Do You Consider yourself an Atheist / Agnostic / or Christian? Reasons ?

flipper

After having been raised in the Jehovah's Witnesses for 44 years ( getting out 6 years ago ) I have now come to peace with my view of what I personally feel about the existence of God , or no God, or whatever is flying around up there in outer space. I am basically agnostic for sure / perhaps leaning atheist and I've come to that decision based on the years and years of unfulfilled false promises of being in a mind control cult ( Jehovah's Witnesses ) claiming to represent an alleged " God " or " Jehovah " saying there would be a paradise, and Armageddon to destroy 99% of the earths population. I pretty much figured if there WAS a God he had to be somewhat more loving and kind than that.

Also- I enjoy helping others without thought of being rewarded for it. It always bothered me that in " Christianity " a reward or brownie button of eternal life ( heavenly or earthly ) had to be bestowed upon all the faithful for being kind to others. Hey - I thought - Here's a concept - why not just be kind because it's the right thing to do ? It makes for better relations with others - they benefit, you feel good about yourself and there are no strings or rewards attached ? The reward is you sleep good at night for helping other people ! That's all - not complicated no frills , just a fulfilling life enjoying others because you wat to and it makes for happiness. Not because you are TOLD to do it, or ordered to do it. Since being out of the witnesses I've felt more fulfilled and happy than I've ever been !

I don't worry about what will happen at death. Figure I'll be dead anyway- why worry ? Just going to make the most of living life to the full while I have it and enjoy what gift of life we have received ! Now is the time ! Just in case there is NOT a hereafter ! Just my take. I don't know if there is or isn't but it won't stop me from living life to it's fullest now . So as always I look forward to hearing all of you folks take on this ! Peace to you all and I'm out, Mr. Flipper

504deist

i think you should check out deism. alot of people are deist without realizing it. i was.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

http://www.positivedeism.com/deistdoc2.html#mightbe

http://www.deism.com/index.html

it has brought alot of peace to my life. the greatest part is, you get to decide what you feel. no one will tell you any different. i find it to be a great path. i am always on a path of enlightenment and knowledge. deism allows you to explore freely without a man dictating to you what's right and wrong.

yknot

For now I am a Christian.

Reason: It feels right for me personally. I am getting to explore the whole 'love' aspect versus trying to constantly obtain worthiness.

I quit!

I'm a Christian but not a fundamentalist which is how most people perceive Christianity these days. For me believing that there is something more going on than I can see or understand is easy. I know there are alot of people that post here think it is irrational to believe that there is more to life than 100 or less year we spend here. But to me it seems strange that some people believe that this is all there is. No matter what anyone says both points of view are speculations that can't be proved. I don't believe in a tribal god that is going to kill everyone that doesn't agree with me. I don't take the Bible litterally and I don't believe in the inerrancy of scripture and don't see how anyone who has read it can. I don't believe in an uptight little god who would kill people for not believing in him or making fun of him. It would be pretty scary to spent eternity with someone like that. I only refer to God as him for lack of a better word. I know I'll never be able to explain God because if God can be explained completely by us God is as J.B Phillips put it pretty small.

cognizant dissident

I'm an atheist. I used to say I was an agnostic leaning toward atheism, but someone did a great logical essay on JWD a few years ago explaining how there was really no difference between agnosticism and atheism and that was what tipped me into not being shy to say I was an atheist.

The gist of it was this: Agnostics say they do not know if God exists. Fair enough. However, most people just assume that atheists are entrenched in their positions and say "We KNOW God doesn't exist." I personally have met a number of atheists and not one of them has said this. They all admit they do not know if God exists. They do not believe God exists because they do not know he exists. Why would you believe in God if you didn't know he existed? All the atheists I have spoke with are open to more evidence. They have said if credible evidence for God's existence became available, then they would reconsider their position. That is very open-minded, imo.

Conclusion: One can be an atheist and an agnostic at the same time. They are not mutually exclusive positions. In fact, they often go hand in hand.

allelsefails

504deist - kinda stole my thunder. I think I'm more a "deist" than any other definition. However I lean more toward "Christian" in that I believe (like Ghandi did) that if everyone were to follow Jesus teachings in the sermon on the mount the world would be an awesome place. I believe that Jesus the man lived, but not Jesus the "God". Has "God" ever revealed himself to man...... I don't know. I think it is likely that our God "touches" us in some way. That some are more sensitive to this "touching" Moses, Jesus, Mohammed. It does not mean they wrote the infallible word of God, but they may have something important to share.