the idea of telling Micah there is no god. I think as much as possible we'll just tell him that different people believe different things.. There are so many good points in this thread, I think it's hard to be sure how we'll tackle it now as it'll be a long time before he'll be able to ask questions of that nature let alone understand the answers. (I'm not sure if do). I like the Richard Dawkins letter, however I would be worried about it painting a negative picture of his Catholic family members
P.S. The cake is a lie...

 

[bumpy_j]

P.S. The cake is a lie...

I think we can put our differences behind us... for science... you monster

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/oct07/cube.gif

 

[AngelofTroy]

OH and I affectionately refer to this toy: https://i59.photobucket.com/albums/g304/Melon1687/20130604_163820_zps57b90c23.jpg as Micah's "companion cube"

 

[SpringerS]

People know that long before Lee, Kirby and Lieber dreamed up a mightily heroic path for him, Thor was a god to the northern Europeans right? Over the course of maybe a thousand years millions of people worshipped him as a major god. Saying Thor doesn't exist is the exact same as saying God doesn't exist.

 

[LeoLeah77]

I'm quite shocked that this many people don't believe in god. I'm Christian oh was never baptised but it was important for me to get lo christened. I believe in god and I am actually quite religious though I don't attend church if that makes sense... I believe in pretty much everything! I.e ghosts, life after death, god, Jesus.. Although I don't believe everything in the bible. I believe there was a man called Jesus and was pretty heroic.. But I don't believe in the really far fetched stuff.

But yeah anyway... Ill just tell my lg my view of our religion and god and I will tell her other people's views too. I'd like her to decide for herself in what she believes in.

 

[BabyBoyLove12]

ps. I LOVE cake!

Something that atheists, agnostics and religious folks alike can agree on!

Hell, I like it so much I'm going to school to become a cake master

Everyone comes together and leaves differences aside for a good piece of cake

 

[AngelUK]

^so true!
That reminds me of a tv advert some years ago but I cannot remember the product. It is a woman craving sweet foods and it is all she can think of. So any noise she hears reminds her of sweet foods etc. So when the dog barks it sounds like "cake! cake! cake"! That is so me! lol

Eta: SpringerS yes of course I realise that Thor was a "real" Norse deity. I think pretty much everyone does, surely. I devoured the Nibelung and all the Norse Legends when I was a child.
But the Norse ppl believed that the thunder in the sky was caused by Thor. I think it was proven conclusively that this is not so. However the existence of a higher power in a deistic form at least is not so easy to disprove. So that really is not the same.

 

[Dragonfly]

Why are there Christians in this thread questioning atheists?

 

[kimberleyrobx]

No idea, but both of mine will be going to a catholic public school! xx

 

[Mrs Mc]

Why are there Christians in this thread questioning atheists?

I dont think anyone was being questioned. I just took offense at being called delusional, crazy and believing in fairy tales! (just want to note, this was by a select few!).

I read this thread out of interest. I am generally interested in people from all walks of life/cultures.

Even if this was a thread not intended for me, it is a public forum and I think people should just keep some views to themselves. If this thread had been about christians bashing other religions there would have been uproar!!

Again, just want to state that it is a tiny minority of this thread that have been offensive. Overall, I have enjoyed reading this and learning about other peoples views.

 

[TinySunshine]

Why are there Christians in this thread questioning atheists?

I dont think anyone was being questioned. I just took offense at being called delusional, crazy and believing in fairy tales! (just want to note, this was by a select few!).

I read this thread out of interest. I am generally interested in people from all walks of life/cultures.

Even if this was a thread not intended for me, it is a public forum and I think people should just keep some views to themselves. If this thread had been about christians bashing other religions there would have been uproar!!

Again, just want to state that it is a tiny minority of this thread that have been offensive. Overall, I have enjoyed reading this and learning about other peoples views.

It is difficult, because, as an athiest who would like my LO to reject following any religions I face the challenge of trying to raise my child to only take for truth what has been proved through science and put a question mark over the rest rather than attributing it to a creator, even though there's a lot of encouragement out there from nana, great auntie, street preachers, door knockers and facebook shares, etc, to have a faith in what these religions believe.

Some may accept their child's religious beliefs without question even though they're athiests themselves, others like me would like their LO to also be antitheist. There are threads out there for religious mamas who plan to share their faith with their child. I've been greatful for this thread to be able to discuss the different approaches for athiests in regards to their LOs and i found the post in question helpful. She didn't go off into a rant. It is a grey area because there are religious people who play on emotions as well, how does an athiest talk about explaining to their LO why people would be adamant something exists even though we say it's not. What are their thought proccesses, why shouldn't i go along with it? So this whole conversation is difficult. The thread was titled "Calling all agnostic/athiest mamas" rather than "let's all discuss all your religions from all viewpoints" as a means of damage control and it's hard to avoid disregard of other's opinions to some extent because the nature of atheism is saying there is no god.

I think that extent would be past the words and phrases used in this thread but limited at the point of ever deciding to not cooperate alongside anyone based on their world views, or taking the issue further than the disscussion at hand.

 

[Hollynesss]

I am still in the WTT realm, but I am a lurker on this forum because I love too see what I have to look forward to before me (my apologies for the long post!)

My husband and I are both atheists, but both of us were not always so. In the area of Wisconsin where I grew up, everyone is of either German or Polish decent, and everyone is either Catholic or Lutheran. There weren't very many other religions around. My mom was raised strict Lutheran, and attended a Lutheran school back in the day when nuns still hit children for misbehaving. Because of her experience, she was adamant to leave religion out of mine and my sister's lives. She had us baptized to please her mother, but we never set foot in a church after that. When I was a little older, I noticed that ALL of my friends attended "Religion" on Wednesdays. This was the class they needed to take for their first communion and confirmation. They were all amazed that I knew pretty much nothing about religion. Feeling like a bit of an outsider, I asked my mom about God, and she really just didn't want to discuss it.

When I was a teenager my mom developed cancer, and among other hardships my life was in shambles. A friend of mine invited me to her youth group with her at the only non-denominational church in the city. I was hooked from then on. These people were so nice, so accepting, so supportive. I had never seen anything like it. They even had a Sunday school class just for homosexual teens. I embraced it wholeheartedly and became a self proclaimed Jesus Freak. Quite honestly some of the stories struck me as odd, but I didn't care at the time.

Once I moved on to college and learned more about the world, and science in particular, I saw clearly in retrospect that what I loved about the church was the love and acceptance, not the biblical aspect itself. The church was there to pick up the pieces from my broken life, but I never really embraced the idea of one being residing over all of man and creature. The further I delved into biochemistry, the deeper my skepticism rooted. This makes sense to me, a god doesn't.

My experience has taught me to never shield my children from the ways of the world. Religion is a huge part of society, and I want them to know about it with the knowledge that people believe different things, but that they can make their own decision. Above all else I want my children to learn that you can be a good person with or without religion. I get that same acceptance and comfort that I felt as a teen with the group of friends and family i surround myself with. Your beliefs don't make you a good person, your actions toward others do.

This world is amazing. From the tiniest single-celled organisms to the complex intricacies of the human body, we live together in a harmonious symbiosis and continue to evolve and flourish every day. That, to me, is more beautiful than any religion.