Dave the Atheist Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > bunk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Okay, D-the-A, could you please elaborate? What part of it's bunk? You think he's a phonus balonus?
I guess what I don't get is why is this news? People go through stuff like that- changes, doubts, and all that- all the time. My mom did. She still is going through some, maybe like part of depression, I dunno. Is it just cause this guy is or was a pastor? Maybe that was what turned him off religion!
the scammer has no philosophical basis for being an Atheist. He is just going to report to his flock that he "tried Atheism" and found it to be wanting.
One is either an Atheist (not theist) or a theist. One can not be a theist living as an Atheist. At best, they are a theist pretending they do not believe in God.
Again, many people believe in God without going to or belonging to a church.
Atheism is lack of belief in a God. Atheism is not defined by religion or church, neither is theism. A person can be a theist without going to a church or being a member of a religion.
How can one believe in a God but live as if they do not? Believing in god or not is part of how one lives a life.
How does one live as if they do not have a belief when they do have a belief? That is the same problem as the guy that claimed to live as a black man when he was not black. He does not actually know what it is like to be black because he is not black. A life long believer does not know what it is like to not believe because they believe.
Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 01/05/2015 08:25PM by MJ.
It seems like the word "atheist" is distracting from the point of what this guy really did. He had some doubts, and decided to experiment with how his faith affected his life. That's a good thing to do, but they ended up throwing around the word "atheism" to somehow sensationalize the whole thing. Good for him, for being willing to challenge his own beliefs, and for being willing to live with uncertainty.
Well, maybe he was throwing around the the word atheism to sensationalize a publicity stunt.
As I said elsewhere, either you are an atheist or you are a theist. There is no living as an atheist. I can't imagine what would happen if a white guy went into a black neighborhood and said "I'm living as a black person for a year".
Also, Atheism is not a lifestyle.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/26/2014 12:45AM by MJ.
MJ Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- I can't imagine what would happen if a > white guy went into a black neighborhood and said > "I'm living as a black person for a year".
You don't have to imagine this. You can read John Howard Griffin's book "Black Like Me" where he did just this.
> Also, Atheism is not a lifestyle.
This man was a pastor, who made his life decisions based on a religious lifestyle. He decided to stop doing that; a change in his lifestyle based on acting as though he did not believe in god. Again, he decided to try questioning his beliefs.
I agree; a theis can't just "try on" atheism. But a doubter can certainly make a point of changing his behavior by chosing not to act on the beliefs he has previously taken for granted.
If he was truly having doubts about the existence of his god, enough doubt to sacrifice his career, that's an awful lot like lacking belief, which is the definition of atheism.
Good points. I can applaud him if it was sincere exploration, if he wanted to push the boundaries of his belief system. However, I suppose time will tell if it was only a publicity stunt for Christianity. Interesting at any rate.
Too bad they are red herrings and not valid logic. Nothing he address actually makes him an atheist or living as an atheist.
He either lacks a belief in God making him an atheist, or he believes in God making him a theist. Since atheist is the negation of theist, those are the only tow options. Everything that is not a theist is an atheist.
Pista Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > MJ Wrote: > -------------------------------------------------- > ----- > I can't imagine what would happen if a > > white guy went into a black neighborhood and > said > > "I'm living as a black person for a year". > > You don't have to imagine this. You can read John > Howard Griffin's book "Black Like Me" where he did > just this.
No matter what he said he did, he did not live as a black man, he was a white man pretending to live as a black man. He always knew he could walk away and stop pretending. Black people do not have that option.
> > > > Also, Atheism is not a lifestyle. > > This man was a pastor, who made his life decisions > based on a religious lifestyle. He decided to stop > doing that; a change in his lifestyle based on > acting as though he did not believe in god. Again, > he decided to try questioning his beliefs. >
Does not mean he is living as an atheist.
> I agree; a theis can't just "try on" atheism. But > a doubter can certainly make a point of changing > his behavior by chosing not to act on the beliefs > he has previously taken for granted. >
Changing behavior has nothing to do with Atheism. Atheism is a lack of belief in God. Behaving like one does not believe in God does not apply.
> If he was truly having doubts about the existence > of his god, enough doubt to sacrifice his career, > that's an awful lot like lacking belief, which is > the definition of atheism.
One can still doubt but not be an Atheist. Again behavior, jobs or sacrifices do not define an atheist. Lack of belief in God defines an atheist. Being an "awful lot like lacking belief" is not lack of belief.
The only way he could live as an atheist is to do the one thing that defines an atheist, have no belief if God.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2014 12:29AM by MJ.
This is a bit how I left. I decided to take a vacation from church for a month, but it felt so good I didn't go back. I made an appearance 4 months later, but other than seeing "friends" who couldn't be bothered to seek me out, I got nothing out of it.
Religion fills your life and time, but if you walk away for a while you realize that you can fill it just as well on your own.
For those thinking of leaving, it does not have to be all or nothing. Test it out for a few weeks and see if you really miss it. Chances are, you find you have time to do things you always wanted to do instead.
In a small way it was the way I left too. I was still TBM, had no doubts at all, but the last time I went to church I just could not stand to be there. I couldn't explain it even to myself but just could not be there one more minute. Thankfully I figured it all right after that and didn't have to feel guilty about not going.
And isn't having your Sundays for yourself just the best after all those years in the church? Who could give that up and go back.
One thing I noticed when I was younger was that a lot of people who worked on Sunday ended up leaving the cult. They couldn't stand being lectured & judged.
That can happen once one embraces a secular viewpoint vs a religious viewpoint.
The fact that he no longer believes in God NOW seems to indicate he had a belief in God while he was allegedly living as if he did not have a belief in God. It does not seem possible to live a life as if you do not believe in God when you do believe in god, does it? Living a life as an atheist means living a life without a belief in God.